Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 23:40:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net>
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: On Google and WSFA policy
Cc: jekindell at aol.com, macbuccfo at msn.com, erjablow at cais.com,
	mike.nelson at seahunt.org
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> A Google (or similar) search was how Sam Lubell found my "Alternate
> Disclaves" April Fool's article five years ago.

Samuel Lubell <lubell at cais.com> wrote:
> Hmm, as I recall, I saw this on Usenet but the principle holds.

I don't know whether you used Google specifically, but you obviously
used some kind of search.  Nobody reads all of the rec.arts.sf.fandom
newsgroup.  There have been more than half a million messages posted
there, many of them fairly long.

Google *does* find newsgroup postings.  Originally it was only
recent ones, but in February of last year they obtained the deja.com
(formerly dejanews.com) newsgroup archives, which went back to 1995.
Then in December of of last year they got additional newsgroup posting
archives dating back to 1981, most of them from Toronto fan and
Worldcon program participant Henry Spencer.  Hundreds of millions
of postings in tens of thousand of newsgroups, some dating back over
twenty years.

As far as I know, nobody has anything but praise for Henry's actions.

I don't know if any of these messages mention Lee.  In keeping with
the promise I made to her months ago, I'm not going to check.  But I
know that some of them mention Alexis.  I added one to our website
last year (http://www.wsfa.org/disc81/mention.htm).  It's the earliest
online mention of Disclave I was able to find.
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
I always welcome replies to my e-mail, postings, and web pages, but
unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam) is not acceptable.  Please do not send me
HTML, "rich text," or attachments, as all such email is discarded unread.