Comments on: My first Apple User Group: MetroMac

By: Geoff Broadhurst

Geoff Broadhurst — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:35:58 +0000

Please don’t give up on finding a good user group. They can be so helpful for those of us who, although not “clueless,” don’t have many clues. I joined a wonderful user group more than a decade ago, and have never regretted it. The meetings are interesting, I end up buying some of the products and programs that have been demonstrated, I have met interesting people who have the same interests as me, and the leadership is polite and listens to its members.

By: PollyWantACracker

PollyWantACracker — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:36:09 +0000

What happened at that MUG meeting is certainly unfortunate. Here are two truisms that apply: 1) geeks often don’t have social skills, so they might just go on and on until people are bored to death or leave; and 2) you will find *ssholes anywhere. It’s not like you have to pass an “I’m not an *sshole” exam before you get to own a Mac.

By: Eugene Gordin

Eugene Gordin — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:22:46 +0000

First of all thank you for the article, or editorial rather. I figured mac user groups existed but I have never personally heard any feedback about them.

Like one of the comments said, all common interest groups are prone to these personality types. It is highly unfortunate because these groups provide a very unique service to the mac community.

For those with experience with MUGs, do the benefits outweigh the costs?

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:48:21 +0000

We have a Mac user group here in Memphis called the “applecore”. I tried it out in 2007 for a few sessions but I basically got tired of everyone discussing panther and their 1G ipod. I asked the president to remove me from his mailing list, but he didn’t understand how to do that.

Bob

By: Louis

Louis — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:57:44 +0000

Marco is correct…every affinity group has the same issues–photography groups, car clubs, quilting get-togethers. There’s always a hierarchy, and certain personalities gravitate to certain levels. Who says that just because someone is good at one thing, they’re good at people skills? Not in this case.

By: Marco

Marco — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:29:01 +0000

This happens a lot in clubs or user groups where people with real lives don’t have time to run things. So people like this rise to the top. It’s the “little Hitler” syndrome: this is the one place in his life where leader guy can have power and he can’t help but wield it. I’ve seen this happen in a bicycle club, a condominium association, and a user group. People with leadership skills are too busy leading organizations for pay.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:29:38 +0000

User groups (of any type) often attract “know it all” types to run them, and because no one involved has time to run a user group, they rise to the top, driven by their egos and probably loneliness.

Most user groups are not bad, but they’re all prone to being hijacked by idiots.

I ended up an officer of a club because just such a guy decided to end the group “because it no longer served users”. Funny thing, we had 50 members with 20-30 showing up regularly, yet he decided it was over with. A small group of concerned users said “fine, just go away, we’ll take over”. Amazingly, he insisted. I finally said, after he made a female member cry, “just leave, John. Leave now. Don’t come back” and that did the trick. He switched to Windows, and I haven’t seen him since.

Now I’m president of the club, and I’m only slightly snarkey ;-D

Keep looking, I’m hoping your next experience will be better.

By: J

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:22:12 +0000

I have never been to an Apple store, let alone a user group (nearest store is just too far away) but I have had experience with users groups devoted to other types of computers, back in the days when the Apple II was Apple’s latest and greatest. What I saw was that because most people are non-confrontational and try to avoid conflict, they are easy prey for the intelligent guy that obviously knows a lot more than most of them do (the “guru”) but who has NO SOCIAL SKILLS. Bear in mind that there are people who are highly intelligent but have Asperger’s Syndrome (high level autism) and such people tend to be highly valued in user groups because they can answer almost any question and solve any problem - but where the group makes its mistake is electing such people to leadership positions. Often they don’t even want the position, but convince themselves that no one is better qualified. The problem is they are truly clueless about how their comments and actions affect others. I think that when they become abusive, it’s really because a part of them hates being thrust into a leadership position, yet on the other hand they enjoy solving problems and being looked up to (possibly for the first time in their lives). That’s the “why”, and it’s why user groups should be careful to elect people who are great at getting along with others for the top positions, not necessarily the smartest guy in the room (give him a position that recognizes his technical expertise and makes him feel appreciated and loved, but not the top position!).

By: Galley

Galley — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:20:34 +0000

I’ve been a member of a Mac Users Group (one of several in the area) since a few days after I bought my first Mac back in Sept. 2006. It’s a few dozen folks of various experience levels. We helps newbies for 30 minutes, and then do product demonstrations or application instructions for two hours. The local Apple Sales Consultant gives keynotes of his trips to Cupertino, and of new product announcements. We have has special events at the CompUSA where he works, for the launch of Apple TV and Leopard. He tells us that we are a model MUG. The higher-ups at Apple are well aware of the revenue that users groups generate, and ours generates an absurd amount (yet there are no Apple Stores in South Carolina. Hmmm…).

Check us out at http://www.greenvillemug.org/

You can find your own user group at http://www.apple.com/usergroups/