James Gill has a nice tweet about the community of Emacs users:
I’ve never encountered a community like that of #Emacs users. So many with 10, 20, 30+ years using the tool, endless resources and helpful people. And so delightfully ‘old school’ and modern at the same time.
An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age.
— James Gill (@IamJamesGill) August 21, 2018
Like most of you, I belong to several tech communities. Not all of them have as nice a reputation. The Lisp community, for example, can be notoriously hostile to n00bs. A lot of that is residual grumpiness about the fact that the first thing many n00bs do when they arrive is suggest some scheme for doing away with parentheses. If you heard that as often as the typical Lisper, you’d be grumpy too.
Still, there’s no denying that the Emacs community is exceptionally welcoming to n00bs and that, as Gill says, we have a lot of people with extensive experience who are willing to help n00bs as well as more seasoned users. We also have folks like Mike Zamansky, Sacha Chua, and Rainer König who spend hours of their own time making instructional videos and doing other chores that benefit us all.
I think Gill has it exactly right: We’re old school and modern at the same time. Old school because we’re employing an editor that’s older than many of its users and modern because that same tool is more powerful and adaptable than its more “modern” competitors. In any event, it’s a great community and I’m proud to be a member.