The Newsgroup Hierarchy
The Big 8: The major hierarchical categories of newsgroups
There are 8 primary classifications of newsgroups. These are the original 7 usenet newsgroup hierarchies. The * is a wildcard character. So, for example, comp.microsoft would be in the comp.* hierarchy.
- comp.* Any computer related newsgroup or discussion should be locatd in the comp.* hierarchy.
- news.* Any general usenet news or discussions would be in news.*.
- sci.* There are numerous discussion newsgroups about scientific topics, all of which would fall into the sci.* hierarchy. One of the most important uses for usenet in the early days was for scientists to discuss findings amongst each other, and the sci.* newsgroups provided an organized way to do that.
- rec.* The rec.* newsgroups are for discussions of recreational topics such as games and hobbies.
- soc.* These are the newsgroups devoted to talking about social issues. People also come to the soc.* groups for socializing with each other.
- talk.* The talk.* newsgroups are typically devoted to heated discussion over contentious social issues.
- humanities.* Newsgroups containing discussion about the arts, literature, etc.
- misc.* The newsgroups in the misc.* hierarchy are typically those that don't make sense in any of the other Big 8 hierarchies.
The Alternative Hierarchy - alt.*
Because of the difficulty in getting a new Big 8 newsgroup created a new hierarchy was developed where the users had the power to create groups at will. This hierarchy, alt.*, allows discussions on just about any topic and doesn't conform to the same rules as the Big 8. Alt.* newsgroups have thier own hierarchy.
- alt.activism.* Newsgroups where discussion about social activism and awareness take place.
- alt.animals.* People can discuss pets, or animals in general in these newsgroups.
- alt.autos.* The place to be for fans of automobiles and for news about the industry.
- alt.binaries.* These newsgroups are reserved for posting messages containing binary files.
- alt.binaries.pictures.* Posting pictures is one of the favorites pasttimes of newsgroup users. The a.b.pictures.* hierarchy contains newsgroups with pictures for just about anything.
- alt.bonehead.* These interesting newsgroups are home for discussions about particular people, sometimes celebrities.
- alt.books.* Book and author discussion newsgroups.
- alt.business.* Dicussion about various businesses and industries.
- alt.comp.* Computer-related discussion newsgroups.
- alt.conspiracy.* Interesting newsgroups where users trade conspiracy theories and discussions.
- alt.culture.* Various cultures and people are discussed in these newsgroups.
- alt.drugs.* In these newsgroups you can find discussions about many prescription drugs.
- alt.family-names.* Newsgroups for individual family names, such as Jones. Useful for geneaology research.
- alt.fan.* Fans of just about any topic or person can find a group here.
- alt.fr.* alt.* newsgroups with a French twist.
- alt.games.* Dicussion about games of all kinds.
- alt.languages.* Language discussion takes center stage in these newsgroups.
- alt.music.* The newsgroups to read if you want to talk about music or your favorite bands.
- alt.personals.* Usenet: The ORIGINAL online dating service. Check out the alt.personals.* newsgroups if you're interested.
- alt.religion.* Newsgroup discussions about religion.
- alt.sex.* Some of the most popular alt.* newsgroups. Here are you can find discussions about anything related to sex.
- alt.sports.* Sportsfans have thier own place on usenet! The alt.sports.* newsgroups cover just about every sport.
- alt.tv.* Dicuss your favorite TV shows in these newsgroups.
