Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 10:09:30 EST From: "a three-hour tour..." Subject: FILLER: On The Origin of Writers We will be celebrating our 8th birthday this coming February 13. The founder of the list was Ray Wheeler. I believe he moved on to other pursuits some time ago, but I'm not really sure of the details. I've only been with the list about five years, and listowner since it moved to MIT about three years ago. As for the membership...it's over 1,100 and still climbing. tink (the original announcement to new-list for the historians) :) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 90 13:55:00 CST :) Reply-To: DS001451@NDSUVM1 :) Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements :) From: Ray Wheeler :) Subject: NEW LIST: WRITERS Online Network Discussion Group :) WRITERS on LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 --Discussion Group :) WRITERS is an online discussion group comprised of professional :) writers and those who aspire to be writers. Discussions will center :) around the art, craft, and business of writing. We hope to keep :) members informed about new and varied opportunities for writers. We :) welcome suggestions from members as to other directions WRITERS might :) take. Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 14:15:52 EDT From: "Randy B. Money" Organization: Syracuse University Library Subject: Re: FILLER: On The Origin of Writers > We will be celebrating our 8th birthday this coming February 13. > > The founder of the list was Ray Wheeler. I believe he moved on to > other pursuits some time ago, but I'm not really sure of the details. > I've only been with the list about five years, and listowner since it > moved to MIT about three years ago. > > As for the membership...it's over 1,100 and still climbing. > > tink If I recollect rightly, Ray Wheeler was also known as Luke, and was a member of CREWRT-L (might still be). Ray was very opinionated, and unlikely to listen to anyone who didn't agree with him entirely, but also very funny when he wanted to be. I believe he turned over reigns after too many controversies in which the list members disagreed with him. He thought of himself as ruler of WRITERS, and when he was of a mind to boot someone off, would do so without explanation or apology. Take all that with a grain of salt, though, because I joined after Ray left and most of this is just what I recall hearing. Randy <<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>> Randy Money rbmoney@library.syr.edu Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 18:28:57 -0600 From: "VALENTINE M. SMITH" Subject: Re: On the Origin of WRITERS ... I was a member of WRITERS when Ray was the list owner, now a long time ago, it seems. He resigned his list ownership over the infamous "Amygate" flame war, and Pat Carey was the rather benign absentee owner for some period of years after that. When Nodak decided to boot WRITERS off their node, MIT and Mike Barker took over the list, and have done a fine job, in my estimation. VMS Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 16:53:20 -0500 From: Bruce Harper Subject: Re: FILLER: On The Origin of Writers On 11/19/97, tink wrote: >We will be celebrating our 8th birthday this coming February 13. > >The founder of the list was Ray Wheeler. I believe he moved on to >other pursuits some time ago, but I'm not really sure of the details. >I've only been with the list about five years, and listowner since it >moved to MIT about three years ago. Actually Ray left in a huff early in the game, after a blow-up with a list member (Amy-gate for those who might remember, such as Val). He was replaced by Pat Carey, a much more laid-back and benevolent list "owner" (no one really "owns" WRITERS, there are just caretakers like tink who keep the bits flowing). Just for fun, I tracked down a 1993 list of WRITERS members and compared it to the 1997 list. There were about 200 folks on the list at that time; about 24 of them are still around today. A lot of folks have come and gone, but there is something about WRITERS that keeps a group of people hanging on and connected. Too bad someone wasn't more on the ball eight years ago to arrange to archive WRITERS logs on a more permanent basis. The collected works, wit, wisdom, flames, fights, crits, jokes, hugs, etc. would make a great thesis project. It has been a fun eight years (my time dates to July 1990) and I expect the next eight to be just as fun. Based on a very unscientific review, here is the list of those who were here in 1993. There are errors, I'm sure, based on who might have UNSUBed vs. going NOMAIL at the time the lists were generated. Plus, names have changed a little bit (I recognized Holly by her email address). But, for what it's worth, I offer: John Bowers Edward Byrne Prince Corwin of Amber Joseph Crowley Marcel Gagne Marshall Gilula Dan Goodman Jane A Gray Palmer Hall Bruce Harper Randy Joseph Holly Kuchera (was Kilheffer) Chris Lott Pamela Marin-Kingsley Randy Money Rebecca Mueller Karen O'Connor Elizabeth Pape Nikki Parker Doug Prosser William J Sier Valentine Smith J. Strever Michael Tucker Bruce in Blacksburg Bruce B. Harper (540)231-4360 Distributed Information Systems bharper@vt.edu Virginia Tech Computing Center 840 Pointe West Commons Suite 6 Blacksburg, Virginia 26060