[ih] FTP RIP

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

IIRC, ITS with its COMSAT mailer was the first ARPANET host to support
mailing lists where one could send to MailingListName at MIT-{AI,DM,MC,ML} and
the COMSAT MTA would then "automatically" sent out to others (without any
human interaction for such memorable lists such as HUMAN-NETS, SF-LOVERS,
HEADER-PEOPLE, TELECOM, etc.]

TENEX -- which pretty much "ruled" the ARPANET at the time (:D) -- (never?)
had no such capability... mailing lists like Peter Neumann's RISKS-FORUM
which yours truly setup when at/in SRI-CSL and Einar
Stefferud's MSGGROUP at USC-ISI collected submissions in a files only
directory like <RISKS> & <MSGGROUP> to which the list admin/moderator would
then invoke an UI (like MSG) on to manually forward (or "ReDistribute" in
HERMES) to the list members -- who were manually added or subtracted to a
file.

IIRC, this was pretty much the state of affairs until Unix (and MTA's such
as delivermail, sendmail, MMDF, ...) came along for which majordomo was
piped to, which then introduced automated list management... cue to: Mr.
Email aka Dave Crocker.. :D

// geoff

On Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 10:52 AM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Unfortunately, my Dectapes weren't stored very well, and succumbed to
> decades of summer attic heat and winter below-zero abuse.   They
> eventually became brittle and crumbled.  The plastic cases were
> surprisingly robust; the tape itself not so much.
>
> I also have a request in to MIT for whatever they can find of my ancient
> ITS work.  I just got back a response that my request has been "closed"
> with no action, but that "we are working on our procedure for this
> collection and hope to have it in place soon."
>
> So I have to now create an account and re-submit my request.  Best to
> wait a bit for "soon" to pass I guess.
>
> Yes, there were a lot of mailing lists, as well as a lot of interaction
> among small groups of people not using any formal list at all.
>
> If you're a packrat, Lars is the premier Internet Dumpster Diver.  It
> will be interesting to see those first two archives.
>
> /Jack
>
>
> On 10/1/20 11:28 AM, Noel Chiappa via Internet-history wrote:
> >     > From: Jack Haverty
> >
> >     > I lost my own packrat stash when I failed to find a way to move
> info
> >     > from Dectapes to a more modern medium.
> >
> > Oh, you didn't pitch them, did you? There are a couple of people in the
> > classic computer community who have working DECTape drives. (I have a
> TU56
> > and TC11 controller, but don't have them working yet.) So if you still
> > have them they could be read. Ditto for RK packs, etc, etc.
> >
> >     > the message archives Noel has saved for almost 50 years.
> >
> > Err, I didn't save them for the whole 50 years! About 10 years ago, I
> noticed
> > that stuff that _used_ to be available on the Web had started to
> disappear.
> >
> > (There was one particular list archive which the person hosting it had
> taken
> > down because they had developed an objection to it. I can't remember
> which
> > list it was now; it was something from the early commercialization of the
> > Internet. Maybe something about email?)
> >
> > So I went out and scarfed up all the archives I could find for lists
> which I
> > remembered as early and important, and which seemed to me to be in
> danger of
> > going offline. (As in, hosted by individuals, not institutions.) The
> Internet
> > Archive was, IIRC, a big help; I had old URLs for some things which
> weren't
> > up anymore, but the IA came through.
> >
> > A lot has gone, though, sigh; e.g. the DARPA Internet group had a list,
> one
> > whose archives would be invaluable to historians of technology, but I
> think
> > they are gone (although if institutions still have backup tapes from that
> > era, perhaps they could be recovered).
> >
> > Speaking of which, Lars has found a copy of the two earliest
> Hearer-Prople
> > archives (the ones I'm missing) on ITS backup tapes at the MIT Archives,
> and
> > I'll be working on getting them released so they can be put up. Thanks,
> Lars!
> >
> >       Noel
>
> --
> Internet-history mailing list
> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>
>

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True