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>. I don't have a lot to say in summary of 1991. It was a year of moderate growth in the technical areas - such groups as comp.archives, comp.society.folkore, and news.answers appeared this year, and comp.sys.amiga.* and comp.sys.next were reorganised - combined with spectacular growth in the non-technical areas: the numbers of unmoderated groups in both rec.* and soc.* increased around 50%. It was the year David Lawrence took over news.announce.newgroups, and the year Gene Spafford broke down. It was the year a surprising number of groups I've read were created, for whatever that's worth. It clearly foreshadows the massive growth of years to come, and in particular the activity late in the year presages the long September that began in 1993, but it's quieter than those times, for all that the official list finally passed 500 groups, and both it and the inet-included list passed 600 as well. Sometime around the middle of the year, the archives of the University of Toronto Department of Zoology compiled by Henry Spencer come to an end. Without these archives, only a pittance would remain of the Usenet of the 1980s. The work I've posted to date could not have been done without them; my thanks to Henry Spencer and those who brought the archives to light, notably Bruce Jones, David Wiseman, and Michael Schmitt. But for much of 1991, we rely solely on the archives of Jurgen Christoffel. I haven't yet tried to establish how well 1991 is covered in David Lawrence's archives of control messages and of news.announce.newgroups, but at any rate, this is the first year for which those archives include a significant amount of material at all. Joe Bernstein Lists of Newsgroups Posted in 1991 GENE SPAFFORD "Checkgroups message (with INET groups)" January 22, 1991 news.admin Message-ID: 13144@medusa.cs.purdue.edu "Changes to Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" May 21, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.misc Message-ID: 14716@medusa.cs.purdue.edu To judge by the Supersedes header of the Changes posting, and of the other postings of the May 21 posting run, there was a full batch of lists posted circa January 22, but the one checkgroups is apparently the only one archived. I was able to reconstruct which groups were treated as inet groups in this posting run by reference to the Changes posting (and yes, this actually matters for this posting run; you'll soon see why). I was not able to reconstruct the changes in the gatewayed groups list or in the List of Moderators. Anyway, first on with the selective review of news.announce.newgroups. There's only one more of these to go, because David Lawrence took the group over on February 11 of this year, and I cut off my collection of Google's archives at that point, because at that time I hadn't located later gaps in the archives Lawrence instituted and his successors still maintain. As noted in the later parts of the 1990 post, my archive of nan shows every sign of being massively incomplete for these months anyway, but here's what it does contain that I think is noteworthy: MODERATOR: The CFD for soc.culture.magyar, posted January 7, refers to ending either the discussion or the vote (it's not clear which) "before Eliot leaves". (In fact, a CFV appeared January 14, meeting the January 18 deadline suggested in the same sentence, and possibly breaking a speed record.) It also isn't clear whether the leaving in question is the departure for USENIX announced January 14, with which my archive of nan for January closes, or Lear's retirement a month later. GUIDELINES: Jan Isley reported on January 14 the vote result that would produce comp.sys.3b1 and comp.sources.3b1; it included separate items on whether to create each group, where to put the discussion group (three choices, on each of which one could vote YES, NO, or OK), and what namespace terminal to use for the group(s) created (six choices, again YES, NO, or OK). Interestingly, the actual votes weren't remotely close; I don't know why this complex scheme was wanted, I only want to note that it *was* used, and *did* result in the creation of two official Big 7 groups, at this relatively late date. It's also worth noting that the "New Groups Summary" of March 11 links the groups' creation to the rmgrouping of the unix-pc.* hierarchy previously listed in the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies postings. CFDs: Jay Maynard's CFV for a reorg of rec.ham-radio.*, posted January 7, includes descriptive paragraphs (not labeled "charter" or any other label) for the new creations (rec.radio.cb and rec.radio.amateur.policy) but not for the groups to be renamed, at least two of which were old enough that they definitely didn't have pre-existing written charters. CFVs: David Wright explicitly acted as a disinterested third-party votetaker for comp.sys.unisys, according to his CFV posted January 7. (And to close this visit to the famous names department, the charter had been written by Peter da Silva, though the proponent was Craig Wilson). A post appeared January 14 with subject line "CALL FOR DISCUSSION: rec.discuss.prophecies". (The actual intended subject of the group appears to have been Nostradamus; "Old" French is explicitly accepted as a topic, for example.) The last line of this ostensible CFD indicates how to vote. END SELECTIVE REVIEW OF NAN Added: comp.dcom.fax, comp.lang.clos, comp.lang.modula3, comp.lang.vhdl, comp.multimedia, comp.research.japan, comp.sys.acorn, comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, comp.sys.amiga.announce, comp.sys.amiga.applications, comp.sys.amiga.audio, comp.sys.amiga.datacom, comp.sys.amiga.emulation, comp.sys.amiga.graphics, comp.sys.amiga.introduction, comp.sys.amiga.marketplace, comp.sys.amiga.misc, comp.sys.amiga.multimedia, comp.sys.amiga.programmer, comp.sys.amiga.reviews, comp.sys.novell, comp.text.sgml, comp.unix.amiga, comp.unix.wizards, rec.arts.fine, rec.audio.car, rec.autos.vw, rec.games.pinball, rec.music.afro-latin, rec.sport.football.college, rec.sport.football.misc, rec.sport.football.pro, rec.sport.rugby, rec.video.satellite, sci.engr.chem, sci.optics, soc.culture.filipino, soc.culture.lebanon, talk.politics.drugs. Removed: comp.sys.amiga, rec.sport.football. This List of Moderators is unavailable to me, but comp.org.eff.news, comp.protocols.iso.x400, comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway, and comp.security.announce were presumably only partly listed on it, as described under June 1, 1988. trial.soc.culture.italian is first attested by a post dated December 21, 1990; the group appears to have already existed by that date, however. It thus became the sixth trial.* group. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: a significant expansion of alt.fan.*; alt.irc. Also in this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting, the ieee.* hierarchy first appeared. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 175 to 195 unmoderated groups, from 47 to 50 moderated groups, from 222 to 245 total. In misc.*, no change: 20 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 22 total. In news.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 17 total. In rec.*, from 103 to 112 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 10 moderated groups, from 113 to 122 total. In sci.*, from 30 to 32 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 35 to 37 total. In soc.*, from 39 to 41 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 7 moderated groups, from 46 to 48 total. In talk.*, from 14 to 15 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 14 to 15 total. 506 total (80 moderated, 426 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 45 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 51 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. 58 total (7 moderated, 51 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 220 to 240 unmoderated groups, from 53 to 56 moderated groups, from 273 to 296 total. In misc.*, no change: 20 unmoderated groups, 2 moderated groups, 22 total. In news.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 18 total. In rec.*, from 104 to 113 unmoderated groups, from 11 to 11 moderated groups, from 115 to 124 total. In sci.*, from 33 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 38 to 40 total. In soc.*, from 40 to 42 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 7 moderated groups, from 47 to 49 total. In talk.*, from 14 to 15 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 14 to 15 total. 564 total (87 moderated, 477 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" May 21, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 14698@ector.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators" May 21, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 14702@ector.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" May 21, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 14699@ector.cs.purdue.edu This is the list posting run following the breakdown Gene Spafford described in his farewell note. It shows major changes not only in the parts of the lists that changed routinely, but also in the calcified parts: the list of gatewayed Big 7 groups, for example. It shows what appears to be an en masse removal of comp.* groups, perhaps the only time since the Great Renaming that the Big 7 or Big 8 have cleaned out the dead wood. It *also* shows that Spafford had set up a new server (ector, rather than medusa). It'd be understandable that Spafford took so long to unveil it, even without the health problems he described. Meanwhile, one last look at my chronological news.announce.newgroups archive, as it comes to a close with the announcement, February 11, of Eliot Lear's successor, who would become Gene Spafford's as well, David Lawrence, better known as tale. Up to that date, I see no sign of the comp.* group cleanup, but here's what I do see: MODERATOR: "Ladies and gentlemen, I depart". And we all owe many thanks to Eliot Lear. CFDs: What appears to be the CFD for soc.culture.canada appeared February 4 with subject line "Re: can you help me?" (No References header, though.) A February 4 posting has the subject line "CfD: comp.society.folklore". I don't remember seeing a previous example of this format. It has separate sections titled "TOPICS TO BE COVERED" and "CHARTER"; neither is a moderation policy, though the latter has some items relevant to one. It explicitly recognises that a related alt.* group (alt.folklore.computers, I presume) will not be removed by this group's creation. Continuing with the entertaining CFD subject lines, on February 4 we have "Call for new discussion". This turns out to propose soc.stugov and soc.stugov.tech, violating the rule that would ban simultaneous creation of foo.bar and foo.bar.baz for most of the 1990s. (soc.college.grad and soc.college.gradinfo, in the lists below, suggest that that rule would be implemented soon, but in fact these were separate proposals in separate months; I suspect .gradinfo, which was first, was actually the outcome of this CFD.) CFVs: A somewhat more formally laid out proposal for rec.discuss.prophecies was posted February 4, with the subject line "Creation of new group". It still ended with voting instructions. In the Current Status posting of February 18, this post is treated as a CFV with voting to end March 4, but in the posting of February 25, it has vanished. No group with this Crawling Horror from the Sewers of Hell (TM) of a name has in fact been created. On February 4 appeared "the (new and improved) CALL FOR VOTES, splitting rec.games.frp", with opening line "Please disregard previous calls for votes on this question." Unsurprisingly, the following lists show no sign of the vote passing. George William Herbert's CFV for two hunting newsgroups, posted February 4, asks voters to use a subject line that would not result from replying to the CFV automatically, indicates that votes without that subject line will be counted but will probably result in "hate mail", and says: "You do not need to vote for both groups. If you vote for one, please make it clear which. I will assume rec.hunting if you do not." (!) In the event, rec.hunting presumably passed, while talk.politics.hunting presumably didn't. RESULTS: In reporting the passage of the rec.ham-radio.* reorg (posted February 4), Jay Maynard indicated that he'd written a shell script and an awk script to help with the votetaking work, and offered them to anyone who wanted them. Cliff Tuel, reporting the narrow passage of rec.music.video the same day, offered his shell scripts too. The votetaker for sci.geo.geology (result posted February 4) counted one NO vote mailed to his personal mailbox; the group passed 266:11 anyway. Richard Miller posted (in news.groups; I just thought the information fit best here) on March 6, 1991 that he had asked Erik Fair to create comp.sys.unisys in inet, after it had failed a close vote (103:9). Nothing seems to have come of this request. OTHER STUFF: Amusingly enough, the CFD posted for February 4 for soc.culture.russian appears to have been the origin of soc.culture.soviet, to judge by the lists below. Usenet apparently isn't always ahead of its time... One of two CFDs for soc.culture.malaysian posted February 4 is seriously garbled in the copy available at Google, but it probably isn't Google's fault that the subject line reads "Re: How to Create a New Newsgroup". This time there *is* a References header. (The other has a sensible subject line and omits the References header and the first line of the body text.) END SELECTIVE REVIEW OF NAN, THE LAST SUCH With his first posting of it, February 18, tale changed the subject line of "recently created newsgroups" to "New Groups Being Created". On February 25, it became "New Groups Summary", assumed a fixed and highly informative format, and offered information about groups added in non-Big 7 hierarchies (explicitly excluding alt.*) as well as about passing vote results. Had the news.announce.newgroups regular postings included information about failing results and about CFDs/RFDs that didn't make it to a vote, it would be possible to create a rich chronology based on them alone for much of the next nine years; at any rate, what they do include is enough to make some things possible, though I have no intention of mining them systematically in this phase of my work on this chronology. The posting run of May 21 included, besides these lists (you *do* remember the List of Active Newsgroups etc., way up there, right?), the first posting of the Guidelines with tale's first, and most wide-ranging, revisions. These included changing CFDs to RFDs; setting up group-advice to help proponents; indicated that tale would send all newgroups and rmgroups; made the six-month cooling off period official; called for cross-posting of official posts; and said something unclear about multi-group votes. There would be no further substantive changes to the Guidelines for over two years. Added: comp.admin.policy, comp.binaries.acorn, comp.compression, comp.org.acm, comp.os.coherent, comp.os.msdos.desqview, comp.protocols.snmp (inet), comp.society.development, comp.society.folklore, comp.sources.3b1, comp.sources.acorn, comp.sources.reviewed, comp.std.announce (inet), comp.sys.3b1, comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, comp.sys.amiga.emulations, comp.windows.interviews, misc.news.southasia, rec.arts.bodyart, rec.arts.sf-reviews, rec.climbing, rec.collecting, rec.games.video.arcade, rec.hunting, rec.music.christian, rec.music.funky, rec.music.reviews, rec.music.video, rec.radio.amateur.misc, rec.radio.amateur.packet, rec.radio.amateur.policy, rec.radio.cb, rec.radio.swap, rec.sport.basketball.college, rec.sport.basketball.misc, rec.sport.basketball.pro, rec.sport.disc, rec.sport.tennis, sci.geo.geology, sci.geo.meteorology, soc.college.grad, soc.college.gradinfo, soc.culture.australian, soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.europe, soc.culture.magyar, soc.culture.new-zealand, soc.culture.soviet, soc.culture.thai, soc.culture.yugoslavia, soc.veterans. Removed: comp.dcom.lans.v2lni (inet), comp.graphics.digest, comp.org.uniforum, comp.os.eunice, comp.protocols.pup (inet), comp.society.women, comp.sys.amiga.datacom, comp.sys.amiga.emulation, comp.sys.amiga.tech, comp.sys.celerity, comp.sys.workstations, comp.unix, rec.ham-radio, rec.ham-radio.packet, rec.ham-radio.swap, rec.sport.basketball, soc.human-nets. Removed by demotion to inet: comp.text.sgml. (comp.text.sgml had been voted in during 1990, but was not recognised on the next List of Active Newsgroups; it was then listed in the first posting run of 1991 as a Big 7 group; now this. Since I have no idea what led to these contortions, I treat this as a genuine change in the summary below, although I seriously doubt that it *was* a genuine change, for reasons that will soon become clear. See also a post from David Lawrence about it, dated February 14, 1991, to news.groups and comp.text, with the I-am- not-making-this-up message-ID . Alas, this does not entirely clarify the situation.) Unmoderated in place: comp.lang.clu (inet). comp.protocols.snmp resulted from a news.announce.newgroups RFD in which the proponent explicitly said he'd prefer an inet group; five days later, he announced, again in nan, that it would be so created. comp.org.eff.news, 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. comp.protocols.tcp-ip and rec.music.synth are added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups; comp.protocols.nfs is removed from it. Any of these changes might first have appeared in the previous list posting run (for which I can't reconstruct the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups), but I think it's more likely that Spafford revised this list after, rather than before, his breakdown. Note that with the removal of comp.os.eunice ended the first group of whose creation (as NET.eunice) we have record (May 27, 1981), while with the removal of soc.human-nets we see the recognition (years after the fact) that a mailing list which did much to make Usenet popular, in its early days, had died. These removals appear not to have been much discussed; they correspond roughly to a set of removals proposed by Gene Spafford on February 17, with message-ID <13470@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, crossed with an overlapping set put forward in a thread in April: In a 1994 post, Richard Miller claimed that they had been removed by a vote (see message-ID <2hpqbc$eh8@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>); however, there is no sign of such a vote in the archived posts. Although I shouldn't say for sure, since I haven't done detailed work on 1995 through 2003 yet, I do feel confident enough about those years to say that these are *almost* certainly the last case in the Big 7's or Big 8's history of mass removal of dead groups. The trial.* hierarchy had by this posting run's date reached its maximum size, with the creation of trial.talk.politics.peace no later than February 6; we are also marginally before the first example of a trial.* group being superseded *not* by the direct promotion to the Big 7 that was supposed to happen to successful trial.* groups, but rather by a Big 7 group created through the regular Big 7 procedure. All of the trial.* groups known to me were in fact replaced or superseded by normally created Big 7 groups in 1991 and 1992, except for this final creation, trial.talk.politics.peace, which still shows up on cross- posting lists today, according to Google. Anyway, the final list, for those keeping score at home, is trial.misc.legal.software, trial.newgroups, trial.rec.metalworking, trial.soc.culture.czechoslovak, trial.soc.culture.italian, trial.talk.politics.peace, and trial.test. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.binaries.multimedia, the first group listed in its sub-hierarchy; alt.dcom.telecom; alt.restaurants, returned from the dead (see the 1990 post); alt.usage.english. Also in this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting, the k12.* hierarchy replaces the pubnet.* and unix-pc.* hierarchies. On April 23, 1991, Bruce Becker for the first time posted a list of alt.* groups, with subject line "a list of some alt groups". I have not attempted to use these lists in this series of posts, but they are obviously a useful resource for anyone who's more interested than I am in the history of the alt.* hierarchy, so I will note their fairly numerous subject line changes in this and coming posts. See also the 1993 post for more on Becker. These lists' format was somewhat unusual: they included copious suggestions for aliasing one group to another, and they included active file numbers from his system, providing a rough guide to how many postings had appeared in each group, as well as the more usual description lines, moderation tags, and moderation addresses. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 195 to 198 unmoderated groups, from 50 to 51 moderated groups, from 245 to 249 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 3 moderated groups, from 22 to 23 total. In news.*, no change: 11 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 17 total. In rec.*, from 112 to 125 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 13 moderated groups, from 122 to 138 total. In sci.*, from 32 to 34 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 37 to 39 total. In soc.*, from 41 to 52 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 6 moderated groups, from 48 to 58 total. In talk.*, no change: 15 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 15 total. 539 total (84 moderated, 455 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 45 to 46 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 51 to 52 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. 59 total (7 moderated, 52 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 240 to 244 unmoderated groups, from 56 to 57 moderated groups, from 296 to 301 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 3 moderated groups, from 22 to 23 total. In news.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 18 total. In rec.*, from 113 to 126 unmoderated groups, from 11 to 14 moderated groups, from 124 to 140 total. In sci.*, from 35 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 40 to 42 total. In soc.*, from 42 to 53 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 6 moderated groups, from 49 to 59 total. In talk.*, no change: 15 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 15 total. 598 total (91 moderated, 507 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" July 25, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 15402@ector.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators" July 25, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 15406@ector.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" July 25, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 15403@ector.cs.purdue.edu Added: comp.archives.admin, comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives, comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted, comp.graphics.research, comp.human-factors, comp.lang.lisp.mcl, comp.lsi.testing, comp.sources.hp48, comp.specification.z, comp.sys.next.announce, comp.sys.next.misc, comp.sys.next.programmer, comp.sys.next.sysadmin, comp.sys.palmtops, comp.text.sgml, misc.activism.progressive, misc.entrepreneurs, misc.writing, news.software.readers, rec.crafts.misc, rec.crafts.textiles, rec.games.board.ce, rec.games.design, rec.music.early, rec.music.industrial, rec.pets.cats, rec.sport.golf, rec.sport.volleyball, sci.archaeology, soc.culture.spain. Removed: rec.mag.otherrealms. Unmoderated in place: comp.ai.shells. The "New Groups Summary" posted July 15 shows the pending promotion of comp.sys.handhelds from inet to the Big 7 thanks to a vote of 211:14, and the one posted July 22 indicates that the relevant newgroup had gone out the previous day, but this promotion apparently was never reflected on the lists of newsgroups, and so it isn't reflected in the summaries below. (Credit for discovering this omission goes to Rob Maxwell.) The change was finally implemented for good, eleven years later, as a result of the mass promotion of the remaining inet groups done by tale's successors as news.announce.newgroups moderators. The archives preserve no contemporary comment on the omission; the promotion was part of a split into four groups, so the proponent perhaps didn't care as much about the promotion as about the new creations. (Amusingly enough, the voted charter of comp.sys.handhelds reads as follows: "This newsgroup will contain all the same postings the inet group contains of the same name. Voting on this will just make comp.sys.handhelds an official Usenet newsgroup. Nothing else will change. If the vote fails comp.sys.handhelds will just remain an inet only group.") comp.org.eff.news, 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. comp.graphics.research wasn't listed at all on this List of Moderators, though it was listed as moderated on this List of Active Newsgroups; in the summaries below, I treat the latter as correct. rec.equestrian is removed from the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups; rec.music.funky, rec.radio.amateur.policy, and rec.radio.shortwave are added to that list. Note that comp.text.sgml was added to this List of Active Newsgroups *without* being removed from the list of inet groups in this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting. While it's remotely possible that all of the previous lists correctly reflected the group's real position at the given time, I really don't see how the group can simultaneously have been inet and Big 7, so at this time I reluctantly show it as Big 7 only in the summaries below, and remove it from inet before this removal is actually reflected in the posted lists. (Remember, please, that the purpose of this phase of my work on this chronology is not to determine what really happened, only to describe what data the lists whose message-IDs I provide have to offer.) In any event, comp.text.sgml's removal from inet probably never *really* happened, since the group was probably never really inet anyway. See also on this a post by the proponent, Ed Vielmetti, on May 31 to news.admin, with message-ID . Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.binaries.pictures and its first subgroup, alt.binaries.pictures.d; alt.comp.acad-freedom.{news,talk}; alt.fan.warlord; alt.rmgroup; alt.support. I see at least two cases where I think Spafford must have had to deal with controversies in alt.*: alt.magic vs. alt.magick, and alt.fan.rush-limbaugh vs. alt.rush-limbaugh; in the former case, the newsgroup lines indicate differing topics, while the latter pair appear entirely duplicative. Also in this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies posting, the bit.* hierarchy of listserv mailing list gateways first appeared. Bruce Becker's June 1, 1991 list had subject line '"alt" newsgroups listing'. On July 2, it was 'alt groups'. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 198 to 211 unmoderated groups, from 51 to 53 moderated groups, from 249 to 264 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 22 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 4 moderated groups, from 23 to 26 total. In news.*, from 11 to 12 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 17 to 18 total. In rec.*, from 125 to 134 unmoderated groups, from 13 to 12 moderated groups, from 138 to 146 total. In sci.*, from 34 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 39 to 40 total. In soc.*, from 52 to 53 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 58 to 59 total. In talk.*, no change: 15 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 15 total. 568 total (86 moderated, 482 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 46 to 45 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 52 to 51 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. 58 total (7 moderated, 51 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 244 to 256 unmoderated groups, from 57 to 59 moderated groups, from 301 to 315 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 22 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 4 moderated groups, from 23 to 26 total. In news.*, from 12 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 18 to 19 total. In rec.*, from 126 to 135 unmoderated groups, from 14 to 13 moderated groups, from 140 to 148 total. In sci.*, from 37 to 38 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 42 to 43 total. In soc.*, from 53 to 54 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 59 to 60 total. In talk.*, no change: 15 unmoderated groups, 0 moderated groups, 15 total. 626 total (93 moderated, 533 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" September 9, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups Message-ID: 15986@ector.cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators" September 9, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers Message-ID: 15993@ector.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" September 9, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups Message-ID: 15987@ector.cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" September 9, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups Message-ID: 15988@ector.cs.purdue.edu Yes, this is the posting run in which one of these posts was first split in two (the addition of bit.* in the previous run probably being the straw that broke the camel's back). The inet groups are in the second of the parts; I'll continue to list all parts of the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, despite the fact that the inet groups appear in only one part each time, basically just for completeness' sake. (There are, in any event, fewer than thirty posting runs left before all of these posts fall into oblivion.) Added: comp.lang.hermes, comp.org.issnnet, comp.protocols.ppp, comp.sys.hp48, comp.sys.prime, misc.books.technical, rec.crafts.brewing, rec.games.backgammon, rec.roller-coaster, rec.sport.triathlon, soc.culture.italian, soc.culture.mexican, talk.politics.space. Moderated in place: comp.windows.x.announce (inet). The news.announce.newgroups postings related to soc.culture.italian were cross-posted to trial.soc.culture.italian and explicitly acknowledged its existence, but did not refer to the fact that the trial.* hierarchy should have enabled the group to skip the news.announce.newgroups process. comp.org.eff.news, 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. comp.graphics.research appeared this time on that list as well as the List of Active Newsgroups; on the other hand, sci.math.research appeared on that list *without* appearing on this List of Active Newsgroups; I treat neither as an added group in the summaries below. comp.text.sgml continued to appear both in the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post as an inet group and in the List of Active [Big 7] Newsgroups; I continue to count it only in the latter category in the summaries below. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.evil; alt.games.xtrek, the second in its sub-hierarchy; alt.personals.bondage, the first in *its* sub-hierarchy; three new alt.religion.* groups, including alt.religion.scientology. Also, alt.restaurants is again delisted. Bruce Becker's list of alt.* groups posted August 5, 1991 had subject line 'Listing of "alt" newsgroups'. On September 1, it was 'A listing of "alt" newsgroups'. (This one provoked an attempt by David Wright at explaining the list's existence, which indicated that Becker was an alt.* completist - accept all newgroups, ignore all rmgroups - at least for purposes of this list.) This posting run's "Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies" post was the first to be split into three parts, and the last to be maintained by its original author, Andrew Partan. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 211 to 216 unmoderated groups, from 53 to 53 moderated groups, from 264 to 269 total. In misc.*, from 22 to 23 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 26 to 27 total. In news.*, no change: 12 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 18 total. In rec.*, from 134 to 138 unmoderated groups, from 12 to 12 moderated groups, from 146 to 150 total. In sci.*, no change: 35 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 40 total. In soc.*, from 53 to 55 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 59 to 61 total. In talk.*, from 15 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 15 to 16 total. 581 total (86 moderated, 495 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 45 to 44 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 51 to 51 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. 58 total (8 moderated, 50 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 256 to 260 unmoderated groups, from 59 to 60 moderated groups, from 315 to 320 total. In misc.*, from 22 to 23 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 26 to 27 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 6 moderated groups, 19 total. In rec.*, from 135 to 139 unmoderated groups, from 13 to 13 moderated groups, from 148 to 152 total. In sci.*, no change: 38 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 43 total. In soc.*, from 54 to 56 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 60 to 62 total. In talk.*, from 15 to 16 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 15 to 16 total. 639 total (94 moderated, 545 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups" December 7, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active_692072018@cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators" December 7, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-moderate_692072029@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" December 7, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups_692072020@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" December 7, 1991 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups Message-ID: spaf-altgroups2_692072022@cs.purdue.edu No, the variations in the Newsgroups headers are *not* my invention. The September 30 posting unveiled a new format for the "New Groups Summary", making it rather easier to read and adding newsgroup description lines to the already considerable amount of information contained. The "Current Status of Votes on Newsgroup" postings of late September and early October show a vote taking place on moving the trial.* group creation method into the Big 7 hierarchies, but nothing resulting from that vote ever appeared in the "New Groups Summary" postings. The vote did in fact pass, 175:47. However, I find no sign at Google that any posts to {comp|humanities|misc|news|rec|sci|soc|talk}.trial.* exist in their archives, nor have I heard by any other means of such groups being created, so I conclude that this vote was the end entire of the trial newsgroup creation experiment. I note in this and subsequent year-summaries the promotion of the individual trial.* groups to official Big 7 status, including whatever was said at the time about the trial.* groups. As noted above, such a promotion still has not occurred for trial.talk.politics.peace, but I'm not going to note its sole survival on every post from here on. Added: comp.databases.informix, comp.graphics.avs, comp.patents, comp.soft-sys.khoros, comp.text.frame, misc.int-property, misc.legal.computing, news.answers, news.future, rec.arts.comics.marketplace, rec.arts.sf.announce, rec.arts.sf.fandom, rec.arts.sf.marketplace, rec.arts.sf.misc, rec.arts.sf.movies, rec.arts.sf.reviews, rec.arts.sf.science, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.sf.written, rec.games.corewar, rec.games.mud.lp, rec.juggling, rec.kites, rec.pets.birds, rec.pets.herp, rec.video.cable-tv, rec.video.releases, sci.math.research, soc.bi, soc.culture.afghanistan, soc.culture.caribbean, soc.culture.portuguese, soc.culture.usa, talk.politics.animals. Removed: comp.sys.next, rec.arts.sf-reviews. The news.announce.newgroups posts related to the creation of comp.patents, misc.legal.computing and misc.int-property were cross-posted to trial.misc.legal.software but did not explicitly relate that group to any of the proposed new groups. comp.org.eff.news, 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. sci.math.research, which had been listed on the previous List of Moderators, was now listed on both lists, and now appears in the summaries below. comp.sys.prime and comp.windows.interviews are added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups. comp.text.sgml finally left the inet list in this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II posting. This isn't shown as a change in the summary below, because in the summaries I already dropped it from inet two posting runs back. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: improbably enough, several months after the creation of alt.binaries.pictures, alt.sex.pictures.female and alt.sex.pictures.male; alt.wais. I see no October list of alt.* newsgroups from Bruce Becker. The one dated November 9 has subject line 'listing of newsgroups in the "alt" hierarchy'. I'm not clear on whether there was a December list or not; if there was, I doubt Google has it. This posting run's "Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies" was the last to be maintained, this time by Gene Spafford. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 216 to 219 unmoderated groups, from 53 to 54 moderated groups, from 269 to 273 total. In misc.*, from 23 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 27 to 29 total. In news.*, from 12 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 18 to 20 total. In rec.*, from 138 to 154 unmoderated groups, from 12 to 13 moderated groups, from 150 to 167 total. In sci.*, from 35 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 40 to 41 total. In soc.*, from 55 to 60 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 61 to 66 total. In talk.*, from 16 to 17 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 16 to 17 total. 613 total (90 moderated, 523 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 44 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 51 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. 58 total (8 moderated, 50 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 261 to 263 unmoderated groups, from 60 to 61 moderated groups, from 321 to 324 total. In misc.*, from 23 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 4 moderated groups, from 27 to 29 total. In news.*, from 13 to 14 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 19 to 21 total. In rec.*, from 140 to 155 unmoderated groups, from 13 to 14 moderated groups, from 153 to 169 total. In sci.*, from 38 to 38 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 43 to 44 total. In soc.*, from 56 to 61 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 6 moderated groups, from 62 to 67 total. In talk.*, from 16 to 17 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 16 to 17 total. 671 total (98 moderated, 573 unmoderated). This is the last newsgroup list/moderator list set known to me posted in 1991. This is also the date of the last "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" of the year. It includes 177 alt.* groups (up from 106 at year-end 1990), 24 bionet.* groups (up from eighteen), 145 bit.* groups (new this year), nineteen biz.* groups (up from fifteen), 155 clari.* groups (unchanged), 28 gnu.* groups (up from 25), eleven ieee.* groups (new), 58 inet groups (unchanged), two ddn.* groups (unchanged), 21 k12.* groups (new), five u3b.* groups (unchanged), and 25 vmsnet.* groups (up from twelve), for a total of 670 (up from 408, even though the pubnet.* and unix-pc.* hierarchies disappeared from the list). (Bruce Becker's list dated January 2, 1992 had, according to the forematter - I am not counting these lists by hand, unlike my practice with Gene Spafford's lists - 330 alt.* groups along with 103 aliases.) I'll also mention the alt.* newsgroup description lines. As far back as 1987, some of these had tried to be funny, but this year there was a marked upturn in the number of this type, and a read of one of the late-in-the-year Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies postings actually has some comic value. Tastes differ, of course, but at least *I* think alt.dev.null, alt.flame, alt.personals, alt.personals.bondage, alt.rap-gdead, alt.religion.emacs, several of the alt.sex.* groups, and alt.sport.bungee had lines worth reading. I don't know whether the increase indicates that Gene Spafford had loosened up, or (what I think likelier) that alt.* proponents had started doing their own newsgroup lines. Annual summary: IN THE BIG SEVEN: In comp.*, from 175 to 219 unmoderated groups, from 47 to 54 moderated groups, from 222 to 273 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 4 moderated groups, from 22 to 29 total. In news.*, from 11 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 17 to 20 total. In rec.*, from 103 to 154 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 13 moderated groups, from 113 to 167 total. In sci.*, from 30 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 35 to 41 total. In soc.*, from 39 to 60 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 6 moderated groups, from 46 to 66 total. In talk.*, from 14 to 17 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 14 to 17 total. Total, from 392 to 523 unmoderated groups, from 77 to 90 moderated groups, from 469 to 613 total. IN INET: In comp.*, from 45 to 44 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 51 to 51 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 51 to 50 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 8 moderated groups, from 58 to 58 total. OVER ALL: In comp.*, from 220 to 263 unmoderated groups, from 53 to 61 moderated groups, from 273 to 324 total. In misc.*, from 20 to 25 unmoderated groups, from 2 to 4 moderated groups, from 22 to 29 total. In news.*, from 12 to 14 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 7 moderated groups, from 18 to 21 total. In rec.*, from 104 to 155 unmoderated groups, from 11 to 14 moderated groups, from 115 to 169 total. In sci.*, from 33 to 38 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 38 to 44 total. In soc.*, from 40 to 61 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 6 moderated groups, from 47 to 67 total. In talk.*, from 14 to 17 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 14 to 17 total. Total, from 443 to 573 unmoderated groups, from 84 to 98 moderated groups, from 527 to 671 total.