Leaving the WELL — The Porch

~ratthing Thu, Sep 24, 1998 (15:07) seed

for those of you who are on the WELL or have been on the WELL, i have a question: have you considered leaving? or why did you leave? i have been on the well for about 2 years now, and my general impression is that it is the most dysfunctional online community i have ever been associated with. there is a long history on the WELL, lots of members, and lots of different topics with lots of posts. however, new users like myself really have no chance of ever being part of the community over there. there are a lot of complex reasons for this that i am still trying to sort out, but the bottom line seems to be that the WELL is full of a lot of brilliant assholes who are very good at various forms of intellectual one-upmanship. thus, someone like me is left to do nothing but read other peoples posts. that is not what i wanted out of the WELL, and I do not have the time to spend reading and not getting involved. so i am considering leaving. the only problem with that is that the WELL is just so darn cool, and i like being able to tell people that i go there every day and hang out on-line. anyway, i would like to hear comments, pro or con, for leaving the WELL and maybe just spending more time here!

~riette Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (01:17) #1

Well, Ray, if they're a bunch of intellectuals they almost certainly don't listen to each other either - too keen to impress with knowledge. But I've never been there.

~riette Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (01:18) #2

Could you put in a URL, so I can go check it out?

~ratthing Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (01:38) #3

the WeLL is not free, it costs between $10 - $15 a month. the URL is http://www.well.com

~terry Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (07:59) #4

I used to be on the WELL but since the Spring has gotten rolling more, I don't find I have much time for it. Cliff Figallo, who was an early director of the WELL, was a neighbor of mine in Bolinas and I was on the very first WELL when Matthew McClure (mmc@well.com) was running it. This was in the pre-cyberspace era when everyone dialed in and when I had an Apple //e with a modem. Back then, I was writing reviews for the Whole Earth Software Review. Cliff (fig@well.com) is with Salon now and I don't se him on the WELL much anymore. As we get up a full head of steam here, we may get others drifting over.

~ratthing Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (10:23) #5

terry, one of the primary reasons i am considering leaving is that i know that you were one of the original wellites, yet you don't spend a lot of time there anymore.

~autumn Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (12:52) #6

Hey, Ray, drugs are cool too! Are you on those? Oh, and driving fast cars, like uh, a Chevelle or a Porsche! Got one of those? I think it is infinitely cooler to say, "I used to subscribe to the WELL, but with all the BS going on there, it's just not the cool, edgy place it used to be. Now I hang at the Spring." :-)

~ratthing Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (13:19) #7

very good point.

~riette Sat, Sep 26, 1998 (00:45) #8

ha-ha!!!

~mikeg Mon, Sep 28, 1998 (12:34) #9

Yup, I've got an account. No, I don't ever use it. It's the second time I've had one, and again I'm thinking of cancelling it. There just seems to be something....rotten about the place. Like all of the utopianism and hope has collapsed into cynicism and back-biting. *BUT* you do get a cool e-mail address :-)

~riette Tue, Sep 29, 1998 (01:20) #10

well.com is cool? Boy, these English people are crazy!

~autumn Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (22:07) #11

Tell me about it! Cool just isn't what it used to be.

~riette Thu, Oct 1, 1998 (01:24) #12

ha-ha! I know! Cool is in fact sort of uncool nowadays, isn't it?

~autumn Thu, Oct 1, 1998 (13:54) #13

EXACTLY.

~riette Fri, Oct 2, 1998 (05:20) #14

ha-ha!

~mikeg Wed, Oct 21, 1998 (13:55) #15

Hello, Thank you for your email. We are sorry to see you leave The WELL community. We have canceled your account as you have requested. Your account will remain active until Nov. 5, which is the last day of your present billing cycle. Feel free to use The WELL until this date without fear of additional charges. In the future, if you wish to re-join The WELL, just go to our Web Page at www.well.com. If you have any questions, you can email us at helpdesk@well.com. Thank you for your business and we hope to see you soon. Kathy WELL Helpdesk helpdesk@well.com (415) 332-9200

~mikeg Wed, Oct 21, 1998 (13:56) #16

That's it - WELL account cancelled.

~ratthing Wed, Oct 21, 1998 (21:11) #17

mikeg! way to go! i still have mine, but havent logged on in a few days.

~riette Thu, Oct 22, 1998 (03:53) #18

well WELL!

~autumn Thu, Oct 22, 1998 (22:15) #19

Uh-oh, Mike has suddenly lost some of his cache, don't you think? He used to be so cool. :-)

~riette Fri, Oct 23, 1998 (01:28) #20

Yeah, so edgy! Now he's only hip and wicked.

~mikeg Sun, Oct 25, 1998 (00:25) #21

*laffs* I realised that I paid for something that I never logged in to, and even when I did I didn't like - that for me equals cancel. ANyway, I'm still cool and edgy until November 5th., which when my account runs out :) ./ y