Thanks for this. I came into the online world a handful of years later, but still while it was relatively small and friendly and entirely non-commercial (and required a certain level of geek credential to access).

I was in IT in an academic context then. On work-relevant BBS' and listservs, I watched the arguments about pros and cons of commercialization of the internet get steamrollered by the de facto commercialization of the internet.

Unfortunately this piece gives Twitter waaaaaaay too much credit for being something it never was or ever could be. A corporate controlled platform can never be any kind of "town square," except in the corporation's marketing fantasies and the minds of those who believe them.