For an introduction to this thread's hierarchical posts, please see the first post in the series, for the NET.* hierarchy. Joe Bernstein THE mod.* HIERARCHY --Rise-- In Usenet, as in other human communities, one of the *first* sentiments to arise was a longing for the good old days. (I strongly suspect the australopithecines went around wondering why their ancestors were stupid enough to leave the trees, and I remember that at six years old I could long intensely for the past. One of the oldest Egyptian texts we have complains that all the ideas worth having have already been written. [1]) One should thus take the constant complaints about Usenet with that much of a grain of salt: some of the oldest Usenet posts we have, too, are complaints about changes for the worse. But to judge by the earliest posts actually preserved and by the newsgroups that existed to hold them, Usenet really *was*, in its earliest days, the largely-technical network we've been told ever since it should have remained. Not all of the early newsgroups were specifically related to computer work - the most obvious exception was fa.sf-lovers, but consider also fa.space, fa.poli-sci or fa.arms-d - but the great majority were. However, Usenet grew fast, and with growth came new interests and new newsgroups; by the end of 1981 there were newsgroups about games, chess, the space shuttle, motorcyles ... jokes. And then in January of 1982 came net.flame, the newsgroup for insults. In one of the first posts listing newsgroups that I've used to build this chronology, Mark Horton called, December 23, 1981, for the discouragement of offensive articles as a matter of Usenet policy. On November 12, 1982, Jerry Schwarz's "Net Etiquette" document was first posted. None of it improved the climate enough to satisfy those who missed, um, Usenet's first year and a half; or those who were afraid their bosses would find out what the phone bills were paying for. And so a push for "moderation", Usenet's usual term for editorial or censorial work, began. (Moderation had the additional advantage of seeming to ensure that the Usenet-ARPAnet gateways in fa.* could be posted to properly. The term itself was borrowed, in fact, from the ARPAnet term for human-edited mailing lists, although Usenet moderation has normally not involved actual editing or consolidation of posts in the ARPAnet model, and has always allowed for a kind of robo-moderation that on ARPAnet would be taken as "unmoderated".) It apparently took a while to reach this state of disillusionment, or else it took a while to write the necessary software. The first moderated newsgroup, net.announce, wasn't created until summer 1983, and wasn't actually open for posting until September 2, 1983. Another experimental group appeared at year's end, mod.ber - whose purpose, summarising discussions one would otherwise not have time to follow, conveys another of the dissatisfactions with the unmoderated net.*, its ever-increasing size. By the autumn of 1984, the kinks had been worked out, and a number of new mod.* groups were created. Indeed, even with over half the year gone, nearly half the net growth in the official newsgroup list in 1984 was in moderated groups (14/31), and in 1985 and 1986 the growth in moderated groups actually outstripped the growth of Usenet as a whole (46/39 [2]). The Usenet powers of the time clearly had a preference. This preference was sharpened by the fact that the explosive growth of the network meant an explosive growth in the long-distance phone bills sent to the institutions whose computers held it together. In a mailing list composed largely of those "backbone" computers' admins, organised by Gene Spafford in mid-1985, there was almost unanimous agreement that any future network - by that point, few had much hope that Usenet itself could continue - would have to be entirely moderated. --Fall-- In the event, that mailing list, like previous efforts, went nowhere. But in 1986, Rick Adams, who ran the main transatlantic link, demanded that the list of groups be better organised so that groups unworthy to cross the ocean could be readily excluded. This rapidly resulted in the Great Renaming, which is well documented in Lee Bumgarner's Great Renaming FAQ (authoritative version at ) and doesn't need much attention here. And the Great Renaming, in turn, led to the breakup of mod.*, to put the mod.* groups into the new hierarchies; that breakup was agreed upon by 98% of those present at a Usenix Usenet gathering, according to an e-mail from Adams, urging that it proceed, to the Backbone Cabal mailing list on February 18, 1987 (forwarded to the Usenet.Hist mailing list by Spafford on October 11, 1990). News software had already been changed again, to look elsewhere than the group name for evidence that the group was moderated. The tests began with the creation of news.lists in December 1986, and in the spring of 1987 the mod.* groups were folded into the already-created Big 7. <> The insistence on moderation as Usenet's salvation also died a relatively quick death. This had begun with the renaming into the new hierarchies, at which point a number of more or less inactive or duplicative mod.* groups were unmoderated. Not much later, Adams opened a for-profit corporation one of whose assets was the transatlantic link; suddenly Usenet traffic was, for at least some participants, not merely a cost but a profit centre. Meanwhile, dissidents, some of whom were friends with or members of the Backbone Cabal, had started the alt.* network, which quickly demonstrated its emphatically unmoderated nature. Controversial proposals resulted in the demise of the Cabal and explosive growth in alt.*, and the voting process which gained in authority after the Cabal's death resulted in users, rather than admins, deciding whether new groups would be moderated or not. --Afterlife-- Nobody seems to have been making new mod.* groups the way some people were making new fa.* groups, in the years after the Great Renaming. But in 1997, a proposal was floated to create an all-moderated, mostly-automated hierarchy, using what were then all the latest ideas and tools, and in a bit of hubris that seemed appropriate to the scale of the idea, this proposal took the mod.* name. Years later, no groups have been created; the proposal remains in the hands of one of its early supporters, Tim Skirvin, who has apparently been unable to implement it for lack of central administrative computers. For further information, see (Skirvin's "mod.* manifesto") or the actual discussions in news.admin.net-abuse.policy, news.admin.net-abuse.usenet, and news.admin.hierarchies, from May to July or so, 1997. It's my opinion, in any event, that the new mod.* proposal is closer to inheriting the spirit of the old net.* hierarchy, while the newer net.* hierarchy is more of a true heir to the old mod.* (or, arguably, NET.*). --Notes-- [1] I bet you think I'm making this up, so here goes. This is from the "Complaints of Khakheperre-sonb", as translated by Miriam Lichtheim on p. 146 of her , Berkeley etc.: University of California Press, c 1973. Had I unknown phrases, Sayings that are strange, Novel, untried words, Free of repetition; Not transmitted sayings, Spoken by the ancestors! ... I say this in accord with what I have seen: From the first generation to those who come after, They imitate that which is past. This dates to the late 1900s BC. [2] OK, I bet you think I'm making that up too. Let me clarify: Twelve mod.* or net.announce.* were created from twelve fa.* groups in the fall of 1985 (fa.info-mac split, allegedly; fa.poli-sci was merged with the existing mod.politics; and, not counted in the twelve, fa.info-terms was merged with the existing net.info-terms). I'm not counting any fa.* groups as having been moderated in this calculation, since posting to them *as Usenet groups* didn't require the posts to pass through a moderator; that accounts for 12 of the 46 net growth in moderated groups. If you count as moderated those fa.* groups which were, *as mailing lists*, moderated (because proper posting to fa.* groups required posting to the mailing lists), you can reduce the net growth; but as best I can tell, only seven of the fa.* groups qualify for this reduction, so we end up with the hardly more plausible situation that 39 of the 39 net growth in newsgroups, in 1985 and 1986, was in moderated groups. In detail: Moderated antecedents: fa.arms-d, fa.human-nets, fa.info-kermit, fa.info-mac, fa.poli-sci, fa.risks, fa.telecom. Unmoderated antecedents: fa.arpa-bboard (?), fa.info-terms, fa.info-vax, fa.info-vlsi, fa.laser-lovers, fa.tcp-ip. GROUP BY GROUP Note: Description lines are reformatted as necessary, but the text in them is exactly what the original list has. The assembled descriptions may not always agree on the group's nature, although mod.* is more consistent in this regard than fa.* or net.*. In order to ensure that this set of posts gets done at all, I'm having to limit the research I do. So in this post I make no attempt to arbitrate which description is right, but simply include the first and last line for each group. (In the many cases where the first and last lines are identical, I include only the first; the same holds for cases where they differ only by the addition of a period at the end.) Again to avoid delaying the initial series of posts, I'm also not consistently including in this post information about whether these groups were gatewayed, where or by whom, or about who proposed the groups or when, or about who removed them or when. That information is obviously high on my list of things to include in the later version of the chronology. mod.announce Renamed from net.announce. Listed June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (6/19/1986): Moderated, general announcements of interest to all. Moderator: Mark Horton. Description line (4/1/1987): General announcements of interest to all. Renamed to news.announce.important. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". Notes: See net.announce, in the net.* post, for comments on this group. mod.announce.newusers Renamed from net.announce.newusers. Listed June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (6/19/1986): Moderated, explanatory postings for new users. Moderator: Gene Spafford. Description line (4/1/1987): Explanatory postings for new users. Renamed to news.announce.newusers. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.ai Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Discussions about Artificial Intelligence Moderator: Kenneth Laws. Renamed to comp.ai.digest. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.amiga Listed May 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (5/17/1986): Commodore Amiga micros -- info, uses, but no programs. Moderator: Bob Page. Renamed to comp.sys.amiga. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.amiga.binaries Listed May 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (5/17/1986): Encoded public domain programs in binary form. Moderator: Craig Norborg. Renamed to comp.binaries.amiga. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.amiga.sources Listed May 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (5/17/1986): Public domain software in source code format. Moderator: Craig Norborg. Renamed to comp.sources.amiga. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.ber Listed January 3, 1984 to October 1, 1984 without interruption. Description line (1/3/1984): Summaries of discussions from other groups. Moderator: Brian Redman. Note: This was the first mod.* group to be created, and the first to be removed. mod.compilers Listed January 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/1/1986): Discussion about compiler construction, theory, etc. Moderator: John Levine. Renamed to comp.compilers. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Discussion about various computers and related. Moderator: None was ever named, although the group was always listed in the List of Moderators. Merged into (unmoderated) comp.sys.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.68k Listed April 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (4/17/1986): 68000-based systems. Moderator: Mike Meyer. Renamed to comp.sys.m68k.pc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.apollo Created as part of the expansion of the list of gatewayed ARPAnet mailing lists which accompanied the gateway groups' renaming from fa.* to mod.*. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Apollo computer systems. Moderator: Nathaniel Mishkin, November 1, 1985 to July 16, 1986. Luis Ortiz, September 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.sys.apollo. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.masscomp Listed May 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (5/17/1986): The Masscomp line of computers. Moderator: Stan Barber. Renamed to comp.sys.masscomp. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.ibm-pc Created as part of the expansion of the list of gatewayed ARPAnet mailing lists which accompanied the gateway groups' renaming from fa.* to mod.*. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): The IBM PC, PC-XT, and PC-AT. Moderators: This was presumably a panel-moderated group, and the first such (unless you count the two moderators of mod.newslists as a panel). It was always listed in the List of Moderators as "(various)". Renamed to comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.laser-printers Renamed from fa.laser-lovers on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Laser printers, hardware and software. Moderator: Richard Furuta. Renamed to comp.laser-printers. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.macintosh Renamed from fa.info-mac on or near October 21, 1985 (allegedly this was a split, but the archived traffic in fa.info-mac was essentially all destined for this group). Listed November 1, 1985 to March 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Apple MacIntosh micros. Moderator: John Agosta. Apparently split into mod.mac, mod.mac.binaries, and mod.mac.sources, March 2, 1986. mod.computers.pyramid Created as part of the expansion of the list of gatewayed ARPAnet mailing lists which accompanied the gateway groups' renaming from fa.* to mod.*. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Pyramid 90x computers. Moderator: Mark Weiser. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.sys.pyramid. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.ridge Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Ridge 32 computers and ROS. Moderator: Bill Bogstad. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.sys.ridge. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.sequent Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Sequent systems, (esp. Balance 8000). Moderator: John Quarterman, November 1, 1985 to December 16, 1986. Rich Kulawiec, January 1 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to comp.sys.sequent. Unlike other mod.* groups that survived to 4/1/1987, *not* listed May 3, 1987, as "obsolete" or otherwise. mod.computers.sun Created as part of the expansion of the list of gatewayed ARPAnet mailing lists which accompanied the gateway groups' renaming from fa.* to mod.*. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Sun "workstation" computers Moderator: Mike Caplinger, November 1, 1985 to January 16, 1986. Scott Alexander, February 1 to September 1, 1986. Vicki Riffle, September 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to comp.sys.sun. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.vax Renamed from fa.info-vax on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): DEC's VAX* line of computers & VMS. (The asterisk referred to a trademark.) Moderator: Ramon Curiel. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.os.vms. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.computers.workstations Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Various workstation-type computers. Moderator: Dave Steiner. Did not appear in the List of Moderators for June 2, 1986, for which reason I count it, for that list only, as an unmoderated group. Owing to a gap in the archives, it isn't possible to find out whether it was in any prior List of Moderators back to March 16, 1986. It returned to the List of Moderators for June 19, 1986. Renamed to comp.sys.workstations. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.conferences Listed June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (6/19/1986): Calls for papers and conference announcements. Moderator: Dave Taylor. Renamed to news.announce.conferences. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.comp-soc Listed June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (6/19/1986): Discussion on the impact of technology on society. Moderator: Dave Taylor. Renamed to comp.society. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.general Listed August 1, 1985 to October 1, 1985 without interruption. Description line (8/1/1985): A moderated version of net.general Moderator: James Armstrong, Jr. mod.graphics Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Grpahics software, hardware, theory, etc. Moderator: Andy Cromarty. Renamed to comp.graphics.digest. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.human-nets Renamed from fa.human-nets on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Computer aided communications digest. Moderator: Charles McGrew. Renamed to soc.human-nets. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.legal Listed November 1, 1985 to November 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Discussions of computers and the law. Moderator: Geoffrey Goodfellow, November 1, 1985 to June 2, 1986. Mike Muuss, June 19, 1986 to (ostensibly) April 1, 1987. Merged into (unmoderated) misc.legal. Included in the Lists of Moderators December 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption, despite its omission from the List of Active Newsgroups. mod.mac Apparently created from a split of mod.computers.macintosh, March 2, 1986. Listed March 2, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (3/2/1986): Apple Macintosh micros -- info, uses, but no programs. Moderator: John Agosta. Renamed to comp.sys.mac.digest. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.mac.binaries Apparently created from a split of mod.computers.macintosh, March 2, 1986. Listed March 2, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (3/2/1986): Encoded public domain programs in binary form. Moderator: Roger Long. Renamed to comp.binaries.mac. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.mac.sources Apparently created from a split of mod.computers.macintosh, March 2, 1986. Listed March 2, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (3/2/1986): Public domain software in source code format. Moderator: Roger Long. Renamed to comp.sources.mac. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.mag Listed April 17 to December 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (4/17/1986): Discussions on electronicly published "magazines" Moderator: Chuq Von Rospach. Merged into (unmoderated) rec.mag. mod.mag.fidonet Listed January 16 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/16/1987): FidoNew digest, official newsletter of FidoNet Assoc. Moderator: Tim Pozar. Renamed to comp.org.fidonet. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". Note: This was the last mod.* group to be created. mod.mag.otherrealms Listed April 17, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (4/17/1986): Edited science fiction and fantasy "magazine". Moderator: Chuq Von Rospach. Renamed to rec.mag.otherrealms. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.map Listed November 1, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1984): Announcements and software concerning maps and routing Moderator: Mark Horton. Description line (4/1/1987): Various maps, including UUCP maps. Renamed to comp.mail.maps. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.map.news Listed November 1, 1984 to May 15, 1985 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1984): Maps of the Usenet network of news sites Moderator: Karen Summers-Horton. mod.map.uucp Listed November 1, 1984 to September 1, 1985 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1984): Maps from the UUCP mapping project Moderator: Karen Summers-Horton. mod.movies Listed October 15, 1984 to December 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated reviews and discussion of movies Moderator: Andy Tannenbaum, October 15, 1984 to November 1, 1984. Byron Howe, November 15, 1984. Byron Howes, December 1, 1984 to December 1, 1986. Description line (12/1/1986): Reviews and discussion of movies Merged into (unmoderated) rec.arts.movies. mod.motss Listed October 15, 1984 to October 16, 1986 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated discussion and info on homosexuality Moderator: Steve Dyer. Description line (10/16/1986): Newsgroup on gay issues and topics Merged into (unmoderated) soc.motss. mod.music Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated reviews and discussion of things musical Moderator: Greg Skinner, October 15, 1984. None named in List of Active Newsgroups, but Greg Skinner named in List of Moderators, November 1, 1984. Greg Skinner, November 15, 1984 to June 2, 1986. Doug Alan, June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Description line (4/1/1987): Reviews and discussion of things musical. Merged into (unmoderated) rec.music.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.music.gaffa Apparently renamed from mod.music.love-hounds. Listed September 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (9/1/1986): Progressive music discussions (e.g., Kate Bush). Moderator: Doug Alan. Renamed to rec.music.gaffa. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.music.love-hounds Listed June 19 to September 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (6/19/1986): Progressive music discussions (e.g., Kate Bush). Moderator: Doug Alan. Apparently renamed to mod.music.gaffa. mod.newprod Listed August 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (8/1/1985): Announcements of new products of interest to readers Moderator: Ron Heiby. Renamed to comp.newprod. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.newslists Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line: Postings of news-related statistics and lists Moderators: Gene Spafford and Rick Adams. Merged into news.lists. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.os Listed January 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/16/1986): Disussions about operating systems and related areas. Moderator(s): None named, January 16 to March 1, 1986. Mike Meyer and Dave Mason, March 2, 1986 to January 1, 1987. Darrell Long, January 16 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to comp.os.research. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.os.os9 Listed January 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/16/1986): Discussions about the os9 operating system. Moderator(s): Alex Arthur and Bruce Perens, January 16 to July 16, 1986. John Daleske, September 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to comp.os.os9. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.os.unix Apparently renamed from mod.unix. Listed January 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/16/1986): Moderated discussion of Unix* features and bugs. (The asterisk referred to a trademark.) Moderator: Ron Heiby. Description line (4/1/1987): Discussion of UNIX* features and bugs. (The asterisk referred to a trademark.) Renamed to comp.unix. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.philosophy Listed July 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/16/1986): Discussion of philosphical issues and concepts. Moderator: Alan Wexelblat. Merged into (unmoderated) talk.philosophy.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.philosophy.tech Listed July 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/16/1986): Philosophy of science, math, logic, technology. Moderator: Peter Ladkin. Description line (4/1/1987): Technical philosophy: math, science, logic, etc. Renamed to sci.philosophy.tech. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.politics Listed June 15, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (6/15/1985): Discussions on political problems, systems, solutions. Moderator: James Armstrong, Jr., June 15, 1985 to July 1, 1986. Merged with fa.poli-sci on or near October 21, 1985. Moderator: JoSH Hall, November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987. Note that these two were never listed as co-moderators, but always as the moderators of two different groups, both groups being named mod.politics. Only one group by that name was ever listed in the List of Active Newsgroups. I don't understand this, but suspect it was an editing error resulting from the merger; since JoSH Hall was the moderator of soc.politics after the Great Renaming, I would guess - but don't know - that James Armstrong, Jr. had retired some time before he was removed from the List of Moderators. Renamed to soc.politics. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.politics.arms-d Renamed from fa.arms-d on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Arms discussion digest. Moderator: Harold Ancell, November 1, 1985 to an undetermined list-date in April or May, 1986. Herb Lin, June 2, 1986 or earlier to April 1, 1987. Renamed to soc.politics.arms-d. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.protocols Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Various forms and types of FTP protocol discussions. Moderator: Mel Pleasant. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.protocols.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.protocols.appletalk Allegedly the result of a split of fa.info-mac, but if so, the archives don't document that there was pre-split traffic that went to this group. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Applebus hardware & software discussion. Moderator: Ralph Hyre, Jr. Renamed to comp.protocols.appletalk. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.protocols.kermit Renamed from fa.info-kermit on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Information about the Kermit package. Moderator: Frank da Cruz. Renamed to comp.protocols.kermit. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.protocols.tcp-ip Renamed from fa.tcp-ip on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): TCP and IP network protocols. Moderator: Vivian Neou. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.protocols.tcp-ip. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.psi Listed July 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/16/1986): Discussion of paranormal abilities and experiences. Moderator: Chet Dobro, July 16 to November 1, 1986. Erich Rickheit, December 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Renamed to misc.psi. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.rec Listed July 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/1/1985): Discussions on pasttimes (not currently active) Moderator: None was ever named, although the group was always listed in the List of Moderators. Description line (4/1/1987): Discussions on pastimes (not currently active). Merged into (unmoderated) rec.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.rec.guns Listed July 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/1/1985): Discussions about firearms Moderator: Jordan Hubbard. Renamed to rec.guns. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.recipes Listed December 16, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (12/16/1985): A "distributed cookbook" of screened recipes. Moderator: Brian Reid. Description line (4/1/1987): Recipes from the USENET Cookbook (troff and text). Renamed to rec.food.recipes. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". Note: This is the newsgroup whose renaming provoked the creation of alt.*, improbable but true. mod.religion Listed September 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (9/16/1986): Top-level group with no moderator (as of yet). Moderator: This newsgroup was never listed in the List of Moderators, so I have counted it (probably incorrectly) as an unmoderated group. Merged into (unmoderated) talk.religion.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.religion.christian Apparently renamed from (unmoderated) net.religion.christian. Listed September 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (9/16/1986): Discussions on Christianity and related topics. Moderator: Charles Hedrick. Renamed to soc.religion.christian. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". Note: This may be the first example of a moderated group outright replacing an unmoderated one. mod.risks Renamed from fa.risks. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Risks to the public from computers & users. Moderator: Peter Neumann. Renamed to comp.risks. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.singles Listed October 15, 1984 to June 1, 1985 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated version of net.singles Moderator: Chuq Von Rospach. Rmgrouped by the moderator for lack of traffic. mod.sources Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated postings of public domain sources Moderator: John Nelson, October 15, 1984 to June 2, 1986. Rich Salz, June 19, 1986 to April 1, 1987. Description line (4/1/1987): postings of public-domain sources. Renamed to comp.sources.unix. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.sources.doc Listed January 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/1/1986): Archived public-domain documentation. Moderator: Ron Natalie. Renamed to comp.doc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.sources.games Listed September 1, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (9/1/1986): Moderated postings of public-domain game sources Moderator: Rich Salz, September 1, 1986 to March 16, 1987. Bill Randle, April 1, 1987. Description line (4/1/1987): Postings of public-domain game sources. Renamed to comp.sources.games. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.techreports Listed January 16, 1986 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (1/16/1986): Announcements and lists of technical reports. Moderator: Lawrence Leff. Renamed to comp.doc.techreports. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.telecom Renamed from fa.telecom on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Telecommunications digest. Moderator: Jon Solomon, November 1, 1985 to an undetermined list-date in April or May, 1986. Eliot Moore, June 2, 1986 or earlier to April 1, 1987. Renamed to comp.dcom.telecom. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.test Listed November 15, 1984 to November 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (11/15/1984): Testing of moderated newsgroups -- no moderator Moderator: This newsgroup was not listed in the List of Moderators until July 1, 1985, so I have counted it before then (probably incorrectly) as an unmoderated group. Although it was then listed in the List of Moderators for the rest of its life (and beyond! until December 16, 1986), no moderator was ever named for it. Merged into (unmoderated) misc.test. mod.unix Listed October 15, 1984 to January 1, 1986 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated discussion of Unix* features and bugs (The asterisk referred to a trademark.) Moderator: None named, October 15 to November 1, 1984. Tom Teixeira, November 15, 1984 to April 2, 1985. Ron Heiby, April 15, 1985 to April 1, 1987. Apparently renamed to mod.os.unix. mod.vlsi Renamed from fa.info-vlsi on or near October 21, 1985. Listed November 1, 1985 to December 16, 1986 without interruption. Description line (11/1/1985): Very large scale integrated circuits. Moderator: Tom Linnerooth. Renamed to (unmoderated) comp.lsi, representing a merger with net.lsi. mod.std Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Moderated discussion about various standards Moderator: None named, October 15, 1984 to April 2, 1985 (but with a suggestion to "contact Mark Horton"). Mark Horton, April 15, 1985 to April 1, 1987. Description line (4/1/1987): Discussion about various standards. Renamed to comp.std.misc. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.std.c Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Discussion about C language standards Moderator: Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz. Renamed to comp.std.c. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.std.mumps Listed October 15, 1984 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (10/15/1984): Discussion about standards for MUMPS Moderator: Hokey. Description line (4/1/1987): Discussion for the X11.1 committee on Mumps. Renamed to comp.std.mumps. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete". mod.std.unix Listed July 1, 1985 to April 1, 1987 without interruption. Description line (7/1/1985): Discussion for the P1003 committee on Unix Moderator: John Quarterman. Description line (4/1/1987): Discussion for the P1003 committee on UNIX. Renamed to comp.std.unix. Listed May 3, 1987 as "obsolete".