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The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link Sold To Its Members

Posted by Soulskill on from the well-done dept.

New submitter nadaou sends this quote from the NY Times: "One of the earliest online communities, The WELL, has a new owner: its members. On Thursday evening, Salon Media Group, the previous owner of The WELL, said it had sold the community to the Well Group, a private investment group consisting of longtime members of the community, which was founded in 1985, long before the rise of the Web."

11 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Back to the roots by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Slashdot was more than a little influenced by WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), and today's WELL web interface (there's also a telnet interface) looks more than a little like Slashdot did when it first started.

    I for one am proud of my @well.com address, and welcome our new wellpern overlords.

    1. Re:Back to the roots by wordsnyc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've been a member since ~1994. I drive by about once a week, get into a conversation every few weeks. It's like the general store that somehow survived the mega-mall built next door. Conversations tend to be very sane, with a complete lack of the idiotic noise you get in places like this.

      --
      Sent from the iPad I found in your car.
  2. Wink Wink Nudge Nudge? by SJ2000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is someone giving us a less than subtle hint?

    1. Re:Wink Wink Nudge Nudge? by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2

      It is the same story for all forms of advertisement. You have three groups of people, A (the sellers), B (the marketers), and C (the consumers). Group A wants to sell to group C, group B is really just another group A in disguise because they think of group A as C. Group C generally ignores group B because B has nothing to do with A. Group C however will usually listen to A if A has something C wants to buy. Group A thinks they needs group B to tell group C to buy their product because group B promises to sell group A to C and since group B is a group A to the other group A and A is a group C in this case group A will listen to group B. What group A doesn't realize is that group B is ignored by group C because group C only listens to group A.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  3. CIX - older and hopefully bigger by clickclickdrone · · Score: 4, Informative

    In the UK we still have CIX which predates the well a little and hopefully has more than 2000 members but it's a shadow of it's former glory when it counted Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett amongst its regular users.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIX/

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
    1. Re:CIX - older and hopefully bigger by clickclickdrone · · Score: 2

      Actually, CIX was just after the Well, it's precursor was pre Well. Apols.

      --
      I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
    2. Re:CIX - older and hopefully bigger by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      I remember CIX being announced, with it being made clear in Personal Computer World et al that CIXs inspiration was Byte's BIX network. (Read on before responding it couldn't be because BIX was from 1985, and CIX 1983. CIX did NOT exist in 1983. I'll explain.)

      Some sources put CIX at two years older than BIX making the above look... odd. However, those sources kinda confuse the history. CIX was a replacement for an existing FidoNet BBS. The FidoNet BBS that CIX replaced dated to 1983. The replacement, with complete rebranding, occured in 1987. From a "corporate" point of view, it was the same thing, users were migrated, data was, etc. From a technical point of view, it was a completely new system seeded with an existing database.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Re:WELL... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2

    All's WELL that ends WELL.

    That's deep.

  5. Re:WELL... by plover · · Score: 2

    All's WELL that ends WELL.

    That's deep.

    So who gets the shaft?

    --
    John
  6. Re:Oh no, the people owning themselves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just so you know, the Divine Right of Kings doctrine is 180 degrees divergent from what both Christianity and Judaism teach. See the Books of Samuel as a reference. Here's the synopsis:

    Israelites: We want a king.
    God: No way. Kings screw everything up.
    Israelites: We still want a king.
    God: No way. Kings screw everything up.
    Israelites: We still want a king.
    God: OK. Here's your king. Don't say I didn't warn you.
    Israelites: This king you sent us. He screwed everything up!
    God: Oh noes! If only someone let you know ahead of time!

  7. For those who like them some history.... by sootman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wired, May 1997 - The Epic Saga of The Well

    McClure shared an office with someone from the Whole Earth Software Catalog. His computer, a Compaq, sat on a piece of white plywood board; he cadged a stenographer's chair from the Whole Earth office. It was high tech in the middle of funk, and funk wasn't the ideal setting in which to launch a cutting-edge enterprise. The building had no insulation to speak of, and the roof leaked. In the summer the office was an inferno, and in the winter the temperature indoors dipped into the 50s. The computer room, a modified closet, was just big enough for the disk drive and CPU cabinets. A window-mounted air conditioner -- the largest unit Sears sold -- cooled the VAX.

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