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>. 1993 is the year of two well-known events - Gene Spafford's retirement and the beginning of the long September. It is, however, a considerably less dramatic year seen from the perspective of these lists; the most interesting event there is a massive (and, I think, failed) attempt by David Lawrence to clean up alt.* mid-year. Slightly more groups were first listed in 1993 than in 1992, in the Big 7, but the rate of growth taken as a percentage of existing groups slowed markedly. In alt.* as shown in the Alternative Newsgroups Hierarchies lists, even the absolute rate of growth dropped (a result of that cleanup attempt). I composed this post initially under a deadline and then while homeless. Perhaps for this reason - but probably not only for this reason - I have no elegant analyses of trends in namespace, for example, to offer. Frankly, as I write this, the year-end summary bewilders me; I can't characterise it either as a triumph of newbies, given the far from wild growth in rec.* and soc.*, or as a return of the technical, though comp.* and sci.* do seem to have done somewhat better. Moderated and unmoderated groups grew about equally fast, though one noteworthy trend is the several moderated sci.* groups created as alternatives to existing unmoderated groups (or in one case, the moderation in place of a sci.* group). Although re-orgs did once again drive much of the growth, they're a less spectacular phenomenon than in 1992, perhaps because they tended to be smaller; one interesting aspect, though, is the appearance of second-generation re-orgs such as those of comp.os.os2.programmer and comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, both of which had been created in 1990 re-orgs. news.* shrank. This is actually an artifact of list posting runs' dates (the groups involved had been removed in 1992, whose last lists were posted quite early), but the reality is a bigger milestone: news.* had shrunk before (in 1988, as had misc.* that year), but 1993 was the first year in which any of the Big 7 hierarchies had *stood still*. Gene Spafford's retirement is most often thought of by the post I've called his "farewell note". It is, in reality, nothing of the sort; it is rather a scathing denunciation of Usenet by a bitter man. It's easy to link this with the changes, generally seen as disastrous, brought on by the subsequent long September, and so the obvious way to characterise 1993 is as the year in which the barbarians invaded. Well, maybe so, but I don't see it as the year in which this invasion is reflected in newsgroup creation. The Usenet Spafford complained of is, by a few months, *necessarily* the *pre*-long September Usenet; the Usenet that drove the creation of all those sci.*.research groups was not full of those of us who came to Usenet courtesy of ISPs, but of the people who complained about us when we arrived. But a less well-known event happened between these more famous ones, in 1993: the founding of the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers. To judge by Ron Dippold's initial proposal, this wasn't *meant* to become a required element of the Big 7 newsgroup creation process, it was just meant to help people out. I didn't look at every vote taken in its first months, which appear to be August and September of 1993, but did look at a fair number. And it's pretty obvious that quite a lot of people in fact wished to help people out by votetaking, right from the start; I'm not sure we invaders have managed to match their numbers in the succeeding *decade*. So although 1993 could be characterised as the year in which the callous, rude people Spafford denounced met an even more callous, rude set of newcomers, I don't think any of that picture is wholly right. METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES, skippable by the easily bored: This draft of this post, as also the draft of the 1994 post appearing as a followup to this, are preliminary ones, and will probably be replaced at my website, if not on news.groups, as soon as I have proper housing again, should that day ever come. This is because these are the first two years for which I rely heavily on the "Changes" postings, the diffs posted as part of each posting run, theoretically showing the changes between the previous posting run and the current one. I introduced these in the 1985 post, and in the 1988 post, when for the first time I used a "Changes to the List of Active Newsgroups" post, I discussed some of my reasons for not using them. Well, I *have* used them now, and have more reasons for considering the results unreliable, and good to replace as soon as possible. Basically, I'm not convinced I'm consistently reading the diffs correctly; I'm quite certain the sources for the diffs aren't always the same as the actual posts from the separate posting runs (see, for example, the first 1994 Changes to the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post); and I'm not convinced the diffs even *work* reliably (all of my comments below on the bizarreness of the alt.* listings should be read with that in mind). Nevertheless. I didn't have time to search for noteworthy new alt.* groups for 1993 and 1994 my usual way, by comparing the two lists at a normal reading pace. I certainly can't conceive of doing that at library computers, now my only access to the posts. But I can look at Changes posts, so I do. Similarly. I didn't even know the "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet" series *existed* until after I'd become homeless and my computer had been locked into storage. So I did the comparison between the first of those posts and the last list of gatewayed groups in the List of Active Newsgroups by hand, with pen and paper. Changes posts were the only sensible way to proceed thereafter. But I will try to replicate or replace the results in my more usual way, when I can, if that day comes. In the meantime, I'm behaving inconsistently in my lists of posts below. I've normally listed the same posts as I've used to obtain the data summarised under the post-listing. This time I've listed the source posts, not the Changes posts I actually used. Sorry! This misrepresents my methods, but it does have two major advantages: 1) It makes it easy for people to find the source posts, the more important documents - for example, me later, going back over this work; or someone else wishing to check it sooner. 2) Elsewhere, I've listed Changes posts only where the original source posts aren't available. If I had listed Changes posts here where the source posts *are* available, I'd have broken that consistency, and left it unclear what materials actually survived. Finally, a minor advantage: 3) This way, I don't have to re-do anything I've already done. Since my net time is limited these days, ... Google's archives for 1993 derive, for the first part of the year, from the "Usenet on CDs" collection, and for the latter part of the year, from Jurgen Christoffel's archives; I don't know how much overlap there is in the middle. To judge by the votes I looked at in what work I did on the early days of the UVV, the news.announce.newgroups archive at the ISC is largely, but hardly entirely, complete for 1993; I haven't yet checked whether Google fills any of the gaps. Joe Bernstein Lists of Newsgroups Posted in the First Half of 1993 GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" January 11, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active_726771283@cs.purdue.edu "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" January 11, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active2_726771293@cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators for Usenet" January 11, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-moderate_726771316@cs.purdue.edu "Changes to Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" January 11, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.misc,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-c_altgroups_726769957@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" January 11, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups2_726771307@cs.purdue.edu The numerous additions this time are unsurprising given the three months that had passed since the previous list; in any event, they took the inet-included list past the 900 mark. The removals are all, as best I can tell, the results of re-orgs, in some cases due to groups having been split, in others due to groups that hadn't thriven being removed while the topic was being discussed. At least one, rec.music.synth, had simply been renamed. On November 23, 1992 (yes, one month after the last list posting run of 1992), David Lawrence posted that he would discontinue posting "New Groups in Alternate and Regional Hierarchies". He explained: 'it was a lot of work for something of marginal value. It was hopelessly lacking in accurate data for all that it was envisioned to cover, and there was additional trouble in trying to decide whether it should mean "these were just created for the first time in netnews" or "new groups which uunet is carrying" or something else.' He correctly noted that this decision meant he'd be returning to the kind of material Eliot Lear had begun posting - evidently he, at least, was able at this time to remember two years back - though in truth his posts had become substantially more informative than Lear's. On December 1, 1992, Lawrence introduced the third and last of the set of periodically posted news.announce.newgroups list postings, "Bogus USENET Groups". Its endmatter explicitly disavowed "official"ness but nevertheless urged compliance. This posting changed less than the others in its shakedown months, and never exfoliated into the wide variety of information the others provided, although the January 25, 1993 one introduced a couple of changes to make it easier to use, and the endmatter was slightly revised later in the year. On December 14, 1992 the "New USENET Groups" posting's table of moderator addresses changed format somewhat, without (as best I can see) any change in the information actually provided. That same post included an apology for a delay in reviewing the vote result on rec.arts.poems.urdu, indicating that there should be a decision by December 15; unfortunately, the following week's "New USENET Groups" posting included the same apology and decision date... Thereafter the group dropped out of that posting. A decision finally appeared on April 8, 1993, invalidating the vote on different grounds from those initially stated November 16, 1992; the April 8 post claims to be a repost of a February 12 one that didn't propagate and isn't archived. The "Current Status of USENET Newsgroup Proposals" posted January 11 is the first in a long time to list no ongoing votes for which there were separate addresses for YES and NO votes (something I tracked due to my misreading of the September, 1990 revisions to the Guidelines). Such two-address votes did return fairly soon. Added: comp.ai.genetic, comp.arch.bus.vmebus, comp.archives.msdos.announce, comp.archives.msdos.d, comp.lang.pop, comp.mail.mime, comp.networks.noctools.announce (inet), comp.networks.noctools.bugs (inet), comp.networks.noctools.d (inet), comp.networks.noctools.submissions (inet), comp.networks.noctools.tools (inet), comp.networks.noctools.wanted (inet), comp.org.isoc.interest (inet), comp.os.linux.announce, comp.sys.convex, comp.sys.mac.oop.macapp3, comp.sys.mac.oop.misc, comp.sys.next.bugs, comp.sys.sgi.admin, comp.sys.sgi.announce, comp.sys.sgi.apps, comp.sys.sgi.bugs, comp.sys.sgi.graphics, comp.sys.sgi.hardware, comp.sys.sgi.misc, comp.windows.x.i386unix, misc.health.alternative, misc.news.east-europe.rferl, rec.arts.marching.drumcorps, rec.arts.marching.misc, rec.autos.antique, rec.collecting.cards, rec.crafts.metalworking, rec.games.abstract, rec.games.diplomacy, rec.games.mecha, rec.music.makers.bass, rec.music.makers.guitar, rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature, rec.music.makers.percussion, rec.music.makers.synth, rec.music.reggae, rec.sport.fencing, rec.sport.table-tennis, rec.travel.marketplace, sci.aeronautics.airliners, sci.chem.organomet, sci.virtual-worlds.apps, soc.culture.croatia, soc.religion.quaker, talk.politics.medicine. Removed: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives, comp.unix.msdos, comp.unix.sysv286, comp.unix.sysv386, misc.forsale.computers, news.admin, news.sysadmin, rec.bicycles, rec.music.synth. The news.announce.newgroups documents related to rec.crafts.metalworking explicitly refer to trial.rec.metalworking as the same group, looking for better propagation, and refer to the trial "method of newsgroup creation" as "more or less abandoned", hence unable to sanction a renaming. They were cross-posted to the trial.* group. As in the case of rec.autos.vw, I'll note that rec.games.diplomacy re-created one of the first groups to be rmgrouped, net.games.dip, at least in principle. (In practice, net.games.dip had existed solely for the sake of a single online game of Diplomacy, not for ongoing discussion of the topic.) There was no pre-announcement of the comp.networks.noctools.* groups to Usenet, or at least none is preserved *or* attested in the archives (and given how high anti-inet feelings had risen by this time, that strikes me as adequate proof). But a post by Jess Anderson on January 8, 1993, <1993Jan8.013028.22313@macc.wisc.edu>, preserves an e-mail by Eliot Lear to the nntp-managers mailing list (which is where most discussion of the inet distribution seems to have taken place), dated November 13, 1992, saying "I'm going to issue control messages with distribution INET for the following groups today (with Erik's blessing)". (If anyone knows of accessible archives of nntp-managers, please let me know! I didn't find any on a cursory look around, but haven't tried in any serious way.) comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. rec.music.makers.synth replaces rec.music.synth on the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups as on the main list. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.cesium; a bunch of new alt.culture.* groups; alt.current-events.somalia; seven alt.education.bangkok.* groups; alt.fan.elvis-presley (whatever took so long?); alt.fan.tolkien (violating the apparent rule against duplications of Big 7 groups); ten new alt.flame.* groups; alt.gorby.coup.coup.coup, with a description line identical to that of the previously listed alt.gorby.gone.gone.gone immediately following; alt.horror.cthulhu; alt.inet92 (whose stated topic was a *1992* conference); a bunch of new alt.music.* groups; the first two alt.org.* groups, alt.org.food-not-bombs and alt.org.pugwash; alt.pets.chia and alt.philosophy.objectivism, each beginning a sub-hierarchy; a bunch of new alt.politics.* groups; alt.sect.ahmadiyya (showing religious groups even remotely mainstream still avoiding alt.religion.*, which gained two newsgroups for "religions" unknown to me this time out); a bunch of new alt.tv.* groups; two new alt.uu.* groups, showing the "Usenet University" apparently still in business; the first two alt.znet.* groups. Noteworthy removals from alt.*, at least as shown by these lists: most of alt.bbs.*; much of alt.binaries.pictures.*; alt.culture.tamil and alt.motorcycles.harley (both duplicative of Big 7 groups; see above); alt.politics.democrats and a bunch of its subgroups; alt.sewing (??). Amazingly enough, alt.materials.simulation is shown as becoming moderated in place. Also, this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post is the first to include the info.* hierarchy, as well as the first to include the relcom.* hierarchy, the first and (I think) the only non-English-language hierarchy ever included in that series of posts. Finally, it gives credit to Bruce Becker for help with the alt.* list. This is pretty mind-boggling, and serves to indicate something of a disconnect between Spafford and the rest of Usenet at the time, I suspect. There is a perfectly logical explanation. Becker had been posting completist lists of alt.* groups, *and* how many articles his site had ever seen in each. Spafford could thus readily determine whether any groups he'd been omitting were widely enough used to justify adding. But Becker had become *extremely* hated in the meantime. In order to find his lists, I had to search on his name; he routinely morphed both subject line and From: header. Well, in that search, I found *numerous* people, some of whom I take as truthful from my own knowledge of them, indicating that Becker not only newgrouped any alt.* group that anyone rmgrouped, but that no later than mid-1992 he had taken to newgrouping these groups *with newgroups forged to appear as if sent by the rmgrouper*. By early 1993, this behaviour appears to have resulted in his widespread repudiation and indeed killfiling and obscurity on Usenet. I'm pretty surprised, therefore, that Spafford chose to proceed in this fashion, having previously ignored Becker's lists for a year and a half. Those lists had appeared, since the last posting run, on November 7 and December 6, 1992, and there appears to have been a posting on January 3, 1993, although that posting is not archived, so although the date *is* encoded in the surviving Message-ID (<1993Jan3.001200.1813@becker.GTS.ORG>), it isn't provable. Perhaps I should note, on my methodology, two things about my choices of noteworthy situations in alt.*. After this posting run, I in general consider it unnecessary to note substantial expansions in well-established sub-hierarchies - my point *this* time was to drive home just how massive a revision this post's alt.* list was. And the ease of working from a Changes post, by necessity this time, persuaded me to do it by choice thereafter - which led to bad results below, but alas, turned out by then to be a necessity anyway. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 296 to 308 unmoderated groups, from 60 to 63 moderated groups, from 356 to 371 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 32 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 4 moderated groups, from 35 to 36 total. In news.*, from 15 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 8 moderated groups, from 23 to 21 total. In rec.*, from 215 to 230 unmoderated groups, from 25 to 25 moderated groups, from 240 to 255 total. In sci.*, from 52 to 53 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 10 moderated groups, from 60 to 63 total. In soc.*, from 70 to 72 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 7 moderated groups, from 77 to 79 total. In talk.*, from 18 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 18 to 19 total. 844 total (117 moderated, 727 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, from 47 to 52 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 7 moderated groups, from 52 to 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 343 to 360 unmoderated groups, from 65 to 70 moderated groups, from 408 to 430 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 32 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 4 moderated groups, from 35 to 36 total. In news.*, from 16 to 14 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 8 moderated groups, from 24 to 22 total. In rec.*, from 216 to 231 unmoderated groups, from 26 to 26 moderated groups, from 242 to 257 total. In sci.*, from 55 to 56 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 10 moderated groups, from 63 to 66 total. In soc.*, from 71 to 73 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 7 moderated groups, from 78 to 80 total. In talk.*, from 18 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 0 moderated groups, from 18 to 19 total. 910 total (125 moderated, 785 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" February 1, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active_728545573@cs.purdue.edu "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" February 1, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active2_728545583@cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators for Usenet" February 1, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-moderate_728545609@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" February 1, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups_728545589@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" February 1, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups2_728545597@cs.purdue.edu The obvious explanation for the short gap between the first list of this year and this one would be that Gene Spafford was making one last attempt to turn over a new leaf, but I suspect he was actually just responding to the creation of the *.answers groups. He does not seem to have posted any remarks about it at the time. Added: comp.ai.fuzzy, comp.answers, comp.binaries.ms-windows, comp.dcom.sys.wellfleet, comp.lang.dylan, comp.soft-sys.matlab, misc.answers, rec.answers, rec.radio.info, sci.answers, sci.med.dentistry, soc.answers, soc.culture.singapore, talk.answers. comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. comp.graphics.gnuplot is added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.news.macedonia; alt.lang.apl and alt.lang.sas (more duplications of Big 7 groups). Again, Bruce Becker is named as helping with the alt.* list. He had posted no new lists of alt.* groups since the previous posting run himself, however. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 308 to 312 unmoderated groups, from 63 to 65 moderated groups, from 371 to 377 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 32 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 36 to 37 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 230 to 230 unmoderated groups, from 25 to 27 moderated groups, from 255 to 257 total. In sci.*, from 53 to 54 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 11 moderated groups, from 63 to 65 total. In soc.*, from 72 to 73 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 8 moderated groups, from 79 to 81 total. In talk.*, from 19 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 1 moderated group, from 19 to 20 total. 858 total (125 moderated, 733 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 360 to 364 unmoderated groups, from 70 to 72 moderated groups, from 430 to 436 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 32 unmoderated groups, from 4 to 5 moderated groups, from 36 to 37 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 231 to 231 unmoderated groups, from 26 to 28 moderated groups, from 257 to 259 total. In sci.*, from 56 to 57 unmoderated groups, from 10 to 11 moderated groups, from 66 to 68 total. In soc.*, from 73 to 74 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 8 moderated groups, from 80 to 82 total. In talk.*, from 19 to 19 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 1 moderated group, from 19 to 20 total. 924 total (133 moderated, 791 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" March 27, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active_733252612@cs.purdue.edu "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" March 27, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active2_733252616@cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators for Usenet" March 27, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-moderate_733252633@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" March 27, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups_733252620@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" March 27, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups2_733252627@cs.purdue.edu Don't be under the illusion that these posts, voluminous as they are, actually mention all the news-architectural periodic postings of the times they discuss; they certainly don't. For example, I haven't touched the Arbitron project; and I only mention here the advent of "Sites honoring invalid newsgroups (by site)", by Kenneth Herron, on February 7, in preparation for a point I'll make further below. This post would appear weekly for the next 20 months. Added: comp.os.386bsd.announce, comp.os.386bsd.apps, comp.os.386bsd.bugs, comp.os.386bsd.development, comp.os.386bsd.misc, comp.os.386bsd.questions, comp.sources.postscript, rec.arts.startrek.reviews, rec.games.frp.cyber, rec.sport.rowing, sci.physics.research, soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.malaysia, soc.culture.native, soc.religion.christian.bible-study. Removed: rec.games.cyber. comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. On the other hand, comp.lang.ml was fully listed although it would not be added to the List of Active Newsgroups until the next posting run; likewise rec.games.cyber, which was removed from the List of Active Newsgroups with this posting run, and sci.aeronautics, which was shown on this List of Active Newsgroups (but no later one) as unmoderated. In each case, the summaries below agree with the List of Active Newsgroups, not the List of Moderators for Usenet. rec.games.diplomacy is added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.answers; alt.current-events.wtc-explosion; alt.mothers; alt.pave.the.earth (noteworthy only in the sense that it's a joke group I'd actually heard of, far as I know; but joke groups are numerous in the additions in each posting of the alt.* list these days); alt.transgendered; alt.tv.babylon-5. For the last time, Bruce Becker is listed as a helper with alt.*. Bruce Becker posted lists of alt.* groups on February 5 and March 3, 1993, with subject line 'Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" Usenet hierarchy' each time. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 312 to 317 unmoderated groups, from 65 to 67 moderated groups, from 377 to 384 total. In misc.*, no change: 32 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 37 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 230 to 232 unmoderated groups, from 27 to 27 moderated groups, from 257 to 259 total. In sci.*, from 54 to 54 unmoderated groups, from 11 to 12 moderated groups, from 65 to 66 total. In soc.*, from 73 to 76 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 9 moderated groups, from 81 to 85 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 872 total (129 moderated, 743 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 364 to 369 unmoderated groups, from 72 to 74 moderated groups, from 436 to 443 total. In misc.*, no change: 32 unmoderated groups, 5 moderated groups, 37 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 231 to 233 unmoderated groups, from 28 to 28 moderated groups, from 259 to 261 total. In sci.*, from 57 to 57 unmoderated groups, from 11 to 12 moderated groups, from 68 to 69 total. In soc.*, from 74 to 77 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 9 moderated groups, from 82 to 86 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 938 total (137 moderated, 801 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" April 26, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active_735800512@cs.purdue.edu "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" April 26, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-active2_735800518@cs.purdue.edu "List of Moderators for Usenet" April 26, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-moderate_735800539@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" April 26, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups_735800527@cs.purdue.edu "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" April 26, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: spaf-altgroups2_735800532@cs.purdue.edu "That's all, folks" April 29, 1993 news.announce.newusers,news.misc,news.admin.misc,news.groups,soc.net-people Message-ID: 1rpq88INNjlk@ector.cs.purdue.edu This posting run was the last Gene Spafford posted, and provides an appropriate occasion to pause and consider his nine-year career as Usenet's most prominent participant. I don't consider myself well equipped to consider that career as a whole; for example, I'm practically certain there isn't nearly enough evidence as yet public, on what went into the massive changes the Great Renaming FAQ describes between 1986 and 1989, and what, specifically, Gene Spafford's role in them was. But I can speak to his role in a much narrower field: the lists I'm using as evidence in this series of postings. He overstated that role, most prominently in the post I've referred to as his "farewell note". I believe I *am* the person who has resurrected the name of Adam Buchsbaum [1], as the originator of the List of Active Newsgroups, of its core list's format (also ancestral to the newsgroup description lines *later* implemented in news software), and of the semi-monthly posting schedule normal for years. Adam Buchsbaum was much more than the "another netter" his successor mentioned in passing, in the farewell note, and even if this misrepresentation was just a result of forgetfulness, that forgetfulness isn't to his credit. But the fact remains that practically everything else these lists have to offer is Gene Spafford's work. He *created* the List of Moderators, as well as the list of gatewayed groups. He originated the Checkgroups Messages as well. He shares credit for the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post with John Gilmore. He came up with the notion of posting diff listings - the "Changes" post - to make keeping track easier. And for nearly ten years, he was the *only* person to work on any of these major posts, except for Gilmore's contribution at the start of the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, perhaps some sort of work by Jeff Forys and/or Gilmore on 1987 Lists of Active Newsgroups, and help with individual hierarchies in the Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post (for example, Bruce Becker's with alt.* for the first three posts of 1993, whatever that help actually consisted of). As a student of history, I fiercely despise the general human reluctance to give credit to those who *maintain* things, the insistence that only the first and last names in any list are worth knowing, the unawareness that originality is often much cheaper than commitment, and that history is littered with flashes in the pan. When Gene Spafford tried to post real checkgroups control messages, people complained that it broke their software, and he switched to doing Checkgroups Messages as normal posts. I would argue that this should be seen not as giving up, but rather as persistence in the face of obstacles. I know of *nothing* else he instituted that was in any way a flash in the pan. And he devoted immense amounts of effort to making sure that other people's creations would also last. The List of Active Newsgroups survived, maintained by humans, for fourteen years, from November of 1982 to December of 1996. If there is any other repeated posting on Usenet with a similar longevity, kept up to date throughout and yet not machine-generated, it's news to me. Gene Spafford deserves the majority of the credit for this, if nothing else, in *numerical* terms, as the poster of the majority of the lists, and the one who lasted the longest time. He also maintained the places where these materials could be posted. mod.newslists began in 1984 with him and Rick Adams as moderators; by the time he retired, Gene Spafford was the sole moderator of news.lists. net.announce.newusers began that year with Mark Horton as moderator, but later that same year, Gene Spafford took over, and remained moderator of it and its successor groups again until his retirement nine years later. His apparent belief that these lists *belonged* in a new users' group strikes me as somewhat amusing; nevertheless, his record as moderator of that group, as of the lists group, compares very favourably with those of the others who've held those jobs. Finally, the formal process that fed the List of Active Newsgroups begins with him. Jim Riley has researched the evolution of the group creation guidelines much more thoroughly than I have so far, but I do know that Gene Spafford was the first to publish a clearly defined set of guidelines on a regular basis. They were fairly soon superseded by a different set, written by Greg Woods, but Woods didn't start from nothing; Spafford did. And it was also Gene Spafford, not Greg Woods nor his successors moderating news.announce.newgroups, who ensured that Woods's Guidelines would continue to be posted, even after their author had walked away from them. I do not salute him uncritically, and when people bruit falsehoods (such as the widespread claim that he once moderated news.announce.newgroups, or his own claim to have originated the List of Active Newsgroups), I can easily sound like I want to take his glory away. I also have strong qualms about much of what happened in Usenet's governance during the years when he was most closely linked to that governance, say 1985 to 1987. But the fact remains that he deserves a great deal of glory, and it is proper, as this project moves into his successors' years, to stop to salute him for what he did do. [1] A search on "Adam Buchsbaum" at Google reveals two previous references to his Lists of Active Newsgroups, subsequent to Gene Spafford's near-omission in his farewell note: a post by Greg Andruk quoting a 1983 List in full, in 2000; and Ronda Hauben's article on Usenet's early days, posted in both 1995 and 1996. Prior to the farewell note, there appears to be no reference later than Buchsbaum's last List. Interestingly, though, Buchsbaum has stayed much more active on Usenet than most of his contemporaries, so if I ever do decide to try to interview people for a later phase of this project, he's an obvious choice. Added: comp.ai.nat-lang, comp.databases.object, comp.lang.ml, comp.lang.oberon, comp.os.os2.announce, comp.os.os2.beta, comp.os.os2.ver1x, comp.parallel.pvm, comp.sys.atari.advocacy, comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos, comp.sys.mac.portables, misc.kids.computer, rec.arts.bonsai, rec.arts.books.tolkien, rec.games.miniatures, rec.games.video.classic, rec.games.video.marketplace, rec.games.video.misc, rec.games.video.nintendo, rec.games.video.sega, rec.music.classical.guitar, sci.med.telemedicine. Moderated in place: sci.aeronautics. comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. rec.games.cyber remained on this List of Moderators for Usenet despite its absence from the List of Active Newsgroups, and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce appeared on it one posting run earlier than its first appearance on the List of Active Newsgroups. As always, the summaries stick with what that latter post says. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.agriculture.{fruit|misc}, beginning that sub-hierarchy; alt.bigfoot; alt.books.{anne-rice|deryni}, a new use of that sub-hierarchy; alt.cabal; alt.fan.serdar-argic; alt.history.{living|what-if}; alt.journalism.{criticism|gonzo|music}, beginning that sub-hierarchy; alt.prisons; alt.sex.fetish.feet, beginning *that* (spectacularly populous) sub-sub-hierarchy. Bruce Becker's intervening list appeared April 3 with subject line 'Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" Usenet hierarchy'. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 317 to 326 unmoderated groups, from 67 to 69 moderated groups, from 384 to 395 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 33 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 37 to 38 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 232 to 241 unmoderated groups, from 27 to 27 moderated groups, from 259 to 268 total. In sci.*, from 54 to 54 unmoderated groups, from 12 to 13 moderated groups, from 66 to 67 total. In soc.*, no change: 76 unmoderated groups, 9 moderated groups, 85 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 894 total (132 moderated, 762 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 369 to 378 unmoderated groups, from 74 to 76 moderated groups, from 443 to 454 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 33 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 37 to 38 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 233 to 242 unmoderated groups, from 28 to 28 moderated groups, from 261 to 270 total. In sci.*, from 57 to 57 unmoderated groups, from 12 to 13 moderated groups, from 69 to 70 total. In soc.*, no change: 77 unmoderated groups, 9 moderated groups, 86 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 960 total (140 moderated, 820 unmoderated). This post, including as it does multiple topics on which I chose to write at length, turned far too long not to be split. For the rest of the year, see the followup. This post, including as it does multiple topics on which I chose to write at length, turned far too long not to be split. For the start of the year, see the post to which this one follows up. Joe Bernstein Lists of Newsgroups Posted in the Second Half of 1993 DAVID C LAWRENCE AND GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" July 23, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: tale-active_743462597@uunet.uu.net "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" July 23, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: tale-active2_743462617@uunet.uu.net "List of Moderators for Usenet" July 23, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: moderate_743462749@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" July 23, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: tale-altgroups_743462653@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" July 23, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: tale-altgroups2_743462687@uunet.uu.net This posting run is transitional. The credits lines in the secondary set of headers explicitly indicate that Gene Spafford continued maintaining these posts until May 1993, although the last postings he did were in April; in addition, the prefatory text to the List of Active Newsgroups and the List of Moderators for Usenet remained largely unchanged, and indeed even had Spafford's name at the end. (But David Lawrence did make one change right away. This is the first time comp.specification came before comp.speech in the List of Active Newsgroups, although the two groups had both existed for over a year. I think Lawrence probably alphabetised automatically from the start, whereas Spafford had only alphabetised at random and sometimes long intervals. For another sudden impact, see the discussion of alt.* in its usual place below.) The three-month gap produced an amazing profusion of new groups, boosting the official list well above 900, and the inet-included list, finally, past 1000 newsgroups. One of those new groups, in a rare example of the Big 7 responding rapidly to the outside world, was comp.infosystems.www. The May 11 "Current Status of USENET Newsgroup Proposals" post implemented a change in how ongoing votes were listed; instead of providing votetaking addresses, it now provided message-IDs for the CFVs. Ron Dippold had been shown as a votetaker on each of this series of posts since February, but for only one proposal at a time; this format change makes it just hard enough for me to trace the rise of Dippold's Usenet Volunteer Votetakers from that unimpressive beginning that any information I provide on that rise in this post should be considered strictly provisional. That said, every comp.* vote listed in that May 11 posting was taken by proponents, one of whom did acknowledge using Dippold's UseVote software; the exact same pattern holds for additional comp.* votes listed in later "Current Status" postings through May 28. Unfortunately, at this point my archives have a long gap between postings. The July 2 posting, however, again listed no comp.* votes other than proponent-taken ones. The CFV for comp.databases.xbase.* posted July 8 thus appears to be the first third-party CFV in comp.* to appear since sometime in late April; it does not refer to Dippold or UseVote. There are no further comp.* votes before the July 23 date of the lists noted above. (Ironically, the votes taken earlier in 1993 by Dippold *were* in comp.*.) soc.* presents a rather different picture. The first soc.* proposal listed in the May 11 post, for soc.culture.makedonija, had not only a third-party votetaker but also a third-party proponent! The votetaker, Jonathan Kamens, is described as using voting software; but in the extensive comments by both him and Erland Sommerskog, the proponent, there is no sign of UseVote. The second soc.* proposal in that list is soc.religion.islam.ahmadiyya, whose third-party votetaker's initial result appears to have been overturned (data below), and whose third- party *votetaker* appears to have been an invention of the proponent (ditto); this situation is explicitly referenced twice in Ron Dippold's first post proposing what became the UVV (which was pointed out to me by George William Herbert; my thanks) - first, as the kind of mess an organised corps of third-party votetakers could avoid by pooling experience and software; second, by Dippold's remark that the sria votetaker should be the group's "mascot". However, the other two soc.culture.* votes listed in that post (sc.austria and sc.ukrainian) were proponent-taken (the proponent for sc.austria acknowledged help with software), as were the soc.* votes listed in the other May posts (sc.maghreb and sc.venezuela). The votes listed in the July 2 and July 15 postings split evenly; the third-party votetakers Mark James (soc.culture.cambodia) and Jonathan Kamens (soc.religion.taize) are not described as part of any organisation, and the proponents for sc.peru and sc.argentina acknowledge no software. The last vote begun before July 23 appears to be that for rec.sport.waterski. This actually started out as a proponent-taken vote, but "accidental disclosure" of partial results led to the cancellation of that vote, and the revote was done by Ron Dippold. His first CFV, posted July 20, has an organization header reading "UseVote"; his third CFV, posted August 2, has the same; but the result, posted August 17, uses instead "Usenet Volunteer Votetakers". There are earlier examples, though; see below. The July 2 "New USENET Groups" mentions that the passing result for soc.religion.islam.ahmadiyya was under review. Thereafter, there was a reference to this review in each posting except that for July 27, until it disappeared in the October 18 posting. The ISC news.announce.newgroups archive's file on this proposal contains no post giving a final result of this review, nor do I find any post at Google in either news.announce.newgroups or news.groups stating such a result, but the group never became part of the official Big 7 list. The comment above about the fictionality of Anthony Lest, the group's third-party votetaker, was controverted at the time, but the information archived at http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=223tc6%24q3h%40senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU strikes me as sufficient to justify the remark. The "Sites honoring invalid newsgroups (by site)" posting for June 13 is the first to list aol.com among the sites in question. Similarly, a regular posting "Articles rejected at news.uu.net during the past week", that had appeared since October 1992, first listed AOL as having supplied such an article in the posting dated June 21. (I only mention these facts to establish that AOL was putting posts into Usenet in June of 1993, not to criticise AOL; it in fact did not reappear in the "Articles rejected" post in 1993, and reappeared in the "Sites honoring" post only once, in November.) Added: comp.cad.compass, comp.cad.synthesis, comp.databases.ms-access, comp.databases.pick, comp.dcom.lans.token-ring, comp.infosystems.www, comp.lang.sather, comp.object.logic, comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc, comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup, comp.os.msdos.mail-news, comp.os.msdos.programmer.turbovision, comp.os.os2.bugs, comp.os.os2.multimedia, comp.os.os2.programmer.misc, comp.os.os2.programmer.porting, comp.os.os2.setup, comp.protocols.dicom, comp.publish.cdrom.hardware, comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia, comp.publish.cdrom.software, comp.soft-sys.sas, comp.soft-sys.shazam, comp.soft-sys.spss, comp.software.testing, comp.std.wireless, comp.sys.apple2.comm, comp.sys.apple2.marketplace, comp.sys.apple2.programmer, comp.sys.apple2.usergroups, comp.sys.harris, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic, comp.sys.mac.oop.tcl, comp.sys.mac.scitech, comp.windows.suit, misc.health.diabetes, misc.invest.technical, rec.arts.anime.info, rec.arts.anime.marketplace, rec.arts.anime.stories, rec.arts.prose, rec.autos.rod-n-custom, rec.music.a-capella, rec.music.makers.marketplace, rec.radio.amateur.antenna, rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc, rec.radio.amateur.equipment, rec.radio.amateur.homebrew, rec.radio.amateur.space, sci.data.formats, sci.econ.research, sci.engr.manufacturing, sci.life-extension, sci.med.pharmacy, sci.nonlinear, sci.stat.consult, sci.stat.edu, sci.stat.math, soc.college.teaching-asst, soc.culture.indonesia, soc.culture.maghreb, soc.culture.peru, soc.culture.ukrainian, soc.culture.venezuela. Removed: rec.games.video. comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. rec.games.cyber remained on this List of Moderators for Usenet despite its absence from the List of Active Newsgroups. rec.radio.broadcasting and rec.radio.info are added to the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: the alt.binaries.pictures.* groups that had been removed some lists back re-appeared, along with a new one, abp.erotica.orientals; alt.humor.best-of-usenet{|.d}; alt.paranet.{abduct|paranormal|science|skeptic|ufo}, several years after the end of misc.psi; alt.sex.bestiality.barney; alt.sex.fetish.{fa|hair|orientals}, firmly establishing that sub-sub-hierarchy; the alt.sports.baseball.* groups for individual American teams, along with alt.sports.football.{mn-vikings|pro.wash-redskins}. (Do I detect a suggestion that the Vikings are an amateur team? Hmmmm.) There were *lots* of removals; among the noteworthy ones are alt.agriculture.fruit (added only on the previous list); alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk; alt.bizarre; alt.books.anne-rice; alt.cabal; alt.drugs.usenet; *all* of alt.education.*; lots of alt.fan.* groups; most of alt.flame.*, alt.irc.*, and alt.lang.*; alt.mothers; alt.native; alt.newbie; much of alt.religion.*; the venerable alt.rissa and alt.weemba; much of alt.sci.*; alt.sect.ahmadiyya; alt.sigma2.height (which I've heard was a serious group for people at the extremes of the height spectrum, and was replaced by *two* alt.support.* groups later); alt.silly.group.names.d; alt.support.cancer; much of alt.tv.*; all but one group in alt.uu.* (the Usenet University); all of alt.wanted.*. alt.current-events saw two groups replaced with two other, presumably more current, groups; the groups related to the 1991 US-Iraq war went away; the three alt.journalism.* groups listed last time were replaced by alt.journalism alone. alt.znet.pc is shown as moderating in place. There were several changes that look like attempts to clean up the namespace - for example, alt.dragons-inn is replaced by alt.pub.dragons-inn. However, incredibly enough, alt.sex.pictures.* re-appeared in this listing, so namespace purity certainly wasn't the only mover. Again, although the great majority of the joke groups were delisted were delisted, at least some joke groups were *added*, and plenty of non-joke groups removed, so serious purpose doesn't seem to have been the criterion. Nor do I think the concern was for well-formed newgroup messages, which is approximately the criterion long stated for including alt.* groups in the sample active file David Lawrence maintained, because some of the groups removed went back so far that he almost certainly didn't *have* copies of their newgroups. The only usual criterion left standing would seem to be traffic. From what I've looked at, it is *possible* to hypothesise that the groups delisted were those that didn't have significant *current* traffic. Since Bruce Becker's alt.* lists provide article counts, and since Google at this time did archive some alt.* groups (it has more articles in alt.agriculture.fruit than Becker, for example), this hypothesis should be testable, but testing it would require either more data entry or more scripting skill than I can provide at this time, particularly given that alt.* is far from my primary focus. (I can say that not all the spot-checks I did are consistent with each other, at any rate: traffic sufficient to preserve alt.agriculture.misc, *this* time, was less than half the traffic *in*sufficient to preserve alt.culture.kerala, to judge by Becker's lists of June and July.) So I don't really know what motivated the changes in the alt.* list at this time. An extremely sketchy attempt to find any posted explanation in Google turns up nothing; there doesn't seem to have been any comment at all on the changes. The one thing that *does* unify these many changes, and is obvious at first glance, is that David Lawrence was hurrying to make a massive impact on alt.*. But as far as I know, he failed. I feel safe in saying that the many removals and name changes in this posting were so imperfectly propagated, that whatever similarity the alt.* list in this series had shown to reality as experienced by most alt.* users hitherto, was now reduced to the minimum. (Note, for example, that alt.mothers thrives to this day; Google's alt.agriculture.fruit archive shows no unusual gap after this list appeared.) Henceforth, I think, the only way this list could be relied upon was that if it indicated an alt.* group existed, the group really existed, while if it didn't mention that group, the non-mention proved absolutely nothing; that was certainly the impression I formed when I returned to Usenet in 1995. Meanwhile in the rest of the net, this Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies post is the first to include hepnet.*. Bruce Becker's list appeared, between this posting run and the previous, on May 4, June 9, and July 4, 1993, each with subject line 'Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" Usenet hierarchy'. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 326 to 365 unmoderated groups, from 69 to 71 moderated groups, from 395 to 436 total. In misc.*, from 33 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 38 to 40 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 241 to 250 unmoderated groups, from 27 to 29 moderated groups, from 268 to 279 total. In sci.*, from 54 to 62 unmoderated groups, from 13 to 14 moderated groups, from 67 to 76 total. In soc.*, from 76 to 82 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 9 moderated groups, from 85 to 91 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 963 total (137 moderated, 826 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 378 to 417 unmoderated groups, from 76 to 78 moderated groups, from 454 to 495 total. In misc.*, from 33 to 35 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 38 to 40 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 242 to 251 unmoderated groups, from 28 to 30 moderated groups, from 270 to 281 total. In sci.*, from 57 to 65 unmoderated groups, from 13 to 14 moderated groups, from 70 to 79 total. In soc.*, from 77 to 83 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 9 moderated groups, from 86 to 92 total. In talk.*, no change: 19 unmoderated groups, 1 moderated group, 20 total. 1029 total (145 moderated, 884 unmoderated). DAVID C LAWRENCE AND PERHAPS GENE SPAFFORD "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: active_748904414@uunet.uu.net "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: active2_748904426@uunet.uu.net "List of Moderators for Usenet" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: moderate_748904464@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: altgroups_748904432@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: altgroups2_748904441@uunet.uu.net "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet" September 24, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,bit.admin,news.answers Message-ID: gateways_748904450@uunet.uu.net In this posting run, the List of Active Newsgroups prefatory matter is revised (mainly by the removal of the list of gatewayed Big 7 newsgroups), and signed by David Lawrence (without the middle initial), but the prefatory matter for the List of Moderators for Usenet is still signed by Gene Spafford. The list of gatewayed Big 7 groups previously included in the List of Active Newsgroups became, with this posting run, a vastly more ambitious separate post, in which Lawrence added a bunch of Big 7 groups (noted below) but also listed groups in alt.*, bit.*, chile.*, and vmsnet.*, and named Jim McIntosh as "a major contributor". Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of this series of posts when gathering my resources at the beginning of this project, nor indeed until after I put my computer into storage indefinitely. As a result, while I've been able to revise this and the 1994 posting making use of it, the spreadsheet available on my website does *not* reflect the information it contains, and I henceforth rely on Changes posts for updates (on which fact see above). The month of September 1993 is best known as the month that many posters to Usenet believe has never ended. I think it ended sometime between 1998 and 2000, personally, but anyway, the Google archives do provide plenty of contemporary evidence that in 1993 nobody saw it as having ended. The long September drove many changes in Usenet, and specifically in newsgroup creation patterns; to give just one example, there were people seriously claiming, in 1996 when I was new in news.groups and the long September was at its height there, that no new unmoderated soc.culture.* group should ever be created; but until December 20, 1993, no *moderated* soc.culture.* group had ever *been* created! Should I ever be able to do these posts for the years later than 1993, these patterns will become obvious. For now, however, nothing of the sort is the case - the rest of 1993 actually sees a slight *slowing* of growth from the frantic pace shown by the previous list, and the kinds of growth characteristic of the long September aren't much in evidence. But there is one symbolic exception: while the creation of soc.culture.scientists surely owes nothing to the invaders - the newsgroup creation process was already by this time too *slow* for that - it did become a symbol, in later years, of the kind of bizarre idea associated with us by oldtimers. This series of posts is not meant to become a general history of Usenet, and I've tried to restrain my discussions to areas linked to newsgroup creation, or areas that can be handled group by group. Thus I traced the advent of group-specific FAQs, but not the earlier advent of the net-wide periodic postings collected in the new users' groups. Similarly here, my focus is on the effects of the long September on group creation, not on the long September itself. But I've never really been satisfied with any aspects of the September mythology, and I couldn't resist looking into one thing at this time. As noted above, AOL was generating posts as early as June, 1993. On the other hand, there's a fair amount of evidence at Google that AOL didn't open up entirely to Usenet until right around March 1, 1994, six months *after* September, 1993. The standard story about the long September is that it resulted from AOL's hookup to Usenet; sometimes this is presented as a straightforward matter of a single cause for the whole effect. Well, um, I don't think it *can* be that simple. (A thread that appears to bridge the time before and after AOL had fully unveiled its Usenet software is reachable at .) Also in this posting run appeared a revision of the Guidelines. It included a note that "a proposal for major updates to this document should be out in the not very distant future", and also included the first reference in the Guidelines to the UVV, saying that their "use" is "currently" "strongly advocated for all newsgroup proposals". It removed Gene Spafford's name from the list of people to contact when a group passed, and added his name to the opening credits. Speaking of the UVV, the comp.os.geos CFV posted by Jay Maynard August 4 appears to be the first comp.* CFV done in the name of the UVV, and based on the information listed under the July 23 date above, this appearance is probably correct. However, all comp.* votes listed in "Current Status" posts from then through September 24 were taken by UVV members. The first soc.* CFV done under the UVV aegis, amusingly enough, appears to be Jim Huggins's August 12 CFV for none other than ... soc.culture.scientists! The few other CFVs in soc.* between that date and September 24 were apparently all UVV-originated. George William Herbert posted (in the same post wherein he pointed me to Ron Dippold's proposal mentioned above) that the sci.op-research vote begun with an August 1 CFV posted by Ian Jackson was the first vote done under the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers name. (More precisely, that's what was in the organization header.) A Google search for CFVs in late July (with the risks that relying on Google's dates or completeness entails) produces some other items worth noting: a somewhat UVV-like vote on rec.music.celtic conducted by future UVV member Andrew Solovay, beginning July 26, in which he noted that he would use UseVote but did not identify himself with any organisation; a July 26 CFV for sci.polymers from Ron Dippold, with "Organization: Usenet Volunteer Voters"; and (sorry, Mr. Herbert) a July 27 CFV for rec.radio.scanner from Ron Dippold, with "Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers". While soc.* and comp.* obviously aren't the entire Big 8, and are in fact stereotypical extreme cases of votes, they are useful guides for precisely that reason. If the UVV had been adopted only gradually, then I would have expected strong social pressure to use UVV votetakers on soc.* proponents, and I would have expected relatively little pressure in that direction to be applied to comp.* proponents. Given comp.* proponents' previous record of taking their own votes, therefore, I'd have thought it would be some time before the UVV were handling all comp.* votes. Well, no. And this suggests to me that the UVV were in fact taking every vote rather earlier than the Guidelines required this; I will therefore not be making spot-checks later into 1993 at this time. But I should emphasise again that my research is incomplete, and therefore not totally reliable. (In case anyone's wondering, soc.* was actually a second choice. I wanted to do rec.*, partly because there are rec.* proposals throughout an apparent gap between comp.* proposals in the summer; but my copy of the ISC file for rec.arts.prose, the first rec.* group on the May 11 list, appears to be corrupt, so I switched to soc.*, which probably optimised my research strategy, but obviously reduced the percentage of votes May 11 to September 24 that I actually looked at.) Added: comp.ai.jair.announce, comp.ai.jair.papers, comp.cad.pro-engineer, comp.databases.xbase.fox, comp.databases.xbase.misc, comp.graphics.algorithms, comp.graphics.data-explorer, comp.os.geos, comp.os.linux.admin, comp.os.linux.development, comp.os.linux.help, comp.os.linux.misc, comp.programming.literate, comp.sys.newton.announce, comp.sys.newton.misc, comp.sys.newton.programmer, misc.education.language.english, misc.invest.canada, rec.crafts.quilting, rec.crafts.winemaking, rec.games.roguelike.announce, rec.games.roguelike.misc, rec.music.celtic, rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic, rec.parks.theme, rec.radio.scanner, rec.sport.waterski, sci.astro.planetarium, sci.bio.ecology, sci.energy.hydrogen, sci.engr.advanced-tv, sci.op-research, sci.physics.accelerators, sci.polymers, soc.culture.argentina, soc.culture.austria, soc.culture.scientists, talk.politics.crypto. Removed: comp.os.os2.programmer, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games, rec.radio.amateur.packet. comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. rec.games.cyber remained on this List of Moderators for Usenet despite its absence from the List of Active Newsgroups. A lot of groups in the namespace I'm trying to cover in this post are added to the list of gatewayed groups (now "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet"). For the first time, the list includes inet groups, although of the then 66 groups ostensibly created as mailing list gateways in inet, only four are listed here this time. There is also one removal, sci.astro, which under that name and as net.astro had been listed as a gateway that might not work for *eight years*, ever since the list of gatewayed groups began. Anyway, here are the additions: comp.compilers, comp.infosystems.gis, comp.lang.rexx (inet), comp.lang.smalltalk, comp.org.acm, comp.os.coherent, comp.os.msdos.4dos (inet), comp.programming.literate, comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc, comp.risks (which was originally the last fa.* group to be created, and so had *always* been a gatewayed group), comp.society, comp.soft-sys.nextstep (inet), comp.soft-sys.sas, comp.soft-sys.spss, comp.sys.amiga (a group which had officially been removed some years previously), comp.sys.amiga.hardware, comp.sys.amiga.tech (also removed some years earlier), comp.text.desktop, comp.unix.solaris (inet), misc.emerg-services, misc.news.east-europe.rferl, misc.taxes, news.software.anu-news, rec.arts.anime, rec.arts.bonsai, rec.hunting, rec.music.early, rec.radio.shortwave (an additional gateway to the one previously listed), rec.sport.cricket.scores, rec.sport.golf, rec.video.satellite, rec.woodworking, sci.answers, sci.bio.ecolog (sic), sci.energy.hydrogen, sci.lang.japan, sci.med.aids, sci.med.telemedicine, sci.psychology.digest, sci.space (an additional gateway to the one previously listed), sci.stat.consult, sci.stat.edu, soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.soviet, soc.culture.vietnamese, soc.politics.arms-d (another former fa.* group), soc.religion.bahai, talk.politics.soviet. Note also that rec.radio.amateur.packet remains on this list despite its removal from the List of Active Newsgroups. The ferment in alt.* continued. alt.books.anne-rice, alt.culture.tuva, alt.desert-storm, alt.dragons-inn, alt.native, alt.sources.amiga, and alt.support.cancer all re-appeared, for example, but alt.agriculture.misc joined aa.fruit in being delisted, and the one remaining alt.uu.* group was replaced with alt.uu.future (as in, "Does Usenet University have a future?"). Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.fan.jai-maharaj; alt.sex.spanking. Noteworthy removals: alt.cesium; alt.emusic; alt.fan.debbie.gibson; alt.fan.serdar-argic; alt.journalism; alt.pave.the.earth; all of alt.pub.* *except* for alt.pub.dragons-inn, even though that group had now been recognised as duplicative. alt.sex.pictures.{male|female} go away, but alt.sex.pictures doesn't. I remain mystified by David Lawrence's 1993 decisions with regard to alt.*. Bruce Becker's alt.* lists between this posting run and the previous appeared in two parts: 'Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" hierarchy, Part 1 of 2' and '[...] Part 2 of 2'. Their dates are August 4 and September 4, 1993. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 365 to 376 unmoderated groups, from 71 to 74 moderated groups, from 436 to 450 total. In misc.*, from 35 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 40 to 42 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 250 to 257 unmoderated groups, from 29 to 30 moderated groups, from 279 to 287 total. In sci.*, from 62 to 69 unmoderated groups, from 14 to 14 moderated groups, from 76 to 83 total. In soc.*, from 82 to 85 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 9 moderated groups, from 91 to 94 total. In talk.*, from 19 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 20 to 21 total. 998 total (141 moderated, 857 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 417 to 428 unmoderated groups, from 78 to 81 moderated groups, from 495 to 509 total. In misc.*, from 35 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 5 moderated groups, from 40 to 42 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 251 to 258 unmoderated groups, from 30 to 31 moderated groups, from 281 to 289 total. In sci.*, from 65 to 72 unmoderated groups, from 14 to 14 moderated groups, from 79 to 86 total. In soc.*, from 83 to 86 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 9 moderated groups, from 92 to 95 total. In talk.*, from 19 to 20 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 20 to 21 total. 1064 total (149 moderated, 915 unmoderated). "List of Active Newsgroups, Part I" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: active_754702411@uunet.uu.net "List of Active Newsgroups, Part II" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: active2_754702445@uunet.uu.net "List of Moderators for Usenet" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Message-ID: moderate_754702562@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: altgroups_754702483@uunet.uu.net "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers Message-ID: altgroups2_754702509@uunet.uu.net "Mailing Lists Available in Usenet" November 30, 1993 news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.announce.newgroups,bit.admin,news.answers Message-ID: gateways_754702534@uunet.uu.net Gene Spafford's name appeared again this time at the end of the prefatory matter in the List of Moderators for Usenet. My best guess is that this reflects David Lawrence not yet having gotten around to a careful study of it. (I do look forward to the list that fully lists the inet moderated groups, so I can stop repeating the paragraph I'm sure people are sick of seeing in these descriptions!) In any event, as with the previous posting run, this is the only sign that Spafford *might* have had any direct input into the changes, and it's a pretty thin one. (However, the "New USENET Groups" post's boilerplate continued to refer to "Gene Spafford's List of Moderators" through the end of 1993, at least.) These lists bring the official total of newsgroups past 1000, and the inet-included total past 1100. This is, arguably, not the only sign that the long September was beginning to affect newsgroup creation: one could so interpret, also, the re-org of comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, the creation of misc.legal.moderated, a small resurgence of soc.*, and the fact that talk.* here, for the first time [1], was not the smallest Big 7 hierarchy. But I'm dubious. The main effect I'd expect from the long September is a pronounced increase in votes, most likely usually YES votes, and hence in the total number of groups created; but the rate remains below that of the spring and early summer. In this posting run's copy of the Guidelines, the note promising major changes soon disappeared. However, before that, David Lawrence had posted an outline of what those major changes would have been, which also provides some insight into his approach to moderating news.announce.newgroups, in a post specifically concerned with the controversial issues surrounding "comp.dcom.telecom.tech and Changing the Guidelines", message-ID <29klo7INN5sq@rodan.UU.NET>, October 14, to nan, news.groups, news.admin.policy, and news.admin.misc. Interestingly, in this post he indicated that one reason he hadn't enforced a six-month waiting period before holding a second vote on this group was that the group would have been created in the inet distribution regardless. I know of no inet group added to the official lists Lawrence maintained after this date, and I find myself wondering whether these events - though he spoke of them, in this post, rather calmly - precipitated or helped to bring on the end of group creation in inet. [1] talk.* had previously tied with news.* for smallest hierarchy, in the April 8, May 15, June 20, and July 22, 1989 lists, as well as in the September 24 list above. Strictly speaking, rec.* was the smallest Big 7 hierarchy in the November 1, 1986 list, which showed one placeholder group prior to the full Great Renaming of rec.*. In the lists at the beginning of the Great Renaming, earlier in 1986, talk.* was the only Big 7 hierarchy as yet created, and therefore both largest and smallest. With these exceptions, none of which I consider meaningful contradiction, talk.* had always been smallest, until in this list news.* took that role. Added: comp.binaries.cbm, comp.databases.rdb, comp.os.lynx, comp.os.qnx, comp.security.unix, comp.soft-sys.wavefront, comp.sys.hp.apps, comp.sys.hp.hardware, comp.sys.hp.hpux, comp.sys.hp.misc, comp.sys.hp.mpe, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video, comp.sys.powerpc, comp.sys.psion, comp.unix.user-friendly, misc.legal.moderated, rec.games.chinese-chess, rec.games.roguelike.angband, rec.music.classical.performing, rec.sport.football.canadian, rec.sport.football.fantasy, sci.engr.lighting, sci.med.nursing, sci.techniques.xtallography, soc.college.org.aiesec, soc.couples.intercultural, soc.culture.chile, soc.culture.israel, soc.culture.laos, soc.culture.palestine, soc.culture.uruguay, soc.religion.shamanism, talk.politics.tibet. Moderated in place: comp.compression.research. Removed: comp.os.linux, sci.math.stat. comp.databases.rdb was one of the groups I looked at in my attempt described above to figure out the rise of the UVV, and it's worth noting that the proponent was none other than Ron Dippold, the organisation's founder. He did not, of course, take the vote on the group... comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway and comp.security.announce were only partly listed on this List of Moderators for Usenet, as described (in re a post titled List of Moderators) under June 1, 1988. rec.games.cyber remained on this List of Moderators for Usenet despite its absence from the List of Active Newsgroups. comp.newprod, comp.org.eff.news, comp.org.eff.talk, comp.society.cu-digest, comp.sys.hp.mpe, comp.sys.next.advocacy, comp.sys.next.announce, comp.sys.next.bugs, comp.sys.next.hardware, comp.sys.next.marketplace, comp.sys.next.misc, comp.sys.next.programmer, comp.sys.next.software, comp.sys.next.sysadmin, rec.arts.cinema, and rec.juggling are added to the Mailing Lists Available in Usenet. One of two listings for rec.radio.shortwave is removed, and sci.bio.ecology's name is corrected. Noteworthy additions to alt.*: alt.ascii-art, and mystifyingly enough also alt.binaries.pictures.ascii; alt.current-events.{russia|usa}, rather changing that sub-hierarchy's focus; alt.pets.rabbits, either beginning or re-beginning that sub-hierarchy; alt.pub.coffeehouse.amethyst, beginning that sub-sub- hierarchy; alt.sci.physics.spam (?); alt.support.attn-deficit, the first group in that sub-hierarchy for a mental problem; alt.syntax.tactical (yes, children, at one time it was actually on an Official List!). Noteworthy removals: alt.fan.jai-maharaj; about half of the alt.sports.baseball.* team groups. Also, the reverberations of the summer's purge continue, with alt.aeffle.und.pferdle, alt.agriculture.misc, alt.cesium, alt.education.disabled, a bunch of alt.fan.*, alt.irc.*, alt.journalism, and alt.music.* groups, alt.pave.the.earth, and several alt.tv.* groups being re-added and alt.desert-storm being re-removed. Bruce Becker's lists for the intervening period appeared October 6 and November 8, 1993, with subject lines again 'Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" hierarchy, Part 1 of 2' and '[...] Part 2 of 2'. Summary for the Big 7: In comp.*, from 376 to 395 unmoderated groups, from 74 to 76 moderated groups, from 450 to 471 total. In misc.*, from 37 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 42 to 43 total. In news.*, no change: 13 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 21 total. In rec.*, from 257 to 262 unmoderated groups, from 30 to 30 moderated groups, from 287 to 292 total. In sci.*, from 69 to 71 unmoderated groups, from 14 to 14 moderated groups, from 83 to 85 total. In soc.*, from 85 to 92 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 10 moderated groups, from 94 to 102 total. In talk.*, from 20 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 21 to 22 total. 1036 total (145 moderated, 891 unmoderated). Summary for inet: In comp.*, no change: 52 unmoderated groups, 7 moderated groups, 59 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. 66 total (8 moderated, 58 unmoderated). Overall summary: In comp.*, from 428 to 447 unmoderated groups, from 81 to 83 moderated groups, from 509 to 530 total. In misc.*, from 37 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 6 moderated groups, from 42 to 43 total. In news.*, no change: 14 unmoderated groups, 8 moderated groups, 22 total. In rec.*, from 258 to 263 unmoderated groups, from 31 to 31 moderated groups, from 289 to 294 total. In sci.*, from 72 to 74 unmoderated groups, from 14 to 14 moderated groups, from 86 to 88 total. In soc.*, from 86 to 93 unmoderated groups, from 9 to 10 moderated groups, from 95 to 103 total. In talk.*, from 20 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 1 to 1 moderated group, from 21 to 22 total. 1102 total (153 moderated, 949 unmoderated). This is the last newsgroup list/moderator list set known to me posted in 1993. This is also the date of the last "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" of the year. It includes 617 alt.* groups (up from 420 at year-end 1992), 47 bionet.* groups (up from 32), 205 bit.* groups (up from 168), 35 biz.* groups (up from 23), 228 clari.* groups (up from 217), 28 gnu.* groups (unchanged), eleven hepnet.* groups (new this year), twelve ieee.* groups (unchanged), 66 inet groups (up from 59), two ddn.* groups (unchanged), 40 info.* groups (new), 36 k12.* groups (up from 21), 94 relcom.* groups (new), five u3b.* groups (unchanged), and 35 vmsnet.* groups (up from 29), for a total of 1461 (up from 1016). Note that this means alt.* - as represented in this list - grew not only relatively, but absolutely, faster in 1992 (243 groups, or 137%) than in 1993 (197 groups, or 47%); I haven't tried to do a careful count, but to judge by the above, the slowdown appears to owe as much to groups being delisted as to any reduction in groups added to the list. For comparison, Bruce Becker's alt.* list of December 6, 1993 claims 1269 groups and 443 aliases. Annual summary: IN THE BIG SEVEN: In comp.*, from 296 to 395 unmoderated groups, from 60 to 76 moderated groups, from 356 to 471 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 6 moderated groups, from 35 to 43 total. In news.*, from 15 to 13 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 8 moderated groups, from 23 to 21 total. In rec.*, from 215 to 262 unmoderated groups, from 25 to 30 moderated groups, from 240 to 292 total. In sci.*, from 52 to 71 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 14 moderated groups, from 60 to 85 total. In soc.*, from 70 to 92 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 10 moderated groups, from 77 to 102 total. In talk.*, from 18 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 1 moderated group, from 18 to 22 total. Total, from 698 to 891 unmoderated groups, from 111 to 145 moderated groups, from 809 to 1036 total. IN INET: In comp.*, from 47 to 52 unmoderated groups, from 5 to 7 moderated groups, from 52 to 59 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 53 to 58 unmoderated groups, from 6 to 8 moderated groups, from 59 to 66 total. OVER ALL: In comp.*, from 343 to 447 unmoderated groups, from 65 to 83 moderated groups, from 408 to 530 total. In misc.*, from 32 to 37 unmoderated groups, from 3 to 6 moderated groups, from 35 to 43 total. In news.*, from 16 to 14 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 8 moderated groups, from 24 to 22 total. In rec.*, from 216 to 263 unmoderated groups, from 26 to 31 moderated groups, from 242 to 294 total. In sci.*, from 55 to 74 unmoderated groups, from 8 to 14 moderated groups, from 63 to 88 total. In soc.*, from 71 to 93 unmoderated groups, from 7 to 10 moderated groups, from 78 to 103 total. In talk.*, from 18 to 21 unmoderated groups, from 0 to 1 moderated groups, from 18 to 22 total. Total, from 751 to 949 unmoderated groups, from 117 to 153 moderated groups, from 868 to 1102 total.