this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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144
The rise and fall of Usenet: How the original social media platform came to be (www.zdnet.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Well the issue with Usenet is the following:

  • Usenet is quite old
  • Usenet is not very well known.
  • Usenet has many barriers to entry.
  • Usenet groups have garnered an exclusionary reputation.
  • Other easier options have existed for a long time for basic social media interaction.
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Usenet also largely became a venue for bootlegging and porn -- and due to the nature of the protocol, companies hosting Usenet services didn't want to have to store all of that shit. After about 1995, you didn't go there for discussion anymore. Eternal September messed it up. Lemmy is fortunate that you can't really use it for file sharing, a few images notwithstanding, or the same thing would happen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

and due to the nature of the protocol, companies hosting Usenet services didn't want to have to store all of that shit.

You can opt not to carry certain newsgroups, eg skipping alt.binaries.* would reduce your storage requirements drastically.

The fact of the matter is that people wanted something more "instant and accessible" than newsgroups that were synced overnight, and modern social media sprang from that desire.

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