Prentiss Riddle: Time: 80's nostalgia sweeps the Web

80's nostalgia sweeps the Web

Salon has details on the geeks who saved Usenet, or specifically the archive of 1981-1991 Usenet traffic recently added to Google Groups. Bless them!

The earliest post of mine I've been able to turn up in Google Groups is this one from October 1983, although there should be a few more going back to August. Someone recently credited me with having made the first Usenet post in Esperanto, an awfully geeky distinction, particularly since it consisted of a collection of Esperanto lightbulb jokes! Fortunately a few still earlier messages have turned up.

In other news, some 80's DIY print-media moguls who foreshadowed the web explosion have reappeared with their own weblogs. Mike Gunderloy, the original publisher of the essential zine directory Factsheet Five, is now busy reviewing websites from his farm. And Mark Frauenfelder, co-editor of the late 80's hipster zine Boing Boing, has resurrected the name (but not necessarily the attitude) for his blog.

time 2002.01.08 link

Comments

Glad to see all of those 1980's postings back on line. Now all we have to do is somehow reconstruct Gopherspace and we can do a true retro tour.

Edward Vielmetti [emv ARROBA monkey PUNTO org] • 2002.01.09

You think the attitude of BB has changed that much? I grew up reading it, and now that I'm making most of the posts to the blog, I like to think that I'm being pretty true to the original spirit of the print incarnation.

Cory Doctorow [doctorow ARROBA craphound PUNTO com] • 2002.01.10

A fair question. I dunno -- I certainly didn't mean that as a slight to the blog. I guess I remember the old Boing Boing as being more attitude and presentation than substance. The blog is full of nifty links and pointers ("a directory of wonderful things", indeed) but doesn't have lengthy articles or multi-page spreads like the mag. Personally I like the concise format better.

But perhaps it's unfair of me to generalize about the two at all. I confess, my memory of the magazine is hazy, and I've probably let it be colored by other slick zines of the era (Mondo 2000 and Future Sex in particular).

Apologies if I offended anybody. Thanks for stopping by.

Prentiss Riddle [riddle ARROBA io PUNTO com] • 2002.01.10

More time >