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You can find discussions about IRC in the alt.irc newsgroup. A Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing, by Darren Reed (May, 1992), provides a theoretical background on why conferencing systems such as IRC are a Good Thing. It's available through ftp at nic.ddn.mil as file `rfc/rfc1324.txt'.
Every Friday, Scott Goehring posts a new list of MUDs and related games and their telnet addresses in the newsgroup rec.games.mud.announce. There are several other mud newsgroups related to specific types of MUDs, including rec.games.mud.social, rec.games.mud.adventure, rec.games.mud.tiny, rec.games.mud.diku and rec.games.mud.lp.
For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris Worm, read Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management, by the U.S. General Accounting Office (June, 1989). You can get a copy via ftp from cert.sei.cmu.edu in the `pub/virus-l/docs' directory. It's listed as `gao_rpt'.
Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked a group of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage, Doubleday (1989).
See also Bruce Sterling's essay (section "A Statement of Principle" by Bruce Sterling).
"F: When into a room I plunge, I Sometimes find some VIOLET FUNGI. Then I linger, darkly brooding On the poison they're exuding.
H: If a 'GOBLIN (HOB) waylays you, Slice him up before he slays you. Nothing makes you look a slob Like running from a HOB'LIN (GOB).
K: Cobalt's metal, hard and shining; Cobol's wordy and confining; KOBOLDS topple when you strike them; Don't feel bad, it's hard to like them.
T: One big monster, he called TROLL. He don't rock, and he don't roll; Drink no wine, and smoke no stogies. He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
U: There's a U -- a Unicorn! Run right up and rub its horn. Look at all those points you're losing! UMBER HULKS are so confusing." --- The Roguelet's ABC
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