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From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
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Subject: Terms
Date: 29 Feb 2024 08:21:01 GMT
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  There are several definitions for such fundamental terms as "Usenet"
  and "Netnews", and you are free to choose. For this post, I chose to
  quote from a 1995 draft, the author of which seems to be Ronda Hauben.

  Ronda, in turn, quoted Horton 1981:

|USENET is a public access network.

  Then, she quotes "a description of Usenet posted in March 1982":

|USENET is an international network of UNIX sites with hookups
|into the ARPA network, too. It is basically a fancy
|electronic Bulletin Board System.

  . And we find, still in Ronda's text:

|Characterizing Usenet as a logical network, as opposed to a 
|physical network, Horton explains that Usenet is a network of 
|sites running Netnews software:

  Note that the sentence above also says something about "Netnews".
  I take it from this that it might be possible that other
  networks, different from Usenet, might use Netnews software, too.

  The text then continues:

|    "For those of you who don't know, USENET is a logical network 
|     of sites running netnews. Netnews is a network oriented 
|     bulletin board, making it very easy to broadcast a query to 
|     a large base of people. USENET currently has about 50 sites 
|     and is growing rapidly."(30)
| 
|     Horton emphasizes that Usenet is a users' network. He 
|explains: "USENET exists for and by the users, and should respond 
|to the needs of those users."(31)
| 
|     He also notes that "USENET is a cashless network." This 
|meant that "No person or organization may charge another 
|organization for news, except that by prearrangement." He 
|explains that a site could charge only for the extra expenses 
|incurred in sending Usenet to another site. And almost every site 
|that received news had to be willing to forward it to at least 
|two additional sites.

  .