OC.TREI@CU20B.ARPA (10/19/85)
From: Peter G. Trei <OC.TREI@CU20B.ARPA> > From: BOB (webber@red.rutgers.edu) > * anybody know when sf-lovers started (i assume a different > birthdate on USENET vs ARPANET, was the marriage immediate?)? The first letter in the archives is dated 15 Sept 1979, from lstewart@parc-maxc, announcing that Schmitz's Demon Breed was out in paperback. This passed through the SF-Lovers mailing list at MIT-AI, which was then just a mail reflector. There is a letter 3 days later from Richard Brodie (one of the first administrators), asking if someone was willing to donate disk space for back issues. Thus, the list may have been in existence for a while before mid-September, and we have lost that traffic. By mid-January '80, SFL traffic was bringing MIT-AI to its knees, and the list was on the verge of being banned. Out of this problem grew the digest format, moderated for the first year or so by Roger D. Duffey II. The very first digest appeared on 14 January 1980. I do not know exactly when USENET started having a regular SF mailing list. A VERY cursory examination of the archives shows a submission from sdcsvax!davidson@berkeley on 17 October 1980, and one from decvax!duke!unc!bch@berkeley on 15 December 1980. The latter certainly looks like uucp, but I am not sure about the former. The volume numbers are a little confusing until one realizes that until the start of 1984, there was a new volume every 6 months, and they have been yearly since. SFL now a occupies roughly 20 Mbytes. Peter Trei [I cant believe I've printed the Whole Thing!] -------