"The Web has made visible the hidden compromises that enabled participatory culture and commercial culture to coexist throughout much of the twentieth century" (Jenkins 141).

When inspired, people are often interested in contributing their ideas and thoughts, perhaps even their work , to a discussion. This discussion may be among friends, such as a conversation over the dinner table. Perhaps it is among colleagues in a work setting. A more widespread mode of sharing may be found in the 'Opinion' section of the local newspaper. After the Internet became easily accessible to masses of people, that took over as the most straightforward way to get one's words out there. Whether through posting photos, writing a blog, creating a website or becoming involved in a discussion board, it requires little effort to share thoughts on one's inspiration. But what about when what inspires someone is something on a larger scale, such as a movie or a book? What about when they want to create their own scenario out of what they've seen or read, adding to the original creator's idea? Pre-Internet, small amateur works circulated among family and friends. Few encountered it otherwise, and it remained a part of the underground subculture of hobbyists.

A slightly different situation could occur as well, and that is when a work gets exponentially more attention. It could get attention from professionals, maybe even the person whose idea inspired the work. They may feel threatened, as if you stole their idea or as if it may harm or discredit their own. FanFic sites are an example of this sort of situation; where the work that is being molded by its former audience (now participants)- added to, changed, edited, parodied, etc.- and the creator may or may not appreciate their contributions. There are a variety of ways that the creators have chosen to respond.

The industries affected by the appearance of the amateur subculture imitating their work wondered at what this meant for the value of their products- most often entertainment. "Most of the institutions we had last year we will have next year. In the past the hold of those institutions on public life was irreplaceable, in part because there was no alternative to managing large-scale effort. Now that there is competition to traditional institutional forms for getting things done, those institutions will continue to exist, but their purchase on modern life will weaken as novel alternatives for group action arise" (Shirky 22). The thing that is changing the group action is the availability of individual action through the Web; the amateur individual is enabled to participate in what used to be a professionals-only field or area of interest.