[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 and the University of North
Carolina, it has swiftly grown to become international in scope and
is now probably the largest decentralized information utility in
existence. As of late 2002, it hosts over 100,000 {newsgroup}s and an
unguessably huge volume 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 -- 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.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {asbestos longjohns}{backbone cabal}{bandwidth}{boink}{compress}{DEC Wars}{doubled sig}{ed}{flamage}{flame war}{flamer}{freeware}{Get a life!}{glob}{Great Renaming}{grilf}{hacker ethic}{HAND}{holy wars}{Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!}{IRC}{kill file}{kremvax}{life}{mailing list}{mung}{net.personality}{nethack}{netiquette}{netnews}{netter}{newsgroup}{offline}{PD}{pseudo}{signal-to-noise ratio}{the network}{troll}{well-connected}]