Anyone off to VCF-UK?

Reading these comments about "proper collectors" versus those who are not and are thus clearly below contempt has been very interesting. I don't regard myself as a collector - I lack the money or the space. I do have a small collection of interesting 1980s kit, though, which I enjoy getting running, playing with, learning a bit about and so on. I like learning about them, talking about them, reading about them, discussing them and so on. But I don't solder. I don't make cables. I never conduct board-level repairs. I might swap add-in cards when needed or in extremis things like motherboards or CPUs. I have no knowledge of compenent-level electronics nor any great interest. I'm a software man myself, really, that's what interests me. Similarly, with my motorbikes and bicycles, of which I have a small and ever-changing collection, I pay pros to keep them running well for me. I hate getting dirty & scraping my knuckles repairing them, and why should I? The idea that, for example, a group, club or society should consult its members for help, and if it doesn't, then it's flawed, is quite bizarre to me. I'm a bit bothered and, yes, even slightly offended by the implied comment that I'm not a REAL enthusiast or collector or aficionado or anything because I didn't wire-wrap my own CPU when I was 6, have never used punched-cards and am not familiar with the assembly language of 23 1960s minicomputers. To judge others because they are not the same as oneself is bigotry, plain and simple. It is the same root cause as those of sexism, racism and so on, and frankly, it's offensive in any context. If one is a fan or expert of something, and other such fans are organizing a rare get-together in one's area, to denigrate it as "the wrong sort of get-together" or say that they are the "wrong sort" of fans, or that they don't do it right, or anything like that, is small-minded, petty, childish and unpleasant. It lessens the speaker in my eyes and frankly any adult who behaves like that should be thoroughly bloody ashamed of themselves, no matter how severe their Aspeger's Syndrome or whatever. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508