You know, I'm starting to think that the google archive isn't that complete. For a start, I'm *sure* I remember posting more while I was at university. And for a second, I'm sure I remember the abbreviation FAQ being in use back when I first started posting in 1987.
However, google seems to think I'm wrong. In moment of curiosity I went in search of the first use of FAQ to mean 'Frequently Asked Questions' and I found this. From May 1989.
Surely the abbreviation is older than that...
Oh yes, I also found one of my favourite threads from that period. You've just got to love the response from the guy who worked for Boeing.
When I was in school, the phrase "...this is going to cost a lot of money. Are you sure you want to do this? [yn]" (or words to that effect) carried a lot more weight (would that it were still so). It took me about a week to get up the nerve to make my first post to comp.lang.c (something about algorithms for calculating pi). So, understand that I remember my first posts to the public groups in 1989/1990 quite well, and that as far as I'm concerned, their absense is noted.
The earliest posts of mine that google has online appear to be after I left school and moved to NYC. Except for one reposting from the VOGON NEWS SERVICE to comp.lang.c, about 10 years ago.
As I said I couldn't find the original post for the first release of Perl in comp.unix.sources but as I recall there was some problems with usenet around that time so it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. I'm sure they'll add more over time but what they currently have is terrific in spite of the fact that it is mainly used by everyone looking for their own 'first post'
I got notice of the google archive not from
Re:true, it's not complete....
pdcawley on 2001-12-13T15:26:01
Yeah, linguists are going to have a field day. I was fascinated to discover how long it took for FAQ to show up for instance.
