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Why Online Communities Decay Over Time
by forwardslash

    The first day of September 1993 was the beginning of an eternal September, a calendar month whose days stretched to infinity. Prior to this infamous day, there would be an influx of noobs onto Usenet each September. These were the arriving college freshman. They were not legion. They were few enough that they could be corralled and assimilated by Usenet veterans.

    September 1993, however, was different. It was the day the gates of hell were thrown open and never-ending torrent of demonspawn descended on Usenet – like locus, they devoured the community.

    These locus were AOL users. In September of 1993, the company granted Usenet access to their entire user base, which triggered an unending deluge of noobs into the Usenet community. Thus began the September that never ended.