Date: 9 Aug 1996 22:11:02 -0400
From: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence)
Newsgroups: news.lists,news.groups,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers
Subject: Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies (Part 1)

Archive-name: alt-hierarchies/part1
Original-author: hoptoad!gnu (John Gilmore) and spaf@purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Last-change: 9 Aug 1996 by newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence)

Introduction
------------
The Usenet software allows the support and transport of hierarchies of
newsgroups not part of the "traditional" Usenet through use of the
distribution mechanism. These hierarchies of groups are available to
sites wishing to support them and able to find a feed.  In general,
these groups are not carried by the entire network because of their
volume, restricted spheres of interest, or a different set of
administrative rules and concerns.

In general, it is a bad idea to forward these newsgroups to your
neighbors without asking them first; they should only be received at a
site by choice.  Not only is this generally-accepted net etiquette, it
helps to preserve the freedom to do and say as the posters please in
these newsgroups, as the only people who get them are those who asked
to get them.  This freedom is more restricted in the Usenet as a
whole, because every mainstream posting and every mainstream newsgroup
name must be acceptable to a much wider audience than is present in
these hierarchies.  Because of the sheer size of the mainstream
Usenet, extra-long or controversial postings are more likely to cause
problems when posted to the Usenet; however, these alternative
hierarchies exist precisely to support those kinds of postings (if
germane to the hierarchy).

Usually, there is is no restriction on getting these groups as long as
you have the capacity to receive, store, and forward the groups;
software after B 2.11 news is required to make the distribution
mechanism work properly for these groups.  How to join each
distribution is described below.

Note that the "uunet" service carries all of these hierarchies.
Contact uunet-request@uunet.uu.net for subscription details.

Also note -- the lists in this article are totally unofficial and
possibly incomplete or inaccurate.  I try to keep the lists up-to-date,
but make no guarantee that any of the information contained corresponds
with the named groups in any significant way.  Corrections and comments
should be mailed to the reply address in the header of this article.