I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, and computer user groups gave me a unique and somewhat unusual community where I got to interact with people much older than I w

I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, and computer user groups gave me a unique and somewhat unusual community where I got to interact with people much older than I was, and who worked in varied professions (there were lawyers, engineers, consultants, etc.). We all bonded over the fact that we were all computer nuts, which was a fairly rare demographic back then. I think having that community helped to grow up quickly and gave me a view of world that few of my peers had. I had many interesting peer relationships (through email conversations) with adults who weren't my parents. This sounds like a red flag these days, but those days it wasn't because it was a closed-knit moderated community: we would chat about DOS, OS/2, Gravis Ultrasounds, Macintoshes, etc. I was only a kid but people would treat me like an adult. I know of no other environment where kids and adults could interact as equals (more or less). I say that because in the computer world, competence is not always correlated with age. The sysop of one of the BBS's I hung out at was a brilliant computer guy and it was only when we met in real-life I found out he was only 15. p.s. I don't know if anyone remembers dialing into a BBS using software like QmodemPro, downloading a mail packet (usually QWK -- a compressed file with unread emails), replying to emails offline using a reader like Bluewave or Offline Express, and then logging in to upload replies. Those were the days.