The USENET news Hierarchy
Last Updated: Sep 08, 2019
The USENET news hierarchy is where you want to go when you have questions about this system. This is one of the first hierarchy is created; it was created by referendum in the 1980s. Because this is such an old hierarchy, some of the best and most active groups are found within it.
If you ’re interested in USENET history, in learning how to use the system better or in learning tips and tricks that can make it a lot more fun, you ’ll want to check out groups in the news hierarchy. This is also the place to go if you want to know about the various procedures and practices that are common to USENET server administrators.
USENET is a decentralized system. This means that there is no one webpage you can seek out to find out the rules for every particular server. Likewise, there is no one newsgroup where the rules for the entire USENET are defined.
Quite simply, there are no universally applicable laws where the USENET system is concerned. There are, however, some generally accepted standards for behavior on the USENET system. If you want to learn about these, the news hierarchy is the best place to look.
In fact, if you ’re not sure what to do and you get your USENET subscription going, your USENET newsreader installed and are ready to find some interesting conversations, you may want to head to the group news.new users.questions.
You ’ll find that many of your questions have already been answered and that there will be a lot of FAQ material within this particular hierarchy that will enable you to quickly scan through and find out how to handle any issues you may have with the system. USENET, however, is very easy to use and most experienced Internet users will have no difficulty with it.
As a tip, you may want to seek out moderated newsgroups rather than unmoderated newsgroups. In a moderated newsgroup, all of the posts are scanned by a human moderator who determines whether or not they are on-topic.
This also eliminates the spam that has been a plague on the USENET system at various times. Today, most USENET groups are very useful, particularly those within the Big Eight list of hierarchies. If you ’re not sure where to get started with the USENET system, it ’s no more difficult than taking a look at the information on the news hierarchy.
The news hierarchy also contains the groups that people use to propose and discuss the need for new newsgroups. If you want to know what newsgroups may be added to the mainstream categories in the near future, take a look at the newsgroup news.groups.proposals.
