Alt.* hierarchy: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:04, 14 May 2014

Revision as of 22:13, 26 February 2015

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The '''''alt.*'' hierarchy''' is a major class of [[newsgroup]]s in [[Usenet]], containing all newsgroups whose name begins with "''alt.''", organized hierarchically. The ''alt.*'' hierarchy is not confined to newsgroups of any specific subject or type, although in practice more formally organized groups tend not to occur in alt. The alt.* hierarchy was created by [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]] and [[Brian Reid (computer scientist)|Brian Reid]].

Unlike most of the other hierarchies, there is no centralized control of the hierarchy and anyone who is technically capable of creating a newsgroup can do so. In practice, however, most newsgroups follow an informal procedure involving a public discussion in ''[[alt.config]]'' before being created. This procedure is designed to help the potential creator better understand what factors contribute to a newsgroup's success.

It is up to each individual [[news administrator]] whether to add a new newsgroup, and some will not do so if the group has not been discussed in ''alt.config''. As a result groups that do not follow this procedure are usually not well-propagated. News group removal in theory occurs in much the same way as newsgroup creation, however as a matter of practice most news administrators do not remove newsgroups.