[ih] 40 years ago net.motss was newgroup'd

[Michael Thomas]

I wrote this piece earlier this year that chronicles the early days of 
the net and Usenet in particular. I know that Usenet started out with 
uucp (and possibly other transports), but it was soon more widely 
distributed with NNTP. For those who don't know, net.motss which turned 
into soc.motss was the internet's first gay newsgroup. It was created by 
Steve Dyer late of BBN. It was a purposefully cryptic name to fly under 
the radar.

I have often wondered if the commercialization of the internet had 
happened just 5 years earlier whether it could have made any dent in 
those terrible days. Lack of information was the enemy back then, and 
the internet provided a cure even if it was for a tiny audience at 
first. But it was a magical group in many ways and the the lifelong 
friends motss created was something very special.

https://enervatron.blogspot.com/2023/02/40-years-ago-socmotss-was-newgroupd.html

enjoy, Mike