
Brief history
The Hounds of the Internet mailing list (HOUNDS-L) is devoted to the study of the 60 Sherlock Holmes stories. Discussions are carried on daily, with members' e-mails being distributed to the entire membership of 350 subscribers.
The group is a spin-off from an older one (DOROTHYL), a mailing list which covers mysteries in general, and which began in 1991. One of the members of that list, Alan Block, discovered that there were many Holmes fans there, so he posted a message to that group and started the Hounds.
As best as Alan can recall, initially there were six members, three of whom, Alan Block, Scott Crom and Joe Coppola are still active. The other three, Nancy Doyle and Don Sippel and his wife have since unsubscribed.
The Hounds also owe the idea of noms to the original DOROTHYL mailing list. That list allows members to choose a favorite character or author of mysteries as a nom, or nickname, and the idea of Hounds choosing a Sherlockian reference has been carried over to this group.
It is not clear exactly when the first Hounds message was sent, but on August 18, 1992 at 7:55 AM, Alan posted a message announcing that The Hounds of the Internet was now a recognized scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars.
Shortly after, in an attempt to increase conversation and stimulate activity on the mailing list, Joe Coppola introduced the idea of discussing one Holmes adventure each week. That practice has continued. Joe announced the story to be discussed during the following week until May, 1998. Since then, Steve Clarkson, Rosemary Michaud, Brad Keefauver, Don Dillistone and Alex Braun have each announced the story of the week, in addition to posting the opening series of questions and commentary about each adventure.
Initially, the list was run manually by Alan, but as the membership grew, that process became unwieldy and at 2 PM CST, February 15, 1994, the list name was changed to HOUNDS-L and the mailing was handled by an automated list server as the address became HOUNDS-L@BELOIT.EDU instead of BSI@BELOIT.EDU.
The list has been moved twice since then. On November 28, 1994, our address changed to HOUNDS-L@GITVM1.GATECH.EDU, where it stayed until March 22, 1995, when it moved to our present home at Kent State University. Actually, a change in computer configuration at Kent State created a change in list address on March 15, 1996, when the address was changed from HOUNDS-L@KENTVM.KENT.EDU to HOUNDS-L@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU.
Bill Barnes
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Alexis Barquin
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Peter Blau
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Robert Boardman
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Robert C. Burr
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Bob Byrne
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Ted M. Cowell
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Rhonda Cowell
Four of gin hot
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Tom Dandrew
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Roberta Davies
The Trout in the Milk
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Mary Erickson
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Ron Fish
Enoch J. Drebber
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Carl L. Heifetz
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William Horning
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Flora B. Hudson
member
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Brad Keefauver
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Sandy Kozinn
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Mia Stampe Lagergaard
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Chuck Lavazzi
Jefferson Hope
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Scott Monty
The Dook
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Richard Olken
Eley's No.2
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Dan Payton
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Andrew Peck
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John Pforr
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Charles Prepolec
The Exasperated Groundskeeper at Pondicherry Lodge
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Michael Procter
Strad
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Chris Redmond
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Christopher Roden
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John C. Sherwood
The Lurking Man Upon the Moor
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Tim Stewart
Ezekiah Hopkins
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Randall Stock
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Maran Subramaniam
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William Vande Water
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Burt Wolder
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Peter H. Wood
The brisk and capable G.P.
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Doug Wrigglesworth
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