A legitimate question, but so far not many answers, and they're mostly from people who know people who know COBOL devs. This is to be expected.
Demographically, COBOL devs skew older, and there aren't a lot of graybeards left on HN. This place used to be full of them, and they always had interesting and unusual insights and techniques to share. Those days are long gone.
IMO, Graybeards have largely left HN for a few reasons:
- They're tired of being shouted down by the Reddit-quality ageism that lingers through this forum.
- They're mature enough to no longer be interested in chasing every little tech fad as if their lives depended on it, and that's 90% of what HN has become.
- As most older people do, have other things in their lives that are more interesting than work. Family. Children. Hobbies. Traveling. Service. The world is full of things more rewarding than being terminally online, or being reminded of your day job.
I applaud your curiosity, but you're standing in a church asking, "Where are all the atheists?" COBOL devs aren't here. And where they are is likely not online.