For an introduction to this thread's chronological posts, please see the first post in the series, for the year 1981, with Message-ID <3c4a40c1$0$95686$892e7fe2@authen.puce.readfreenews.net>. In 1989, the voting method of newsgroup creation finally produced significantly different results from that controlled entirely by the Backbone Cabal. Although much of the year passed before such effects were really noticeable, comp.* fell to only one third of the total growth in newsgroups, and this much is visible right away. This is part of a larger pattern in which 1989 looks *much* more like the years in which I've known Usenet best than do any previous years: famous groups such as comp.lang.perl, comp.infosystems, rec.org.sca, soc.feminism, soc.religion.islam, news.newusers.questions, and (not least) news.announce.newgroups appeared; group creation was far more common than removal or change in moderation status; sub-hierarchies like comp.sys.* and soc.culture.* became foci of particularistic growth; and (as noted several times below) comp.* became the least comprehensible part of the namespace. (It's common, these days, to criticise the character-stinginess of the namers in the Great Renaming, and there's some justice to that, but for sheer idiotic compression, nothing can beat the comp.* namers of 1989.) And oh, yes, news.announce.newgroups did appear; see the September list below. The first most noticeable effect, I think, is a marked acceleration of growth; I haven't tried to research whether votes failed more often before this group's creation, but I think it likely just based on what these lists show. This would fit the stated purpose of the group, making proposals and calls for votes more visible. Other effects would come later. In particular, note the two *.aquaria groups created over the nan moderator's protests at year's end, the event with which, alas, Lee Bumgarner's Great Renaming FAQ (version 2) closes, and I lose my best guide to Usenet's history. The single-group FAQ trend seems to have taken firm hold in 1989, though it remained, as far as the archives show anyway, very limited even by year's end. This is the last year for which I've attempted to locate and name all such periodic postings; for 1990, searches on "faq" and "frequently asked" produce nearly 3000 results, which is beyond my capacity to deal with at this time. (The next four paragraphs concern sources for these posts, and how I'm using them, and like that; you can skip them if meta-talk doesn't interest you.) Another 1990s-like distinction for 1989 is that it's the first year since 1982 with more months than newsgroup lists posted. In fact, newsgroup lists would be even thinner on the ground for the next seven years, and then vanish completely for a while, before roaring back to near-clockwork semi-monthly posting again towards the 1990s' end. Readers of the last couple of year-summaries may have been irritated at the clunkily repetitive summary-structure for every list set discussed; with so few groups being created, and mostly in a single hierarchy, why provide full details for each list? Well, mainly because I knew that soon enough, each list would be far enough apart that most or all of the hierarchies would show changes every time. (Especially given the explosive growth that is heralded by the last few lists below, and that dominates the mid-1990s.) Several of the 1989 lists already offer only one unchanged hierarchy. The exception to this rule is the inet distribution, which changed only slowly over the year, and would eventually freeze in place. I intend to continue providing full summaries of inet for every list except in years in which the distribution's list doesn't change at all. (There are no such years for some time to come, however.) But while the lists provide less material starting in 1989, nan itself provides immensely more. For the months September 1989 to February 1991, I have everything Google offers from news.announce.newgroups on my computer, *in chronological order*. I'm not yet using this to produce a full chronology, but in my comments on the last four lists of this year, and on the nine 1990-91 lists that cover this period, I mention items of particular interest, so as to make available the more obvious steps in the early evolution of nan as soon as possible. However, I presently lack the time and disk space to produce a similar chronological breakdown of the nan archive from ISC, which covers most of the period from February 1991 forward (and which I can only keep on my disk drive in a compressed form). Until that changes, I'm not going to attempt any more thorough chronological work based on nan archives. Eventually I want to note lots of firsts - complex moderated-group charters, for example - as well as lasts - groups voted in without charters, or without UVV votetakers, for example - and not just make a mechanical list of CFD/RFDs, CFVs, RESULTs, and their dates. One thing that keenly interests me is last groups added to the official lists despite breaking this rule or that, for example, despite having no vote posted to nan, or only a single-transferable-vote (STV). I also hope to get from the nan archives, at long last, serious statistics on passing and failed votes, as opposed to the statistics now available, in which multi-group votes are handled in a variety of more or less bizarre ways. But until I know when a group was last added to the official lists without an nan vote, I won't know from what point nan archives alone can be used to generate such statistics. This is why I'm not trying to incorporate statistics on vote results into my 1989 or 1990 year-summaries as yet. A final note: In the last third of this year, the Google archives for the first time have a source other than the archives kept by Henry Spencer at the Department of Zoology, University of Toronto; this is when Jurgen Christoffel's archives begin. Joe Bernstein Lists of Newsgroups Posted in 1989 GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 29 January 1989)" January 30, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 5926@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 29 January 1989)" January 30, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 5928@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 29 January 1989)" January 30, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 5925@medusa.cs.purdue.edu The oldest surviving copy of "sci.military guidelines and etiquette" dates to January 21, 1989, with message-ID <3327@cbnews.ATT.COM>, from Bill Thacker, the group's moderator. Meanwhile, "Introduction to comp.sys.amiga" by Edwin Hoogerbeets, whose apparently-first appearance is January 25, with message-ID <4749@hcr.UUCP>, was despite its name a comprehensive FAQ. Added: rec.backcountry, rec.music.dementia, sci.environment. Unmoderated in place: comp.text.desktop. rec.mag.otherrealms was entirely omitted from this List of Moderators, though still shown as moderated on the List of Active Newsgroups; this appears to have been because the moderator was without a submission address. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. comp.protocols.nfs is added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 groups, and the unidirectional gateways for comp.emacs and comp.lang.c++ that were missing from the last such list are once again listed. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 115 to 116 unmoderated groups, from 44 to 43 moderated groups, from 159 to 159 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 8 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 12 total. In rec.*, from 74 to 76 unmoderated groups, from 5 (0 inactive) to 5 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 79 to 81 total. In sci.*, from 18 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 21 to 22 total. In soc.*, no change: 17 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 21 total. In talk.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 11 total. 322 or 321 total (61 or 60 moderated, 261 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 40 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 44 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 51 total (5 moderated, 46 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 155 to 156 unmoderated groups, from 48 to 47 moderated groups, from 203 to 203 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 9 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 13 total. In rec.*, from 75 to 77 unmoderated groups, from 6 (0 inactive) to 6 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 81 to 83 total. In sci.*, from 21 to 22 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 24 to 25 total. In soc.*, no change: 18 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 22 total. In talk.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 11 total. 373 or 372 total (66 or 65 moderated, 307 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 6 March 1989)" March 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6191@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 6 March 1989)" March 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6193@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 6 March 1989)" March 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6190@medusa.cs.purdue.edu On February 3, Bill Lipa, speaking for the moderators of comp.sys.mac.digest, posted to comp.sys.mac an announcement that a "Frequently-asked questions" directory had been created at the Info-Mac archive. Message-ID . On February 13, the oldest surviving copy of "Elm Monthly Posting" appeared in comp.mail.elm, posted by Syd Weinstein, with message-ID <58@dsinc.UUCP>. On February 14, Brian O'Neill posted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc "bin.man, Beginner's Guide to Binaries" and "ftp.man, Beginner's Guide to Binaries", with message-IDs <5687@bsu-cs.UUCP> and <5688@bsu-cs.UUCP> respectively, for the first time. On February 8, 1990, James Roche reported on rec.woodworking that he had "started posting a list of Frequently Asked Questions about a year ago". That posting or series of postings doesn't survive; the 1990 post is apparently a revival following a lapse in any event. See <1990Feb8.183245.11357@cs.rochester.edu>, which is a classic 8-question question-and-answer format FAQ. Added: comp.unix.i386, soc.couples, soc.culture.turkish. rec.mag.otherrealms was entirely omitted from this List of Moderators, though still shown as moderated on the List of Active Newsgroups; this appears to have been because the moderator was without a submission address. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Noteworthy addition to alt.*: alt.dev.null. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 116 to 117 unmoderated groups, from 43 to 43 moderated groups, from 159 to 160 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 8 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 12 total. In rec.*, no change: 76 unmoderated groups, 5 (1 inactive) moderated groups, 81 total. In sci.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 22 total. In soc.*, from 17 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 21 to 23 total. In talk.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 11 total. 325 or 324 total (61 or 60 moderated, 264 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 40 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 44 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 51 total (5 moderated, 46 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 156 to 157 unmoderated groups, from 47 to 47 moderated groups, from 203 to 204 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 9 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 13 total. In rec.*, no change: 77 unmoderated groups, 6 (1 inactive) moderated groups, 83 total. In sci.*, no change: 22 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 25 total. In soc.*, from 18 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 22 to 24 total. In talk.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 11 total. 376 or 375 total (66 or 65 moderated, 308 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 9 April 1989)" April 8, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6483@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 9 April 1989)" April 8, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6485@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 7 April 1989)" April 8, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6482@medusa.cs.purdue.edu No, I don't have an explanation for the updates after posting dates of the List of Active Newsgroups and the List of Moderators. They were posted shortly after 21:00 GMT, which was afternoon by Gene Spafford's local time, so it isn't a matter of time zones. I don't find discussion of this oddity archived at Google, possibly because news.groups and news.admin were at the time centres of considerable discussion over proposals for new group creation rules or guidelines in the wake of the Backbone's 1988 collapse. After several uncharacteristically quiet months, the comp.* hierarchy here reasserts its pre-eminence in group creation. And in 1989's parade of bad naming in comp.*, inet presents the first entry, but not the worst: comp.soft-sys.*, whose only member by year's end would still be the group added in this list. The "Introduction to REC.HUMOR.FUNNY" posted April 2, and the "Guidelines for Submissions" posted April 3, by Brad Templeton, survive, with message-IDs <3035@looking.UUCP> and <3038@looking.UUCP> respectively. Added: comp.ai.shells, comp.protocols.kerberos, comp.soft-sys.andrew (inet), comp.sources.sun, rec.ham-radio.swap, sci.chem, sci.edu, talk.politics.guns. Unmoderated in place: comp.unix.ultrix. comp.soft-sys.andrew appears, from discussion available at Google, to have been created by Erik Fair in inet after comp.andrew had been voted on but not created in the Big 7. Apparently there was much dissension over naming. rec.mag.otherrealms was entirely omitted from this List of Moderators, though still shown as moderated on the List of Active Newsgroups; this appears to have been because the moderator was without a submission address. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. comp.protocols.kerberos is added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 groups. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 117 to 119 unmoderated groups, from 43 to 44 moderated groups, from 160 to 163 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 8 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 12 total. In rec.*, from 76 to 77 unmoderated groups, from 5 (1 inactive) to 5 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 81 to 82 total. In sci.*, from 19 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 22 to 24 total. In soc.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 23 total. In talk.*, from 11 to 12 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 11 to 12 total. 332 or 331 total (62 or 61 moderated, 270 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 40 to 41 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 44 to 45 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 52 total (5 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 157 to 160 unmoderated groups, from 47 to 48 moderated groups, from 204 to 208 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 9 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 13 total. In rec.*, from 77 to 78 unmoderated groups, from 6 (1 inactive) to 6 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 83 to 84 total. In sci.*, from 22 to 24 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 25 to 27 total. In soc.*, no change: 20 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 24 total. In talk.*, from 11 to 12 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 11 to 12 total. 384 or 383 total (67 or 66 moderated, 317 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 14 May 1989)" May 15, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6754@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 14 May 1989)" May 15, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6756@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 14 May 1989)" May 15, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6753@medusa.cs.purdue.edu In this same posting run, with Message-ID: 6770@medusa.cs.purdue.edu, first appeared the document that, much revised, is still arguably the "official" newsgroup creation process for the Big 8: the guidelines written by Greg Woods. Numerous changes in detail have since occurred, generally in the direction of greater formality and more precise rules, and there have also been a few more significant changes (much the most important of which is described below under September). But the posting of May 15, 1989 describes a system recognisably like that in place today. The Big 7 could hardly allow inet to keep the distinction of the worst sub-hierarchy name; hence comp.sw.*, as shown in this List of Active Newsgroups. There is, however, still worse to come in comp.*. We also got, at this time, the orphan sub-hierarchy soc.culture.asian.*. (I am pleased to report that a single thread preserved at Google shows both Eliot Lear and, in his first archived posting to news.groups, David Lawrence roundly condemning comp.sw.*. See if you wish http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=Apr.27.01.56.03.1989.27993%40NET.BIO.NET and become enlightened...) Steven Grimm's "Receiving and unpacking binaries" appeared in comp.binaries.atari.st on May 9, if not sooner, with message-ID that date of <7053@saturn.ucsc.edu>. Added: comp.mail.mush, comp.realtime, comp.sw.components, comp.sys.isis, comp.virus, soc.culture.asian.american. rec.mag.otherrealms reappears, with new addresses, starting with this List of Moderators. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Noteworthy addition to alt.*: alt.sex.bondage, the first alt.sex.* subgroup to be listed. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 119 to 123 unmoderated groups, from 44 to 45 moderated groups, from 163 to 168 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 8 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 12 total. In rec.*, from 77 to 77 unmoderated groups, from 5 (1 inactive) to 5 (0 inactive) moderated groups, from 82 to 82 total. In sci.*, no change: 21 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 24 total. In soc.*, from 19 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 23 to 24 total. In talk.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 12 total. 338 total (63 moderated, 275 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 45 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 52 total (5 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 160 to 164 unmoderated groups, from 48 to 49 moderated groups, from 208 to 213 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 9 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 13 total. In rec.*, from 78 to 78 unmoderated groups, from 6 (1 inactive) to 6 (0 inactive) moderated groups, from 84 to 84 total. In sci.*, no change: 24 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 27 total. In soc.*, from 20 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 24 to 25 total. In talk.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 12 total. 390 total (68 moderated, 322 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 19 June 1989)" June 20, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6962@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 19 June 1989)" June 20, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6964@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 19 June 1989)" June 20, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 6961@medusa.cs.purdue.edu At this time it appears that discussions of what became news.announce.newgroups had begun, initially as a proposal to moderate news.groups and create unmoderated news.groups.d. Greg Woods seems to have been a consensus choice for a moderator, and although he wasn't the first to suggest making the new group the moderated one instead, supported the idea early; interestingly, David Lawrence's participation in this debate includes arguing *against* the switch (that is, *for* moderating news.groups in place). Lawrence is also to be seen talking about what motivates moderators: On May 31, Steve Hayman posted message-ID <21440@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, "Proposed monthly comp.unix.{questions,wizards} article", to those two groups. Another draft followed a week later; it then appeared monthly from July 1989 to October 1990 under the subject line "Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]". Hayman also posted "Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]" from August 1989 to December 1991. The first archived FAQ in sci.space or its subgroups is dated June 10, posted by Eugene Miya, with subject line "Frequently asked SPACE questions" and message-ID <8906101100.AA14249@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>. It is patently skeletal; subsequent postings in 1989-1990 flesh it out (see , of course). Were it not for the *frequent* references, primarily by Henry Spencer, to its having already been written and posted, I would find the series of posts in that thread a perfectly plausible example of a posting going from first draft to full size over time. The first archived use of the abbreviation "FAQ" is a reference to an existing "FAQ database" maintained by Chris Torek, the reference being posted by Karl Heuer to comp.lang.c on May 26, 1989, message-ID <13415@haddock.ima.isc.com>. No followups are preserved; this may mean that nobody needed the acronym explained, or may just be yet another example of the archives' unreliability at this time. The acronym turns up again some days later on comp.unix.questions, in the thread that led to Steve Hayman's postings noted above. Added: rec.music.newage, sci.med.physics, sci.physics.fusion, soc.feminism. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Up to this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting, the biz.* groups had been listed without description lines. They were put into the normal format in this posting, with most description lines consisting of "???". Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, no change: 123 unmoderated groups, 45 moderated groups, 168 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 8 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 12 total. In rec.*, from 77 to 78 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 82 to 83 total. In sci.*, from 21 to 23 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 24 to 26 total. In soc.*, from 20 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 24 to 25 total. In talk.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 12 total. 342 total (64 moderated, 278 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 45 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 52 total (5 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, no change: 164 unmoderated groups, 49 moderated groups, 213 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, no change: 9 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 13 total. In rec.*, from 78 to 79 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 84 to 85 total. In sci.*, from 24 to 26 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 27 to 29 total. In soc.*, from 21 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 25 to 26 total. In talk.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 12 total. 394 total (69 moderated, 325 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 21 Jul 1989)" July 22, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7417@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 21 Jul 1989)" July 22, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7419@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 21 Jul 1989)" July 22, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7416@medusa.cs.purdue.edu With these lists, the inet-included total of groups reaches 400. "Introduction to rec.mag.otherrealms" by Chuq von Rospach seems to have been posted for the first time July 17, with message-ID <33219@apple.Apple.COM>. Added: comp.sys.mips, news.software.anu, rec.arts.tv.uk, sci.energy, soc.culture.nordic, talk.rape. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 123 to 124 unmoderated groups, from 45 to 45 moderated groups, from 168 to 169 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, from 8 to 9 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 12 to 13 total. In rec.*, from 78 to 79 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 83 to 84 total. In sci.*, from 23 to 24 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 26 to 27 total. In soc.*, from 20 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 25 to 26 total. In talk.*, from 12 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 12 to 13 total. 348 total (64 moderated, 284 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 45 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 52 total (5 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 164 to 165 unmoderated groups, from 49 to 49 moderated groups, from 213 to 214 total. In misc.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 16 total. In news.*, from 9 to 10 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 13 to 14 total. In rec.*, from 79 to 80 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 85 to 86 total. In sci.*, from 26 to 27 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 29 to 30 total. In soc.*, from 21 to 22 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 26 to 27 total. In talk.*, from 12 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 12 to 13 total. 400 total (69 moderated, 331 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 2 Sep 1989)" September 3, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7848@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 2 Sep 1989)" September 3, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7850@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 3 Sep 1989)" September 3, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 7847@medusa.cs.purdue.edu With the advent of news.announce.newgroups August 5, the newsgroup creation system once again could have a single point of failure, or a controller, or what you will, and if anything more strongly than in the days of the Backbone Cabal (when Gene Spafford was the backbone's mailing list operator as well as the list-poster, but was not the only voice). In this posting run, a revision of the guidelines appeared (Message-ID: 7841@medusa.cs.purdue.edu), in which Calls For Discussion, Calls For Votes, and Results were all required to appear in news.announce.newgroups. In reality, the first two moderators of nan routinely reposted CFVs that had previously appeared in news.groups, and CFDs were mildly uncommon sightings in the new group for some time to come. The first moderator, Greg Woods, expressly said, as early as September 26, that he had no problem with groups that avoided nan since "the net" evidently didn't either. But the new rules did gradually take hold, and as they did, the position of moderator of news.announce.newgroups became one capable of influencing the creation of groups to a greater extent than had hitherto been possible. Although I doubt that any moderator to date has intentionally abused this power, over the course of the next decade it would have a shaping, and not entirely benign, effect. On the other hand, the first aquaria-related proposal in nan appeared on October 4th, and on October 16th there was a call for votes for sci.aquaria ("sort of moderated", and with a moderator's note stating a "violation of the guidelines"). The nan moderator certainly wasn't calling all the shots *yet*. :-) :-( (Actually, he explicitly didn't want to. From post <3912@ncar.ucar.edu>, in which Greg Woods announced that "news.announce.newgroups is up", the following fairly astonishing statement: "Articles will only be rejected for two reasons: 1) They do not meet the newsgroup's charter (which includes followups to previous articles; the charter specifically prohibits this); and 2) They appear to be accidental violations of the newsgroup creation guidelines. Articles which state that the poster is aware of the guidelines violation will be posted provided that they are within the charter of the group. In any case, any article rejected for reason #2 above will be posted anyway if the poster insists upon it after being informed of the violation." Also in this article he stated that he would fish postings out of news.groups for two months. In another post the same date he supplied the revision of the Guidelines mentioned above.) Another August 8 article in nan announced bionet.agroforestry, courtesy of Eliot Lear, about whom we'll soon hear much more. The next day, the first extremely silly proposal in nan appeared: newstalk.talk. And on August 11, Woods apologised for the bionet.* announcement, noting that it violated the nan charter, and announced a call for votes on changing the charter to permit such announcements; on August 16 he reported that sentiment was heavily in favour of them, and announced a policy under which they would be posted. On a much more trivial note, the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups in this List of Active Newsgroups was alphabetised, for the first time since the Great Renaming, making it considerably easier for me to use for data entry, and probably also considerably easier for any readers at the time to get information from as well :-). On August 2, Tom Neff claimed in news.newusers.questions that "Other newsgroups devoted to specific topics often have monthly Frequently Asked Questions articles". Hmmm. This is so in conflict with my searches' results that I'd be worried, except that this remark was a prelude to suggesting an FAQ for nnq (as opposed to the one in news.announce.newusers, doubtless?). There had by this time been intermittent discussions of a group- specific FAQ for comp.os.vms for two years. Finally on August 3 Tom Limoncelli posted "Monthly Posting PART 1 (intro) [TEST RUN]" with message-ID <8908030613.AA10109@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>. He posted a second draft and then unveiled "Monthly Posting Part 1" and "Part 2" on October 5. Added: comp.os.mach, misc.emerg-services, misc.headlines.unitex, news.announce.newgroups, news.newusers.questions, rec.music.dylan, sci.aeronautics, sci.skeptic, soc.culture.hongkong, soc.culture.taiwan, soc.rights.human. misc.headlines.unitex was not listed on this List of Moderators, though shown as moderated on this List of Active Newsgroups; on the other hand, misc.headlines, shown as unmoderated on this and all previous Lists of Active Newsgroups, did appear on this List of Moderators. In the summary below, I treat misc.headlines.unitex as moderated and misc.headlines as unmoderated. comp.protocols.iso.x400 and comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. On the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups, the gateways flagged as unsure to work for rec.ham-radio, rec.ham-radio.packet, and rec.video are no longer listed as of this List of Active Newsgroups (but for each group, a gateway *not* so flagged continues to appear). Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 124 to 125 unmoderated groups, from 45 to 45 moderated groups, from 169 to 170 total. In misc.*, from 14 to 15 unmoderated groups, from 2 (0 inactive) to 3 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 16 to 18 total. In news.*, from 9 to 10 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 13 to 15 total. In rec.*, from 79 to 80 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 84 to 85 total. In sci.*, from 24 to 26 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 27 to 29 total. In soc.*, from 21 to 24 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 26 to 29 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 359 total (66 [1 inactive] moderated, 293 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 4 moderated groups, 45 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 52 total (5 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 165 to 166 unmoderated groups, from 50 to 50 moderated groups, from 214 to 215 total. In misc.*, from 14 to 15 unmoderated groups, from 2 (0 inactive) to 3 (1 inactive) moderated groups, from 16 to 18 total. In news.*, from 10 to 11 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 14 to 16 total. In rec.*, from 80 to 81 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 86 to 87 total. In sci.*, from 27 to 29 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 30 to 32 total. In soc.*, from 22 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 27 to 30 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 411 total (71 [1 inactive] moderated, 340 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 16 Oct 1989)" October 17, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8314@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 16 Oct 1989)" October 17, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8316@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 16 Oct 1989)" October 17, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8313@medusa.cs.purdue.edu news.announce.newgroups is much better archived, in this era, than is news.groups. I can thus inform you that, per a result posted September 15, there were only eighteen brave souls who voted against the third and, I think, worst of the major comp.* namespace crimes of 1989, comp.dsp. Evidently the voting process has never, in fact, been a particularly reliable way to make good namespace. The other significant items from nan between September 3 and October 17, the aquaria debates, I already mentioned under the previous list, where I needed them in order to write that discussion the way I wanted to. From here on out, items from nan will *usually* appear under the lists *following* the date they appeared in nan, and above the lists of groups added, etc., but I reserve the right to make more exceptions. Meanwhile on news.groups, amid the discussion that resulted in shortening the minimum time for a vote to 21 days, Brad Templeton suggested (not for the first time) centralising votes to achieve impartiality, and David Lawrence noted that he had volunteered before to do this. (That volunteering appears not to be archived.) This is not precisely a foreshadowing of the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers of 1993 - rather, a proposal for a *single* votetaker for all votes - but clearly indicates that votetaking was already seen as a significant problem. T. William Wells, moderator of comp.archives, on September 4 added "How to access the comp.archives database" to his existing welcome post; message-ID <1989Sep4.031311.8353@twwells.com>. The first example of dueling FAQs known to me *does* belong to sci.space. Bill Higgins posted "Frequently Asked Questions, Higgins version", message-ID , on September 21. However, this post included only questions, not answers. I have looked only minimally at FAQs from 1990 and beyond, but I have the *impression* that sometime within the next two years a new FAQ did in fact appear. Added: comp.dsp, comp.object, comp.security.announce (inet), comp.sys.mac.hardware, comp.unix.aix, misc.rural, news.software.anu-news, rec.gambling, sci.econ, soc.culture.sri-lanka. Removed: news.software.anu. The apparent renaming of news.software.anu simply brings the group's name per the List of Active Newsgroups into conformity with the name voted on, and apparently actually created. The proponent and votetaker for comp.sys.mac.hardware was an Apple employee at the time. Interestingly, I find *no* attacks on him for this archived. (He was by this time a Usenet veteran, so I'm not saying it would have been *right* to treat this proposal as an example of corporate self-interest; but I'd have thought someone would have treated it so anyway, given the reputation Usenet at the time had where commercialism was concerned.) Instead, this proposal became the centre of discussion of shorter voting periods than the then-required 30 days, and the votetaker got away with posting full partial results every week during the vote as an aid to this discussion! On this List of Moderators, the misc.headlines[.unitex] mess was straightened out. comp.protocols.iso.x400, comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway, and (beginning now) comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 125 to 129 unmoderated groups, from 45 to 45 moderated groups, from 170 to 174 total. In misc.*, from 15 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 3 (1 inactive) to 3 (0 inactive) moderated groups, from 18 to 19 total. In news.*, no net change: 10 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 15 total. In rec.*, from 80 to 81 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 85 to 86 total. In sci.*, from 26 to 27 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 29 to 30 total. In soc.*, from 24 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 29 to 30 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 367 total (66 moderated, 301 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 41 to 41 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 45 to 46 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 53 total (6 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 166 to 170 unmoderated groups, from 49 to 50 moderated groups, from 215 to 220 total. In misc.*, from 15 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 3 (1 inactive) to 3 (0 inactive) moderated groups, from 18 to 19 total. In news.*, no net change: 11 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 16 total. In rec.*, from 81 to 82 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 87 to 88 total. In sci.*, from 29 to 30 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 32 to 33 total. In soc.*, from 25 to 26 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 30 to 31 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 420 total (72 moderated, 348 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 2 Nov 1989)" November 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8551@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 6 Nov 1989)" November 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8553@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 2 Nov 1989)" November 7, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 8550@medusa.cs.purdue.edu In the ongoing spirit of uncertain authority, a CFD/CFV for "rec.aquarium" appeared in nan on October 19, with a moderator's note referring to a "violation" but saying "The author insists on posting it anyway." The first single-transferable-vote CFV in nan, for {comp|sci}.groupware, appeared October 27, the proponent (not the moderator) noting "a violation of the letter of the guidelines". (In the second CFV, November 16, the moderator did note that the proposed creation of two groups with a single vote was a violation too. As it turned out, only one group wound up on the official lists, although the result posting announced two, December 5.) Two periodic posts that aren't quite FAQs but seemed worth noting appeared in the fall of 1989. On October 13, a guide to versions of the game appeared in rec.games.empire; on November 23, a guide to versions of the language appeared in comp.lang.c++. Jef Poskanzer introduced a weekly FAQ for comp.graphics on October 31; he posted it at least through year's end. Possibly the best known descendant of the single-group FAQ phenomenon is the Internet Movie DataBase, or IMDB. Its earliest archived antecedent is Randal Schwartz's plea for a rec.arts.movies FAQ dated November 3; discussion followed in November. Steve Scher took the lead on actually developing it. No actual FAQ appears to have been posted in 1989. The oldest archived use of the phrase "Big 7" to refer to newsgroup hierarchies appears to be in a post by John Coolidge to news.sysadmin on October 26, 1989, with message-ID <1989Oct26.174711.16205@brutus.cs.uiuc.edu>. The next two or three uses of this phrase also appear to be Coolidge's, before it spreads. Added: comp.infosystems, comp.os.os2, comp.sys.m88k, rec.org.sca, soc.culture.korean, soc.culture.latin-america. Removed: misc.headlines.unitex. (Only the good die young?) (No. Actually, misc.headlines.unitex was perhaps the first poster child for the idea that moderators own their groups. The idea seems to have been established earlier, but this is the earliest case known to me in which that idea became central to a controversy. The group's history is interesting, and I'm not even slightly confident that I can tell that controversy here in a way I would consider reliably accurate, so I'm just going to refer you to the archives, but also note that one aspect to the story involves a fight over what was seen as "commercialisation" of Usenet. This is interesting to me for two reasons: 1 - as a contrast to the comp.sys.mac.* split situation described above; 2 - as a comparison to the fact that I have accepted, and will continue to accept, donations in return for the work this thread represents.) comp.protocols.iso.x400, comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway, and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 129 to 132 unmoderated groups, from 45 to 45 moderated groups, from 174 to 177 total. In misc.*, from 16 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 2 moderated groups, from 19 to 18 total. In news.*, no change: 10 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 15 total. In rec.*, from 81 to 82 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 86 to 87 total. In sci.*, no change: 27 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 30 total. In soc.*, from 25 to 27 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 30 to 32 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 372 total (65 moderated, 307 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 46 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 53 total (6 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 170 to 173 unmoderated groups, from 50 to 50 moderated groups, from 220 to 223 total. In misc.*, from 16 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 2 moderated groups, from 19 to 18 total. In news.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 16 total. In rec.*, from 82 to 83 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 88 to 89 total. In sci.*, no change: 30 unmoderated groups, 3 moderated groups, 33 total. In soc.*, from 26 to 28 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 31 to 33 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 425 total (71 moderated, 354 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups (Updated: 22 Dec 1989)" December 23, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 9115@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators (Updated: 11 Dec 1989)" December 23, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 9117@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Updated: 23 Dec 1989)" December 23, 1989 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 9114@medusa.cs.purdue.edu In a moderator's note on a first CFV for soc.culture.iranian, posted November 14, Woods did note the lack of preceding discussion, but didn't bother to use the word "violation" in referring to this, or even to mention the fact that the CFV called for a 47-day voting period. The second CFV appeared December 26! (But with the same date for close of vote, five days later.) Finally, on January 2, 1990, the proponent announced cancellation of the vote "due to numerous objections and comments from administrative and individual sources regarding the violation of guidelines". The rules were not necessarily being enforced, but they were taking hold. In contrast to his hands-off approach in that case, on November 17, Woods not only announced new rules on cross-posting, but also a survey to help him decide whether to require a 2/3rds YES vote for group passage in the guidelines. On December 3, he posted the results of this survey, showing 255 in favour of the 2/3rd rule and 32 against, and therefore stating that the rule was now in force. (I have in the past claimed on Usenet that he never posted the results of this survey or vote. I was wrong. I'm sorry.) Some of the NO voters are interestingly prominent: Werner Uhrig, Brad Templeton, David Sill, and Eliot Lear (who is not as well known these days as he should be, but see the 1988 year-summary under October 11, and the 1990 year-summary throughout). But the YES voters include a gallery of famous names, and did carry the day. Peter da Silva's first STV vote in nan began with a CFV intended to settle the *.aquari* issue, posted November 22, shortly before the failure of the rec.aquarium vote appeared (November 29). The passing vote result for sci.aquaria does not seem to have appeared in nan, hardly surprising considering that that vote was the inspiration for the 2/3rds rule. For a biased take on unusual campaign methods in the sci.aquaria vote, see the proponent's comments in reporting the failure of rec.aquarium. On December 12, da Silva reported a passing vote for rec.aquaria. On November 29, a posting to nan announced a mailing list gateway for misc.emerg-services. This gateway did not appear on the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups in the next List of Active Newsgroups. Also on November 29, nan included an apology for the rogue creation of comp.sys.ti.geneve without discussion or vote. See above re soc.culture.iranian. On December 22, Woods announced that he was going on vacation until December 27, the first nan Christmas break announcement. (We notice that Gene Spafford waited until *the next day* to post a list including both *.aquaria groups. Some may call it conspiracy! :-) This posting run also unveiled another list-post: Rich Kulawiec had written a "List of Periodic Informational Postings". This initial one includes some but not all of the FAQs noted in this and the preceding two year-summaries - rec.arts.drwho, for example, and sci.space, are omitted, while comp.graphics and comp.unix.* are not. At any rate, it would be possible to use this series of posts, maintained until the end of 1991 by Kulawiec and from then until the present by the successive moderators of news.answers, to track FAQs forward from 1989, but I have chosen not to delay this series of posts in order to do this in the succeeding year-summaries; the work I've already done, I think, suffices for tracing the early chronology and history of the FAQ. Please note, however, that at least the first of these lists is riddled with errors, especially but not only in the assessment of posting frequency. It did, however, make known to me the "Monthly posting guidelines for rec.guns" by Sean Sheedy, moderator; the oldest surviving copy dates to December 3, and has message-ID <37167@ism780c.isc.com>. The oldest archived use of the phrase "Big Seven" to refer to newsgroup hierarchies appears to be in a post by David Lawrence to news.groups on November 15, 1989, with message-ID <1989Nov15.224305.6345@rpi.edu>. This conveys to me the impression that there was, at this time, a felt need for a better label for these hierarchies than "world". (In the posted version of this paragraph, I referred to a possible explanation, but this turned out to be founded on inaccurate memories. I don't know why there would have been such a trend at this time, and do note that this is roughly the same time as we start getting better archives of discussion in general, with Jurgen Christoffel's beginning to complement Toronto's.) In any event, my usage is reasonably consistent. In these articles, "Big 7" or "Big Seven" means the set of "official" groups listed in the Lists of Active Newsgroups or in the Checkgroups Messages (without INET groups), and I do not use "world" or other such labels for this set. I hope, but am not certain, that I do not use "Big 7" or "Big Seven" to refer to the "official" groups along with the inet groups. Added: comp.groupware, comp.lang.perl, comp.org.usenix.roomshare, comp.sys.ncr, rec.aquaria, rec.models.rockets, rec.radio.shortwave, rec.sport.soccer, sci.aquaria, soc.culture.asean, soc.religion.islam. comp.org.usenix.roomshare is of interest as a relatively late example of a group added despite blatant violation of the Guidelines; see please for a thread to which I also refer below. comp.protocols.iso.x400, comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway, and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators, as described under June 1, 1988. The Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies includes so many new alt.* groups that I strongly suspect a case of year-end catch-up. Noteworthy: alt.callahans; alt.politics.homosexuality, the start of that sub-hierarchy. This is also the first list to include clari.*, which nearly doubled the number of groups listed. (An announcement listing dozens of clari.* groups, but possibly not all of them, had appeared in news.announce.newgroups on September 20.) I find it interesting that Peter da Silva, in a post dated November 16, proposed as a "radical new departure for newsgroups" essentially the same delegation-of-authority idea that would be central to his Usenet II net.* hierarchy a decade later. In discussion of comp.org.usenix.roomshare a month or so later (this paragraph is a result of a search on "inet", as is the paragraph above about that newsgroup), Michael Berch and Brad Templeton echo the general idea. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 132 to 136 unmoderated groups, from 45 to 45 moderated groups, from 177 to 181 total. In misc.*, no change: 16 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 18 total. In news.*, no change: 10 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 15 total. In rec.*, from 82 to 86 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 87 to 91 total. In sci.*, from 27 to 28 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 30 to 31 total. In soc.*, from 27 to 28 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 32 to 34 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 383 total (66 moderated, 317 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 41 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 46 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. 53 total (6 moderated, 47 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 173 to 177 unmoderated groups, from 50 to 50 moderated groups, from 223 to 227 total. In misc.*, no change: 16 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 18 total. In news.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 16 total. In rec.*, from 83 to 87 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 89 to 90 total. In sci.*, from 30 to 31 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 33 to 34 total. In soc.*, from 28 to 29 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 33 to 35 total. In talk.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 13 total. 436 total (72 moderated, 364 unmoderated). This is the last newsgroup list/moderator list set known to me posted in 1989. This is also the date of the last "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" of the year. It includes 51 alt.* groups (up from 27 at year-end 1988), twenty bionet.* groups (down from 22), eleven biz.* groups (up from ten), 125 clari.* groups (new this year), twenty gnu.* groups (up from sixteen), 53 inet groups (up from 51), two ddn.* groups (new), seven pubnet.* groups (unchanged), five unix-pc.* groups (unchanged), five u3b.* groups (new), and eight vmsnet.* groups (new), for a total of 307 (up from 138). Annual summary: IN THE BIG SEVEN: In comp.*, from 115 to 136 unmoderated groups, from 44 to 45 moderated groups, from 159 to 181 total. In misc.*, from 14 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 16 to 18 total. In news.*, from 8 to 10 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 12 to 15 total. In rec.*, from 74 to 86 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 79 to 91 total. In sci.*, from 18 to 28 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 21 to 31 total. In soc.*, from 17 to 28 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 6 moderated groups, from 21 to 34 total. In talk.*, from 11 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 11 to 13 total. Total, from 256 to 316 unmoderated groups, from 62 to 66 moderated groups, from 319 to 383 total. IN INET: In comp.*, from 40 to 41 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 44 to 46 total. In news.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. In rec.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 1 moderated group, 2 total. In sci.*, no change: 3 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 3 total. In soc.*, no change: 1 unmoderated group, 0 moderated groups, 1 total. Total, from 46 to 47 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 51 to 53 total. OVER ALL: In comp.*, from 155 to 177 unmoderated groups, from 48 to 50 moderated groups, from 203 to 227 total. In misc.*, from 14 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 2 moderated groups, from 16 to 18 total. In news.*, from 9 to 11 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 13 to 16 total. In rec.*, from 75 to 87 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 81 to 93 total. In sci.*, from 21 to 31 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 3 moderated groups, from 24 to 34 total. In soc.*, from 18 to 29 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 6 moderated groups, from 22 to 35 total. In talk.*, from 11 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 11 to 13 total. Total, from 303 to 364 unmoderated groups, from 67 to 72 moderated groups, from 370 to 436 total.