I don't agree with Cameron; I don't think the quality of Metafilter has fallen much, if at all. There are certainly more front page posts on MeFi then there were a year ago. It is more difficult to read everything, and if I don't check everyday, it takes awhile to catch up. Comment posts are another matter. I do feel the signal to noise ratio has gotten worse, but that doesn't mean I won't read comments on a post I have an interest in, like this one.

I am also reminded of Usenet in 1993. I was an active poster to a particular group that will go unnamed. There were only a few posts a day, and the great majority of them were well thought-out and fairly well written. Then, in September of 1993, a number of new voices began to be heard in the newsgroup. They were university students with no knowledge of net culture and little knowledge of what they were writing about. There was much flaming, and many of the new posters left. However, some stayed, the number of daily posts went up, and there was a definite change in the feeling of the group.

Over the next few years the newsgroup grew with the addition of more and more undergrads, and then AOL users, and then net punters, and it changed from an exclusive club for well-educated white men to something with a lot more diversity. Many oldtimers people didn't like the result, and left the group. A few of them started Web sites, and the community reformed in a more controlled, diffuse setting. The conversation went on, but the interaction was harder to find.

Weblogs have been another change again. The conversation has become more explicit, and bloggers seeks out connections with others in new ways. Now, you can select who will be part of your online community, and exactly that is happening on the thousands of weblogs that link to like-minded sites. But we want the immediacy of back and forth conversation, and come full-circle to sites like Metafilter.