View source for Big 8 (Usenet)

{{short description|Group of newsgroup hierarchies}}
The '''Big 8''' (previously the '''Big 7''') are a group of [[newsgroup]] [[hierarchies]] established after the [[Great Renaming]], a restructuring of [[Usenet]] that took place in 1987. These hierarchies are managed by the Big 8 Management Board.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.big-8.org/ |title=Big-8 Usenet - Big-8 Usenet |publisher=Big-8.org |date=2010-07-26 |accessdate=2011-01-08}}</ref> Groups are added through a process of nomination, discussion and voting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:creation |title=How to Create a New Big-8 Newsgroup - Big-8 Usenet |publisher=Big-8.org |date=2010-07-07 |accessdate=2011-01-08 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103091457/http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies%3Acreation |archivedate=2008-01-03 }}</ref>

== History ==

The original seven hierarchies were [[Comp.* hierarchy|comp.*]], misc.*, news.*, rec.*, [[Sci.* hierarchy|sci.*]], soc.*, and talk.*. They were open and free for anyone to participate in (except for the [[moderation|moderated]] newsgroups), though they were subject to a few general rules governing their naming and distribution.

[[alt.* hierarchy|alt.*]] was not part of the original seven but created separately as a place with more freedom and fewer rules than the Big 7.

In April 1995,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/humanities/humanities.misc|title=RESULT: humanities.misc passes 508:97|accessdate=6 February 2016|date=11 April 1995}}</ref> when Usenet traffic grew significantly, humanities.* was introduced and it and the seven hierarchies created by the Renaming make up today's so-called "Big 8".

== Hierarchies ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Hierarchy
! Description
! Examples
|-
| '''[[Comp.* hierarchy|comp.*]]'''
|| [[Computer]]-related discussions
|| ''comp.software, comp.sys.amiga, comp.browsers.www''
|-
| '''[[Humanities.* hierarchy|humanities.*]]'''
|| Humanities topics
|| ''humanities.music.composers.wagner''
|-
| '''[[Misc.* hierarchy|misc.*]]'''
|| Miscellaneous topics
|| ''misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids''
|-
| '''[[News.* hierarchy|news.*]]'''
|| Newsgroup-related matters. This hierarchy was not originally intended for reporting [[news]] [[current events|events]]. It was meant to deal with matters of Usenet in particular
|| ''news.groups, news.admin, news.announce.groups''
|-
| '''[[Rec.* hierarchy|rec.*]]'''
|| [[Recreation]] and [[entertainment]] 
|| ''rec.music, rec.arts.movies, rec.arts.poetry''
|-
| '''[[Sci.* hierarchy|sci.*]]'''
|| [[Science]]-related discussions
|| ''sci.physics, sci.research, sci.skeptic''
|-
| '''[[Soc.* hierarchy|soc.*]]'''
|| [[Society|Social]] discussions
|| ''soc.college.org, soc.culture.African, soc.history.what-if''
|-
| '''[[Talk.* hierarchy|talk.*]]'''
|| Talk about various [[controversy|controversial]] topics and discussions with no obvious categorization
|| ''talk.religion, talk.politics, talk.bizarre, talk.origins''
|}

== The Big 8 Management Board ==
The Big 8 Management Board was originally created in 2005 from former moderators of the news.announce.newgroups.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=News.announce.newgroups - Big-8 Usenet|url=https://www.big-8.org/wiki/News.announce.newgroups|access-date=2020-05-05|website=Big-8 Management Board}}</ref> The board's mission is to:

* create well-named, well-used newsgroups in the Big-8 Usenet hierarchies;
* make necessary adjustments to existing groups;
* remove groups that are not well-used; and
* assist and encourages the support of a canonical Big-8 newsgroup list by Usenet sites.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Big-8 Management Board|url=https://www.big-8.org/wiki/Big-8_Usenet|access-date=2020-05-05|website=Big-8 Management Board}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[alt.* hierarchy]]
*[[Great Renaming]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.big-8.org/ The Big-8 Management Board]
{{Usenetnav}}

[[Category:Big 8 (Usenet)| ]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1987]]