Especially in the early days of electronic communication tools, there were many instances of what people tend to think of as dysfunctional human behaviour on the net . A specific example of the care that needs to be taken to balance the interests of the various parties is provided by an analysis of privacy and e-lists . The clusters of people using the Internet coalesced into a 'virtual community'. The clearest description of this idea was provided in Howard Rheingold's book of that name, published in 1994. I find the term cyberculture more useful, to refer to the means whereby communities in cyberspace can achieve cohesion and maintain relationships, while avoiding unduly dysfunctional behaviour by community-members and outsiders.
Cyberculture is worthy of much more careful analysis .
Subsequently, there were successive dilutions of the foundation ethos, as successive waves of 'newbies' arrived. This initially led many longstanding netizens to feel concern about what was happening to the neighbourhood . Some years later, it would seem that the ethos is surviving, with a sufficient proportion of the newcomers undergoing conversion, sometimes becoming more fervent disciples than their predecessors. By 1994, the technical developments, and the population growth, had attracted the attention of entrepreneurs, who quickly became excited about the opportunities to exploit the new medium. The successive waves of marketer zeal have shown no signs of succeeding, yet no signs of abating either.