• RfD: Rationalization of news.*

    From =?UTF-8?Q?Julien_=C3=89LIE?=@iulius@nom-de-mon-site.com.invalid to news.groups.proposals on Wed Jan 7 17:05:49 2026
    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 Marco Moock@mm@dorfdsl.de to news.groups.proposals on Thu Jan 8 11:21:54 2026
    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 =?UTF-8?Q?Julien_=C3=89LIE?=@iulius@nom-de-mon-site.com.invalid to news.groups.proposals on Fri Jan 9 09:31:14 2026
    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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