Au revoir to the CO Digest

The CO Digest, an online presence benefiting naturists for 15 years, announced today that it has ceased publishing. The Digest and its editor, John Hendry, have been steadfast supporters of the Naturist Action Committee. John remains a NAC Area Representative and a member of the Member Advisory Board of The Naturist Society. For years, the Digest has been an important delivery vehicle for NAC communiqués. It's unsurprising that the final issue of the CO Digest includes a NAC Advisory.

The hole left by the departure of the CO Digest will be filled, eventually. But the thoughtfulness, persistence and integrity of the online publication will be hard to reproduce.

The Naturist Action Committee salutes the service, the history and the legacy of the CO Digest!

The following retrospective appeared in The Naturist Society's Nude & Natural magazine five years ago. It seems appropriate to replay it now.
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The Clothing Optional Digest
A pioneer turns 10 years old

by Bob Morton

It's a bit strange to be referring to a "pioneer" effort that's only ten years old. But in a time of dotcom ventures that seem to blossom, fade and wither before the Starbuck's coffee can get cold, an online enterprise that still has a head of steam after a decade is worthy of special mention.

The Clothing Optional Digest is an edited electronic forum for the discussion of clothing-optional recreation and living. For those who have taken out a free subscription, online issues arrive by e-mail. [Subscription details at the conclusion of this article.] Topics are timely and include trip and site reports from clothing-optional destinations, as well as discussions of attitudes, trends and current events.

The articles are generally brief and to the point, and the authors are the subscribers themselves. However, in polished contrast to some free-for-all online chat rooms and newsgroups, CO Digest has developed a reputation for thoughtful presentation. The balancing act between unfettered free expression and responsible editing is often a difficult task, but the Digest seems to have found its own distinctive voice through the written contributions of its readers and the consistent hand of its editor.

The human behind the bits and bytes of CO Digest is John Hendry. Now a forty-something professional with a high-tech company, John has been a driver of tour buses and a radio disk jockey. The lure of having a microphone in front of him still tantalizes John, and each fall he satisfies the itch by doing play-by-play announcing of high school football games from stadiums in towns whose names you can't pronounce, for a radio station you can't even hear to the county line.

In the early spring of 1992, George Bush was President of the U.S. and the world was still talking about the war against a madman in the Middle East. Global events seem to have fallen into some sort of a loop since that time. Though it contains a few false steps, the story of CO Digest's first decade looks like a tightly drawn string by comparison.

Employed at a university in Texas, John Hendry began the Digest's predecessor in March, 1992. Dubbed "CLTHOPT," the primitive list had a run of less than a month before the university shut it down over what John described at the time as a "technicality" or an "administrative error." By that time, however, it had accumulated 20 subscribers and had created something of a stir among the small contingent of nudists and naturists who were online at the time. Although one or two grumbled that CLTHOPT duplicated other online discussion groups, many recognized that it had already distinguished itself from existing online exchanges like rec.nude. Supporters offered to host the fallen list themselves, and a name change was even suggested, though NATREC seemed a dubious improvement over CLTHOPT.

A reworked arrangement with the university overcame the "technicality," and on April 8, 1992, the list came back to life with a new name: CO DIGEST. The word spread and subscribers quickly numbered 140.

Most of the early subscribers were employed at universities or government facilities that had access to the Internet. But in those first days, there were also those who used BITnet to receive the Digest. Slowly, subscribers with other services came on board, starting with Prodigy, CompuServe and America Online. By 1994 anyone with Internet access could subscribe and receive the CO Digest.

John Hendry recalls learning about nudism while growing up in west Texas. He found an Ed Lange publication about "The Wonderful Webbers" to be particularly intriguing. Says John, "I would still love to meet that family some day!"

John's first naturist experience came in 1980 when a friend took him to Hippie Hollow, near Austin, Texas. Married in 1983, John and his bride, Pam, made their first visit to a nudist camp that very same summer, spending time at Yucca Naturist Camp near Albuquerque, New Mexico. They became members of The Naturist Society in 1983 and joined the Panhandle Bares in Amarillo in 1984.

John was able to maintain the CO Digest through the university server until 1995, when John completed his time at the university and moved away. Today, John and Pam and their teenaged son Josh live in a suburb of Dallas. Without the university account, the Digest was forced to find a new place for the distribution. With the help of Pat O'Brien of The Naturist Society, the Digest was allowed to share the TNS Internet account.

The Digest is affiliated with TNS and with the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN). Since 1997, the CO Digest has been an important distribution outlet for the Naturist Action Committee's Action Alerts, Advisories and Updates. Also since that same time, John Hendry has been a NAC Area Representative.

The CO Digest has continued to prosper. From its modest and fitful start ten years ago, the electronic publication has grown to have nearly 2,500 subscribers and enjoys a readership that is truly worldwide. Technology has advanced during that same time. Three years ago, John took the list "in house" and now manages and maintains the entire subscription base from a laptop computer he carries with him while traveling.

Naturists are increasingly turning to online sources for information and advice, as well as for the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with others. For ten years, the CO Digest has helped fill that growing need, and for ten years, naturist John Hendry has volunteered his time to make it happen.
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For more information, read the CO Digest's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) online at http://www.codigest.org/faq.txt