Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2020: Week 28
Lysator was the very first Blake's 7 mailing list. This mailing list was also commonly known as "the Lyst."
"Lysator" was named after one of the first Internet-connected sites in Sweden (LYSATOR in 1973), and its website was the oldest in the country. "Lysator" was "originally LYSATOR, an acronym for "Linköpings Y-Sektions dATOR-förening" (which roughly translates as "The computer club for students of technical physics at Linköping"), but since 1980 or so it's officially just a name. The full name is Lysator Academic Computer Society. It was founded in 1973, in order to receive a donation of a Datasaab D21 mainframe computer. It was one of the first Internet-connected sites in Sweden, and its website is the oldest in the country." Lysator; Wayback link, at Judith Proctor's Hermit Site
The mailing list went online in November 1992, and went automated in August 1995.
"Lysator" is pronounced Lee-sah-tor not Lie-say-tor.
The list was intended from the start to be a public discussion list, on par with Usenet.