TechWhirl (Then Techwr-l) was founded by Eric J. Ray at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in 1993. It was world’s first email discussion group for Technical Writers. Due to limitations in technology, and OSU’s naming conventions the list name was limited to eight characters and had to end in a dash el (-L). Eric chose TECHWR for Technical Writer and then added the dash ‘el to form Techwr-l.
Over time, community “residents” of the discussion group started to call the list TechWhirl, and those that participated TechWhirlers. At its peak, the list had around 5,000 members exchanging around 95 messages per day. Now, the list boasts an active and manageable 3000 members who post an average of 30-45 messages per day—a smaller group (and some say mellower) who talk just as much as ever about things that are important to technical communicators.
Techwr-l was officially renamed TechWhirl in the spring of 2011. The techwr-l.com URL still reserved for the email discussion group. Over time, this domain will be the location of our online discussions site and archives with TechWhirl.Com representing the wider array of network activities.