Usenet

A worldwide bulletin board system (BBS) accessible through the Internet and OSPs, it contains more than 14,000 newsgroups. Often referred to simply as "the newsgroups," Usenet was originally implemented in 1979 and 1980 by Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel, at Duke University. It grew swiftly in size and became international in scope; it is now probably the largest decentralized information utility in existence. Supported mainly by Unix machines, Usenet groups can be unmoderated (where anyone can post) or moderated (where submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits or filters the content before posting the message).