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Ask HN: What is a good history of USENET and/or BBSs?
I have very fond memories of participating in discussions on USENET twenty-odd years ago and want to read more about it and the people behind it.
What books/articles/docs/hypertexts would you recommend?
- miles 8y agoBBS: The Documentary http://www.bbsdocumentary.com http://www.bbsdocumentary.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBS:_The_Documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBS:_The_Documentary https://archive.org/details/BBS.The.Documentary https://archive.org/details/BBS.The.Documentary
- lukewrites 8y agoThanks! I remember seeing this in the textfiles.com footer but haven't ever gotten around to buying a copy. I'll put it on the list.
- bediger4000 8y agoGood question. I don't know of any. I'd like to read something about the ultimate demise of Usenet. I mean, "because of spam" is the easy answer, but why didn't anyone squelch the spam? Some mention should be made of Uunet's "pink" contracts, but there had to be other providers that looked the other way for a little short-term gain.
- jonjacky 8y agoThis was discussed at length here several years ago (2015). This Ask HN has 140 comments, many quite long: Ask HN: What was Usenet's ultimate demise? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679