EWorld was a critical success. But Apple didn't want to keep paying AOL, and shut the whole thing down. Apple canceled the contracts with 70 chat moderators, the backbone of the service. Three weeks later, we launched Talk City with those 70 moderators and used Quarterdeck chat software. Fast-forward to 1999.
Community is the most distinguishing part of the Internet.
It's market research where a product manager with a credit card can construct a survey and run it. We will use anything. The majority of use is text chat. Other forms of online communication are not that good. They require a large footprint machine.