Usenet Newsgroups History

Usenet was the first Internet peer-to-peer technology. Originally developed just to share files between computers, it evolved into a natural net-wide hierarchy of eight major categories plus a catch-call. The following sections provide more information:

• Netnews

• Early Hierarchies

• Network News Transfer Protocol

• Modern Hierarchies

• The Alt Hierarchy

• BITNET

• Bulletin Board Systems & FidoNet

• InterNetNews

• Commercialism

• Old Maps.

Other resources. The following sites provide more information on Usenet history:

• Horton, Mark; Subject: Re: Hello again ...; Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990

• Spafford, Gene; Mark Moraes; USENET Software: History and Sources; Message-ID: <15983@ector.cs.purdue.edu>

• Spafford, Gene; Email <9009242203.AA04892@weber.ucsd.edu>

• Usenet; Archive of the usenet.hist mailinglist

• Various, Memories of USENET and the Years Before The Renaming.