USR Total Control Mailing List Archive
======================================

This directory contains monthly archives of the usr-tc mailing list, which
served ISP operators and sysadmins running USR/3Com Total Control dial-up
equipment. The list was hosted at XMission (lists.xmission.com) and managed
via Majordomo.

Coverage:     February 1995 through November 2001
Messages:     ~19,243 across 81 monthly files
Senders:      ~1,201 unique email addresses
Total size:   ~19 MB (raw archive files)

Archive Files
-------------
Each file is a concatenated mbox-style digest for one month. Messages are
separated by lines of dashes. Each message has From:/Subject:/Date: headers
followed by the body text.

Naming convention:
  usr-tc.YYMM     (1995-1997 files, e.g. usr-tc.9704 = April 1997)
  usr-tc.YYYYMM   (1999-2001 files, e.g. usr-tc.199904 = April 1999)

Some months are missing (no 9503, 9509, 9711, etc.).

Other files:
  robots.txt     - Original robots.txt from xmission.com (where these were hosted)
  i              - Separator line artifact

Search Tool
-----------
Two Python scripts were created to make the archive searchable:

  parse_archive.py  - Parses all archive files into a SQLite database with
                      FTS5 full-text search. Run this first (or again to
                      rebuild after changes).

  search.py         - Command-line search tool with many options.

The SQLite database is stored locally (not on the network mount) at:
  ~/.local/share/usr-tc-archive/usr-tc-archive.db

To rebuild the index:
  python3 parse_archive.py

Search examples:

  python3 search.py ascend                    # full-text search
  python3 search.py '"v.90 firmware"'         # exact phrase
  python3 search.py ascend --subject-only     # search subject lines only
  python3 search.py radius --year 1998        # filter by year
  python3 search.py radius --from pashdown    # filter by sender email
  python3 search.py --list-threads "ISDN"     # group results by thread
  python3 search.py ascend --full -n 5        # full message bodies, 5 results
  python3 search.py --id 1234                 # view specific message by DB id
  python3 search.py "ascend OR livingston"    # boolean OR
  python3 search.py "ascend NOT pipeline"     # boolean NOT
  python3 search.py --stats                   # archive statistics
  python3 search.py --top-posters             # most active posters
  python3 search.py --top-posters --year 1998 # top posters in a given year

  Use -n to limit results, --offset to paginate.

Activity Profile
----------------
  1995-1996:  Sparse (1-19 msgs/month). Early adopters at universities.
  1997:       Growing (54-490 msgs/month). ISP operators sharing configs.
  1998:       Peak (471-878 msgs/month). 3Com acquisition era, V.90/K56flex.
  1999:       High (310-673 msgs/month). Still very active.
  2000:       Declining (69-646 msgs/month). DSL/cable era begins.
  2001:       Winding down (19-201 msgs/month). Equipment going end-of-life.

Common Topics
-------------
  - Modem pool management (V.34, V.90, K56flex, HiperDSP cards)
  - RADIUS authentication and accounting
  - ISDN PRI/BRI configuration and interop
  - Firmware versions, bugs, and upgrade procedures
  - Quake/RealAudio/UDP performance issues
  - Comparison with competitors (Ascend MAX, Livingston PortMaster, Cisco)
  - 3Com support quality and contract complaints
  - ISP business concerns (pricing, scaling, vendor relationships)
  - The USR-to-3Com corporate transition

Static Website
--------------
A static HTML website is generated in the site/ subdirectory for browsing
and searching the archive without any server-side code.

To regenerate:
  python3 generate_site.py

Output (site/ directory, ~50 MB):
  index.html            Landing page with year/month grid, search, overview
  stats.html            Bar charts for activity, top posters, top subjects
  YYYY-MM.html          One page per month with table of contents and all messages
  search-data.json      Client-side search index (~7 MB, loaded by JavaScript)
  style.css             Dark terminal theme, monospace font, amber/gold accents

Features:
  - Year/month navigation grid color-coded by message density
  - Client-side full-text search across subjects, senders, and message snippets
  - Monthly pages with table of contents linking to anchored messages
  - Prev/next month navigation
  - Stats page with CSS bar charts and clickable subject links
  - No server-side code required - works on any static web host

Requirements
------------
  Python 3.6+ with sqlite3 (standard library, no extra packages needed).
  SQLite must have FTS5 support (included in most distributions).