Usenet is the closest thing we've got to that. Although it lacks any voting or ranking system to filter content. Whether that's a bug or feature is debatable.

Time for a hierarchy on reddit. I suggest:

    comp.* – computer-related discussions (comp.software, comp.sys.amiga)
    humanities.* – fine arts, literature, and philosophy (humanities.classics, humanities.design.misc)
    misc.* – miscellaneous topics (misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids)
    news.* – discussions and announcements about news (meaning Usenet, not current events) (news.groups, news.admin)
    rec.* – recreation and entertainment (rec.music, rec.arts.movies)
    sci.* – science related discussions (sci.psychology, sci.research)
    soc.* – social discussions (soc.college.org, soc.culture.african)
    talk.* – talk about various controversial topics (talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.origins)