One of the more frequently posted questions is "How can I create a new
newsgroup?"  The procedure depends on which "hierarchy" you want to create
the group in, that is, the first component of the newsgroup name.

Creating a new newsgroup in the comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci,
soc or talk hierarchies involves first proposing the newsgroup in
news.announce.newgroups, then conducting a "vote" among those Usenet
readers who have an opinion on the proposed group.  The entire process can
take up to three months.

Creating a new newsgroup in the "alt" hierarchy involves proposing it
informally in alt.config, then (if the response is favorable) getting
someone to send out a "newgroup control message" for the group if you
don't know how to do it yourself.

Other hierarchies have different procedures, or perhaps no formal
procedure at all.  If you want to create a new newsgroup in the
(hypothetical!) podunk hierarchy, you might look for a newsgroup called
podunk.config or podunk.general, and ask there about the proper procedure.

For more details, see the following documents.  You can find copies of
(or links to) all of them, as well as links to newsgroup-creation
documents for other hierarchies, at the following Web address:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/6882/ncreate.html


BIG-EIGHT GROUPS

(1) "Guidelines for Big Eight Newsgroup Creation", by Russ Allbery

(a) in the newsgroup news.groups

(b) on the Web at http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/big-eight.html

(2) "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup", by David Lawrence [this is the
old version of the "Guidelines" given above, and is listed here mainly for
historical purposes]

(a) in one of the following newsgroups: news.admin.misc,
news.announce.newgroups, news.announce.newusers, news.answers,
news.groups

(b) on the Web at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/creating-newsgroups/part1/

(3) "Guidelines on Usenet Newsgroup Names", by David Wright and Mark
Moraes

(a) in one of the following newsgroups:  news.announce.newusers,
news.groups, news.admin.misc, alt.config, alt.answers, news.answers

(b) on the Web at
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/creating-newsgroups/naming/part1/

(4) "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal", by Russ Allbery

(a) in one of the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,
news.groups

(b) on the Web at:
http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/how-submit.faq

(5) "How to Write a Good Newsgroup Proposal", by David Lawrence and Una
Smith

(a) in one of the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,
news.groups

(b) on the Web at:
http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/newgroup/good-proposal.faq


ALT GROUPS

(6) "So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup", by David Barr

(a) in one of the following newsgroups: alt.config, alt.answers,
news.answers

(b) on the Web at:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/alt-creation-guide.html

(7) "How to Write a Good Newgroup Message", by Brian Edmonds

(a) in the newsgroup alt.config

(b) on the Web at:
http://www.gweep.bc.ca/~edmonds/usenet/good-newgroup.html


OTHER HIERARCHIES

The Web site

http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/ncreate.html

has links to the newsgroup creation documents for the following
hierarchies, in addition to the ones given above:

biz     business-oriented
us      United States
aus     Australia
uk      United Kingdom
de      German language
fr      French language
es      Spain
nl      Netherlands
be      Belgium
sfnet   Finnish language


--
Jon Bell <>                         Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science         Clinton, South Carolina USA
[ Newsgroup information for beginners: http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/ ]