For an introduction to this thread's chronological posts, please see the first post in the series, for the year 1981. List to list, the changes for much of 1984 were about as exciting as watching grass grow. But things picked up dramatically towards the end of the year, heralding larger changes in 1985 and hinting at the Great Renaming beyond. In particular, note that the year begins with the creation of the mod.* hierarchy, and that somewhat more than halfway through, Gene Spafford takes over the lists, and the mod.* hierarchy opens for serious business. Joe Bernstein Lists of Newsgroups Posted in 1984 ADAM BUCHSBAUM "List of Active Newsgroups" January 3, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2429@alice.UUCP There's something very symbolic, to me anyway, about the fact that the list that first includes a mod.* group also includes a net shrinkage of net.*. This is also the first list to include names and addresses for moderators. Since these are consistently presented, I conclude that this is the first list to provide a provably reliable indication of which groups are moderated. Added: mod.ber, net.games.go, net.tv.drwho, net.veg. Removed: net.applic, net.cse.cai, net.games.pacman, net.ucds, net.usoft.s. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, from 0 to 0 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 1 moderated group, from 0 to 1 total. In net.*, from 157 to 155 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 158 to 156 total. 174 total (2 moderated, 17 fa.*, 155 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" January 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2485@alice.UUCP Added: net.micro.trs-80. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 155 to 156 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 156 to 157 total. 175 total (2 moderated, 17 fa.*, 156 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" February 1, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2552@alice.UUCP Added: net.bio, net.consumers (just in time for New Coke!), net.nlang.greek. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 156 to 159 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 157 to 160 total. 178 total (2 moderated, 17 fa.*, 159 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" February 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2607@alice.UUCP No changes. "List of Active Newsgroups" March 1, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2625@alice.UUCP Added: net.announce.newusers, net.religion.jewish, net.works.apollo. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 159 to 161 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 2 moderated groups, from 160 to 163 total. 181 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 161 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" March 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2654@alice.UUCP Added: net.abortion, net.micro.hp. Removed: net.records, net.tv.da. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, no net change: 161 unmoderated, 2 moderated, 163 total. 181 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 161 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" April 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2714@alice.UUCP Added: net.mag, net.net-people, net.origins. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 161 to 164 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 163 to 166 total. 184 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 164 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" May 1, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2735@alice.UUCP Added: net.music.classical. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 164 to 165 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 166 to 167 total. 185 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 165 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" May 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2766@alice.UUCP Added: net.tv.soaps. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 165 to 166 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 167 to 168 total. 186 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 166 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" June 1, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2814@alice.UUCP Added: net.math.stat. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 166 to 167 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 168 to 169 total. 187 total (3 moderated, 17 fa.*, 167 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" June 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2853@alice.UUCP No changes. "List of Active Newsgroups" July 1, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2886@alice.UUCP Added: fa.info-mac, net.sci. Summary: From 17 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no changes: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 167 to 168 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 169 to 170 total. 189 total (3 moderated, 18 fa.*, 168 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" July 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 2924@alice.UUCP Added: net.micro.ti. Summary: From 18 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no changes: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 168 to 169 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 170 to 171 total. 190 total (3 moderated, 18 fa.*, 169 unmoderated). GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups" August 15, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 9619@gatech.UUCP It's noteworthy that this, the first newsgroup list Gene Spafford ever posted [1], already begins the changes he introduced in the lists; specifically, he added a paragraph about distributions to the introductory material. It's also noteworthy that the only change over the preceding month had been a removal. Removed: net.rec.caves. Summary: From 18 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no changes: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 169 to 168 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 171 to 170 total. 189 total (3 moderated, 18 fa.*, 168 unmoderated). [1] - This contradicts what he said in his farewell message. If you can find an earlier example, please let me know. "List of Active Newsgroups" August 31, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 9994@gatech.UUCP No changes, except that the introductory material Adam Buchsbaum wrote is here broken out into paragraphs, which makes it much easier to read. "List of Active Newsgroups" September 23, 1984 net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10237@gatech.UUCP Added: net.math.symbolic. Summary: From 18 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no changes: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 168 to 169 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 170 to 171 total. 190 total (3 moderated, 18 fa.*, 169 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" October 1, 1984 net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10358@gatech.UUCP Added: fa.info-cpm, net.sources.bugs, net.wanted.sources. Removed: net.adm.site. Summary: From 18 to 19 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no changes: 0 unmoderated, 1 moderated, 1 total. In net.*, from 169 to 170 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 171 to 172 total. 192 total (3 moderated, 19 fa.*, 170 unmoderated). DALE HALL (in the From: line, but signed by Gene Spafford) "List of Active Newsgroups" October 3, 1984 net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 149@faron.UUCP It's not clear to me whether this is the first known instance of a clueless idiot reposting the entire list by mistake, or an intentional repost; the only (at best dubious) evidence in favour of its being intentional is an Approved: line. Anyway, it duplicates the October 1 posting. GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups" October 15, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10461@gatech.UUCP This is the real arrival of the mod.* hierarchy. On a much less important note, in this list, third-level groups finally got description lines independent of their parent groups. Added: mod.movies, mod.motss, mod.music, mod.newslists, mod.singles, mod.sources, mod.std.c, mod.std.mumps. Added, but without moderators, inactive: mod.unix, mod.std. Removed: fa.info-cpm, fa.sf-lovers, mod.ber, net.vvs. Summary: From 19 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, from 0 to 0 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 10 moderated groups (from 0 to 2 inactive ones), from 1 to 10 (2 inactive) total. In net.*, from 170 to 169 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 172 to 171 total. 198 (or 192) total (12 or 10 moderated, 17 fa.*, 169 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" November 1, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10626@gatech.UUCP "List of Moderators" November 1, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10627@gatech.UUCP And with the advent of significant numbers of moderated groups, it became obvious that the main list had no room for the moderators, while ways to reach the moderators (in those days before domain names) needed documenting in *much* more detail. Hence the lists of moderators, which basically provided lists of ways to reach moderators (along with *lots* of introductory text). After this posting, for several years, the main list of newsgroups provided no consistent flag indicating which groups were moderated. As I understand it, in practice, existing news software assumed that all mod.* and all *.announce.* groups were moderated; but I have no reason to think software was in fact that uniform. I therefore take a group's appearance in the list of moderators as the decisive indicator whether or not it's moderated, starting with this list. Note that a mod.* group without a moderator might simply be omitted from the list of moderators, in which case I'll show it as unmoderated; alternatively, it might be listed as having no moderator, in which case I'll show it as moderated but inactive. There were, in fact, several mod.* groups that *never* had a moderator, but did change between these two "statuses". An additional complication: there are various pieces of evidence that the lists of moderators were *much* less carefully maintained than the lists of active newsgroups. This occasionally makes for conflict between the two on such subjects as whether a given group exists, or is moderated (after the newsgroup list resumes flagging moderated groups, in 1986). In any case where a mod.* group changed moderators, became inactive, or was removed, one can legitimately wonder whether the group had in fact been inactive for some time before these lists notice the fact, although one can never assume this. Added: mod.map, mod.map.news, mod.map.uucp. Rendered inactive: mod.music. (But this appears to be an editing error: the list of active newsgroups says there's no moderator, but the list of moderators does list one. The conflict disappears with the following posting, when the list of active newsgroups stops mentioning moderators.) Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, from 0 to 0 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 13 moderated groups (from 2 to 3 inactive), from 10 to 13 (3 inactive) total. In net.*, no changes: 169 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 162 total. 201 (or 198) total (15 or 12 moderated, 17 fa.*, 169 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" November 15, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10805@gatech.UUCP "List of Moderators" November 15, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 10806@gatech.UUCP Added: mod.test, net.micro.mac. mod.test becomes the first unmoderated mod.* group. Rendered active: mod.music (if it was ever inactive), mod.unix. Summary: From 17 to 17 fa.* groups. In mod.*, from 0 to 1 unmoderated group, from 13 to 13 moderated groups (from 3 to 1 inactive), from 13 to 14 (1 inactive) total. In net.*, from 169 to 170 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 171 to 172 total. 203 (or 202) total (15 or 14 moderated, 17 fa.*, 171 unmoderated). "Checkgroups message" November 26, 1984 net.news.group Message-ID: 10939@gatech.UUCP Gene Spafford first posted a checkgroups as a regular post (rather than as a control message) on November 26, 1984. At least that's the first one Google's archive has, and there are the kind of comments on the next one (December 1) that accompany a new thing. I haven't collated this November 26 list of newsgroups to check for groups created since November 15; I only wanted to note the advent of the checkgroups because its format seems to be the basis for the eventual format of the List of Active Newsgroups, and more importantly, because there are cases where the List of Active Newsgroups is not archived, but the checkgroups is, which allows some of the information contained in the lost list to be retrieved. (See the 1986 post for the first example of this, and more details on what information is available.) "List of Active Newsgroups" December 1, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 11077@gatech.UUCP "List of Moderators" December 1, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 11079@gatech.UUCP The one-apart Message-IDs suggest that Gene Spafford may, with these lists, have begun posting diff listings headed "Changes to List of Active Newsgroups" and "Changes to List of Moderators" respectively, but these aren't archived until July of 1985, and there's no more conclusive evidence that I know of. Added: fa.info-kermit, net.music.folk, net.religion.christian, net.theater. Summary: From 17 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 13 moderated groups (1 inactive), 14 (1 inactive) total. In net.*, from 170 to 173 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 172 to 175 total. 207 (or 206) total (15 or 14 moderated, 18 fa.*, 174 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" December 15, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 11319@gatech.UUCP "List of Moderators" December 15, 1984 mod.newslists,net.news.group,net.announce.newusers Message-ID: 11321@gatech.UUCP Removed: net.news.map. Summary: From 18 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 13 moderated groups (1 inactive), 14 (1 inactive) total. In net.*, from 173 to 172 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 175 to 174 total. 206 (or 205) total (15 or 14 moderated, 18 fa.*, 173 unmoderated). This is the last newsgroup list/moderator list pair known to me posted in 1984. Annual summary: From 17 to 18 fa.* groups. In mod.*, from 0 to 1 unmoderated group, from 0 to 13 moderated groups (1 inactive), from 0 to 14 (1 inactive) total. In net.*, from 157 to 172 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 2 moderated groups, from 158 to 174 total. Total, from 157 to 173 unmoderated groups, from 17 to 18 fa.* groups, from 1 to 14 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 175 to 206 (or 205) total.