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I didn't even think about Usenet when responding to your comment about forums on the other thread. Still, users of modern web forums would probably view Usenet

I didn't even think about Usenet when responding to your comment about forums on the other thread. Still, users of modern web forums would probably view Usenet as archaic. The web platform provides a lot more room for experimentation, because a hundred thousand forums can run a hundred different forum packages with a thousand plugins. The user doesn't have to install an app, because any client-side code is automatically downloaded and run in a sandbox. Even without JavaScript, one can do a lot with HTML forms. If we returned to a standardized application-level protocol (in this case, something like NNTP) accessed by native apps, I think the result would be stagnation like what happened with Usenet. And how many apps for specific forums would a user be willing to install?

pcwalton 11y ago
Yeah, Usenet isn't exactly the example I would use as a paragon of usability. Even in 1996, I remember it was hard to set up. It's actually a classic example of how the Web won: the frictionless nature of typing the URL of your forum over NNTP configuration dominated all other considerations, even if the Web forum ran a bit slower when you got there.