The Cleveland Free-Net's Impact

CFN's age means that, although Case Western Reserve University (CWRU or "Case") actively encourages its students to join, many of the system's most loyal users have been out of college for several decades. It was my impression while studying CFN that the two special interest groups (SIGs) with the strongest sense of community were the Boomers Place and the 50+ Forum, neither of which is limited to 50+ year-olds, but both of which insist upon intellectual maturity. Members "get to know" each other through self-descriptive posts and questions and frequently meet face to face: "even the out-of-towners have come to town just for Boomers." (Billi, Jun. 29) While these groups are loyal to each other, however, they may not be loyal to CFN itself: at one point the Boomers considered moving their forum to UseNet so that they could post even when the Free-Net is "down." (Billi, Jun. 10)

CFN's age also means that its hardware and software are a little behind the times, or at least they are seen that way by many of its users. For more on this topic, please see the section of this paper regarding FreePort.

CFN's extraordinary size -- 160,000 registered users in 1995 (Neff, ¶9) -- means that there is no possibility of meeting, much less knowing, all the users. Each individual SIG, however, is a manageable size, and new users of a SIG are frequently welcomed by the regulars.

The Cleveland area itself is tremendously spread out, with a famous (and at times exaggerated) division between its east and west sides. In early 1996, the Boomers held their annual potluck on the west side to try to attract members who rarely attended, yet most of the people who came were still from the east side. (Nineteen)

Finally, CFN's access to and accessibility from the Internet have often been blamed for its troubles as well as credited for its strength. For example, on May 10, this message appeared: "Freenet must be dead. Looks like all that remains of a once-thriving virtual city are a few village idiots. Everybody else must have wandered off into Usenet or the WWW." (Ammann, May 10) The following day saw a response: "51 percent of our village idiots *come* from Internet - because 51 percent of all [Cleveland] Free-net users are from Internet. They come to [Cleveland] Free-net because a) it's a 'one-stop' place to shop for info, without wandering all over Internet, and b) you can actually get a question *answered* (rather than buried) by someone who knows what the heck they're talking about. ... Commercial Internet providers know that, so they usually put [Cleveland] Free-net on their "favorite site" menus, so that their users will have someplace user-friendly to start out. A lot of people also find [Cleveland] Free-net gatewayed through their public library terminals or their school systems." (Kutz, May 11)

Said a moderator of the Speakeasy, an anti-SIG which has developed into a family of SIGs: "I know of many SIGs online that have few or no readers. The reason is simple: the Freenet system is obsolete. People want to know about a certain Special Interest Group, they go read files on the WWW or they subscribe to special email lists. I am on four email lists. I haven't bothered reading most of the SIGs on CFN for months." (Nine)

Yet, other users remain confident that their system is just the right size. "I think CFN still generally has the things I want most. if you spend the time and work, you can probably make a whole variety of areas meet your needs. The CFN will offer something rather good and competitive and do it simpler and with less extraneous junk than many other suppliers." (Scott)

Between these three factors, age, size, and Internet access, CFN has become a legend among community networks. Raymond Neff, the president of the department at CWRU that manages the Free-Net, summed up CFN's history by saying, "'This system is the granddaddy of the systems. It's had a lot of imitators. It certainly has become old-fashioned in its interface. But it planted seeds that helped the Internet grow into what the Internet has become.'" (Melvin, c.6)

continuing issues

CFN has a "sense of community"

"it seems that even though we only see each other a couple times per year, and some not at all, we have all gotten the feeling that we 'know' everyone personnally. ... my closest friends are the peeps I've met and know from FN." (Billi, Jun. 10) "I'm geographically removed from Cleveburgh but have made *loads* of long-term friends on CFN. We traveled to Cleveburgh last year for a Boomer meet and will return next year. If I have some serious stuff to sort out, I'll turn to my CFN buds first." (Moore)

it confronts its users with a crisis (Godwin)

This point could use some clarification. Godwin suggests that a community can only become strong if its members are exposed to a crisis, and he suggests that community networks should make sure such a crisis comes about. Presently the crisis on CFN seems to be that its perpetuation is in doubt: "I don't see the Cleveland Free-Net being around in two years." (Eleven)

CFN attracts people who are "antisocial"

"That's a stereotype. Cases in point: Toastmasters' SIG, United Way SIG, Chess SIG, IBM-Compatible SIG run by Greater Cleveland PC Users' Group - all have frequent face-to-face meetings. Free-net itself has hosted *many* large picnics. Anytime you get 50,000+ users from a not-that-densely populated calling area, you're getting *much* more than the closet nerd population." (Kutz, Jun. 23) "I think that there are a tremendous amount of introverted people on the system who live their lives vicariously through the system, ... but I also think that I have met people that I would never have met in my life face-to-face ... You know, you start a conversation or you join a board and you start bullshitting back and forth, and all of a sudden you say, 'Hey, let's all get together for Sunday brunch.'" (Eleven)

CFN encourages communication between people who live far apart, not neighbors

"I've ... observed (in my role as Q&A guy on the Sysops' SIG) a large number of people asking how to use the interest directories to find persons with similar interests IN THEIR LOCAL GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS." (Kutz, Jun. 23) "It has worked much better than 'joining a club' 'taking a class' 'going to bars' or any of the traditional ways suggested to meet people." (Mutchler, Jul. 11) "people can meet the people that they talk to -- some of them ... obviously come over telnet and all across the country, but there's a lot of local people, and I think it ... is very community-driven, and people identify with others from the same area." (Bell-Moores) Even those who felt CFN turns people outward, away from Cleveland, did not necessarily see it as a problem (Bell-Moores).

it contributes to "personal isolation, increased dependency, and the loss of privacy." (OTA, pp.6-7)

"this is not the norm. A previous study by Swift at Indiana U. found that the majority of CFN users were using the system in purposeful fashion to advance some *existing* interest ( in other words they probably 'had a life', and were not using the system just to hang out." (Kutz, Jun. 23)

it is "accessible easily and comfortably with little waste of energy or time" (Sudia, p.10) and accessibility is universal (Schuler, p.70)

It has already been said that users may have to wait more than 15 minutes for a modem connection, so wasting energy and time has become commonplace. Regarding universality, however, "A homeless person can walk into a Cuyahoga Library branch (or various other library system branches), sit down at a terminal, and get help from a librarian to log onto CFN. ¶ I saw a guy do it with a fifty-dollar Radio Shack color computer, which had nothing on it *except* a serial port. ... The 50,000+ [active users] beating down the doors are largely those who otherwise wouldn't have access [to the Internet]. A sizeable number of school systems are represented here." (Kutz, Jun. 23) Several other respondents agreed that CFN is adequately accessible (Four, Lebovitz, Eleven), but they were by no means unanimous (Richards, Moore). Some users who think it is not adequately accessible still don't see it as a problem: "It's hardly an essential social service. If Legal Aid or the Job Corps were only accessible to people who were educated and moderately wealthy, I'd be worried." (Ammann, Jun. 22)

"Users tend to be white, middle-class males between the ages of 20 and 50. They tend to be employed, have greater than average income, speak English, and have few disabilities." (Schuler, p.273)

"It used to be [that way], six years ago ... other than the kids in schools, which had some great projects going there for a while, it didn't really appeal to the high school graduates. To the university crowd it had its appeal, but ... it's losing a lot of that. It's basically now becoming a bunch of diehards who don't want to give it up, and if they let it go another year or two that's exactly what it will be. ... if you're talking about inner-city youth, ... they're not gonna bother with Free-Net because it takes an education." (Billi, Jun. 29)

CFN allows people to pretend to be different from who or what they are

Anonymous Eleven invited 12 friends from the Zone to his house for dinner: "we became very good friends and had a lot in common, and by being on the computer beforehand, [we] kind of got a feel for their personality. Now, whether they were bullshitting me or not has yet to be seen, but you kind of got a feel for ... who you worked well with conversation-wise and who appreciated your humor and stuff like that."

CFN has the potential to help local businesses pool their resources to compete with larger chains

"on the gay boards, a lot of businesses advertise. ... But if you read any of the other boards, there's nothing else advertised. ... it's just not there, but the gay community has used it very effectively. There are hundreds and hundreds of businesses in and around Cleveland that are gay owned and operated, but they don't have a chance to advertise other than in the local gay paper. The Free-Net system did give them that opportunity for free advertising." (Eleven)

CFN helps build the geographical community it serves

"I've become more involved with Case, I've done more charity work, I'm on a board of trustees of a charitable organization because of the people I've met on Free-Net. So this is the benefit, I think. It gets people involved with each other." (Billi, Jun. 29) Anonymous Twenty-Nine agrees with this, but Twenty-Two and Richards disagree. Anonymous Thirty-Two expressed the opinion that not a great enough percentage of Cleveland-area residents use system for community to be helped. Note that CFN has the highest participation rate of the three Free-Nets I studied.

it prefers "democracy over autocracy" (Schuler, p.33) and is "on neutral ground" (Oldenberg via Schuler, p.42)

Many users seem disenchanted with CWRU's management of the system, as addressed earlier in this paper. However, by far most of the everyday decisions are made not by sysops but SIGops, volunteers who have little obligation to Case, so the system is more or less "on neutral ground." As far as I can tell, though, the SIGops are not elected but rather are appointed by existing SIGops, so despite the presence of programs which allow users to vote on issues, CFN is technically an oligarchy.

its "mood is playful" (Oldenberg via Schuler, p.42)

I observed that many of the SIGs are chronically playful; any attempt at a serious discussion is ridiculed by a few of the regulars.

"one may go alone at almost any time of the day or evening with assurances that acquaintances will be there." (Oldenberg via Schuler, p.47)

Since CFN's 70 modems are in use 99% of the time (Neff), it seems likely to me that long-time users can generally find friends online.

it has been "front-loaded" with "talkative, diverse people" (Godwin)

This task was originally done by CFN's founder (Kutz, Jun. 23).

its "users resolve their own disputes" (Godwin)

During the time I was reading the Philosophers' Forum, I watched two academics get into a disagreement about whether a post regarding mathematics was off-topic. They exchanged credentials, postured a while, and then one of them changed the subject.

it promotes continuity (Godwin)

Unlike the two smaller Free-Nets I studied, CFN's menu structure did not change noticably while I was studying it. Also, posts to many message forums are retained for several years, rather than months or weeks as on the other systems.

it involves "community members and organizations in the process" and addresses "real world problems using primarily real (nonprofessional) people to do it." (Schuler, p.xiii)

Just a few SIGs that demonstrate this point are the Alzheimer's Disease Resource Center, the HIV/AIDS Information Center, and The Islamic School.