Editing Usenet newsgroup (section)

==Hierarchies==
{{Main|Big 8 (Usenet)}}
Newsgroups are often arranged into ''hierarchies'', theoretically making it simpler to find related groups. The term ''top-level hierarchy'' refers to the hierarchy defined by the prefix before the first dot.

The most commonly known hierarchies are the ''Usenet hierarchies''. So for instance newsgroup ''rec.arts.sf.starwars.games'' would be in the ''rec.*'' top-level Usenet hierarchy, where the asterisk (*) is defined as a [[wildcard character]]. There were seven original major hierarchies of Usenet newsgroups, known as the "Big 7":
*''[[comp.* hierarchy|comp.*]]'' — Discussion of computer-related topics
*''news.*'' — Discussion of Usenet itself
*''[[sci.* hierarchy|sci.*]]'' — Discussion of scientific subjects
*''rec.*'' — Discussion of recreational activities (e.g. games and hobbies)
*''soc.*'' — Socialising and discussion of social issues.
*''talk.*'' — Discussion of contentious issues such as religion and politics.
*''misc.*'' — Miscellaneous discussion&mdash;anything which does not fit in the other hierarchies.

These were all created in the [[Great Renaming]] of 1986&ndash;1987, before which all of these newsgroups were in the net.* hierarchy. At that time there was a great controversy over what newsgroups should be allowed. Among those that the [[Backbone cabal|Usenet cabal]] (who effectively ran the Big 7 at the time) did not allow were those concerning [[recipe]]s, [[recreational drug use]], and [[human sexual activity|sex]].

This situation resulted in the creation of an ''alt.*'' (short for "alternative") Usenet hierarchy, under which these groups would be allowed. Over time, the laxness of rules on newsgroup creation in alt.* compared to the Big 7 meant that many new topics could, given time, gain enough popularity to get a Big 7 newsgroup. There was a rapid growth of alt.* as a result, and the trend continues to this day. Because of the anarchistic nature with which the groups sprang up, some jokingly referred to ALT standing for "[[anarchist|'''A'''narchists]], [[lunatic|'''L'''unatics]] and [[terrorist|'''T'''errorists]]" (a [[backronym]]).

In 1995, ''humanities.*'' was created for the discussion of the humanities (e.g. literature, philosophy), and the Big 7 became the Big 8.

The [[Alt.* hierarchy|''alt.*'' hierarchy]] has discussion of all kinds of topics, and many hierarchies for discussion specific to a particular geographical area or in a language other than English.

Before a new Big 8 newsgroup can be created, an RFD (Request For Discussion) must be posted into the newsgroup [news:news.announce.newgroups news.announce.newgroups], which is then discussed in [news:news.groups.proposals news.groups.proposals]. Once the proposal has been formalized with a name, description, charter, the [[B8MB|Big-8 Management Board]] will vote on whether to create the group.  If the proposal is approved by the [[B8MB|Big-8 Management Board]], the group is created.  Groups are removed in a similar manner.

Creating a new group in the alt.* hierarchy is not subject to the same rules; anybody can create a newsgroup, and anybody can remove it, but most news administrators will ignore these requests unless a local user requests the group by name.

===Further hierarchies===
There are a number of newsgroup hierarchies outside of the Big 8 (and alt.*) that can be found on many news servers. These include non-English language groups, groups managed by companies or organizations about their products, geographic/local hierarchies, and even non-internet network boards routed into NNTP. Examples include (alphabetically):
*''aus.*''&nbsp;– Australian news groups
*''ba.*''&nbsp;– Discussion in the San Francisco Bay area
*''ca.*''&nbsp;– Discussion in California
*''can.*''&nbsp;– Canadian news groups
*''cn.*''&nbsp;– Chinese news groups
*''chi.*''&nbsp;– Discussions about the Chicago area
*''de.*''&nbsp;– Discussions in German
*''dictator.*''&nbsp;– Discussions about bad governance related to the ''Dictator's Handbook''
*''ec.*''&nbsp;– Discussions about Ecuadorian culture and society
*''england.*''&nbsp;– Discussions (mostly) local to England, see also ''uk.*''
*''fidonet.*''&nbsp;– Discussions routed from [[FidoNet]]
*''fr.*''&nbsp;– Discussions in French
*''fj.*''&nbsp;– "From Japan," discussions in Japanese
*''gnu.*''&nbsp;– Discussions about GNU software
*''hawaii.*''&nbsp;– Discussions (mostly) local to Hawaii
*''hk.*''&nbsp;– Hong Kong newsgroups
*''hp.*''&nbsp;– Hewlett-Packard internal news groups
*''it.*''&nbsp;– Discussions in Italian
*''microsoft.*''&nbsp;– Discussions about Microsoft products
*''nl.*''&nbsp;– Dutch news groups
*''no.*''&nbsp;– Norwegian news groups
*''pl.*''&nbsp;– Polish news groups
*''tw.*''&nbsp;– Taiwan news groups
*''uk.*''&nbsp;– Discussions on matters in the [[United Kingdom]]
*''yale.*''&nbsp;– Discussions (mostly) local to [[Yale University]]

Additionally, there is the ''free.*'' hierarchy, which can be considered "more alt than alt.*".  There are many local sub-hierarchies within this hierarchy, usually for specific countries or cultures (such as ''free.it.*'' for Italy).