Through /. in the 90s I learned about linux, learned to play with other OSes, tools and programming languages, which all made me better at my job back then running machines for nonprofit cancer research. When I followed the link to Old Man Murray, I hung out on their forums and made friends I've watched spread throughout the game industry (not just Valve). For years this place was what we'd now think of as reddit&the reg&hackernews combined.
Happy retirement Rob