text: Stewart Brand's original member agreement was, "You Own Your Own Words" or “YOYOW”). Gail Ann Williams recalled the phrase had a number of different interpretations: In an era when it was uncertain how laws applied to online content, Brand intended it to place legal responsibility for posts on the people who wrote them, she said. But “a lot of people saw it as being about property, that it was about copyright, and other people saw it as meaning you have to own up to your words, if you say something heinous, it won't go away, you're going to have to live it down." Currently, the agreement notes members have both the rights to their posted words and the responsibility for those words. Members can also delete their posts at any time, but a placeholder indicates the former location and author of a deleted or "scribbled" post, as well as who deleted it.
  Cultural impact
  The WELL's influence online has been significant (see Katie Hafner's 1997 article, "The Epic Saga of the WELL".) Howard Rheingold noted that both Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL, and Craig Newmark, who founded Craigslist, were WELL members before founding their companies. Frequent in-person meetings of WELL members have also been an important facet of The WELL. Monthly WELL Office Parties began in September 1986 and continued for many years thereafter, in the Bay Area and elsewhere. Looking back at the early years, journalist Jon Carroll wrote, "Suddenly there were chili cook-offs and outings to ballgames and brunches and evenings of song... .""
  The Berkeley Singthing
  The "Berkeley Singthing," a casual gathering to play and sing popular music, is perhaps the longest running of the in-person gatherings of WELL members. Started in 1991, and taking its name from the Berkeley conference in the WELL where it was originally organized it is one of the many ways that WELL members connect in the physical world.