The menu system gave the Free-Net a sense of place and community. For better or worse that has changed. The Buffalo Free-Net is now much more an organization than a place, and a service that shares its access to the internet with the community. The common interface has changed the way one finds and reviews information. One is as likely, if not more, to search the global resources for some interesting bit of information than the local community.
Time is limited.
The global world of the web looks and behaves much the same. No one has time to learn the local conceits anymore. You scan for information and press a key to move to it or to move away from the unfamiliar, the difficult to learn. Ease and universality are now the keywords for information providers. Our content should be unique.