Sep 22, 2004, 9:52 PM
Post #1 of 8
(962 views)
Shortcut
Net.Rec.Skydive History . . .
Can't Post
Coming a bit late to the internet myself (1986) I found the following older USENET post (from the very person that started it all) interesting in that it mentions a time when there are only three skydivers posting to net.rec.skydivng (which later became rec.skydiving) from 1984 . . .
Nick BASE 194
>>From: afg@druxo.UUCP (afg@druxo.UUCP) Subject: Count me in too....
Several years ago I started this group, but the whuffos kept sending me mail saying they would never jump out of an airplane. I guess it got old.
By the way, I like blast handles, providing I am using a 3-ring or R-2's.
Now that I know there are 3 other jumpers on the net, are any of you folks familiar with the AFF program. I have watched about 20 jumps from the air, and was very impressed. Has anybody heard any negative information? 20 jumps is not enough to really make a decision, unless you are trying to TSO a reserve, :-)!
-- Al Gettier AT&T Information Systems Labs 11900 North Pecos Denver, CO 80234 (303) 538-4771<<
(This post was edited by NickDG on Sep 22, 2004, 9:55 PM)
Sep 24, 2004, 6:49 AM
Post #3 of 8
(847 views)
Shortcut
Re: [mattb] Net.Rec.Skydive History . . .
[In reply to]
Can't Post
Matt just sent me this email.
Boy, those were the old days.... "Duke News", "Netnews A", "Netnews B", etc, etc.
When net news first started, anyone could create any news group. In late 1980 or early 1981, when I was at Bell Labs, the netnews software was installed on many of the systems, and I started net.rec.skydiving.
Back then, you usually only saw "netnews" at the Universities, Gov't contractors and some hi-tech firms. The volume of postings was low enough that the news was passed around on many sites via UUCP on 1200 baud modems.
There were a handful of jumpers who were posting questions and comments on this group. Unfortunately, every time you would post, you would get a ton of "Why would anyone... yada yada yada" or "I have always wanted to, what does it feel like", or "I want to make a jump, can you comment on dropzone XYZ"
As a result, activity on the newsgroup died out until ~1984 when it started getting active again. When I mentioned 3 other jumpers I was being sarcastic.
Thanks for digging up the old memories!
cpoxon (D 11665)
Moderator
Sep 28, 2004, 5:51 AM
Post #4 of 8
(777 views)
Shortcut
Re: [NickDG] Net.Rec.Skydive History . . .
[In reply to]
Can't Post
Quote:
Coming a bit late to the internet myself (1986) I found the following older USENET post
Nick, where did you 'find' this post? Any others available? I'm wondering if they could be incorporated into www.recskydiving.org?
From what Al said, I guess my comment on the front page, "The origins of rec.skydiving are lost in the history of time." is not exactly true!
Sep 29, 2004, 11:26 AM
Post #7 of 8
(719 views)
Shortcut
Re: [NickDG] Net.Rec.Skydive History . . .
[In reply to]
Can't Post
Thanks for the site... I'm enjoying reading the posts from 85 and 86...
Quote:
9/27/85: The USA won a decisive victory over the world at the international RW competition in Yugoslavia. The "Deland Air Bears" won the four way sequential competition and the "Coors" team won the eight way sequential competition. The Russians competed for the first time, the did not do well. The Canadians came in second in four way. For more details see the next issue of "Skydiving" magazine, it should be sent out in the next couple of weeks.
So the Russians have gotten better and the deland jumpers got better at naming their teams...
Dave
(This post was edited by pilotdave on Sep 29, 2004, 11:27 AM)
Sep 30, 2004, 11:36 AM
Post #8 of 8
(685 views)
Shortcut
Re: [cpoxon] Net.Rec.Skydive History . . .
[In reply to]
Can't Post
Around 1987, give or take a year, "net.rec.skydive" was renamed to its current name.
Netnews was getting popular enough, and it had grown without supervision, that a massive reorganization of the was done.
Note that the people doing the reorganization (and I forget their names) thought that skydiving did not have enough popular support to have its own news group, and we should use rec.aviation.
After I pitched a fit, they relented, and allowed the group.
