Being versed and experienced in IT can be a selling point, if properly framed during a job interview for a programming position, as well as programming positions for IT jobs. With SO many job candidates these days having narrow focuses, one can sell having more diverse background by explaining to a potential employer how you have a greater view than just the narrow focused candidates. For instance, a person with a good OS support background can know more about the internals of how the OS actually handles programs in the real world, and can take this into consideration when coding. Also valuable from spending time in IT can be the first hand knowledge of the full product life cycle. If you spend some time in QA, you'll know what the QA team really needs from the developers. If you spend time with the support team, you'll know what they need to support the software in the field and by supplying it, help minimize the number of times support needs to contact the developers. It's all about how you spin it.

Isn't this like the Ultima Online volunteer system (counselors, seers, etc) that got them sued eventually?

Sounds kind of like the "possession of criminal tools" charges so many cases have added on, when said "tools" are ANYTHING used to commit the crime. Always seemed to me just a way for prosecutors to add an extra set of random charges for extending a sentence, or extra bargaining room for a plea.

Thanks. Couldn't remember the name. The mainframe I work with uses ACF2, but I knew that was a more recent product.