Usenet
Usenet (User's Network) is an ancient digital discussion network -- a
[1]forum -- that existed long before the [2]World Wide Web. At the time it
was very popular, it was THE place to be, but nowadays it's been forgotten
by the mainstream, sadly hardly anyone remembers it.
Back in the day there were no [3]web browsers, there was no web. Many
users were also not connected through Internet as it was expensive, they
normally used other networks like [4]UUCP working through phone lines.
They could communicate by some forms of electronic mail or by directly
connecting to servers and leaving messages for others there -- these
servers were called [5]BBSes and were another popular kind of "[6]social
network" at the time. Usenet was a bit different as it was
[7]decentralized (see also [8]federation) -- it wasn't stored or managed
on a single [9]server, but on many independent servers that provided users
with access to the network. This access was (and is) mostly paid (to
[10]lurk for free you can search for Usenet archives online). To access
Usenet a newsreader program was needed, it was kind of a precursor to web
browsers (nowadays newsreaders are sometimes built into e.g. email
clients). Usenet was lots of time not moderated and anonymous, i.e. kind
of free, you could find all kinds of illegal material there.
Usenet invented many things that survive until today such as the words
[11]spam and [12]FAQ as well as some basic concepts of how discussion
forums even work. It was also generally quite a lot for the [13]free
speech, which is good.
Usenet was originally [14]ASCII only, but people started to post binary
files encoded as ASCII and there were dedicated sections just for posting
binaries, so you co go [15]piiiiiiiiirating.
It worked like this: there were a number of Usenet servers that all
collaborated on keeping a database of articles that users posted (very
roughly this is similar to how [16]blockchain works nowadays); the servers
would more or less mirror each other's content. These servers were called
providers as they also allowed access to Usenet but this was usually for a
fee. The system uses a [17]NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) protocol.
The articles users posted were also called posts or news, they were in
[18]plain text and were similar to email messages ([19]mailing lists
actually offer a similar experience). Other users could reply to posts,
creating a discussion thread. Every post was also categorized under
certain newsgroup that formed a hierarchy (e.g. comp.lang.java). After so
called Big Renaming in 1987 the system eventually settled on 8 top level
hierarchies (called the Big 8): comp.* (computers), news.* (news), sci.*
(science), rec.* (recreation), soc.* (social), talk.* (talk), misc.*
(other) and humanities.* (humanities). There was also another one called
alt.* for "controversial" topics (see especially alt.tasteless). According
to [20]Jargon File, by 1996 there was over 10000 different newsgroups.
Usenet was the pre-[21]web web, kind of like an 80s [22]reddit which
contained huge amounts of [23]historical [24]information and countless
discussions of true computer [25]nerds which are however not easily
accessible anymore as there aren't so many archives, they aren't well
indexed and direct Usenet access is normally paid. It's a shame. It is
possible to find e.g. initial reactions to the [26]AIDS disease, people
asking what the [27]Internet was, people discussing future technologies,
the German cannibal (Meiwes) looking for someone to eat (which he
eventually did), [28]Bezos looking for [29]Amazon programmers, a heated
debate between [30]Linus Torvalds and [31]Andrew Tanenbaum about the best
OS architecture (the "Linux is obsolete" discussion) or [32]Douglas Adams
talking to his fans. There were [33]memes and characters like [34]BIFF, a
kind of hilarious noob wannabe cool personality. Some users became kind of
famous, e.g. Scott Abraham who was banned from Usenet by court after an
extremely long flame war, Alexander Abian, a mathematician who argued for
blowing up the Moon (which according to his theory would solve all Earth's
issues), Archimedes Plutonium who suggested the Universe was really a big
plutonium atom (he later literally changed his name to Plutonium lol) or
John Titor (pretend time traveler). There are also some politically
incorrect groups like alt.niggers [35]lol.
{ I mean I don't remember it either, I'm not that old, I've just been
digging on the Internet and in the archives, and I find it all
fascinating. ~drummyfish }
The Newsgroup Hierarchy
Here are some notable groups, placed in the group hierarchy:
* comp: computers, part of Big 8
* ai: [36]AI
* answers
* bbs: [37]BBS
* binaries
* compression: [38]compression
* editors: [39]text editors
* graphics: [40]computer graphics
* internet: [41]Internet
* services
* wiki: [42]wikis
* lang: [43]programming languages
* asm: [44]assembly
* c: [45]C language
* forth: [46]Forth
* lisp: [47]Lisp
* python: [48]Python language
* object: [49]OOP
* os: [50]operating systems
* linux: [51]Linux
* misc
* programming: [52]programming
* society: technology as related to society
* theory: theoretical [53]compsci
* unix: [54]Unix
* humanities: humanities, part of Big 8
* lit: literature
* music: [55]music
* misc: miscellaneous, part of Big 8
* books: [56]books
* business: [57]business
* education: [58]education
* fitness
* news: news from various regions
* survival
* news: about the network itself, part of Big 8
* announce
* software
* rec: recreational activity, part of Big 8
* animals
* arts: [59]art
* drugs
* food
* games
* humor: [60]funny stuff
* knives: [61]knives
* sci: [62]science, part of Big 8
* answers: answers and questions
* bio: [63]biology
* chem: [64]chemistry
* crypt: [65]cryptography
* fractals: [66]fractals
* lang: [67]languages, [68]linguistics
* logic: [69]logic
* math: [70]math { See, it's science. ~drummyfish }
* physics: [71]physics
* space: [72]space
* soc: social issues and socializing, part of Big 8
* atheism: [73]atheism
* bi: [74]bisexual
* culture: [75]culture
* feminism: [76]feminism
* history: [77]history
* politics: [78]politics
* religion: [79]religion
* christian: [80]Christianity
* islam: [81]Islam
* women: [82]women
* talk: talk, part of Big 8
* euthanasia
* philosophy
* politics
* rumors
* alt: alternative, weird/controversial/NSFW/NSFL
* alien
* anarchism: [83]anarchism
* ascii-art: [84]ASCII art
* atheism: [85]atheism
* abortion
* binaries: binary file sharing, [86]piracy
* games
* pictures: picture sharing
* erotica: erotic pictures
* animals
* child: [87]pedo
* female
* male
* lolita: [88]loli
* pre-teen
* tasteless
* teen
* drugs
* freedom
* fun: [89]fun
* games: [90]games
* doom: [91]Doom
* ii
* duke3d: [92]Duke3D
* video: vidya
* game-boy: [93]GameBoy
* humor
* jokes: [94]jokes
* niggers: [95]niggers
* sex: [96]sex
* pedophilia: [97]pedo
* pictures
* swaps
* sheep
* zoophilia
* suicide: [98]suicide
* tasteless
* jokes
* ufo: [99]UFO
* tv: [100]TV
Where To Freely Browse Usenet
Search for Usenet archives, I've found some sites dedicated to this, also
[101]Internet archive has some newsgroups archived. [102]Google has Usenet
archives on a website called "Google groups" (now sadly requires login).
There is a nice archive at https://www.usenetarchives.com. Possibly guys
from Archive Team can help (https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Usenet,
https://archive.org/details/usenet, ...). See also
http://www.eternal-september.org. There is an archive from 1981 accessible
through [103]gopher at gopher://gopher.quux.org/1/Archives/usenet-a-news.
Also https://yarchive.net/. Also search for Henry Spencer's UTZOO NetNews
Archive.
{ Also here's some stuff https://old.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/index.
~drummyfish }
See Also
* [104]BBS
* [105]modem world
* [106]multi user dungeon
* [107]mailing list
* [108]FidoNet
Links:
1. forum.md
2. www.md
3. browser.md
4. uucp.md
5. bbs.md
6. social_network.md
7. decentralization.md
8. federation.md
9. server.md
10. lurk.md
11. spam.md
12. faq.md
13. free_speech.md
14. ascii.md
15. piracy.md
16. blockchain.md
17. nntp.md
18. plain_text.md
19. mailing_list.md
20. jargon_file.md
21. www.md
22. reddit.md
23. history.md
24. information.md
25. nerd.md
26. aids.md
27. internet.md
28. bezos.md
29. amazon.md
30. torvalds.md
31. tanenbaum.md
32. douglas_adams.md
33. meme.md
34. biff.md
35. lol.md
36. ai.md
37. bbs.md
38. compression.md
39. text_editor.md
40. graphics.md
41. internet.md
42. wiki.md
43. programming_language.md
44. assembly.md
45. c.md
46. forth.md
47. lisp.md
48. python.md
49. oop.md
50. os.md
51. linux.md
52. programming.md
53. compsci.md
54. unix.md
55. music.md
56. books.md
57. business.md
58. education.md
59. art.md
60. jokes.md
61. knife.md
62. science.md
63. biology.md
64. chemistry.md
65. cryptography.md
66. fractal.md
67. natural_language.md
68. linguistics.md
69. logic.md
70. math.md
71. physics.md
72. space.md
73. atheism.md
74. bisexual.md
75. culture.md
76. feminism.md
77. history.md
78. politics.md
79. religion.md
80. christianity.md
81. islam.md
82. woman.md
83. anarchism.md
84. ascii_art.md
85. atheism.md
86. piracy.md
87. pedophilia.md
88. loli.md
89. fun.md
90. game.md
91. doom.md
92. duke3d.md
93. gameboy.md
94. jokes.md
95. nigger.md
96. sex.md
97. pedo.md
98. suicide.md
99. ufo.md
100. tv.md
101. internet_archive.md
102. google.md
103. gopher.md
104. bbs.md
105. modem_world.md
106. mud.md
107. mailing_list.md
108. fidonet.md