However within a few years it was irrelvant and the real internet remains.

So The Fates have decided the outcome. The only thing left to do is see how long Facebook's demise will take.

It will be very interesting to see the outcome. I don't think Facebook will fade away, AOL style, however some form comparison will be useful to try and divine whether the factors that govern such sites have changed in the past few years - particularly since Facebook's users are more global than perhaps AOL's were.

Yes, but it was fairly short lived. What will be interesting to see is if the internet ebbs and tides between the open (early internet like usenet and bbs, and more or less current form of the internet), and closed (AOL, and possibly now facebook) or if this is a more permanent switch back to a comfort zone for people online.

But it wasn't and soon those on it knew it wasn't too.