The older I get the more I feel like Usenet was/is a lost opportunity. With a few improvements it could have taken the place of Facebook (not the original connecting with friends version Facebook) and Reddit. It could have been a great option for local business promotion and news distribution, and the same segmentation into groups would map almost perfectly into subreddits. It is decentralized, multiple clients where available and you could segment into as narrow topics as you'd like.