With their emphasis on specialization and generally small, dedicated memberships, in contrast to the "anything goes" nature of bulletin boards, newsgroups laid the foundation for the eventual development of social networking sites.
這種立基於「同好」的網友群組，強調「分眾」、「小眾」概念，已有初步社交網絡的架構，與一般天南地北亂聊一通的「聊天室」，屬性相當不同，其實已經具備社群網站的基本雛型。