Modern social media could have learned some useful things from Usenet. Mostly, they haven’t.

Here are some of those lessons:

• Reverse chronological feeds (most recent first) are a disaster.
• Proper threading maintains context
• Every discussion group needs a nominal topic, even if that’s “friendly conversation”
• Groups can be formally or informally moderated, but when there is no moderation, the group explodes into chaos
• Every user needs an obvious and easy killfile
• No mercy for spammers, ever
• Good communities form around a nucleus of people who write good things
• Persistent pseudonyms become real people. Anonymous and drive-by posters don’t make good neighbors.