Last June I wrote to all of you and promised a mailist for
the
discussion of the history of usenet. I promptly got over-committed
for my time during the summer and was forced to let the project
lie for a while.
Summer's over. I am eager to get back to this project, and to the
research that is behind my own interest in the history of the net.
One item I acquired during my brief foray looking for documents
about the net was a list of major events on usenet. The list,
appended below, was provided by Brad Templeton (who is on this list)
and he has agreed to let me release it to the list. I thought that
it might be a good way to open up a new round of discussion about
the het's history.
I include Brad's original comments here and ask the same question.
If there's something missing or out of order in the list, let's talk
about it. Once we have a pretty complete list then we can try to
fill in descriptions of those events. At that point we should have
a pretty good collective history archive that people can use as a
base for more detailed research.
Thanks,
bj
-- >From looking!brad@watmath.waterloo.edu Mon Jun 25 18:47 PDT 1990 Subject: Re: Usenet history Here's a list of topics for a history of the net. Not all these are in the right order. I haven't included everything here. If you know an event that's not super-specific to a group, and you think was of prominent importance to the structure of the net, MAIL that to me. The human-nets digest on the arpanet The uucp program The A-news system (Bellovin, Truscott) The first newsgroups "fa" groups "net." groups The mistake of net.general Creating groups by typo or whim - net.joke, net.bizarre, net.flame, net.gdead net.wobegon and others Net goes international (Canada) (Spencer, Templeton) The B news software (Horton, Glickman) Pathalias software (Honeyman) Decvax and Bill Shannon's contribution Imminent death of net predicted Chain letters over the net. AT&T's contribution (allegra, ihnp4 etc.) Widespread net growth and international growth Forged article critical of Unix (1981) K News (proposal) Domain style naming (Postel et al) The net.jokes.q creation and deletion Formation of the "Backbone" net.women.only experiment Arpa mailing lists merge with usenet groups. Subgroups to divert traffic: net.startrek, net.abortion, source code discussion Imminent death of net predicted Hoaxes etc. (kremvax) The re-emergence of mailing lists net.columbia and naming debates The emergence of voting for creating newsgroups Notesfiles (?) RN & Kill files (Wall) News batching and compression Checkgroups messages (Spafford) THe problems with the old releases of B news Line Eater Bug Moderated newsgroups mod.announce mod.newprod and commercial information on the net netnews software implemented on VM (IBM Mainframes) Stargate (Weinstein) NSA Baiting in messages Imminent death of net predicted Big Net personal fights some result in lawsuit threats (Mark Ethan Smith) some result in people being bounced temporarily from the net (Maroney) some result in people being removed permanently. The great renaming (Horton) The merging of moderated groups into the hierarchy. The decline in propagation for groups outside of "comp" and "news" Creation of rec.humor.funny (first ultra-moderated non-mailing-list) (Templeton) Battle over the expiry dates on rec.mag.otherrealms. (Von Rospach) The attempt to form comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac. (Webber) Monthly postings, newuser group, commonly asked questions. Imminent death of net predicted The misnaming of soc.culture.china -> 30 day voting time. Attempt to remove talk.bizarre from the net for the "VOLUME,VOLUME,VOLUME" game. "jj@portal" (Rob Noha) begs for money on the net. General problems with Portal, and the issue of pay-for-access net sites. Attempts to form groups for drugs and sex. Creation of the "alt" hierarchy. UUCP project and .US domain. (Gilmore, Horton) Arbitron news statistics (Reid) Imminent death of net predicted Telebit releases the Trailblazer. UUNET arrives (Adams) (Seismo fades) Internet & TCP/IP begins to pervade the net. The backbone begins to fade. NNTP causes news to propagate too fast. PC-Pursuit Reliable links to Europe Crazy creation of groups in the alt hierarchy. (Weiner) alt.gourmand kepr rather than being renamed. (Reid) AT&T decides not to forward mail. "biz" and "inet" hierarchies. "Gnu" hierarcy. Imminent death of net predicted comp.sys.next violates voting rules AT&T complains about source code on Killer, shuts it off temporarily(?) comp.binaries.ibm.pc goes to 8 megs/month, gets moderated in first (and only) moderator election. (Dhesi) The forming of comp.society.women (proposed as comp.women) (Roberts) Oct/88 Internet Worm (perhipheral to usenet) Nov/88 The battle over rec.humor.funny (Templeton, Richmond) C News (Spencer, Collyer) NN (actually started earlier) B News 3.0 (Raymond) alt.fusion, sci.physics.fusion More rec.humor.funny -- Jokebook, Expansion to GEnie, Denninger's vote Aquaria alt, rec, sci (sci.skeptic?) Battles about naming, Australian voting etc. shareware on usenet flow mapping bitnet merging into USENET, more newsreaders etc. more moderator copyright (telecom, sci.med.aids) June 89/ClariNet In Moderation Network More forgery alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage and "Cindy's Torment" -- cutoff at U of T, etc. AlterNet, NYSERNET/PSI, NSFNet, FARRnet Confiscation of USENET sites involved with phrack. EUNet and its policies (pay for feed, limit feed, not all groups) rec.arts.erotica Alt explosion more alt bannings, rise of alt.sex trial newsgroups USENET over 10 megs/month BIFF and further use of forgery Alt.sex becomes #1 read USENET group comp.unix.sco -- debate over corporations and the net (yet again) June 90/"Internet Porno Ring"/Houston Chronicle This only touches some groups. Other groups all have their histories of battles, common questions, hoaxes, problem users and attempts to split the group. Groups that probably deserve a section are: sf-lovers (with drwho and startrek) women men sources (of various sorts) binaries (of various sorts) unix groups music.misc politics, philosophy and religion .. and many others .. news.* Plus chapters on: Groups that never made it UUPC, Xenix and the arrival of small machines Acroynyms, Culture and smileys Usenix and USENET
It's a good list, but many things are way out of order.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to participate very actively in
getting it straightened out right now....
Let me suggest that you try to preface each item in the list with a
date of at least a year, and a year/month if possible.
A couple to get you started:
* monthly postings of newsgroups -- pre 1981
* monthly postings of FYI stuff about 1984
* moderated groups -- late 1986 (after summer Usenix in Atlanta)
* checkgroups -- late 1986
* grand renaming -- started July 86, ended March 87
* backbone creation, circa 1984
* backbone goes away, 1987
--spaf
This is a pretty good list. I'm especially impressed with the
parts before
Canada joined, since the list is from Brad.
Let me suggest a few things.
The human-nets digest on the arpanet
human-nets and sf-lovers were both equally important.
The uucp program
The A-news system (Bellovin, Truscott)
"NET." newsgroups.
The January 1980 Usenix conference when Duke invited sites to join Usenet.
Early help from Bell Labs site "research" as the first cross-country link.
Publicity spurs growth of the net (Horton)
The first newsgroups
"fa" groups
"net." groups
i.e. the renaming of NET to be net
The mistake of net.general
Creation of first nontechnical newsgroups: net.jokes and net.rumor
Creating groups by typo or whim - net.joke, net.bizarre, net.flame, net.gdead
net.wobegon and others
Net goes international (Canada) (Spencer, Templeton)
The B news software (Horton, Glickman)
Pathalias software (Honeyman)
(I think pathalias came later, and was written by Bellovin.)
Decvax and Bill Shannon's contribution
The first used car ad probably belongs in here somewhere.
Imminent death of net predicted
Chain letters over the net.
AT&T's contribution (allegra, ihnp4 etc.)
Widespread net growth and international growth
Forged article critical of Unix (1981)
K News (proposal)
Domain style naming (Postel et al)
The net.jokes.q creation and deletion
Formation of the "Backbone"
net.women.only experiment
Arpa mailing lists merge with usenet groups.
Subgroups to divert traffic:
net.startrek, net.abortion, source code discussion
Imminent death of net predicted
Hoaxes etc. (kremvax)
The re-emergence of mailing lists
The UUCP Project (Horton et al)
net.columbia and naming debates
The emergence of voting for creating newsgroups
Notesfiles (?)
Notesfiles were around before Netnews at U of I - they belong after "uucp prog"
RN & Kill files (Wall)
News batching and compression
Checkgroups messages (Spafford)
THe problems with the old releases of B news
Line Eater Bug
Moderated newsgroups
mod.announce
mod.newprod and commercial information on the net
netnews software implemented on VM (IBM Mainframes)
Stargate (Weinstein)
NSA Baiting in messages
Imminent death of net predicted
Big Net personal fights
some result in lawsuit threats (Mark Ethan Smith)
some result in people being bounced temporarily from the net (Maroney)
some result in people being removed permanently.
The great renaming (Horton)
Actually, Rick Adams was the prime force behind this.
The merging of moderated groups into the hierarchy.
The decline in propagation for groups outside of "comp" and "news"
Creation of rec.humor.funny (first ultra-moderated non-mailing-list) (Templeton)
Battle over the expiry dates on rec.mag.otherrealms. (Von Rospach)
The attempt to form comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac. (Webber)
Monthly postings, newuser group, commonly asked questions.
Imminent death of net predicted
The misnaming of soc.culture.china -> 30 day voting time.
Attempt to remove talk.bizarre from the net for the "VOLUME,VOLUME,VOLUME" game.
"jj@portal" (Rob Noha) begs for money on the net.
General problems with Portal, and the issue of pay-for-access net sites.
Attempts to form groups for drugs and sex.
Creation of the "alt" hierarchy.
UUCP project and .US domain. (Gilmore, Horton)
Arbitron news statistics (Reid)
Imminent death of net predicted
Telebit releases the Trailblazer.
UUNET arrives (Adams) (Seismo fades)
Internet & TCP/IP begins to pervade the net. The backbone begins to fade.
NNTP causes news to propagate too fast.
PC-Pursuit
Reliable links to Europe
Crazy creation of groups in the alt hierarchy. (Weiner)
alt.gourmand kepr rather than being renamed. (Reid)
AT&T decides not to forward mail.
"biz" and "inet" hierarchies. "Gnu" hierarcy.
Imminent death of net predicted
comp.sys.next violates voting rules
AT&T complains about source code on Killer, shuts it off temporarily(?)
comp.binaries.ibm.pc goes to 8 megs/month, gets moderated in first
(and only) moderator election. (Dhesi)
The forming of comp.society.women (proposed as comp.women) (Roberts)
Oct/88 Internet Worm (perhipheral to usenet)
Nov/88 The battle over rec.humor.funny (Templeton, Richmond)
C News (Spencer, Collyer)
NN (actually started earlier)
B News 3.0 (Raymond)
alt.fusion, sci.physics.fusion
More rec.humor.funny -- Jokebook, Expansion to GEnie, Denninger's vote
Aquaria alt, rec, sci (sci.skeptic?)
Battles about naming, Australian voting etc.
shareware on usenet
flow mapping
bitnet merging into USENET, more newsreaders etc.
more moderator copyright (telecom, sci.med.aids)
June 89/ClariNet
In Moderation Network
More forgery
alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage and "Cindy's Torment" -- cutoff at U of T, etc.
AlterNet, NYSERNET/PSI, NSFNet, FARRnet
Confiscation of USENET sites involved with phrack.
EUNet and its policies (pay for feed, limit feed, not all groups)
rec.arts.erotica
Alt explosion more alt bannings, rise of alt.sex
trial newsgroups
USENET over 10 megs/month
Surely you mean over 10 megs/day. It's about 12.5 now.
BIFF and further use of forgery
Alt.sex becomes #1 read USENET group
comp.unix.sco -- debate over corporations and the net (yet again)
June 90/"Internet Porno Ring"/Houston Chronicle
General comment: the volume of Netnews (in MB/day) has doubled every year
since Usenet was started, and it shows no signs of letting up.
Mark
Here is the latest copy of the list. What I tried to do was
to take
Mark's suggestion about dates and apply it to what I already had.
I also took the comments of other people and incorporated them into
the list. If you have time and the interest please look this over
and see if there's anything you want to comment on. Maybe the way
to deal with the list would be to break it down into smaller pieces.
I'm open to suggestions as to where to make the breaks.
This is still mostly Brad's list. The lines that begin with (BT)
are from his original work. Additional topics are provided as
noted. Comments on the list are credited to the originators.
[My own questions about specific things are in brackets -bj]
Lastly what the list needs most are dates. The year of an event is
fine but if you can approximate month and year please put them in
and return the list. I'll do a recompilation in a week or so.
List Begins Here:
(BT) The human-nets digest on the arpanet
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> human-nets and sf-lovers were both equally important.
(BT) The uucp program
(BT) Notesfiles
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> Notesfiles were around before Netnews at U of I - they belong after "uucp prog"
(BT) The A-news system (Bellovin, Truscott)
(BT) The first newsgroups
"fa" groups
"net." groups
>From trt@rti.rti.org Tue Sep 25 06:57 PDT 1990
> The very first news groups were "NET." and local groups
> such as "dept". Later Horton et al. oversaw the lower-casing of NET.
> Only when ucbvax joined the net did "fa" appear.
> Indeed I was unaware of the Arpanet mailing lists
> such as human-nets until ucbvax enlightened us.
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> i.e. the renaming of NET to be net
(BT) The mistake of net.general
[What was the mistake of net.general? -bj]
(BT) Creating groups by typo or whim - net.joke, net.bizarre,
net.flame, net.gdead net.wobegon and others
(BT) Net goes international (Canada) (Spencer, Templeton)
(BT) The B news software (Horton, Glickman)
(BT) Pathalias software (Honeyman)
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> The first version of pathalias was written by Steve Bellovin while
> working on his doctorate at the University of North Caroline at Chapel
> Hill. He posted it to Usenet in around 1982, and included patches to
> picked it up and installed it on allegra, a Bell Labs machine at Murray
> Hill, NJ. At that time, allegra was the center of the UUCP mail world (a
> role since assumed by sites named ihnp4, seismo, and now uunet), and at the
> time when Usenet was starting to explode all over the place. Before he
> left for Princeton, Peter had moved from tweaking the options, to doing
> serious redesign of most of the algorithms. Peter is still maintaining
> the program, and it has followed him out to the University of Michigan.
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> (I think pathalias came later, and was written by Bellovin.)
(BT) Decvax and Bill Shannon's contribution
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> The first used car ad probably belongs in here somewhere.
(BT) Chain letters over the net.
(BT) AT&T's contribution (allegra, ihnp4 etc.)
(BT) Widespread net growth and international growth
(BT) Forged article critical of Unix (1981)
(BT) K News (proposal)
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> K News is a non-topic; it generated, what, a month or two of discussion?
(BT) Domain style naming (Postel et al)
(BT) The net.jokes.q creation and deletion
(BT) Formation of the "Backbone"
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> backbone creation, circa 1984
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> monthly postings of FYI stuff about 1984
[What's this one all about? -bj]
(BT) net.women.only experiment
(BT) Arpa mailing lists merge with usenet groups.
(BT) Subgroups to divert traffic:
(BT) net.startrek, net.abortion, source code discussion
(BT) Hoaxes etc. (kremvax)
[Is there a copy of the kremvax article floating around somewhere?
I once saw a copy but ... -bj]
(BT) The re-emergence of mailing lists
(BT) net.columbia and naming debates
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> The UUCP Project (Horton et al)
[Mark places this here chronologically if I read his message
correctly. Is this different from the earlier mention of the
uucp program? -bj]
(BT) The emergence of voting for creating newsgroups
(BT) RN & Kill files (Wall)
(BT) News batching and compression
(BT) Checkgroups messages (Spafford)
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> checkgroups -- late 1986
(BT) The problems with the old releases of B news
(BT) Line Eater Bug
(BT) Moderated newsgroups:
a) mod.announce
b) mod.newprod and commercial information on the net
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> moderated groups -- late 1986 (after summer Usenix in Atlanta)
(BT) netnews software implemented on VM (IBM Mainframes)
(BT) Stargate (Weinstein)
(BT) NSA Baiting in messages
(BT) Big Net personal fights
a) some result in lawsuit threats (Mark Ethan Smith)
b) some result in people being bounced temporarily from the net
(Maroney)
c) some result in people being removed permanently.
(BT) The great renaming (Horton)
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> The renaming was instigated and done by Rick Adams because his
> news/sys file was getting unwieldy.
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> grand renaming -- started July 86, ended March 87
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> Actually, Rick Adams was the prime force behind this.
(BT) The merging of moderated groups into the hierarchy.
(BT) The decline in propagation for groups outside of "comp" and "news"
(BT) Creation of rec.humor.funny (first ultra-moderated non-mailing-list)
(Templeton)
(BT) Battle over the expiry dates on rec.mag.otherrealms. (Von Rospach)
(BT) The attempt to form comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac. (Webber)
(BT) Monthly postings, newuser group, commonly asked questions.
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> monthly postings of newsgroups -- pre 1981
(BT) The misnaming of soc.culture.china -> 30 day voting time.
(BT) Attempt to remove talk.bizarre from the net for the "VOLUME,VOLUME,
VOLUME" game.
(BT) "jj@portal" (Rob Noha) begs for money on the net.
(BT) General problems with Portal, and the issue of pay-for-access net sites.
(BT) Attempts to form groups for drugs and sex.
(BT) Creation of the "alt" hierarchy.
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> John Gilmore and Brian Reid, with help from Carl at pyramid, created
> alt. I think the reasons were that Brian didn't like mod.gourmand-->
> rec.recipes, and that John didn't like having no unmoderated source
> group. I would contact them at first, however.
(BT) UUCP project and .US domain. (Gilmore, Horton)
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> The UUCP project was started by Horton, with Weinstein, and Mel.
(BT) Arbitron news statistics (Reid)
(BT) Telebit releases the Trailblazer.
(BT) UUNET arrives (Adams) (Seismo fades)
(BT) Internet & TCP/IP begins to pervade the net. The backbone begins to fade.
>From spaf@cs.purdue.edu Mon Sep 24 18:58 PDT 1990
> backbone goes away, 1987
(BT) NNTP causes news to propagate too fast.
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> NNTP and the large-scale gatewaying into newsgroups is Erik
> Fair's doing.
(BT) PC-Pursuit
(BT) Reliable links to Europe
(BT) Crazy creation of groups in the alt hierarchy. (Weiner)
(BT) alt.gourmand kepr rather than being renamed. (Reid)
(BT) AT&T decides not to forward mail.
(BT) "biz" and "inet" hierarchies. "Gnu" hierarcy.
(BT) comp.sys.next violates voting rules
(BT) AT&T complains about source code on Killer, shuts it off temporarily(?)
(BT) comp.binaries.ibm.pc goes to 8 megs/month -- gets moderated in first,
and only, moderator election. (Dhesi)
(BT) The forming of comp.society.women (proposed as comp.women) (Roberts)
(BT) Oct/88 Internet Worm (perhipheral to usenet)
(BT) Nov/88 The battle over rec.humor.funny (Templeton, Richmond)
(BT) C News (Spencer, Collyer)
(BT) NN (actually started earlier)
(BT) B News 3.0 (Raymond)
(BT) alt.fusion, sci.physics.fusion
(BT) More rec.humor.funny -- Jokebook, Expansion to GEnie, Denninger's vote
(BT) Aquaria alt, rec, sci (sci.skeptic?)
(BT) Battles about naming, Australian voting etc.
(BT) shareware on usenet
(BT) flow mapping
(BT) bitnet merging into USENET, more newsreaders etc.
(BT) more moderator copyright (telecom, sci.med.aids)
(BT) June 89/ClariNet
(BT) In Moderation Network
(BT) More forgery
(BT) alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage and "Cindy's Torment" -- cutoff at U of T, etc.
(BT) AlterNet, NYSERNET/PSI, NSFNet, FARRnet
>From rsalz@bbn.com Mon Sep 24 16:20 PDT 1990
> AlterNet, NYSERNET/PSI -- non-issues.
(BT) Confiscation of USENET sites involved with phrack.
(BT) EUNet and its policies (pay for feed, limit feed, not all groups)
(BT) rec.arts.erotica
(BT) Alt explosion more alt bannings, rise of alt.sex
(BT) trial newsgroups
(BT) USENET over 10 megs/month
>From stargate!mark@cis.ohio-state.edu Wed Sep 26 06:34 PDT 1990
> Surely you mean over 10 megs/day. It's about 12.5 now.
(BT) BIFF and further use of forgery
(BT) Alt.sex becomes #1 read USENET group
(BT) comp.unix.sco -- debate over corporations and the net (yet again)
(BT) June 90/"Internet Porno Ring"/Houston Chronicle
Copyright 1990