6 ms·

Curious about the demographics of the WELL userbase. My impression from language cues in the copy, and from the age of the platform, that the WELL is populated

by na85 5y ago

Curious about the demographics of the WELL userbase. My impression from language cues in the copy, and from the age of the platform, that the WELL is populated predominantly by graybeards rather than the under-40 crowd. Can anyone confirm/deny?

jandrese 5y ago
My first impression is that these are probably people who grew up reading the Whole Earth Catalogue.
mistrial9 5y ago
Isnt it the quality of ideas, willingness to participate, and other 'cyber' qualities that make a site like that what it is?
- na85 5y ago
  >Isnt it the quality of ideas, willingness to participate, and other 'cyber' qualities that make a site like that what it is? Maybe, but different demographics produce ideas and conversation of different character.
Stratoscope 5y ago
I don't know about The WELL these days, but yes it came out of the Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth Truck Store culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remembered the Truck Store was in Menlo Park near the train station, got curious and looked it up. This MoMA page has some fun facts: https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/AccesstoTools/ https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/AccesstoT... In more recent years it was a flower shop: https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+Park,+CA+94025/@37.4540124,-122.1827246,3a,75y,313.82h,87.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_xpEM17RzGbmYkErs09yNQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fa4ae4b967a5b:0x2db02ee68d1838f2!8m2!3d37.4541829!4d-122.1829861 https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+... And now it is torn down for new construction. Somewhat fittingly, the current Google Street View has a truck driving by in front of the vacant lot: https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+Park,+CA+94025/@37.4539694,-122.1826833,3a,75y,311.38h,89.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5q58C8f8t8qZ7BmkQccHiA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D5q58C8f8t8qZ7BmkQccHiA%26cb_client%3Dsearch.gws-prod.gps%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D305.7693%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fa4ae4b967a5b:0x2db02ee68d1838f2!8m2!3d37.4541829!4d-122.1829861 https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+... Pop quiz! (Actually I'm genuinely curious.) Can anyone name the typeface used in the FUNCTION and Whole Earth Truck Store headings in the MoMA page? I used to know it well (pun intended) but have forgotten its name. Back in those days, you used to buy fonts by the sheet. A sheet of rub-on lettering that is. The sheet had characters that were slightly sticky underneath. These were on the back side of the sheet. I mostly used Letraset and Mecanorma sheets. You would place the sheet so the next letter you wanted was lined up where it should be over the page you were making, and then rub over the letter with a burnishing tool until it came loose from the font sheet and stuck to the paper underneath. Update! I found these newfangled things called "Google" and "Wikipedia". (Well - pun intended again - I guess I already blew my cover with those Street View links.) Anyway, the typeface was called Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) One more thing... Here's a great photo of Stewart Brand and the gang at the Truck Store: https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1058035963354583041/photo/1 https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1058035963354583041/photo...
- DonHopkins 5y ago
  >You would place the sheet so the next letter you wanted was lined up where it should be over the page you were making, and then rub over the letter with a burnishing tool until it came loose from the font sheet and stuck to the paper underneath. Then the web came along and used up all the "w"'s!
  - Stratoscope 5y ago
    I hated it when I ran out of a letter late at night and University Art was closed! You are right, I remember the old radio commercials. They chewed up all the w's and spat them out: "Please visit our World Wide Web Site at aitch tee tee pee, colon, forward slash, forward slash, double-you double-you double-you, period, example, period, see oh emm, forward slash, info, period, aitch tee em ell."
- jamal-kumar 5y ago
  i used to love letraset for doing art with
  - Stratoscope 5y ago
    It was so much fun! I mostly did more mundane things like my business cards and letterhead. But still... Seeing something go directly from my brain onto paper, with the help of these magical rub-on letters and symbols and a little bamboo burnishing tool? There was nothing else like it.
- giantrobot 5y ago
  > Pop quiz! (Actually I'm genuinely curious.) Can anyone name the typeface used in the FUNCTION and Whole Earth Truck Store headings in the MoMA page? I used to know it well (pun intended) but have forgotten its name. ... > Update! I found these newfangled things called "Google" and "Wikipedia". (Well - pun intended again - I guess I already blew my cover with those Street View links.) Anyway, the typeface was called Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) Damn I just saw your update, I was going to chime in with that! Such a cool looking font for print.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
serf 5y ago
i'm under 40 and have been a member for over a decade. I frequent all of the technology related conferences. I am sure that you're right that the crowd skews older, but no hard proof. Great quality of discourse, and great people. I had someone ship me a big box full of CDs because they were trimming down their collection for simply the cost of shipping, it was a treasure trove of artists i'd never otherwise listen to, and it was an overall great experience; every person-to-person experience I've had that originated from The Well has been great, actually.
- tkgally 5y ago
  The Well had a strong presence online in the early 1990s, when I bought my first modem and joined a BBS in Tokyo with Usenet feeds. I had some friends in Japan who were Well members, people on Usenet with Well e-mail addresses seemed overall like good Netizens (to use a 1990s term), and I considered joining but never did. It’s good to hear that it’s still active.
mattl 5y ago
I'm close to 40 and I've been a WELL member for over 20 years.
ubermonkey 5y ago
I'm 51 and have been a member since 1997. One of the most active conferences for a long time was GenX, which was set up (I assume) to counter the otherwise pretty Boomer-heavy balance of the service in the 80s and 90s. I would not be surprised to discover that the overwhelming bulk of the membership is now > 40 or even >45.
NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
My experience was that the core demographic definitely skewed older, lefter, more West Coast than your average internet demographic; not necessarily a techie crowd, but with some fairly well-known futurists and tech writers; more literary; people who did Burning Man way before it was mainstream cool; very deep in certain pop-culture areas (the Grateful Dead especially); more emphasis on meeting with other WELLpern in person; with the periphery composed of people drawn in by the legend. The monthly membership fee discouraged the worst kind of drive-by trolling; which was good. Still very bitter flamewars, and rivalries running for years sometimes.

by na85 5y ago

jandrese 5y ago

My first impression is that these are probably people who grew up reading the Whole Earth Catalogue.

mistrial9 5y ago

Isnt it the quality of ideas, willingness to participate, and other 'cyber' qualities that make a site like that what it is?

na85 5y ago
>Isnt it the quality of ideas, willingness to participate, and other 'cyber' qualities that make a site like that what it is? Maybe, but different demographics produce ideas and conversation of different character.

Stratoscope 5y ago

I don't know about The WELL these days, but yes it came out of the Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth Truck Store culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remembered the Truck Store was in Menlo Park near the train station, got curious and looked it up. This MoMA page has some fun facts: https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/AccesstoTools/ https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/AccesstoT... In more recent years it was a flower shop: https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+Park,+CA+94025/@37.4540124,-122.1827246,3a,75y,313.82h,87.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_xpEM17RzGbmYkErs09yNQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fa4ae4b967a5b:0x2db02ee68d1838f2!8m2!3d37.4541829!4d-122.1829861 https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+... And now it is torn down for new construction. Somewhat fittingly, the current Google Street View has a truck driving by in front of the vacant lot: https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+Park,+CA+94025/@37.4539694,-122.1826833,3a,75y,311.38h,89.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5q58C8f8t8qZ7BmkQccHiA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D5q58C8f8t8qZ7BmkQccHiA%26cb_client%3Dsearch.gws-prod.gps%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D305.7693%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fa4ae4b967a5b:0x2db02ee68d1838f2!8m2!3d37.4541829!4d-122.1829861 https://www.google.com/maps/place/558+Santa+Cruz+Ave,+Menlo+... Pop quiz! (Actually I'm genuinely curious.) Can anyone name the typeface used in the FUNCTION and Whole Earth Truck Store headings in the MoMA page? I used to know it well (pun intended) but have forgotten its name. Back in those days, you used to buy fonts by the sheet. A sheet of rub-on lettering that is. The sheet had characters that were slightly sticky underneath. These were on the back side of the sheet. I mostly used Letraset and Mecanorma sheets. You would place the sheet so the next letter you wanted was lined up where it should be over the page you were making, and then rub over the letter with a burnishing tool until it came loose from the font sheet and stuck to the paper underneath. Update! I found these newfangled things called "Google" and "Wikipedia". (Well - pun intended again - I guess I already blew my cover with those Street View links.) Anyway, the typeface was called Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) One more thing... Here's a great photo of Stewart Brand and the gang at the Truck Store: https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1058035963354583041/photo/1 https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1058035963354583041/photo...

DonHopkins 5y ago
>You would place the sheet so the next letter you wanted was lined up where it should be over the page you were making, and then rub over the letter with a burnishing tool until it came loose from the font sheet and stuck to the paper underneath. Then the web came along and used up all the "w"'s!
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  I hated it when I ran out of a letter late at night and University Art was closed! You are right, I remember the old radio commercials. They chewed up all the w's and spat them out: "Please visit our World Wide Web Site at aitch tee tee pee, colon, forward slash, forward slash, double-you double-you double-you, period, example, period, see oh emm, forward slash, info, period, aitch tee em ell."
jamal-kumar 5y ago
i used to love letraset for doing art with
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  It was so much fun! I mostly did more mundane things like my business cards and letterhead. But still... Seeing something go directly from my brain onto paper, with the help of these magical rub-on letters and symbols and a little bamboo burnishing tool? There was nothing else like it.
giantrobot 5y ago
> Pop quiz! (Actually I'm genuinely curious.) Can anyone name the typeface used in the FUNCTION and Whole Earth Truck Store headings in the MoMA page? I used to know it well (pun intended) but have forgotten its name. ... > Update! I found these newfangled things called "Google" and "Wikipedia". (Well - pun intended again - I guess I already blew my cover with those Street View links.) Anyway, the typeface was called Windsor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_(typeface) Damn I just saw your update, I was going to chime in with that! Such a cool looking font for print.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

serf 5y ago

i'm under 40 and have been a member for over a decade. I frequent all of the technology related conferences. I am sure that you're right that the crowd skews older, but no hard proof. Great quality of discourse, and great people. I had someone ship me a big box full of CDs because they were trimming down their collection for simply the cost of shipping, it was a treasure trove of artists i'd never otherwise listen to, and it was an overall great experience; every person-to-person experience I've had that originated from The Well has been great, actually.

tkgally 5y ago
The Well had a strong presence online in the early 1990s, when I bought my first modem and joined a BBS in Tokyo with Usenet feeds. I had some friends in Japan who were Well members, people on Usenet with Well e-mail addresses seemed overall like good Netizens (to use a 1990s term), and I considered joining but never did. It’s good to hear that it’s still active.

mattl 5y ago

I'm close to 40 and I've been a WELL member for over 20 years.

ubermonkey 5y ago

I'm 51 and have been a member since 1997. One of the most active conferences for a long time was GenX, which was set up (I assume) to counter the otherwise pretty Boomer-heavy balance of the service in the 80s and 90s. I would not be surprised to discover that the overwhelming bulk of the membership is now > 40 or even >45.

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago

My experience was that the core demographic definitely skewed older, lefter, more West Coast than your average internet demographic; not necessarily a techie crowd, but with some fairly well-known futurists and tech writers; more literary; people who did Burning Man way before it was mainstream cool; very deep in certain pop-culture areas (the Grateful Dead especially); more emphasis on meeting with other WELLpern in person; with the periphery composed of people drawn in by the legend. The monthly membership fee discouraged the worst kind of drive-by trolling; which was good. Still very bitter flamewars, and rivalries running for years sometimes.