As a the administrator of a small Wordpress network, I respectfully disagree.

At the risk of sounding foolish, what exactly is a Wordpress network, and what is it for?

(not a troll, genuinely interested)

It's what they now call a "Multi-site" installation, previously Wordpress Mu. Essentially I have a single installation and DB serving a number of different blogs.

The expression "Wordpress network" generally means a branded site for these. Wordpress.com is the biggest, edublogs is big too. I run a little one called Ozblogistan: http://ozblogistan.com.au

Is that before or after Geocities?

I think it would make more sense to state that generally.

'A Free, Open Source, feature rich, easily set up publishing platform is the greatest thing that ever happened to the internet'.

But, isn't that basically what the internet was created for? So it sounds a bit like 'The internet is the greatest thing that ever happened to the internet'. If it wasn't WordPress fulfilling this role, I could easily see another product doing the same thing.

To clarify, I mean: I agree that the emergence of an open source, free and libre content management system based on a similarly open programming language, operating system and server environment is a fantastic thing for society. It didn't have to be WordPress specifically, that's all, because WordPress is not perfect or unique. It merely fills that role well.

"greatest things that has ever happened to the internet"

What a bold bold statement. Care to elaborate why?

I would say it is one of the greatest things. Not only can you get started on the WordPress website, but you can download it and run your own. It appeals to everyone, kind of like other great things: Google and Facebook come to mind. There's something for everyone to get excited about, from bloggers to programmers.