ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2023 Entry 12th June 2023: Post 1: Amiga Groups - The best of years. Amiga Groups - The best of years. 2023 is going to be a memorable year for so many of my Amiga anniversaries. Here is another ... I guess this one started in 2002 but it attained true momentum in 2003, so that is twenty years ago. Hard to believe really. In 2002 I joined a Yahoo Group called The Crypt which was a happy bunch of mostly Scottish Amiga nutters derived from one of the Scottish Amiga user groups. I grew to know these guys very well and they suggested I join Amiga_SA which was located on the south coast. From The Crypt I moved to Amiga_SA and met the likes of Paul Quershi and crew. These guys were Amiga wizards and I was truly humbled by their willingness to entertain me. I had already a healthy collection of Amiga stuff by that time courtesy for the most part by Amibench an Amiga site where users could flog their stuff to fellow Amigans. I was keen to impress Amiga_SA and I knocked together a set of very crude pictures to send to Paul Quershi and the guys on the group. I recently found these photographs and have included a selection here. Paul was much impressed and soon I was a member of Yahoo Group Just_Amiga, Amiga Format Bulletin Board, CU_Amiga. Amiga_ Active, SAMBA, AMOS to name but a few. Each night my Amiga 4000D mailbox was full. I also joined Amiga guys on IRC which was a hoot and a half. Seriously happy days. It was because of my activities on the groups that I decided to form my own group, Commodore_Amiga_Retro and created a website to feature the collection which post February 2003 was growing so fast. It is incredible to think now when looking at the pictures I show just how much I then added to the collection in the ten years that followed. The room which I converted into my Amiga sanctuary had been my office used in conjunction with architecture, but in a fit of madness I deconstructed all the benches, dumped the drawing boards and created a crude area for my Amigas. That was twenty years ago. Unbelievable to me. The room is still filled with Amigas, albeit a little better organised. The collection grew a hundred fold and fills this house. The groups were dissolved by Yahoo and all those Amigans vanished into the winds. I still do dabble on Amiga Org and Amiga World Net and very occasionally EAB, but for the most part the Amiga world that I knew finally died with the loss of the Yahoo Groups. Modern forums can not hold a candle to the way it was. Time was when Amiga users were just that, Amiga users, and not some social media self validating shallow thumbs up seeking phone networks. You really have to have enjoyed the times we spent interacting in a very lively and constructive way. I do miss my friends on the groups. Anyhoo, not to get too sombre. I still have the collection and all my memories. I also have my lists that I composed as the arrivals appeared here to swell the ever growing Amiga mass of kit, software and published works. Just to say that if I could relive the twenty years over again I wouldn't hesitate to do it in a heartbeat. It was a magical time filled with truly magical people. I was fortunate to have met real Amigans who were more than happy to share their time in support of what still is the greatest computer of all time. Going now. Check out my crappy twenty year old photographs. Amiga Groups - The best of years.

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Last updated 12th June 2023

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