This club is similar to the computer user groups of the 1980's.
We get together all in the name of (what is now "vintage" or "retro") computers:
To learn, to exhibit, to collaborate on projects, get help, buy/sell/trade/give-away vintage computer tech,
and of course there's a fair bit of playing old-school video games.
The setting is very informal, we don't have presidents and vice-presidents or treasurers or any kind of heirarchy.
A typical gathering may consist of (but not be limited to): A talk on some topic of interest, showing off items from
your vintage computer collection, soliciting ideas or assistence for a piece or hardware or software you're working on,
having a "LAN party" (multi-player gaming on old systems).
If you want to attend the next gathering please RSVP (see Planning to attend below) so that we
can make sure the meeting room is large enough for the number of people expected to attend. There is no cost or dues. Dues were typical of computer user groups in the 80's but we really don't have any
expenses so there's no reason to bother with the logistics of money (other than the previously mentioned buying/selling/trading).
There's only a few rules:
We can't leave things behind so if you bring stuff to sell or give away make sure, if no one picked it up, that you take it back home with you.
Try to RSVP on the forum so that we don't over-crowd the room, having said that if you *just* found out about this and the meeting starts in a few hours then don't worry about the RSVP just stop by!
Remember, we're all here to have fun!
Planning to attend?
If you are planning to attend the next get-together the best thing you can do is to go to the forums (once there create an account if you haven't already), go to the "Meets" area, find the post about the next meeting and add a reply.
This can be as simple as "I'll be there" or "I might be able to make it". If you want to get more detailed you can post something like "I'll be coming and I'll be bringing my Atari 800!".
Adding responses helps us plan for the meeting and make sure we have enough space and also gives others an idea of what to expect.
Club gatherings are planned for the first Saturday of the month at around noon at the Cleveland Public Library in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
Club Links
Forum
The CCCC (or C4) Forum is the best place to start. Here you can read up on past meet-ups, get info about the next upcoming one, talk to and get help from club members, and more.
Registration is easy, once you have a forum account set up you'll be a "newbie" which gives you pretty much full access.
Discord
Along with the forum we have a Discord chat channel as well. To get an invite to this channel you need your forum account to be upgraded from "newbie" to "member", then you can access the discord invite link from the
members only section of the forum. For information on how get member forum access read the sticky post in the Introductions forum.
BBS
Although the BBS wasn't set up specifically for the club it does an area on it set aside specifically for the club. This is a handy resource if you're on a vintage computer that can't (easily) get to the web forum
or discord and want to socialize with the club. The BBS is Mutiny Community and is available for Telnet connections at mutinybbs.com:2300.
Once there you will find in the Chat section there is a "Cleveland" channel: Go to chat then use the command /ch Cleveland to change to the channel.
This BBS's chat system is a chat-with-history much like Discord. This means you can type something into the chat channel and even if no one is there to read it at that time other users can read it later and respond.
Keep in mind this BBS is also used by people who are not in our area and not in our club so messages posted on the BBS can be read by pretty much anybody.
The BBS was designed to work well on almost anything from a teletype to a modern PC and anything between.
