NEWSGROUPS
Twiggs
could someone tell me how to create a newsgroup?
thanks
Eugene A. Calame
On 19 Jan 1998 03:49:09 GMT, "Twiggs" <Twi...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>could someone tell me how to create a newsgroup?
>
>thanks
Guides for Creating Newsgroups
Greetings,
The two guides I have pasted below should answer most, if not all, of
your questions about newsgroup creation. The heart of the guide is
the standard FAQ’s and where they can be found
The alt. and, so called, big eight newsgroups, are international in
scope. They should not be used if the subject is of local interest
only. An example would be a newsgroup about the lakes near Austin,
Texas. Such a newsgroup should be created under the austin.*
hierarchy. Alt.newsgroups are simple to create and require only that
you place a proposal in the newsgroup alt.config for critique. After
you have considered all valid objections, you can send the
newgroup.control post to create the group. The second guide pasted
below covers the creation of an alt.newsgroup in detail.
A proposed big eight newsgroup must complete a process of review,
discussion, (RFD or Request for Discussion), and voting. (CFV or Call
for Votes.) The process is long. Usually three months or more. The
process is started by sending an outline, of your proposed newsgroup,
to group-...@acpub.duke.edu. A proposed new newsgroup must
gather one hundred yes votes more than no votes and the yes votes
must be two thirds, of the total votes. The process is run by
appointed mentors. The process, with examples, are thoroughly covered
in the FAQ's listed in the guide and requires no further explanation.
The reward for following the more involved big eight process is
assured distribution of your newsgroup worldwide. The alt.newsgroup
may, or may not, be accepted by Usenet news servers.
Local, regional and national newsgroup hierarchies have their own
requirements and must be contacted for those requirements.
Please keep in mind that once the newsgroup is created the group is
not yours. It is in the public domain and you have little, or no,
real control over it.
Eugene A. Calame eaca...@texas.net
Austin, Texas USA
======guide for creating a newsgroup-big eight and local============
Revised 14 September 1997
Creating newsgroups for the comp., humanities., misc., news., rec.,
sci., soc. or talk. hierarchies, the big eight,is somewhat
complicated. The list of documents below will guide you through the
process.
A proposed big eight newsgroup must complete a process of review,
discussion, (RFD or Request for Discussion), and voting. (CFV or Call
for Votes.) The process is long. Usually three months or more. The
process is started by sending an outline, of your proposed newsgroup,
to group-...@acpub.duke.edu. A proposed new newsgroup must
gather one hundred yes votes more than no votes and the yes votes
must be two thirds, of the total votes. The process is run by
appointed mentors. The process, with examples, are thoroughly covered
in the FAQ's and requires no further explanation.
For more information on starting a big eight newsgroup read the following
documents.
http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/
http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/how-submit.faq
http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/good-proposal.faq
http://www.tezcat.com/~haz1/alt/naming.html
http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1036.txt
For information on starting a moderated newsgroup read the following
documents.
http://www.swcp.com/~dmckeon/mod-faq.html
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news/moderated-ng-faq
For information on starting a local, regional or national hierarchy
newsgroup locate that groups config, or general, newsgroup. Example:
austin.usenet.config . I have found that at times you will not be
able to obtain such information from the newsgroups. I would then
contact my ISP and try to obtain such information from the system
administrator.
After all attempts to obtain the conventional procedures for creating
a newsgroup, in the hierarchy, have failed just sent the newgroup
control message. You can do no harm. The newgroup control message
will either be accepted or rejected by the system administrators.
(You may also then receive the information you were seeking along
with other suggestions :-)
==================guide for creating an alt.newsgroup========
Revised 24 August 1997
Guide for Creating an alt.newsgroup
First things first:
Download, print out, make a file, and read the following.
(Very important)
http://www.tezcat.com/~haz1/alt/naming.html
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds/usenet/good-newgroup.html
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/alt-creation-guide.html
http://www.tezcat.com/~haz1/alt/example.html (the template)
More useful information:
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/config/ (select newsgroups.z)
http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1036.txt
http://www.tezcat.com/~haz1/alt/faqindex.html
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~asdamick/www/news/create.html
http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/
For information on starting a moderated newsgroup read the following
documents.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.config
http://www.swcp.com/~dmckeon/mod-faq.html
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news/moderated-ng-faq
An Overview:
NO ONE can keep you from creating an alt. newsgroup.
NO ONE can make a Internet Service Provider (ISP) put your group on
their server.
NO ONE can effectively remove your group, except the Internet service
provider, and then only from his server. Most servers automatically
reject rmgroup messages.
Creating a successful alt. newsgroup will take about four-weeks.
Distribution over the usenet system, once created, may take a
month or more.
There are no votes needed for alt.* newsgroups.
A charter is not required but you should provide a description of the
groups purpose.
A format familiar to system administrators should be used so that
they can quickly determine if it is of interest to their operation.
(That is the purpose of following the template format you downloaded.)
Justification for the group should explain why it is needed. A large
mailing list and frequent discussion of your newsgroup subject in
other newsgroups should be mentioned.
Post supporting your proposal should be sent to your e-mail address.
NOT alt.config. You can summarize the messages of support in the
justification portion of the message.
In your newgroup.control message you should mention that the newsgroup
was proposed and discussed in alt.config, giving the date (and ideally
the Message-ID) of the proposal. This information should appear early
in the message since many news administrators, will ignore any
newgroup messages that don't mention alt.config in the first page.
( I suggest putting the information in the comments portion.)
The biggest obstacle you will have to overcome is getting the Internet
service provider, systems administrator, to allow your newsgroup on
their server. Good propagation is second, in importance, only to the
creation of your newsgroup and is more difficult to obtain. If your
creation is on one or two servers, out of several thousand, your
creation will fail. That is why following the documents (FAQ's),
while writing the proposal, control and booster post, is so important.
Creating your newsgroup:
The group you want to create may already exist. Download and check
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/config/ (select newsgroups.z). This
will give you a complete list of alt.newsgroups, and hierarchies, in
existence; not necessarily in use. The list will help you name and
place your newsgroup in the proper hierarchy. (very important)
Creating a newsgroup essentially involves three stages.
Writing a proposal which will be posted to alt.config for discussion.
Writing a newgroup control post which is the same as the proposal
except it has control: and approved: fields in the header.
Writing booster post after the newsgroup is created. The booster is
exactly the same as the control post except at the beginning of the
message, in the body, after a blank line, the word "booster" is
written. Control and booster post are posted to alt.config and the
newsgroup you are creating. (alt.config,alt.group-name)
The best source of information, concerning the creation of an
alt. Newsgroup, is contained in a document titled "How To Write a Good
Newsgroup Message" by Mr.Brian Edmonds. It can be found at URL
(http://www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/edmonds/usenet/good-newgroup.html)
Pay particular attention to his "must", "should" and "should not"
instructions. The document by Mr. David Barr is also strongly
recommended; especially the part about newsgroup naming conventions.
It can be found at the web URL address..
(http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/alt-creation-guide.html).
When you prepare your newsgroup proposal try to keep the discussion
of the proposal too one screen if possible. A long proposal may not
be read. Use the comments, charter and justification sections of the
template example, below, as a guide. Let your proposal stay on
alt.config, for discussion, about a week. There may be suggestions
for changes. Consider the suggestions carefully. If there are no
suggestions you can assume the proposal is acceptable. Then,
incorporating any changes, you deem necessary, send your newgroup
control post.
Cross post your newgroup control post to alt.config and the group
being creating. Only a comma, no space, between the two.
(alt.config,alt.group-name) A successful newgroup control post
WILL NOT show up in alt.config even though it was addressed to that
group. The CONTROL newsgroup (it may be listed as control.newgroup on
your ISP's server) is where you will find your newgroup control
message if the post was successful. Look in the control newsgroup
and see if the group was created. There may be 40,000, or more, post
in control so It may be hard to locate. Use your find tool and If
your newsreader has a filter (kill file) you might filter out the word
"cancel" too get rid of most post that are of no interest too you.
Sorting the group by subject also helps.
Every Internet service provider that accepts newgroup.control post
automatically will create your group on that server immediately when
received or pass the newgroup.control post on to the system
administrator for action.
Newsreaders That Will Send a Newgroup Control Message
What none of the FAQ’s make clear is that your newsreader
may not have the special header fields needed to send a control post
or how to get those header fields. There MUST be "control:" and
"approved:" fields IN the header. Free Agent, Agent and News Xpress
newsreaders can produce these header fields for IBM type PC users. For
Macintosh users the MT-Newswatcher can be used. All the suggested
newsreaders are freeware, except Agent, and can be found at the URL's
following.....
For windows 95
http://tucows.abac.com/tucows/news95.html#freeagent
http://tucows.abac.com/tucows/news95.html#express
For windows 3.xx
http://tucows.abac.com/tucows/softnews.html#express
http://tucows.abac.com/tucows/softnews.html#freeagent
The MT-Newswatcher newsreader can be found at URL
http://tucows.abac.com/tucows/mac/newsmac.html
The MT-Newswatcher
To configure the MT-Newswatcher perform the following.
From the menu
click on FILE
click on PREFERENCES
Scroll down to Extra header lines
Type in control:
Type in approved:
Click OKAY
The Free Agent Newsreader:
(Agent is essentially the same):
To obtain the required headers with Free Agent you must
find the agent.ini file (agent configure with windows 95).
Open the file by clicking on the icon and using notepad.
Find the section labeled [message] and then find ShowAllFields=0.
Change ShowAllFields=0 to ShowAllFields=1.
Save and Close the file.
Close and restart Free Agent.
Click Post on the menu.
Click New Usenet Message.
Click message on the menu
Click on All Fields.
The last action will open a new fields box. In this new box you will
find the new control and approved headers. You can scroll the fields
using the buttons on the right side of the box. To enter data in the
control field highlight the control field by clicking on it. Below
the box you will see a box now marked as Value for control. In this
box enter the control data. Click on the highlighted control again
and the data in the value box will be transferred to the highlighted
control field. Repeat the operation for the approved field and all
fields you wish to change in the box.
The News Xpress Newsreader
The two New Xpress readers are simpler to configure than Free Agent.
New Xpress 1.0 beta # 4 for Windows 3.xx.
Click on Config.
Click on Preferences.
Click on Headers
In the box marked Post headers template type in the
control: and approved: header fields.
Close the box and click Post. Your new fields will now be visible.
News Xpress version 2.0 for Windows 95
Click on File
Click on Options
Click on Compose
In the Template section , in the post headers box, type in the
control: and approved: header fields.
Close the box and select Post from the menu. You will now see the
new control and approved header fields.
An example, newgroup control post , header and body.
============ template example below ================
From: {email address of person sending this message}
Newsgroups: alt.config,{name of newsgroup being created}
Control: newgroup {name of newsgroup being created}
Subject: cmsg newgroup {name of newsgroup being created}
Summary: discussed in alt.config, substantial interest, appropriate
name
Expires: {this should be left empty, in a newgroup message}
Approved: {email address of person sending this message}
Sender: {email address of person or administrator sending this
message}
Follow up-To: poster {follow ups default to emailing you, instead of
posting}
Reply-To: {email address of person requesting creation of the group}
Distribution: {this header should be empty except for a single space
character;
especially don't use "Distribution: world"}
Organization: {your organization or institution may be named here}
Keywords: {here you may include keywords related to the topic of the
group}
Cc: {you may specify email addresses to send a copy of this message
to}
(make sure you have a blank line here, between the header, above, and
the body,
below)
Comments:
State the dates (e.g. "during 1/96") was discussed in alt.config, and
who you are in relation to the proposal (especially if you aren't the
original proponent). Many news administrators, will ignore any
newgroup messages that don't mention the posting of the proposal to
alt.config. )
For your newsgroups file:
newsgroup name A few words describing the newsgroup. One line. Do not
run over.
{You must follow the format above exactly; copy the first line
verbatim, and on the second line give the name of the newsgroup,
followed by one or more spaces followed by a few words describing the
group. Do not run over the end of the line!)
Charter:
The purpose of the charter is to define what topics are (or are not)
appropriate for the newsgroup, and to state any applicable policies of
the newsgroup (for example, if the group is "retro-moderated", you
should explain the criteria that will be applied by the moderator or
moderation software.
Justification of Readership:
Here you should include numerical evidence that there is substantial
online interest in the topic of the newsgroup. If the topic is covered
by an existing newsgroup, mailing list, or other discussion forum, you
should also explain why the existing forum is no longer adequate for
the purpose.
This also applies to creating a specialized subgroup of a more general
newsgroup; you will need to explain why the split is necessary ("we
don't want to use the general group" is not considered an adequate
reason-- only a high volume of traffic in the general group, and/or a
high percentage of that traffic being on this specific sub-topic, is
considered a valid justification for a split).
============template example above ===================
Always remember; You are addressing systems administrators with your
proposal, control and booster post. They must make quick decisions on
your newsgroup along with many others.
What Comes After:
After the control post has been sent, and you have confirmed it was
successful, you may get several post similar the one below. They are
for system administrators and you need take no action.
To:
Subject:
From: ne...@duey.c4c.com
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 96 20:17:31 +0000
e.ca...@worldnet.att.net requested that alt.penpals.forty-plus-yrs be
created. To do this, type the following:
/usr/local/news/bin/ctlinnd newgroup alt.penpals.forty-plus-yrs y
e.ca...@worldnet.att.net
Follow Up:
You have done all the above and you still do not see your newsgroup
on the server of your ISP. Check for newgroups or refresh your
newsreader newsgroup list and check again. If it still is not there
after a day or two give your Internet service provider a call and
request that it be added.
To get good distribution of the newsgroups encourage all, who would be
interested, to ask their Internet service provider to add the group
to their server. (A polite announcement, of the creation of your
newsgroup, to newsgroups with similar, but specialized interest,
would not be out of order.)
Send a booster post about once a week for a month;
Once a month for six-months.
After that, once every six-months to a year.
Boosters are important since the usenet is not static. New ISP's are
being created, failing and changing constantly.
After the new newsgroup has been up and running for a few months,
you should write a review of the group and submit it to
news.groups.reviews. See http://www.superb.net/~islander/ngr/
for information about news.groups.reviews.
Good luck.
Eugene A. Calame eaca...@texas.net
Austin, Texas USA http://lonestar.texas.net/~eacalame/home.htm