Usenet and its predecessors provided what today are called "chat rooms", which were places that made public conversations between a small number (e.g. 2 - 8) of participants, but viewed by an unlimited number of "lurkers", possible.

Although real legal names weren't required, participants were identified in a persistent way, such as by an email address or a "handle", so that participants could reply to each other. The conversations were not experienced in real time; a conversation would typically progress over several days or more, with each active participant "dialing in" once or several times per day to see new posts.