There was considerable confusion between Usenet (Netnews) and UUCP (email).
Lots of people thought they had a Usenet mailing address. (Some still do.)
It was proposed in late 1981 that Usenet be renamed to avoid the confusion.
Among the top proposals was Arachnet, because of the amazing spider structure.
The proposal was debated at Usenix in Santa Monica in Jan 1982 and a vote
taken. By a less than overwhelming margin, it was decide to keep the name
Usenet. I guess this left the name Arachnet up for grabs.
(If nothing else, it sure made it easy to understand what the title of the
movie Arachnophobia was about. :-)
Mark
>From uucp Tue Dec 11 01:22 EST 1990
>From clarity.Princeton.EDU!harnad Tue Dec 11 01:22:32 1990 remote from osu-cis
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Date: Mon, 10 Dec 90 23:43:46 EST
From: Stevan Harnad <harnad@clarity.Princeton.EDU>
Message-Id: <9012110443.AA19636@psycho.Princeton.EDU>
To: moderators@cs.purdue.edu
Subject: Arachnet
Status: R
[Forwarded by Stevan Harnad, Princeton University,
moderator, sci.psychology.digest]
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 90 20:56:23 EST
Sender: HUMANIST Discussion <HUMANIST%BROWNVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
From: Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear <EDITORS%BROWNVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
To: Frank Dane <FDANE@UGA.BITNET>
Date: 27 November 1990
From: Willard McCarty <Editor@VM.EPAS.UToronto.CA>
Subject: Arachnet: a federation of e-seminars
ARACHNET
A Loose Association of Electronic Discussion Groups
for Scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences
According to a list recently compiled on Humanist, there are now
more than two dozen ListServ groups alone devoted to the
humanities and social sciences. As more scholars come on-line,
the size of these groups, the diversity of material they have to
offer, and their total number are all bound to increase. These
groups would benefit from a loose confederation that would allow
them to share resources easily without imposing any kind of
restrictions on their manner of operation. We propose to form
such a confederation, which we have named `Arachnet'.
Arachnet will consist of a ListServ list,
Arachnet@VM.EPAS.UToronto.CA, to which all editors of such
discussion groups are invited to be members. On its file-server,
Arachnet will contain a current list of its member groups,
descriptions of each group, and lists of files they hold. The
conversational component of Arachnet will likely be vestigial,
but it may be used from time to time as a means by which editors
of new groups can receive help from their more experienced
colleagues.
If you are an editor or owner of an existing group, you are cordially
invited to join. Please fill out the attached e-form and return it to
<Editor@VM.EPAS.UToronto.CA>, following the format below as closely as
possible.
Please also circulate this note to whomever would be interested.
Willard McCarty Patrick Conner
Editor, Ficino Editor, ANSAXNET
Editor@VM.EPAS.UToronto.CA U47C2@WVNVM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Please fill in and mail to the editor
(Please simply type over what is in parentheses)
Lastname, Firstname, Email Address
Address:
Titles (academic and other as relevant):
Professional societies:
Describe your email discussion group:
This page last updated on: Jul 1 09:16