John Coate

John Coate (born January 17, 1951) is an American media executive and advocate for online communities. He was one of the original members of The Farm, an intentional community founded in 1971, and brought lessons learned from building that community to bear in his work online. He helped create The WELL, one of the earliest online communities in America, and is the author of Cyberspace Innkeeping, an essay on best practices for moderators. He later helped create and operate SFGate, an early American news website.