> More relevant to my future however, Tom was also a participant on an early internet (pre-Web) kind of discussion forum called Usenet — a kind of "reddit" if you will

So, this is where we are ... in 2024 you need to explain what Usenet us ... jeez I feel old.

And I'll also note that Usenet has/had features that none of the so-called "modern" platform have, such as the ability to exchange arbitrary files without centralized control / censorship.

File exchange is not hard technically. Hosting file exchanges is hard because it is legislated that it must be hard. It is that way for reasons some might object to, like copyright infringement and ITAR export control, and for reasons that are generally accepted as beneficial like interrupting flows of CSAM.

there are always torrents