The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link Sold To Its Members

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."

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

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 kno

Re:

[alexander_686]

You don’t have to worry – it is not happening here – The kings still rule. I personally find the title misleading.

“Member owned” implies that it is some type of co-op – where customers buy into the company. Like a co-op, a mutual insurance company, or something along these lines.

This is more like Victor Kiam when he bought the Remington razor company – you know the tag line - "I liked it so much I bought the company".

Re:

[osu-neko]

'cept it's not like one member bought the company, it is a group. A better comparison might be the Roman patricians of the Senate. Of course, whether this a pre- or post-Augustus Senate is an open question...

Re:

[Paradise Pete]

All's WELL that ends WELL.

That's deep.

Re:

[plover]

All's WELL that ends WELL.

That's deep.

So who gets the shaft?

Whole Earth Catalog

[Taco Cowboy]

I still have my complete collection of Whole Earth Catalog and hopefully they will start publishing new edition of this most useful books.

Back to the roots

[arth1]

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.

Re:Back to the roots

[wordsnyc]

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.

How will the MASSIVE community cope?

[Anonymous Coward]

All 2000 of them

Does anything even still happen at The WELL?

Wink Wink Nudge Nudge?

[SJ2000]

Is someone giving us a less than subtle hint?

Re:

[Nethemas the Great]

Don't be silly. There's money to be made. This site is a pre-sorted demographic pool for advertisement exploitation. *rolls eyes*

Re:

[Nethemas the Great]

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

Re:

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> This site is a pre-sorted demographic pool for advertisement exploitation.

What do basement-dwelling troglodytes buy anyhow?

Re:

[arth1]

What do basement-dwelling troglodytes buy anyhow?

Anything found on its (now formerly) sister site http://www.thinkgeek.com/ [thinkgeek.com], plus servers, UPSes and pizza.

Re:

[Nethemas the Great]

The essentials that enable their habitation of said basement. i.e. Cheetos, pizza, energy drinks, microwaves, refrigerators, delivery services, computer hardware, software, pacification gifts for mom, etc.

Re:

[ThatsNotPudding]

The purchase price was $20 million, IIRC; hope you know how to make it rain big time.

Re:

[Patch86]

That was including SourceForge and FreeCode too. I bet Slashdot isn't worth much compared to SourceForge.

To play imaginary maths- if Slashdot had 10,000 members, and the price was $5,000,000, then that'd be a $500 price tag per person. Still too much, but not crazily out of reach. How many active users do you think Slashdot has these days?

CIX - older and hopefully bigger

[clickclickdrone]

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/ [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[clickclickdrone]

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

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: CIX - older and hopefully bigger

[gidds]

It is, however, gaining members and activity again.

After a long period of gentle stagnation, it was acquired a year ago by an internet company with a long experience of Cix and its community, and is now enjoying something of a revival. We're all fairly optimistic about its future again!

(I'm gidds@cix, and spend more time there than here or anywhere else. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for interesting, intelligent, wide-ranging discussion.)

Re:

[gidds]

P.S. I meant to say: I hope the WELL's new ownership brings them similar reason for optimism!

Abandonware

[Animats]

I had a Well account back when it was on a VAX/750 and you paid by the hour. But it's been a long time since the Well mattered.

For those who like them some history....

[sootman]

Wired, May 1997 - The Epic Saga of The Well [wired.com]

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.

WELL... I gues you have to pay to have....

[3seas]

... sane conversations..... Who'd thought? Oh wait... Do I get paid to think?

Some important info missing?

[Compaqt]

Like how much the sale was for, and how many paying members are there?