Usenet
A decentralised system of computer servers that allowed users to post messages to topic-based discussion groups called “newsgroups” which other users could read and reply to.
Arguably the first social network and the oldest internet network that is still operational.
It was designed by staff at two separate universities. Both used Unix systems and wanted a way to communicate with each other.
Technology
Usenet comprised a distributed network of dedicated servers that exchanged messages over the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP).
A user would post a message to their local news server. The server would assign it a UUID and then share it with other peer servers that it was connected to, who would also share it, repeating the process. This created a ripple effect that would propagate the message over the global network. Because of the distributed nature of this network it meant that messages would have a high longevity and retention rate and that it was effectively impossible to delete a message once posted, since it would be stored across a multitude of servers.
Relation to the Internet
Usenet developed separately and in parallel with the Internet. Originally it did not operate over the Internet: servers would connect to each other over phone lines using the Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol. In the late 1980s when the Internet became more widespread and not just limited to DARPA-adjacent universities, Usenet transitioned to running over TCP/IP networks.
Newsgroup hierarchy
Usenet used a structured, dot-separated naming system for newsgroups that got more specific with each subdivision, e.g:
- comp.sys.mac
- sci.physics.particle
- alt.music.nirvana
Users would subscribe to the newsgroups that interested them and their newsreader (which connected to the servers) would only download messages from these groups.
Influence
- Created the concept of threaded discussions in its reply structure
- Reddit appropriated the concept of topic-based communities in its sub-reddits and also used threading
- RSS adopted Usenet’s model of subscribing to specific information sources and getting updates: the concept of “pulling” new content from feeds mirrors how newsreaders worked
- Distributed social networks like Mastodon/ActivityPub use a similar server-to-server propagation model that Usenet pioneered
- BitTorrent’s distributed file-sharing model has similarities to how binary files were distributed across Usenet servers
“Eternal September”
For most of its early history Usenet was limited to university students whose university was part of the network. Each September new students would join the university and this led to an influx of inexperienced Usenet users who didn’t yet know the etiquette and culture. They would have to be schooled and inducted.
In the mid-1980s Usenet became accessible to the general public as ISPs started granting access. In 1993-1994, AOL granted access to subscribers. This changed the nature of discussions from primarily academic and technical topics to include more general interest and entertainment content, leading to the creation of the “alt.” hierarchy which allowed anyone to create new newsgroups without formal approval processes that were required in the traditional hierarchies. Hence it was “always September”.
This phrase is often used as a shorthand for the way in which the Internet and Web has moved from a niche community of technical users to a demotic public space with an attendant decline in perceived value.
