Fresh Air re-ran a John Perry Barlow interview today---he saw that his kind of early small town experience in Wyoming was disappearing, America was becoming "Generica," but then he realized that "the Deadheads were going to The Well, an online village green," founded by The Whole Earth Catalogue's Stewart Brand and some of his crew. I started hearing about this thing in the 80s, though the only specific news item I recall is from the mid-90s, maybe: a guy who had been detailing his love life on there for years eventually decided to run for office and wanted at least some of these posts removed---caused a big furor on there, because the main doctrine on there always has been (just checked, it's still there) is, "You own your words": they belong to you alone, and you're responsible for them. Anyway, any ilxors been there? I tried a search, bur gave up, "well" is too common a word in thread titles.
update: "The Epic Saga of The Well"---from '97, but looks good:
https://www.wired.com/1997/05/ff-well/
― dow, Saturday, 10 February 2018 03:52 (six years ago) link