Usenet
:Usenet: /yoos'net/ or /yooz'net/ n. [from `Users' Network'; the original
spelling was USENET, but the mixed-case form is now widely preferred] A
distributed bboard
(bulletin board) system supported mainly by Unix
machines. Originally implemented in 1979-1980 by Steve Bellovin, Jim
Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University, it has swiftly
grown to become international in scope and is now probably the largest
decentralized information utility in existence. As of early 1996, it
hosts over 10,000 newsgroup
and an average of over 500 megabytes (the
equivalent of several thousand paper pages) of new technical articles,
news, discussion, chatter, and flamage
every day (and that leaves out
the graphics...).
By the year the Internet hit the mainstream (1994) the original UUCP
transport for Usenet was fading out of use (see UUCPNET
- almost all
Usenet connections were over Internet links. A lot of newbies and
journalists began to refer to "Internet newsgroups" as though Usenet was
and always had been just another Internet service. This ignorance
greatly annoys experienced Usenetters.
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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