The Newsgroups
line specifies which newsgroup or newsgroups the article belongs in. Newsgroups
specified must all be the names of existing newsgroups, as no new newsgroups will
be created by simply posting to them.
- Mark Horton;
Standard For Interchange of USENET Messages; RFC 850;
June 1983. |
There are nine main top-level Usenet
hierarchies, and many secondary ones. As described in how
Usenet
was invented, the newsgroup hierarchies in place today developed over
a
span of several years, with the standard categories consisting of alt and
the Usenet 8 as listed below:
- alt - alternative, popular topics
- comp - computer
science subjects
- humanities - humanities subjects
- misc - miscellaneous
groups
- news - news topics
- rec - recreational
subjects
- sci - science topics
- soc - sociological
subjects
- talk - controversial topics
There
are thousands of other top-level hierarchies in use across the Usenet, and thousands
of lower level hierarchies. Top-level hierarchies with more than 100 newsgroups
in
a 1999 measurement are listed below, with the nine main hierarchies highlighted
in bold.
Hierarchy
|
Newsgroup Count |
Hierarchy
|
Newsgroup Count |
alt | 9234
| fr
| 210
|
fido7
| 1618
| gov
| 208
|
comp
| 1151
| relcom
| 194
|
rec
| 865
| fido
| 193
|
clari
| 783
| misc
| 187
|
microsoft
| 730
| git
| 182
|
uw
| 463
| umn
| 180
|
z-netz
| 443
| aus
| 170
|
bit
| 392
| net
| 163
|
fj
| 388
| uiuc
| 162
|
de
| 375
| pl
| 151
|
cl
| 343
| utexas
| 140
|
tw
| 342
| no
| 139
|
japan
| 328
| han
| 134
|
su
| 317
| es
| 127
|
ucb
| 306
| humanities
| 124
|
soc
| 297
| pdaxs
| 122
|
it
| 292
| bionet
| 121
|
uk
| 258
| can
| 114
|
sfnet
| 234
| slac
| 102
|
sci
| 229
| us
| 101
|
tnn
| 223
| news
| 47
|
finet
| 211
| talk
| 39
|
The largest second-level categories, also
identified in a 1999 measurement, are listed below.
Hierarchy
|
Newsgroup Count |
alt.fan.*
| 1101
|
alt.binaries.*
| 921
|
alt.music.*
| 533
|
alt.business.*
| 473
|
alt.sex.*
| 400
|
bit.listserv.*
| 360
|
tw.bbs.*
| 310
|
alt.tv.*
| 308
|
comp.sys.*
| 269
|
alt.games.*
| 226
|
alt.sports.*
| 226
|
soc.culture.*
| 169
|
alt.support.*
| 162
|
comp.os.*
| 153
|
rec.arts.*
| 138
|
alt.religion.*
| 131
|
rec.games.*
| 124
|
alt.familynames.*
| 116
|
rec.music.*
| 112
|
alt.flame.*
| 108
|
comp.lang.*
| 108
|
alt.culture.*
| 105
|
alt.politics.*
| 89
|
rec.sport.*
| 71
|
comp.unix.*
| 61
|
alt.christnet.*
| 43
|
alt.food.*
| 33
|
alt.currentevents.*
| 32
|
comp.infosystems.*
| 32
|
sci.med.*
| 32
|
soc.genealogy.*
| 30
|
There are also many local Usenet categories
used for geographic localities. Sometimes local hierarchies are carried
and distributed only among geographically local news servers. A few example
local newsgroup
hierarchies are listed below. You can search your own newsgroup list for hierarchies
named after your town or region.
Hierarchy
| Region
|
ca.*
| California
|
chi.*
| Chicago,
Illinois |
ne.*
| US
New England |
ott.*
| Ottawa,
Canada |
pnw.*
| US
Pacific Northwest |
seattle.*
| Seattle,
Washington |
su.*
| Stanford
University |
Resources. The
following Internet sites provide
more information about newsgroup hierarchies: