History Platform / Usenet

* ''comp'': Computer science and IT discussions, including UsefulNotes/{{operating system}}s, hardware and applications.

* ''alt'': Usenet's equivalent to Website/FourChan's /b/, right down to having its bad reputation; one old joke expands "alt" to "anarchists, lunatics and terrorists" due to the huge number of {{Single Issue Wonk}}s and {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s that were (and, in several places, still are) present. Basically, anything goes here; topics range from serious discussions of technical issues that didn't fit inside the ''comp'', ''sci'' or ''talk'' branches, to "vanity" newsgroups created as a one-off joke and now picking up nothing but spam, something that's been discouraged since the mid-1990s but still happens nonetheless. Just like 4chan, it includes many, many groups (specifically those under the ''alt.binaries.pictures'' sub-branch) solely dedicated to images -- [[TheInternetIsForPorn and by images, we mean "porn".]] There used to be groups dedicated to pictures of all types, but the Web in general (and Google Image Search in particular) has made them obsolete. As for discussions, popular sub-branches include ''alt.tv'', ''alt.religion'' and, of course, ''alt.flame'' (Usenet's equivalent to that particular side of /b/).

Usenet began in 1979, when programmers at Duke University realised that UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}'s ''uucp'' ('''U'''NIX to '''U'''NIX '''c'''o'''p'''y) program, which was already being used to transfer email between sites, could also be used to transfer broadcast messages between sites (the original idea was to enable "community calendar"-style announcements, hence "news") and allow for discussion areas, which they decided to call "newsgroups". Eventually, as access to the Internet became more common, ''uucp'' was replaced by the '''N'''etwork '''N'''ews '''T'''ransfer '''P'''rotocol, and in 1985, the system itself was reorganised into 7 branches (the "Big 7") in an event called the "Great Renaming". An 8th, ''humanities'', was added later.

* When ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' breached the subject of the Internet in an early episode, [[ConspiracyTheorist Dale Gribble]] mentioned that he perused the newsgroup "alt.conspiracy.black.helicopters". As with the ''Simpsons'' example, there was a newsgroup created with the name "alt.conspiracy.black.helicopters" as tribute to the show.

When Usenet became available to the general public (not just universities) in 1993, an unmanagably large number of new and uneducated users were [[NewbieBoom introduced]] not only to Usenet, but also to TheInternet itself, resulting in UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember. In fact, this event would prove to be so significant to internet culture that it has even been [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September listed]] by Wiki/TheOtherWiki. The term {{Roguelike}} was also coined on Usenet as the newsgroup for the genre needed a name.

* NotQuiteDead: Even though Usenet has been largely superseded by {{For|a}}ums, {{Message Board}}s, and ImageBoards (which arethemselves are being supplanted by social media) and has all in all been considered to be [[https://www.google.com.br/amp/s/thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/%3Famp=1#ampshare=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/ in]] [[http://grindedgear.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/usenet-is-dead.html decline]], it still remains fully functional since, unlike other web platforms, Usenet does not have a centralized administration and will continue to exist so long as ''someone'' maintains a server running somewhere, no matter how small it is.

* NotQuiteDead: Even though Usenet has been largely superseded by {{For|a}}ums, {{Message Board}}s, and ImageBoards (which in and on themselves are being supplanted by social media) and has all in all been considered to be [[https://www.google.com.br/amp/s/thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/%3Famp=1#ampshare=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/ in]] [[http://grindedgear.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/usenet-is-dead.html decline]], it still remains fully functional since, unlike other web platforms, Usenet does not have a centralized administration and will continue to exist so long as ''someone'' maintains a server running somewhere, no matter how small it is.

(Not actually a Website, though accessible via some Websites...)

Before there were {{Message Board}}s, Wikis or the World Wide Web, before the Internet even existed in its present form,[[note]]which started around 1983, after the introduction of TCP/IP and DNS[[/note]] there was Usenet, one of the first distributed discussion systems around. Until the rise of Web-based forums in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Usenet was ''the'' place to discuss things on the Internet, and quite a few tropes regarding message boards in general started here.

* NotQuiteDead: Even though Usenet has been largely superseded by {{For|a}}ums, {{Message Board}}s, and ImageBoards (which in and on themselves are being supplanted by [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile mobile]]) and has all in all been considered to be [[https://www.google.com.br/amp/s/thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/%3Famp=1#ampshare=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/ in]] [[http://grindedgear.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/usenet-is-dead.html decline]], it still remains fully functional since, unlike other web platforms, Usenet does not have a centralized administration and will continue to exist so long as ''someone'' maintains a server running somewhere, no matter how small it is.

Before there were {{Message Board}}s, Wikis or the World Wide Web, before the Internet even existed in its present form,[[note]]which started around 1983, after the introduction of TCP/IP and DNS[[/note]] there was Usenet, one of the first distributed discussion systems around. Until the rise of Web-based forums in the late 90s and early 2000s, Usenet was ''the'' place to discuss things on the Internet, and quite a few tropes regarding message boards in general started here.

* NotQuiteDead: Even though Usenet has been largely superseded by [[{{Fora}} Forums]], {{Message Board}}s, and {{Image Boards}} (which in and on themselves are being supplanted by [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile mobile]]) and has all in all been considered to be [[https://www.google.com.br/amp/s/thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/%3Famp=1#ampshare=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/ in]] [[http://grindedgear.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/usenet-is-dead.html decline]], it still remains fully functional since, unlike other web platforms, Usenet does not have a centralized administration and will continue to exist so long as ''someone'' maintains a server running somewhere, no matter how small it is.

* NotQuiteDead: Even though Usenet has been largely superseded by [[{{Fora}} Forums]], {{Message Board}}s, and {{Image Board}}s (which in and on themselves are being supplanted by [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile mobile]]) and has all in all been considered to be [[https://www.google.com.br/amp/s/thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/%3Famp=1#ampshare=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/01/usenet-officially-dead-buried/ in]] [[http://grindedgear.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/usenet-is-dead.html decline]], it still remains fully functional since, unlike other web platforms, Usenet does not have a centralized administration and will continue to exist so long as ''someone'' maintains a server running somewhere, no matter how small it is.