There’s a new way mainframers are connecting and sharing information nowadays and, for some, it’s happening in an unexpected place — a platform commonly used for online gaming called Discord.

I started the community, now known to those of us who frequently haunt the 30-some channels (as specific groups within communities are called on Discord) as SZE (System Z Enthusiasts) in August of 2021 with two of my friends who happened to also be z/OS systems programmers. What started as a place for us to chew the proverbial fat about our day-to-day glows, grows, and gripes about sysprog life became a blossoming group of, as of time of writing, over 2400 members. What the SZE is now was always meant to be a community of mutual respect, helpfulness, and knowledge transfer; it was just never meant to be so big.

As the membership (which is free by the way) grew, so did the ambitions of a community with its reticles set on openness, a “help-first, correct-later” attitude, vendor neutrality (save for the rallying cry of the IBM Z platform itself), and equal access to the goings-ons in the mainframe world. Simple chatting led to a need for structure across the different facets of mainframes, which morphed into the following channels within the Discord community: zSystems, z/OS, z/VM, zLinux, VSEn, z/TPF, Hardware, Programming, Events, and even an Off-Topic category. I quickly realized that managing a community was demanding, and so I brought in a diverse volunteer moderation team focused again on vendor neutrality and a breadth of experience levels with the platform. Members found themselves immersed in a community focused on helping one another, sharing the latest news, and making plans to meet up at major industry events. We had successfully created a place to be; now, we needed to evolve and give people something to do.

One of the first things was to do some live event coverage. Too often, we would all share how much we wished we could be at certain industry events to see certain sessions and even ask questions. So, we started creating temporary channels that would serve as a hub for attendees, and those interested in the event, to discuss what was happening, what sessions they were attending, and even share photos and plan meetups. Our first event was the Enterprise Computing Community (ECC) Conference in June of 2023, where we saw a flurry of activity and members who could not be in attendance asking questions by proxy of others in attendance — a true testament to the power of connectedness. Following this, we create channels for most major industry conferences and have seen similar coverage and frequently ad hoc community meetups. Live event coverage was the first evolution of the community, but it didn’t seem ambitious enough.

Enter Discord’s concept of a “stage channel.” What started as an idea from IBM’s Frank DeGilio became a monthly fixture in our community — the Z Rebels Technical Water Cooler. We began hosting these live events that became a virtual watering hole: mainframers of all walks could virtually meet up, organically pick a topic (or several topics), and discuss them. Our water cooler events have become a space for mainframers from the seasoned to the fledgling to respectfully share ideas, ideate on pain points, and even solve problems. These events always kick off with a reiteration of the relevant parts of our community values (mutual respect, no discrimination, and no elitism) and an open invitation that no question is too big nor too small. While the topics are entirely attendee-driven, there is a focus on progress and continually assessing how we can evolve and solve some of the industry’s challenges. We started recording these events and posting them to YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@Seven9sMF in the interest of equal access to mainframe knowledge.

The next evolution of the community came in the form of giving it spaces of its own. A common challenge in the mainframe world is finding a place for your community to be seen and to collaborate amongst itself and the larger industry. Starting with the zopen Community, an Open Mainframe Project, we began working directly with projects and communities to give them spaces (both private and public) to connect and share news, events, and information. SZE is now host to 8 such spaces that use the larger community to connect with the mainframe industry. I truly believe that while the SZE community is just something I’d clicked a few buttons to start, the real value is derived from the people who show up. I’d love to openly invite other communities to make themselves a part of the community and we will happily help carve out a space for your community to be connected.

The SZE Enthusiasts community is fueled by a deep passion for the evolution of the way mainframers connect and share knowledge. It is a powerful example of what passionate users can create when they share space with one another and unite under a common goal to hear, be heard, help, be helped, and to provide as much access to information as enthusiasts themselves would want to have. It truly feels like we’ve created the next evolution of mainframe community, and it’s something I am awfully proud to be a part of. I can’t recommend enough that SZE be a part of any aspiring, tenured, or even retired mainframer’s journey with the platform. Thanks to everyone who helped build this space, amplified its existence, and took the time to be involved. Your enthusiasm inspires me and others every day to be the next evolution of the mainframe.

So what’s next? We hope to have more live events that create global opportunities to connect, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, and we look forward to working with industry events to bring more interactive event coverage directly to SZE to really open the floor for a global audience to have access to everything the mainframe world has to offer. Most importantly, I would personally love to invite you to join the SZE Discord by going to https://discord.gg/sze, and make it a point to introduce yourself and become an active part of the mainframe community!