Alt hierarchy

The alt.* hierarchy is a major class of newsgroups 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 organised groups tend not to occur in alt.

Related Topics:
Newsgroup - Usenet

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Unlike most of the other hierarchies, there is no centralised control of the hierarchy and anyone who is technically capable of creating a newsgroup can do so. In practise, 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.

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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.

Related Topics:
News administrator - Alt.config

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