I saw it as a hybrid between document collaboration and a message board, but they hyped it into the stratosphere as a communications medium & social thing too.

I saw it as a hybrid between document collaboration and a message board, but they hyped it into the stratosphere as a communications medium & social thing too. Then everyone had to wait months (*edit actually a year or more, IIRC) for invites that came out painfully slow which had the effect of building anticipation and expectations even more. When it was finally widely available, most of the people I know were disappointed that it wasn't a social network, it was a weird document collaboration-message board hybrid that didn't use documents, posts, or any conventional metaphors and therefore didn't live up to its year of hype and anticipation building.