Just how credible is Wikipedia? While some have tested this empirically, others have chosen more dubious methodology. For a site that gives no credit to its post authors, one wonders, why even bother?
posted by iamkimiam on Sep 3, 2009 - 94 comments

During a January blizzard thirty years ago in Chicago, Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss came up with the idea for a computerized bulletin board system. One month later on February 16, 1978, the first public online community was officially established, and it was named CBBS. [more inside]
posted by SteveInMaine on Feb 16, 2008 - 26 comments

A beginner's guide to faking your death on the internet - a post without an omg is a post incomplete. (YouTube alert - via Borklog)
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 19, 2007 - 44 comments

[TheFaceBook]: It comes in the genre of LiveJournal, MySpace, and Friendster - except with a focus on digitally connecting pre-existing friendships on college campuses rather than finding new friends worldwide. Subsequently, it has thus far avoided the stigmas I’ve seen attached to its predecessors by non-users. Its use has skyrocketed: about 15% of my campus has signed up since this past winter. All of it through word-of-mouth. One of the neat tricks it does is show a visualization of your friends on the network in a spider webbed vectored graphic connecting them based on their mutual friendships. It’s also proven very useful in tracking down those “where do I know him/her?” names through a prominently displayed list showing up to two-degrees of separation to the mystery person. Oh, and you can send text messages to cell phones through it. Did I mention it also reminds you of birthdays?
posted by trinarian on Mar 19, 2005 - 29 comments

So I Google search on the SoBig virus' affinity for UDP port 8998, and the possibility it may be downloading additional programs this afternoon(actually, right about now). Great, more filters on the routers. Hang on, what's this result on that first search? A link to PornResource? Why, it appears to be a news and technical site for porn site operators. News, guides, interviews, top designers, host reviews, even a message board. Of course, a site billed as "The Standard for Up-To-Date Adult Webmaster News" is NSFW. Unless you are BossHawg, of course.
posted by dglynn on Aug 22, 2003 - 10 comments

Craig's List -- the gigantic Bay Area jobs/apartments/ridesharing/etcetra mailing list and website -- is planning on expanding (the Boston site is up), but is there anything else as useful and non-commercialized for other areas?
posted by snarkout on Jun 28, 2000 - 3 comments

Kottke offers a good critique of online discussions (like MeFi), and he makes some excellent suggestions on how to improve them. He quotes an unnamed source: "The problem with online forums is that those who have very little to contribute participate the most while those with valuable information to share participate the least." Now, let's try to keep the conversation cordial...
posted by ericost on Jun 21, 2000 - 2 comments