Editing Great Renaming (section)

===Post-renaming===

An additional hierarchy, ''[[alt.* 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-creation-guide/|title=So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup|access-date=27 May 2007|date=12 July 2008}}</ref>

In April 1995,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/humanities/humanities.misc|title=RESULT: humanities.misc passes 508:97|access-date=6 February 2016|date=11 April 1995}}</ref> 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 (Usenet)|Big 8]]".