How we talk to each other online has changed dramatically — and not always for the better. Understanding where we've been helps explain where we're going, and why the tools we choose matter more than most people realize.
This page is an evolving outline. Sections will be expanded with research, analysis, and historical context.
I. The Promise of Connection (1970s–1990s)
- Email's origin story — built for collaboration, not marketing
- Bulletin boards and Usenet — the first online communities, governed by norms not algorithms
- Mailing lists — how LISTSERV and Majordomo gave every group a voice
- The early web — personal pages, webrings, and the idea that everyone could publish
- The key principle: communication tools were owned by the people who used them
II. The Platform Era (2000s–2010s)
- The rise of "free" — social networks that cost nothing and charged everything
- From communities to audiences — how the feed replaced the forum
- The attention economy — engagement metrics as the only measure of success
- Algorithmic curation — when platforms decided what you should see
- The death of the inbox — how email became synonymous with spam, and who benefited from that narrative
- The key shift: communication tools were now owned by the platform, and users became the product
III. The Fragmentation (2015–Present)
- App fatigue — Slack, Teams, Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, GroupMe, and the chaos of "pick one"
- Walled gardens — your community exists only inside someone else's product
- The notification problem — when every tool demands attention, nothing gets it
- Data portability (or lack thereof) — what happens to your community when the platform shuts down or changes terms
- The generation gap — different age groups stranded on different platforms with no bridge
- The key tension: more tools than ever, but harder to actually reach people
IV. What Got Lost Along the Way
- Ownership — your member list, your conversations, your community's history
- Simplicity — the ability to reach your group without learning new software
- Durability — tools that work for decades, not just until the next pivot
- Inclusivity — the assumption that everyone is technical enough to keep up
- Trust — knowing that your communication channel won't be enshittified (to borrow Cory Doctorow's term) once you've committed to it
V. The Case for Going Back to Basics
- Email still works — it's the one protocol everyone already has
- Groups, not feeds — why intentional communities outperform algorithmic audiences
- Open infrastructure — what it means to build on standards instead of platforms
- People-first design — optimizing for the person who just wants to hear from their group, not the power user
- The long game — building tools that communities can rely on for years, not quarters
VI. Where We Go From Here
- The role of platforms like Factory — combining the reliability of email with modern group management
- What "in-boarding" looks like — meeting people where they are, literally (their inbox)
- Community-owned communication — the group decides how it communicates, not the vendor
- An invitation, not an imposition — why we think joining a group should feel like being welcomed, not onboarded into a product
Have something to add? This is a living document. If you have research, stories, or perspective on how online communication has changed — especially from the experience of running a real community — we'd love to hear from you.