In A List Apart, Adam Greenfield explore the mysterious meltdown that plagued the major Web Design community sites this summer, leading perrenial icons like Dreamless and K10K to shut down.

Between unchecked misogyny, the impotent fantasies, the retread gangsta speech stylings, and the ruminations on which portal does or does not suck, these places have started to feel more like a junior high school cafeteria than creative communities.

Greenfield draws a very useful distinction between design and style. "I think there’s a common misperception, especially among the younger cohort online, that design is an endeavor that concerns the decoration of a surface in an attempt to achieve aesthetic distinction or beauty," he writes, contrasting decoration with "the broad movement towards utility, simplicity, and clarity."