
A death on Usenet: Sharon Lopatka and the strange case of “consensual murder” - nickcobb
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/headline-story/16932/usenet-sharon-lopatka-consensual-murder/
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weinzierl
> She also took to Usenet newsgroups. In 1996, these newsgroups were the
> internet’s social backbone, a primitive and more tribal forerunner of
> Facebook.

Oh, irony. I know what the author means but to someone that knows Usenet from
1996 and Facebook from 2016 this must sound like an insult.

~~~
espadrine
As someone that did not live through pre-Eternal September Usenet, what did it
have that Facebook and Reddit do not?

~~~
rwmj
It wasn't a million miles away from what HN and Reddit are today, or perhaps
more select sites like LtU[1]. People used their own real names, and even real
physical addresses and phone numbers(!), partly because most had access
through a university or company which might enforce[2] that, but partly
because the risks were low and/or not well understood. I spent many, many
happy hours reading through postings on comp.unix.wizards when I should have
been working. Oh and nobody ever top-posted (yay!)

[1] [http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/](http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/)

[2] Very loosely - it was possible, indeed simple, to spoof postings.

------
weinzierl
Similar to the case of Armin Meiwes and Bernd Brandes.

[1]
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/germany.lukeha...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/germany.lukeharding)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes)

