The discussion system that began in 1980 at Duke University and the University of North Carolina was Usenet.
Usenet was conceived in 1979 by Duke students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, with Steve Bellovin helping create the connection to UNC. It was publicly established in 1980 and used UUCP, a store-and-forward system that allowed computers to exchange messages over dial-up links. Users posted articles to topic-based newsgroups, creating threaded discussions long before web forums and social media.
Unlike a traditional bulletin-board system, Usenet was distributed rather than centered on one host. Articles could propagate among participating servers, allowing communities at universities and research sites to read and contribute. Early software included Duke’s A News, followed by B News and later C News and NNTP-based systems.
Usenet is often confused with the World Wide Web, but it predates the web by more than a decade. It also was not simply email: its organized newsgroups supported public, shared discussions, while later binary groups made it a major file-distribution channel.