What are Usenet Binaries?

At some point in the history of the Usenet, someone wanted to send files besides text to the groups, just as you would attach a picture to an email message you sent a friend. Since Usenet messages do not support attachments, people started to use programs to convert their binary data like images, videos, and software into one or more text emails, by using a known binary-to-text encoding algorithm such as Base-64 or yEnc encoding. Users who viewed the messages could then use software to decode them back into their original binary form, and view the image or video.