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The Jargon File was originally made by Raphael Finkel in 1975 at Standford University. Some of the terms appearing in the inital version may have dated all the way back to the days of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, generally accepted as some of the first archetypal "nerds" or "geeks."
In 1976, Mark Crispin discovered the file (then labeled "AIWORD.RFUP" or "AIWORD.RFDOC") on Stanford's AI Lab or SAIL Computer. He then transferred a copy to MIT's main AI computer. Over the next couple years, he and fellow Hacker Guy Steele would make several additions and enhancements, culminating in a book published by Guy Steele titled The Hacker's Dictionary.
After the publication of the print copy, the File pretty much ground to a halt, with no further changes or additions. This was partially intentional, as Steele and others had attempted to temporarily "freeze" changes to the file in order to ease the production of The Hacker's Dictionary. OTher contributing factors included widespread funding cuts for AI Labs at both Standford, MIT, and other former think tanks for the AI community. Many of the early contributing minds to the File were scattered to various projects in Silicon Valley and in start-up firms near MIT.
In 1990, work on the File began anew with newer editors combining some of the original material with jargon representing all technical fields where the hacker natured manifests itself. Entries from the newer versions include coined phrases from Usenet, C and Unix communities, and IBM, Amiga, and Mac programmers.
The newest editor to maintain the File is Eric. S. Raymond, who has come under fire by many critics for not only creating a new print version The New Hacker's Dictionary, but for allegedly making changes not approved by the rest of the hacker community. Some hackers have spoken out against what they see as Raymond exercising centralized control over submissions to the File, questionable edits and additions including not only words he "made up" but the removal of many words and phrases for being dated. It's even been rumored that Raymond has used the File to further his own political and social beliefs, even going as far as to include pro-Iraq war and pro-gun ownership entries, although there is no basis for these allegations.
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