Usenet

Sixteen years ago I made my first Usenet posting (I can find this now because Google now indexes Usenet back to 1981).

Appropriately enough, my posting, which was to the ut.general newsgroup (the general newsgroup at the University of Toronto) was a question about the ‘net itself (this was all before the Internet was called such):

Anyone who may be able to offer a concise explantion of the differences, and similarities (as well as cross-overs) between UseNet, BITNET, NetNorth, ARPANET and any other –NET please do so… It’s got me totally confused !

There were no replies. I must have figured out the answer on my own.

The email address I used with the post — traill@utcsri.UUCP — is a good indicator of the era. At the time I was a volunteer with the Athenians Project at U of T, and this afforded me, somewhat unofficially, access to the whatevernet.

Interestingly enough, after that first posting, and a couple of others that summer, my next posting wasn’t until 7 years later, in November of 1992. This posting was to the venerable comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup, at that time moderated by the venerable Patrick Townson.

Pat’s life over the past few years appears to have been a constant set of challenges; you can pull together the pieces from the comp.dcom.telecom archives, or read a recent summary from Pat here.