Did you know _specifically_ why the alt.* newsgroups came to be?
Brian Reid in : "Remember that alt.gourmand is in alt.* (in fact, alt.* was created for the purpose of carrying alt.gourmand)."
Brian Reid, being besides a newsgroup pioneer a computer scientist of standing, was also chief online cook-laureate for years. He was known for cooking-related subjects including a moderated recipe newsgroup or Internet "cookbook" of esteemed quality, long called alt.gourmand (which included tips such as the degree of measurement accuracy each recipe demanded; "Favorite line: `Precision: Count the muskrats.' " -- Ken Herron). See for example . Note the name of the DEC host computer in that Message ID, I have an idea who named it. More perspective on the alt.* newsgroups is quoted in .
I have not been in touch with Brian since the late 1980s but passed him occasional food info as in , currently conveniently archived at
(I have to say "currently" because Message IDs are historically far more durable than http URLs.)
A biography of Brian at
In April 1987 this wine newsgroup (still years away from being moved to its current "alt." home) faced a decision as some people, one poster especially, proposed a "moderated" and wine-only format as a way to boost wine traffic while others including me felt that moderation was no catalyst (that view prevailed). Archived parts of that discussion are circa . Brian Reid, again, was the moderator who had volunteered if needed. (At that time the wine newsgroup was rec.food.drink which carried mainly wine traffic anyway.)
By 1994, one of the short-term posters who appear periodically with passionate ideas for changing newsgroups permanently, and who then move on to next month's interest, managed to move this group de-facto to the alt.* hierarchy for the explicit reason that he was impatient with slow progress in separating out rec.food.wine from the stem newsgroup rec.food.drink, which would have happened with a little more patience (rec.food.drink was intended to spin off specific drinks groups once traffic grew, and it did spin them off). Also, in those days creation of alt.* newsgroups was fairly anarchic and much easier than with rec.* groups. (That newbie then duly departed to other interests.)
However, this did put the wine traffic on the alt.* hierarchy. Which, according to Brian Reid, was originally motivated by gourmandise.
La ronde!
Hope this if of interest. -- Max W. Hauser
Appendix: Relevant alt-net history
- Reid is quoted below on the origins of the alt.* hierarchy (1987-88). I was watching this happen with interest at the time and can vouch for the following account, at least the online parts. (I can't forget Brian Reid's public announcement in 1988 that he would resolve a dispute by creating, immediately, alt.sex and, because alt.drugs already existed, he found it necessary to create alt.rock-and-roll just for completeness.)
From Lee Bumgarner's Usenet history summary, or
-- At some point, Net.Legend Brian Reid, a member of the Cabal, decided he didn't like how things were going. So he, John Gilmore, and Gordon Moffett discussed the creation of an "Alternet" over dinner on May 7, 1987 at G.T's Sunset BBQ in Mountian View, California. An "alternative" distribution system was organized by this group that didn't use the "backbone" links. A new top-level hierarchy name "alt.*" was created for this distribution.
"John's home computer was "hoptoad"; my home computer was "mejac". We set up a link between us, and each of us set up a link to amdahl, and we vowed to pass all alt traffic to each other and to nurse the net along. In those days one sent out numerous newgroup messages in the hopes that one would "take"; by the end of May the groups alt.test, alt.config, alt.drugs, and alt.gourmand were active. At the time I also managed "decwrl", so I quietly added "alt" to the list of groups that it carried."
Reid created the first alt.* group, alt.gourmand, because the Cabal wanted to put his recipe group under rec.food.* Reid, who was moderating mod.recipes [under the pre-1987 newsgroup naming system -- MH], objected to the name rec.food.recipes because there were non-food recipes. Gilmore objected to the Cabal's dropping of net.flame [alas! -- MH] and the refusal to create rec.drugs. (Moffett just wanted to help.) Alt.drugs was also created around this time. ... Reid proceeded to create alt.sex and alt.rock-n-roll the afternoon of April
3, 1988. Reid sent the following to the Backbone Cabal when he did it:
"That meant that the alt network now carried alt.sex and alt.drugs. It was therefore artistically necessary to create alt.rock-n-roll, which I have also done. I have no idea what sort of traffic it will carry. If the bizzarroids take it over I will rmgroup it or moderate it; otherwise I will let it be."
- A concise popular introduction the whole Usenet, putting it into perspective, is in a 2003 Melbourne article by Gordon Woolf now available at
(I won't quibble about minor gaffes including the near-universal confusion of "WWW" with the Internet; this article still far excels most posted "histories" now online.)