A recent post in PLUG woke me up this lazy morning as I scroll through my email messages. This article discussed why are some of the online Linux groups have been inactive lately while some are non-existent anymore. A quote from the article:
A few years ago, LUGs enjoyed a heady heyday. If you were lucky enough to have a LUG close enough to drive to, you probably attended meetings regularly. Enthusiasm, both for Linux and the ideals for which it stands, drove an agenda full of exciting presentations, nights dedicated to getting a new distribution installed on your desktop, and lots of free stuff from companies like Red Hat, Corel, and SUSE, who wanted us to catch the fever.
Today, many LUGs have seen a slowdown in attendance, and some Linux events typically sponsored by local user groups have ceased to exist, such as the Atlanta Linux Showcase (ALS).
I agree with Paul Foster (Suncoast Area Linux User Group) when he said:
It’s like buying a new car. It’s cool-looking. It smells like a new car. A few months go by. You still like your car. But it’s now just your car. It’s what gets you from point A to point B. You don’t think much about it.
I remember how I, as a child, get so excited about my new toy. Whenever tatay or nanay buys me a new one, hours pass so slowly whenever I am at school, waiting for the 3:00PM bell, which signifies that I can finally go home and be with my neighborhood friends to show off my new mini-kitchen and new Barbie to go along with it. Ah, brings back memories.
Do you know that feeling you get about something new? I used to get this feeling with every new dress, new shoes, new book or even a new haircut. That’s what Linux is to me when I first started using it. Then I get used to it. Used Linux in office as my workstation OS, used Linux at home for testing and what-not, used Linux just to show off 
. Then slowly, that feeling faded away. Linux has become just Linux to me.
Being a member on the PLUG mailing list has made my mailbox a happy mailbox because of the fact that every single day, I receive email. And although it is not the email that came from someone I know, those emails made me feel as if I am with those who share the same interests as me. We share the same problems, share the same insights. Flame wars shooting every now and then but it is OK. Flame wars makes the mailing list seem like it is just an ordinary discussion and draws people attention that fires up the discussion (kudos to Gmail). When I have come to a dead-end, I send an SOS email and hope that someone has had my same Linux problem and got through with it.
I remember the time when I was so frustrated of making SAP run on Linux (it was my project back then to be proposed to a company who had plans of converting to Linux) and googling seems to be the dead-end, I asked for help from PLUGgers and after a day, I finally received answers to my frustration. Thank God for PLUG. The project never materialized. Lol.
PLUG may be just a mailing list to most of the people. A discussion group where you can ask questions or scout for talents. But for some, PLUG is not just an ordinary mailing list. It is a social interaction. A place where you can meet new people and be friends with those who have the same interests as you have. I have attended one seminar provided by PLUG and I have seen that some were already acquainted with each other.
Newbies will come out from time to time and ask questions on PLUG. But that will not guarantee that PLUG will be forever. PLUG may not be here to stay. But like living things, something new will come. And that is for sure.
As for me, as long as I use Linux, PLUG can always flood my mailbox. 
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