From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

Hi all,

Following a recent discussion here about a possible rationalization and consolidation of newsgroups, why not discuss it for news.* first?

I would propose to keep the following newsgroups which are still
relevant and/or active:

news.admin.announce Announcements for news administrators. (Moderated) news.admin.hierarchies Network news hierarchies.
news.admin.misc General topics of network news administration. news.admin.net-abuse.email Discussion of abuse of email systems. news.admin.net-abuse.usenet Discussion of abuse of the Usenet system. news.admin.peering Article flow, server peering requests, & offers. news.announce.newgroups Calls for newgroups & announcements of same. (Moderated)
news.answers Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) news.groups Discussions and lists of newsgroups. news.groups.proposals Development of Big 8 proposals. (Moderated) news.lists.filters Notices for automated news filtering systems. news.lists.misc News-related statistics and lists. (Moderated) news.software.nn Discussion about the "nn" Usenet news reader package. news.software.nntp The Network News Transfer Protocol. news.software.readers Discussing software for reading network news (Usenet).


It means removing:

news.admin.moderation Technical and social issues of newsgroup
moderation. (Moderated)
news.announce.important General announcements of interest to all.
(Moderated)
news.announce.newusers Explanatory postings for new users. (Moderated) news.admin.censorship Censorship issues in news administration. news.admin.net-abuse.misc Network facility abuse, including spamming. news.admin.technical Technical aspects of maintaining network news. (Moderated)
news.groups.questions Where can I find talk about topic X?
news.misc Discussions of USENET itself.
news.newusers.questions Q & A for new users of Usenet. (Moderated) news.software.b Discussion about Usenet B-news-compatible software. news.software.misc Usenet-related software other than readers and servers.

Discussions or useful contents no longer actually take place in these
groups. Yes I know news.software.misc could be the place to discuss for instance about Cleanfeed/Pyclean but the fact is that news.software.nntp
is widely used for that. Maybe we could even change the description of news.software.nntp to reflect its de facto current usage, broader than
the NNTP protocol? I really doubt its usage would change any time soon!

I also suggest the removal of news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions as I don't believe new users will subscribe to
these newsgroups nor take the time to read the 3 periodic messages
posted there. They could be posted to for instance news.groups instead.

Finally, I would also propose to remove news.admin.moderation (as news.admin.misc or news.software.nntp could be used) and
news.groups.questions (as news.groups may be appropriated; its
description could then be changed to for instance "Any question or
discussion about newsgroups." or whatever better wording).



Feel free to share your thoughts about that proposal.

NB: Foreseeing discussions about a possible loss of messages, I would
like to recall that news servers intended to keep historical contents do
not honour removal of newsgroups, so the history of Usenet and old
messages are not affected by the rationalization of the list of
newsgroups in archival servers.
--
Julien |eLIE

-2-aLa libertad, Sancho, es uno de los m|is preciosos dones que a los
hombres dieron los cielos; con ella no pueden igualarse los tesoros
que encierran la tierra y el mar: por la libertad, as|! como por la
honra, se puede y debe aventurar la vida.-a-+ (Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra)

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From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

On 07.01.2026 17:05 Uhr Julien +LIE wrote:

Following a recent discussion here about a possible rationalization
and consolidation of newsgroups, why not discuss it for news.* first?

I would propose to keep the following newsgroups which are still
relevant and/or active:

I am in favor of that.

It means removing:

news.admin.moderation Technical and social issues of newsgroup
moderation. (Moderated)

I think then the charter of another group should be changed to include
those discussions.

news.admin.net-abuse.misc Network facility abuse, including

spamming.
I think we should keep that.

news.announce.important General announcements of interest to all.
(Moderated)

I think we should keep at least one general announcement group.

news.groups.questions Where can I find talk about topic X?

Where is a good place to discuss this then?
--
kind regards Marco
Send spam to 1767801949muell@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de
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From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

Hi Marco,

news.admin.moderation Technical and social issues of newsgroup
moderation. (Moderated)

I think then the charter of another group should be changed to include
those discussions.

The general newsgroup I proposed to keep in that subhierarchy (news.admin.misc) can include those discussions.

news.admin.net-abuse.misc Network facility abuse, including

spamming.

I think we should keep that.

Are there still discussions there? (beyond the periodic posting of an
FAQ and stats)
At least not over these 3 last years. We also have a newsgroup
dedicated to abuse of email and another one to abuse of Usenet.

news.announce.important General announcements of interest to all.
(Moderated)

I think we should keep at least one general announcement group.

Then why not keep news.announce.important and remove news.admin.announce instead? Both of them are redundant nowadays.
I proposed to keep news.admin.announce as there are sometimes (rarely)
an announcement posted to that newsgroup, but yes I agree that news.announce.important has a broader scope than news.admin.announce.

news.groups.questions Where can I find talk about topic X?

Where is a good place to discuss this then?

I suggest to discuss this directly in news.groups; its description could
then be changed to for instance "Any question or discussion about
newsgroups." or whatever better wording.
--
Julien |eLIE

-2-aLa v|-rit|- pure et simple est tr|?s rarement pure et jamais simple.-a-+
(Oscar Wilde)

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From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

Op 7-1-2026 om 23:05 schreef Julien |eLIE:

Hi all,

Following a recent discussion here about a possible rationalization and consolidation of newsgroups, why not discuss it for news.* first?

I would propose to keep the following newsgroups which are still
relevant and/or active:

<snip>

You keep the 5 newsgroups I read....

It means removing:

<snip>

I do not read the newsgroups you propose to remove.

I also suggest the removal of news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions as I don't believe new users will subscribe to
these newsgroups nor take the time to read the 3 periodic messages
posted there.-a They could be posted to for instance news.groups instead.

Agreed with the proposal to remove those two.
I think there should be 1 newsgoups for all the FAQ's
and to my opinion news.answers is that group.
And questions can be asked in news.groups as you suggest.

My proposal is to allow FAQ's to be posted just once a month.
I think it's stupid to post a FAQ every day
and it is not necessary to post a FAQ every week.

NB: Foreseeing discussions about a possible loss of messages, I would
like to recall that news servers intended to keep historical contents do
not honour removal of newsgroups, so the history of Usenet and old
messages are not affected by the rationalization of the list of
newsgroups in archival servers.

That is part of my general respons to your proposal:
There are 3 possible actions of newsservers:

1.
Remove a group completely.
In that case all messages disappaer.
I think this what Eternal-September does.

2.
Do not remove a group but close it for new messages and close peering.
(this is what you propose, don't you?)
I do not know newsservers who do this.
Which newsserver(s) do this?

3.
Do nothing
A news group then stays active on this newsserver and messages will be
peered to other newsservers who do nothing.
I think this is what paganini.bofh.team does.
I saw it happen with the newsgroups from news.mozilla.org and from
microsoft.
When mozilla closed their newsserver, some other newsservers continued
with the mozilla.* newsgroups.
It was the beginning of alt.comp.software.firefox and alt.comp.software.thunderbird and I think also a group for seamonkey.
But that was because moderation of these mozilla groups stopped a few
months earlier.
When microsoft closed their newsserver more then 10 years ago, the newsgroup microsoft.public.windowsxp.general stayed the most important English
language newsgroup for Windows XP on a lot of newsservers. Today there
are 2 spammers filling that newsgroup.

I would like to see action number 2.


Rink

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From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

Hi Rink,

You keep the 5 newsgroups I read....

These are indeed still active newsgroups :)

I do not read the newsgroups you propose to remove.

:)
Thanks for having taken the time to respond.

My proposal is to allow FAQ's to be posted just once a month.
I think it's stupid to post a FAQ every day
and it is not necessary to post a FAQ every week.

There was a reason a couple of decades ago for weekly postings.
Nowadays, it is not necessary at all. Monthly postings would be enough.
Maybe we should try to contact the senders by e-mail to see whether
they could adjust the frequency.

NB: Foreseeing discussions about a possible loss of messages, I would
like to recall that news servers intended to keep historical contents
do not honour removal of newsgroups, so the history of Usenet and old
messages are not affected by the rationalization of the list of
newsgroups in archival servers.

2.
Do not remove a group but close it for new messages and close peering.
(this is what you propose, don't you?)
I do not know newsservers who do this.
Which newsserver(s) do this?

I was not proposing that. News servers intended to keep historical
contents form part of the third category (keeping the newsgroups). The others, if of course they honour control articles, form part of the
first category (removal of the newsgroups).

I am not aware of any news server which would automatically mark a
newsgroup as read-only. It is possible to do that manually (setting the newsgroup status to "x").
Nonetheless, if articles expire in these newsgroups, they will happen to
be empty at some point (if not already empty).

y Local postings and articles from peers are allowed.
m The group is moderated and all postings must be approved.
n No local postings are allowed, only articles from
peers.
j Articles from peers are filed in the junk group
instead.
x No local postings, and articles from peers are
ignored.
=foo.bar Articles are filed in the group foo.bar instead.

More information in Section 3.1 of RFC 6048 about these standardized status.
--
Julien |eLIE

-2-aCe n'est pas en tournant le dos aux choses qu'on leur fait face.-a-+
(Pierre Dac)

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From Newsgroup: news.groups.proposals

Op 18-1-2026 om 17:12 schreef Julien |eLIE:

Hi Rink,

You keep the 5 newsgroups I read....

These are indeed still active newsgroups :)

I do not read the newsgroups you propose to remove.

:)
Thanks for having taken the time to respond.

My proposal is to allow FAQ's to be posted just once a month.
I think it's stupid to post a FAQ every day
and it is not necessary to post a FAQ every week.

There was a reason a couple of decades ago for weekly postings.
Nowadays, it is not necessary at all.-a Monthly postings would be enough.
-aMaybe we should try to contact the senders by e-mail to see whether
they could adjust the frequency.

NB: Foreseeing discussions about a possible loss of messages, I would
like to recall that news servers intended to keep historical contents
do not honour removal of newsgroups, so the history of Usenet and old
messages are not affected by the rationalization of the list of
newsgroups in archival servers.

2.
Do not remove a group but close it for new messages and close peering.
(this is what you propose, don't you?)
I do not know newsservers who do this.
Which newsserver(s) do this?

I was not proposing that.-a News servers intended to keep historical contents form part of the third category (keeping the newsgroups).-a The others, if of course they honour control articles, form part of the
first category (removal of the newsgroups).

I am not aware of any news server which would automatically mark a
newsgroup as read-only.-a It is possible to do that manually (setting the newsgroup status to "x").
Nonetheless, if articles expire in these newsgroups, they will happen to
be empty at some point (if not already empty).

-a y-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a Local postings and articles from peers are allowed.
-a m-a-a-a-a-a-a-a The group is moderated and all postings must be approved.
-a n-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a No local postings are allowed, only articles from peers.
-a j-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a Articles from peers are filed in the junk group instead.
-a x-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a No local postings, and articles from peers are ignored. -a =foo.bar-a Articles are filed in the group foo.bar instead.

More information in Section 3.1 of RFC 6048 about these standardized
status.

Thanks for your reply, Julien.
I learned about the possibilities j, m, n,x, y and foo.bar.

I did nor find the newsgroup foo.bar
I found alt.foo.bar on ES, but it's empty.

As you can see, I visit this newsgroup only a few times per month .....

Rink

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