Warez, Irrational Pessismism, Bermuda Triangle

[Dave Wilton]

> If you're interested in the word "warez" there's no real
> interest in when the first newsgroup devoted to warez arose;
> what matters is when the word "warez" itself first appeared
> in Google Groups. And the first Usenet post with the word
> seems to have been in 1987, in a post to
> comp.society.futures.

True, it doesn't help with finding the point of origin, but I wouldn't say
there's "no real interest" in knowing when a Usenet group arose. But for
computer/internet terms like "warez," the appearance of Usenet groups
devoted to them may be a good indication of when the term came into
widespread use among hackers/computer-types.

> This is earlier than I had expected to find the term, but
> perhaps (I haven't
> particularly thought about it) it's earlier still. Michael
> Quinion, any
> opinion?

It's also surprising that there's an eight-year gap between the term's
appearance and the founding of Usenet groups devoted to warez. I would have
thought the period would have been much shorter.

Then again, as I type this I realize that 1994-95 is the period when
widespread public access to the Internet became available. So maybe the
Usenet dates aren't significant at all. The groups started then because
that's when there were large numbers of hackers on Usenet. Never mind.