Week 3: A bit about The WELL

The WELL (The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) was founded in 1985 by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant as a way for the writers and readers of The Whole Earth Review to connect and converse. The WELL is not a particularly well known site, I personally had never heard of it before writing this blog post, but it has been known to a select few since before the internet became available to the public. My first impression of the website is that the appearance of the site is quite basic, certainly no bells and whistles, which I guess is appropriate as the users are no doubt more concerned with the quality of content rather than how that content is packaged. Anyone can become a member of The WELL but there are a couple of guidelines to adhere to. First of all you must use your real name to register, so you won't find any of those irritating fake middle names that Facebook users are so fond of using. Secondly you have to pay for membership, a concept that is most likely strange to anyone who has grown up relying on such social networking websites as Myspace or Facebook. The WELL has never been a overly large community and as of late the relatively small number of members they did have has been dwindling, in June 2012 The WELL had a mere 2,693 people paying for it's services (Wingfield, 2012). The website seems to rely on a 'quality, not quantity' view of things with intellectuals being the main users and the topics up for discussion are varied and in depth.   

References:

1. Wingfield, Nick 2012, 'The Well, a Pioneering Online Community, Is for Sale Again', The New York Times, 29 June, 2012 
2. Salon Media Group Inc. 1985, Homepage, San Francisco, viewed 25 August 2012, <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/the-well-a-pioneering-online-community-is-for-sale-again/>