Is warrior forum shaping the internet?

If you want to see what shapes the business internet look at the porn and gambling industry. IM and WF are about 2 years behind on most "tactics"

The short answer is yes and no. :confused:

In general, the IM industry plays a powerful role in the economic basis of the internet--and influences user behaviors. This is just one component of things though.

As was stated, there are developers and trend leaders that introduce new methods and practices--and expand on existing ones. For something to become a trend though--irrespective of how innovative an initiative might be--requires adaptation on a broad scale. It is through resources like this that many things come into general practice.

Think of it this way. In almost every facet of human development there are three categories of function; Enablers, Trendsetters, and Practitioners. The enablers are those who provide the technology or resources to do something--such as the basic infrastructure of the internet or programmers who create platforms such as Wordpress. Trendsetters are also known as "early adopters"--those who recognize the potential of a particular resource, deploy it, and provide feedback to the enabler on how to refine the process. Ultimately, the practitioners seize on the ability to actualize on a wide scale what the trendsetters have set forth. In our case this can range from publishers to consumers.

This is all a continual feedback loop--and occurs not just once as a macrostructural event--but in numerous increments of scale and scope within the three categories and even sub levels in those right down to the microstructural framework. The change cycle is constant, requires acceptance at all levels--or fails. The world is littered with initiatives that are examples such rejection--looking at your computer screen think about the rise of Windows over a much better operating system, OS2, or the supremacy of VHS over Betamax.

As to the influence of various social media (this forum being an example) keep in mind that enablers monitor such things to key in on practice, problems, and needs. This information drives back into product development cycle--creating wave after wave of innovation. Everyone has seen the graph that shows growth, saturation, and decline--and how something else is introduced near the saturation to peak as the previous thing declines. So yes, what we say and especially what we do has an impact.