> It was slowly abandoned because it lacked fun graphics and emojis and all the other frilly parts that casual users love, but I wouldn't call it a broken model. It had (and has) a place.
Usenet had graphics and emojis. What it didn't have was the ability for a nascent community to easily set up their own server or newsgroups, not in the same way a nontechnical person could easily get webhosting for their forums. And moderation of Usenet was possible, though again a higher barrier than competing services. What killed off Usenet was the general shift of the Internet towards technologies that can be easily accessed over HTTP, with the primary HTTP access to Usenet (Google Groups) being a barely usable piece of shit.
Also, the Usenet model was that your ISP ran a server that pulled from the global feed. But most ISPs shut down their servers in the early 2000s and forced people to look elsewhere. Sure they could have gone to a public server, but the person would have to find that before they found other options and most did not. They ended up on Myspace, Slashdot, Digg, 4chan, etc...
Usenet had graphics and emojis. What it didn't have was the ability for a nascent community to easily set up their own server or newsgroups, not in the same way a nontechnical person could easily get webhosting for their forums. And moderation of Usenet was possible, though again a higher barrier than competing services. What killed off Usenet was the general shift of the Internet towards technologies that can be easily accessed over HTTP, with the primary HTTP access to Usenet (Google Groups) being a barely usable piece of shit.