From early social networks to the data grave
IT technology - It all started 30 years ago when two students connected two Unix computers via a telephone line.
This later developed into the worldwide Unix User Network, the Usenet. Much of what makes up the Internet today was announced in a network that was 
actually intended as an alternative to it, Usenet. The Poor Man's Arpanet, its inventor Tom Truscott called it. In 1979, he and his fellow student Jim Ellis linked two Unix computers via a telephone connection, which then developed into the worldwide Unix User Network, or Usenet for short. Its purpose is the exchange of discussion contributions. For this purpose, the various forums are mirrored on servers all over the world, from where users can finally subscribe to them, read the contributions and write their own. In one dated August 6, 1991, for example, it states: "The background of the project is the philosophy that scientific information should be freely available to everyone. The goal is to allow internationally dispersed groups to share information."
Tim Berners-Lee had posted that. It was the birth of the World Wide Web. And in 1983, Richard Stallman wrote:
"I am going to write a fully Unix-compatible software system: GNU - which stands for GNU is not Unix - and give it away for free to anyone who can use it." However, this project is still not finished a quarter of a century later. Marc Andreessen announced the Mosaic browser on Usenet. And that the first crawler would search the Web was announced there. But Usenet was also where spam was invented. Because e-mail was hardly widespread until the 1990s, spammers posted advertising messages disguised as messages, always the same ones, on all kinds of forums and without any reference to their subject matter.
"The 1994 green card giveaway may be the last. Registration will begin soon. 55,000 residence permits will be given to those who register correctly. Free information: law firm of Canter & Siegel, Phoenix, Arizona, phone: (602)661-3911."
To access Usenet, a special piece of software is usually used, a newsreader, for example MicroPlanet Gravity. Newsreaders are also integrated into mail programs, such as Thunderbird from the Mozilla Foundation or Opera Mail. This allows you to subscribe to the newsgroups you are interested in. These are divided into categories such as "comp" for computers or "sci" for science. Also of importance is the category "alt" for alternative and there alt.binaries. Here messages with file attachments are posted, often relevant little movies or illegal software copies.
In the meantime, Usenet has been integrated into the Internet. 
The Unix-to-Unix copy protocol of the early years has been replaced by one that runs over TCP/IP. And large parts of Usenet are now firmly in Google's hands. Google Groups is a Web interface for newsgroups, so you can read and post without a special newsreader. The company also bought up the database of Deja News, which had archived Usenet posts, including many of historical value, such as that of a Finnish computer science student who wrote in 1991: "I am working on a free operating system. It's just a hobby, I don't want the whole thing to be as big and professional as GNU."
It did become bigger and more significant after Linus Torvalds announced his Linux operating system on Usenet, in the newsgroup comp.os.inix.
You can find more information on this website what is usenet good for