These message networks were about the same as the newgroups on the
intenet which most people are familiar with these days. Really, the
only difference was that the newsgroups were (and still are) more
widely distributed that those other networks, and that the messages
travel a lot faster through newsgroups. In fact, I remember how cool
it was when some of the BBS's that I logged in to started to carry
internet newsgroups.
It was actually pretty scary when these groups came about, because it
had been impressed upon me that there was this huge sense of
netiquette> in these groups and that I
should read the group for a good month or so before I even thought about
posting so I could get a feel for how the discussions went in that
group.