Have You Been To The Well? Online community, founded in mid-80s

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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

Has anyone here been to the online community called 'The Well'?

El Tomboto, Saturday, 10 February 2018 04:00 (six years ago) link

Thanks, that's a good one! I should have used more terms.

dow, Saturday, 10 February 2018 04:47 (six years ago) link

it still appears to be kicking

https://www.well.com/

El Tomboto, Saturday, 10 February 2018 05:13 (six years ago) link

I knew of it in the late 90s but never signed up

El Tomboto, Saturday, 10 February 2018 05:14 (six years ago) link

three weeks pass...

there was a piece on echonyc today on *adjusts voice* npr science friday with ira plato, talking to stacy horn who founded the thing as well as an author plugging her book on women shaping the internet, was a pretty good listen (the link below has some info, guessing you can listen to the ep on itunes/spotify or the homepage or something)

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-women-who-made-the-internet/

sleepingbag, Friday, 9 March 2018 21:42 (six years ago) link

Hello everyone - my name is Christian and I'm the co-General Manager of The WELL. Ilxor showed up in our referral logs the other day, so I thought I'd come by and say hi.

The WELL is still kicking, as mentioned earlier, and I'm always looking for new people to join and become part of the community! In the other thread, someone mentioned that it seemed similar to ilxor, and I think that's true - like you guys, we've been around forever and have a small-but-active community and a wide range of discussion topics.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about The WELL, and if there's interest I can definitely set anyone up with an account that's free for a few months so you can look around and get to know us a little.

Thanks!

cruzich, Monday, 12 March 2018 16:02 (six years ago) link


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