, последнее обновление:

Hierarchies and groups in Usenet

In Usenet own groups hierarchy was formed and everyone tries to conform it. There are three types of hierarhies:

  • Big-8. These are main Usenet hierarchies.
  • alt.* - almost unmoderated newsgroups.
  • Any other hierarchies, with own distribution and moderation rules.

Big-8

Main Usenet hierarchies, available on most news servers. They have common distribution, moderation and posting rules.

Initially there were 7 hierarchies, but in 1995 one more was added:

Hierarchy Description Examples
comp.* Computer and technic-related groups. comp.software, comp.sys.amiga, comp.browsers.www
humanities.* Himanities. Added in 1995. humanities.music.composers.wagner
misc.* Miscelanneous groups. misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids
news.* News servers, clients, groups discussion and their administration. news.groups, news.admin, news.admin.net-abuse.email, news.announce.groups
rec.* Recreation and entertainment. rec.music, rec.arts.movies, rec.arts.poetry, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
sci.* Science. sci.physics, sci.research, sci.skeptic
soc.* Social topics. soc.college.org, soc.culture.African, soc.history.what-if
talk.* Talks on different topics. One more flame home, like misc.*. talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.bizarre, talk.origins

List of available groups hosted at ISC server.

alt.*

So-called “alternate groups” which usually non-moderated (or moderation rules are much softer that in Big-8). Also consists of big quantity of trolling and flaming. Yet there are many groups in this hierarchy that is useful and have no accommodate in comp* hierarchy:

  • alt.comp.software.newsreaders
  • alt.comp.software.thunderbird
  • alt.comp.os.linux

List of alt-groups hosted at ISC server.

Any other hierarchies

Of course, many news servers hosts own hierarchies or hierarchies that is designated for distribution in specific areas or news servers.

Examples:

  • linux.* - Linux-related groups, mirrors from mailing lists. oldproto hosts some of them.

There are also some specific hierarhies on oldproto:

  • oldproto.* - oldproto-local groups.
  • ru.* - russian groups, designated to be distributed on news servers with russian-speaking users.

Some of these hierarchies can be viewed at ISC server.