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Great Renaming

October 22, 2023

The Great Renaming was a restructuring of Usenet newsgroups that took place in 1987. B News maintainer and UUNET founder Rick Adams is generally considered to be the initiator of the Renaming.

Motivation Edit

The primary reason for the Great Renaming was said to be the difficulty of maintaining a list of all the existing groups.[1]

An alternative explanation was that European networks refused to pay for some of the high-volume and low-content groups such as those regarding religion and racism; this resulted in a need for categorization of all such newsgroups.[2][3] The suggested category for the newsgroups less popular among European networks was talk.*

History Edit

Pre-renaming Edit

Before the Renaming, the newsgroups were categorized into three hierarchies: fa.* for groups gatewayed from ARPANET, mod.* for moderated discussions, and net.* for unmoderated groups. Names of the groups were said to be rather haphazard.[4]

While reorganization discussions had occurred earlier, software limitations prevented the adoption of a consistent organizational scheme. Improvements introduced by Adams during 1986 with B News version 2.11 removed the requirement for moderated groups to use the "mod." prefix, allowed posting to moderated groups using newsreaders rather than separate e-mail programs, and eliminated the flat storage method, which required that the first 14 characters of all newsgroups be unique. With this added flexibility and transparency, it became practical to perform the effort.

Renaming Edit

The backbone providers, the backbone cabal, were instrumental in this reorganization of Usenet since they had great influence with respect to supporting a new newsgroup. Some suggest that members of the cabal had interests in bundling certain newsgroups into the talk.* hierarchy, so that they would not be objected to by their supervisors.[1]

These newsgroups were categorized into a series of hierarchies, to make it easier for newsgroups to be created and distributed. The original hierarchies were comp.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, and talk.*.

These hierarchies, known collectively as the "Big Seven", were open and free for anyone to participate in (except for the moderated newsgroups), though they were subject to a few general rules governing their naming and distribution.

Several other popular hierarchies remained on Usenet as well, such as the k12.* hierarchy, which covers topics especially relating to education, schools, and colleges.

Post-renaming Edit

An additional hierarchy, alt.*, was also created soon after the Renaming. The alt.* hierarchy was meant to be completely free from centralized control, and it was not subject to the formalities of the Big Seven.

The prefix "alt" designated a hierarchy that is alternative to the mainstream (comp, misc, news, rec, soc, sci, talk) hierarchies. As free form discussion on alt.* contrasted with the more academic tending formal hierarchies, the "So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup" FAQ jokes that the name "alt" is an acronym for "anarchists, lunatics, and terrorists", though this is actually just a humorous backronym.[5]

In April 1995,[6] when Usenet traffic grew significantly, particularly in academia, the humanities.* hierarchy was introduced to better cover the additional kinds of topics being discussed, and with the seven hierarchies created by the Renaming, compose today's so-called "Big 8".

Further reading Edit

  • Gene Spafford (17 September 1986). "Comments on Reorganization". Newsgroup: net.news. Usenet: 4558@gatech.CSNET. Retrieved 5 December 2014.

References Edit

  1. ^ a b "Modern Usenet Newsgroup Hierarchies History". livinginternet.com. from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  2. ^ . Rs79.vrx.net. 28 September 1993. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
  3. ^ . Cse.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
  4. ^ "The Great Renaming FAQ". Linux.it. from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
  5. ^ "So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup". 12 July 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2007.
  6. ^ "RESULT: humanities.misc passes 508:97". 11 April 1995. Retrieved 6 February 2016.

October 22, 2023
great, renaming, restructuring, usenet, newsgroups, that, took, place, 1987, news, maintainer, uunet, founder, rick, adams, generally, considered, initiator, renaming, contents, motivation, history, renaming, renaming, post, renaming, further, reading, referen. The Great Renaming was a restructuring of Usenet newsgroups that took place in 1987 B News maintainer and UUNET founder Rick Adams is generally considered to be the initiator of the Renaming Contents 1 Motivation 2 History 2 1 Pre renaming 2 2 Renaming 2 3 Post renaming 3 Further reading 4 ReferencesMotivation EditThe primary reason for the Great Renaming was said to be the difficulty of maintaining a list of all the existing groups 1 An alternative explanation was that European networks refused to pay for some of the high volume and low content groups such as those regarding religion and racism this resulted in a need for categorization of all such newsgroups 2 3 The suggested category for the newsgroups less popular among European networks was talk History EditPre renaming Edit Before the Renaming the newsgroups were categorized into three hierarchies fa for groups gatewayed from ARPANET mod for moderated discussions and net for unmoderated groups Names of the groups were said to be rather haphazard 4 While reorganization discussions had occurred earlier software limitations prevented the adoption of a consistent organizational scheme Improvements introduced by Adams during 1986 with B News version 2 11 removed the requirement for moderated groups to use the mod prefix allowed posting to moderated groups using newsreaders rather than separate e mail programs and eliminated the flat storage method which required that the first 14 characters of all newsgroups be unique With this added flexibility and transparency it became practical to perform the effort Renaming Edit The backbone providers the backbone cabal were instrumental in this reorganization of Usenet since they had great influence with respect to supporting a new newsgroup Some suggest that members of the cabal had interests in bundling certain newsgroups into the talk hierarchy so that they would not be objected to by their supervisors 1 These newsgroups were categorized into a series of hierarchies to make it easier for newsgroups to be created and distributed The original hierarchies were comp misc news rec sci soc and talk These hierarchies known collectively as the Big Seven were open and free for anyone to participate in except for the moderated newsgroups though they were subject to a few general rules governing their naming and distribution Several other popular hierarchies remained on Usenet as well such as the k12 hierarchy which covers topics especially relating to education schools and colleges Post renaming Edit An additional hierarchy alt was also created soon after the Renaming The alt hierarchy was meant to be completely free from centralized control and it was not subject to the formalities of the Big Seven The prefix alt designated a hierarchy that is alternative to the mainstream comp misc news rec soc sci talk hierarchies As free form discussion on alt contrasted with the more academic tending formal hierarchies the So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup FAQ jokes that the name alt is an acronym for anarchists lunatics and terrorists though this is actually just a humorous backronym 5 In April 1995 6 when Usenet traffic grew significantly particularly in academia the humanities hierarchy was introduced to better cover the additional kinds of topics being discussed and with the seven hierarchies created by the Renaming compose today s so called Big 8 Further reading EditGene Spafford 17 September 1986 Comments on Reorganization Newsgroup net news Usenet 4558 gatech CSNET Retrieved 5 December 2014 References Edit nbsp Internet portal a b Modern Usenet Newsgroup Hierarchies History livinginternet com Archived from the original on 22 July 2012 Retrieved 24 September 2012 Hardy History of the Net Rs79 vrx net 28 September 1993 Archived from the original on 22 May 2011 Retrieved 31 August 2009 Controlling the Virtual World Cse stanford edu Archived from the original on 27 May 2009 Retrieved 31 August 2009 The Great Renaming FAQ Linux it Archived from the original on 22 July 2011 Retrieved 31 August 2009 So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup 12 July 2008 Retrieved 27 May 2007 RESULT humanities misc passes 508 97 11 April 1995 Retrieved 6 February 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Great Renaming amp oldid 1147770012, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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