Usenet is a global network discussion system that was established in 1980.
The system was created by Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott, graduates of Duke University in North Carolina. The two data scientists came up with the concept in 1979 before establishing it a year later.
The system was developed from the UUCIP dial-up network architecture and allows users to read and post messages to categories, or newsgroups, in a bulletin board stule system.
How did Usenet influenced modern sites?
Usenet is credited with being a precursor to the style that Internet forums have today. However, one area where these differ is that Usenet doesn’t have a central server or dedicated administrator. Instead, Usenet is set up to be distributed among a constantly changing conglomeration of servers.
These servers store and forward the messages to each other in news feeds.
Usenet is a non-commercial platform which does not display advertising.
One of Usenet’s biggest claims to fame is that it helped to popularise some of the now most widely recognised Internet terms such as spam, flame and FAQ.
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