I went to Vancouver in the late 90s to meet with people I'd only spoken to on a Usenet group. A friend who also attended posted some pics on FB today.
Memories and nostalgia.
Also, me being me, I went from an outspoken member of that community to a weirdo watching mostly everyone from the sidelines. I had brilliant conversations with a select few people and none at all with most others. I had no idea what "the spectrum" was, beyond ranges of wavelengths in physics.