text: In retrospect, Gail Ann Williams said the "cyber utopianism" of the founders may have always been overly optimistic. Although the ideal was egalitarian and democratic, the early pricing structure charged users based on their time spent connected to the service, which might have allowed wealthier users to dominate the conversations in what Williams called a "postocracy."  Thomas Valovic, then a research manager with International Data Corporation and adjunct faculty at Northeastern University, theorized that a "single articulate and entertaining person" might be able to steer a discussion through "sheer number of postings," and that this tactic could be used effectively to spread propaganda: "The same, of course, is true of other online systems." Valovic also noted that this early pricing structure  gave an edge to people whose work subsidized their time on the WELL. For journalists whose work encouraged them to be online, the distinction between public and private discourse became blurred in WELL conversations, and it was not always easy to tell when people were speaking in their official roles: "[...]the online environment has a way of homogenizing work and play to the point that separating the two becomes increasingly difficult." The WELL's utopianism was also challenged by its sale to Bruce Katz, whose vision for the company was more corporate. In her 1994 essay, “Pandora's Vox,” WELL member Carmen Hermosillo observed that by posting her thoughts and feelings where an online platform could profit from them, "I had commodified myself."
  On the other hand, during a panel at the 1994 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Figallo reported that "encouraging the formation of core groups of users who shared their desire for minimal social disruption" had been generally successful in promoting free discussion without the need for heavy-handed intervention by management. Looking back in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, Stewart Brand said, "Communes failed, drugs went nowhere, free love led pretty directly to AIDS. ... But the counterculture approach to computers – which was of great ingenuity and great enthusiasm, and great disinterest in either corporate or government approaches to their problems – absolutely flourished, and to a large extent created the Internet and the online revolution."