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Comment by missedthecue

5 years ago

Theres not really a difference.

In 1995 it was a Usenet newsgroup, in 2005 it was a vBulletin forum, today it's a Twitter or Facebook community, tomorrow, it will be something else.

Facebook and Twitter get tons of hate because they make money hand over fist and founders/insiders become richer than god, (unlike Usenet or forum sites) but the internet has always been this way.

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missedthecue

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hanspeter  5 years ago

Don't forget about Reddit.

Reddit is designed around grouping people in echo chambers and users come to it for this reason. Facebook may still be more impactful due to the sheer volume of users, but I don't think Reddit's impact is negligeable.

jevgeni  5 years ago

There were higher barriers to entry into those groups in the 90s.

  • missedthecue  5 years ago

    This is true, technology certainly has progressed and lowered the barrier to entry for this and many other things, but my point is that the internet is nothing more than a social network.

    Also, you might be overestimating how high the barrier to entry was. There were over 200,000 usenet groups at the peak.