<div>Hi Chris and Alex</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I have a section on sf-lovers mailing list in a paper I did on early usenet a while ago. The url is below:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/usenet_early_days.txt">http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/usenet_early_days.txt</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Here''s a quote from the paper about the beginning of the mailing list by Richard Brodie in 1979:</div>
<div> </div>
<div> "SF-LOVERS was another of the important mailing lists on the <br>ARPANET which was also available on early Usenet as FA.sf-lovers. <br>It was for the discussion of science fiction and related topics. <br>In May, 1981, Jim McGrath, the new moderator of the mailing list, <br>
posted a farewell to Richard Brodie, the originator of the <br>mailing list. He described how Brodie had been "the person <br>responsible for the first version of this mailing list almost two <br>years ago." (20) <br>
<br> In his farewell to those on the list, Brodie describes how he <br>started the mailing list. He took a leave from Harvard and went <br>to Xerox-Parc in June 1979. Shortly afterwards, he sent out his <br>first SF-Lovers message. He writes:<br>
<br> "Over a year and a half have gone by since the first SF-<br> Lovers message went out (It was a list of the Hugo Awards <br> from the 1979 Worldcom in Brighton, England). They've been a <br> good one and a half years; they've shown me clearly that <br>
electronic communication will change the shape of our world, <br> and that we'll see its effects in our lifetimes."<br><br> "The list," he explained, "has grown enormously -- far <br>
beyond my expectations -- and has reached the point where many <br>hundreds of people read the daily Digest." (21) <br><br> Describing how SF-lovers began, Brodie explained, "I <br>started SF-LOVERS by logging into one of the public-access MIT <br>
"Incompatible Time Sharing" (ITS) systems - probably MIT-DMS, <br>although it might have been MIT-AI - and editing a text file that <br>contained the names of all the distribution lists. I then <br>inserted a system announcement onto the same system announcing <br>
the availability of the list." (22)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>"Early Usenet(1981-2):Creating the Broadsides for Our Day" by Ronda Hauben<br><br>Best wishes, Ronda<br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 9:16 PM, Alex McKenzie <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:amckenzie3@yahoo.com">amckenzie3@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">
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<div><span>I received this request, but I know nothing at all about the sf-lovers mailing list. If any of you can help please reply directly to Christopher Leslie.<br></span></div>
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<div style="FONT-FAMILY:times new roman,new york,times,serif;FONT-SIZE:12pt">
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial">----- Forwarded Message -----<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold">From:</span></b> Christopher Leslie <<a href="mailto:cleslie@poly.edu" target="_blank">cleslie@poly.edu</a>><br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold">To:</span></b> Alex McKenzie <<a href="mailto:amckenzie3@yahoo.com" target="_blank">amckenzie3@yahoo.com</a>> <br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, March 7, 2012 5:28 PM<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold">Subject:</span></b> sf-lovers<br></font></div><br>
<div>
<div>Dear Mr. McKenzie,
<div><br></div>
<div>
<div>I am trying to find out a little bit about the ARPANET mailing list sf-lovers and because of your work on the network around the time it was formed, I am hoping that you could tell me a little bit about it. I am writing a book on science fiction and I think this list demonstrates an interesting connection between science fiction and engineering.</div>
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<div>It's sometimes said that sf-lovers and human-nets were two of the mailing lists that were not directly related to defense research. I cannot get a hard date on when sf-lovers started, and which college it originated from, but in asking around I have heard that 1976 might be the right date. Do you know any of these details? Can you describe how similar sf-lovers was to what we think of a mailing list today?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I have also heard that using ARPANET came under scrutiny from Congress because of sf-lovers, and for a while the message group was banned. In Janet Abbate's book, she refers to your idea that the list was allowed to continue because it was generating useful traffic to test the network. I cannot find any news reports, and I also contacted holders of Senator Proxmire's papers to see if ARPANET was given one of his infamous awards, but I am coming up empty. Do you have any details about this incident?</div>
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<div>There is quite a bit of information about sf-lovers when it is ported over to Usenet, but I am more interested in this early part of the story. If you have any information, or if you could direct me to someone who might know, I would greatly appreciate it.</div>
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<div>Sincerely,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Chris Leslie</div>
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<div><span style="TEXT-TRANSFORM:none;TEXT-INDENT:0px;BORDER-COLLAPSE:separate;FONT:medium Helvetica;WHITE-SPACE:normal;LETTER-SPACING:normal;COLOR:rgb(0,0,0);WORD-SPACING:0px">
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px"><br>Christopher S. Leslie, Ph.D.</span></font></div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px">Instructor of Media and Technology Studies</span></font></div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px">Polytechnic Institute of New York University</span></font></div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px">6 MetroTech Center, RH 213h</span></font></div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px">Brooklyn, NY 11201</span></font></div>
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12px"><font><span style="FONT-SIZE:10px"><a href="tel:%28718%29%20260-3130" target="_blank" value="+17182603130">(718) 260-3130</a></span></font></div></span></div><br></div></div></div><br><br></div>
</div></div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet<br><br><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook">http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook</a><br>