In 1955 IBM mainframe users formed SHARE which grew to be one of two mainframe user groups (the other being Guide, defunct since 1999). SHARE runs conferences,

In 1955 IBM mainframe users formed SHARE which grew to be one of two mainframe user groups (the other being Guide, defunct since 1999). SHARE runs conferences, provides software builds (or did) and serves as a way for MVS ("Z/OS" this week) and VM users to pool together requests and requirements with IBM. Kind of surprised similar groups haven't appeared for AWS, Google, and Azure customers*. * edit: I mean customers, people paying hard cash. Users relying on free services need to figure out some form of leverage and band together behind that.