It's not so much that people forget about Usenet as that they forget why it died.
It got spammed to death.
It lost control over its culture, and that culture was crucial to its functioning.
It was too problematic for ISPs (or others) to provide ready access to it: spam, harassment, child pornography, and copyright violations all posed massive concerns.
There was no viable business model for providing the service.
@Brook Ultimately, the content and dynamics are more important than the mechanisms, but since one feeds the other, both matter.
There's also who's included, who's not, on what basis, and a mess of other stuff.
I make heavy use of Reddit, none of the chans, various other networks over the years: #slashdot, #kuro5hin, #hn, #googleplus, #ello, #imzy.
Some have worked well, some not. (Imzy is an excellent case of the latter.)
Doc Edward Morbius ❌
Brook