Some people describe it as a network, some people describe it as a forum, yet somehow we have providers, and at the same time Usenet is seen as anonymous despite having a proxy in the form of a provider…for someone grown way after the Usenet prime, this all doesn’t make sense.

What is Usenet, actually? Is it a separate network? Is it layered on top of the Internet? If it’s the latter, why do I need some Usenet provider and why does it need to retain information (and why doing it for as long as possible is desirable?). Please help me connect the dots here.

  • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    Its not peer to peer, you dont connect to a single poster, you need a provider. They arent “just” storage bins, usenet was primarily designed to be used for group discussions, but over time it became more used for piracy.

    • AlleroOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 days ago

      Guess it has to do with the way Usenet is organized, with all those newsgroups and stuff? Because I have hard time wrapping my head around why exactly you can’t “connect to a single poster”.