A Virtual Ghost Town

A Virtual Ghost Town Almost without mention, one of the Web_s first virtual communities unplugged its servers Sunday. Town Square 2000, run by 3Com, began in 1996 and offered chat rooms, home page hosting, and Web design templates -- all for free. It may not sound like much in the age of Tripod, GeoCities, Xoom, and Angelfire, but this was 1996. Once a pioneer in virtual communities, 3Com is hoping to pioneer the next big thing to hit the chat scene. The company has decided to devote its community building resources to its Bigpicture brand, which also centers around the chat concept, but adds video to the mix.