Please Whitelist This Site?

I know everyone hates ads. But please understand that I am providing premium content for free that takes hundreds of hours of time to research and write. I don't want to go to a pay-only model like some sites, but when more and more people block ads, I end up working for free. And I have a family to support, just like you. :)

If you like The TCP/IP Guide, please consider the download version. It's priced very economically and you can read all of it in a convenient format without ads.

If you want to use this site for free, I'd be grateful if you could add the site to the whitelist for Adblock. To do so, just open the Adblock menu and select "Disable on tcpipguide.com". Or go to the Tools menu and select "Adblock Plus Preferences...". Then click "Add Filter..." at the bottom, and add this string: "@@||tcpipguide.com^$document". Then just click OK.

Thanks for your understanding!

Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide


NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.
If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

The Book is Here... and Now On Sale!

Read offline with no ads or diagram watermarks!
The TCP/IP Guide

Custom Search







Table Of Contents  The TCP/IP Guide
 9  TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols, Services and Applications (OSI Layers 5, 6 and 7)
      9  TCP/IP Key Applications and Application Protocols
           9  TCP/IP File and Message Transfer Applications and Protocols (FTP, TFTP, Electronic Mail, USENET, HTTP/WWW, Gopher)
                9  Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
                     9  Usenet Overview, Concepts and General Operation

Previous Topic/Section
Usenet Communication Model: Message Composition, Posting, Storage, Propagation and Access
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
34
Next Page
Usenet Message Format and Special Headers
Next Topic/Section

Usenet Addressing: Newsgroups, Newsgroup Hierarchies and Types
(Page 2 of 4)

The "Big Eight" Newsgroup Hierarchies

One problem with the “decentralized, anarchistic” nature of Usenet is ensuring coordination in certain areas where we want everyone to be on the same page; one of these is newsgroup naming. If we let just anyone create a newsgroup, we might well end up with many, even dozens of groups that all discuss the same topic. Imagine that someone had a question on data cabling and didn't realize that comp.dcom.cabling existed, so they created a new group called comp.datacomm.cabling. The two groups could coexist, but this would lead to both confusion and fragmenting of the pool of people interested in this topic.

To avoid this problem, many of the administrators of large Usenet systems collaborated on a system for organizing many of the more commonly-used Usenet groups into eight hierarchies, and devised a specific procedure for creating new newsgroups within them. There is a actually a long history behind how this came about; these are today called the Big Eight Usenet hierarchies, and are summarized in Table 263.


Table 263: Usenet “Big Eight” Newsgroup Hierarchies

Hierarchy

Description

comp.*

Newsgroups discussing computer-related topics, including hardware, software, operating systems and techniques.

humanities.*

Groups discussing the humanities, such as literature and art.

misc.*

Miscellaneous topics that don't fit into other Big Eight hierarchies.

news.*

Groups discussing Usenet itself and its administration.

rec.*

Recreation topics, such as games, sports and activities.

sci.*

Science newsgroups, covering specific areas such as physics and chemistry, research topics and so forth.

soc.*

Society and social discussions, including groups on specific cultures.

talk.*

Groups primarily oriented around discussion and debate of current events and happenings.


These eight hierarchies contain many of the most widely-used groups on Usenet today. For example, professional baseball is discussed in rec.sport.baseball, Intel computers in comp.sys.intel and Middle East politics in talk.politics.mideast.

The Big Eight hierarchies are rather tightly controlled in terms of their structure and the newsgroups they contain. The process to create a new Big Eight newsgroup is democratic and open; anyone can propose a new group and if there is enough support, it will be created by the cooperating system administrators who agree to follow the Big Eight system. However, this creation process is rather complex and time-consuming. Some people find this unacceptable and even object to the entire concept of this restricted process; others consider it advantageous, as it keeps the Big Eight hierarchies relatively “orderly” by slowing the rate of change to existing newsgroups and the number of new groups added.


Previous Topic/Section
Usenet Communication Model: Message Composition, Posting, Storage, Propagation and Access
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
34
Next Page
Usenet Message Format and Special Headers
Next Topic/Section

If you find The TCP/IP Guide useful, please consider making a small Paypal donation to help the site, using one of the buttons below. You can also donate a custom amount using the far right button (not less than $1 please, or PayPal gets most/all of your money!) In lieu of a larger donation, you may wish to consider purchasing a download license of The TCP/IP Guide. Thanks for your support!
Donate $2
Donate $5
Donate $10
Donate $20
Donate $30
Donate: $



Home - Table Of Contents - Contact Us

The TCP/IP Guide (http://www.TCPIPGuide.com)
Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005

© Copyright 2001-2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site.