Usenet was one of the earliest large-scale distributed communication systems on the internet. Messages were propagated between servers using a store-and-forward model, enabling global discussion without a central authority. Communities self-organized around newsgroups, norms, and moderation practices.

Usenet demonstrated that decentralized systems could support vibrant, long-lived cultures. Its decline was driven less by technical failure than by shifts in incentives and interfaces. Many of today’s social systems still grapple with problems—moderation, federation, governance—that Usenet encountered first.