Although it seems that usenet is not so well-known or popular as internet for now, in fact, the former is the elder brother of the latter.

To tell the truth, usenet is one of the oldest computer network communication systems in the world and it's still in widespread use until today. Usenet was initially conceived in 1979 by two Duke University graduate students whose name were Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis. They publicly established usenet in 1980 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, exactly 10 years earlier than when the World Wide Web was developed and the general access to the Internet was available for the public.

It is precisely because of its relatively long history that usenet has significant cultural importance and impact to the net world. For example, it is usenet who has given rise to or popularized those household concepts of today like "FAQ" and "spam". Many of so-called "internet jargons" are originated in usenet, while many conflicts and disturbing problmes firstly began on usenet too and then gradually spread to the internet.

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