🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000 09:15:53 GMT, Ciberesc�ptico <ciberesceptico@my-deja.com>
wrote:

>  That is, how can anyone create a newsgroup in the free hierarchy?
>  Thanks for your time.
>
>
>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Before you buy.


I may tell you more than you really want to know here but I am trying to answer
questions that might be asked by readers that have no knowledge of creating a
newsgroup. 

The first step would to familiarize yourself with the FAQ you will find at
http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/faqs/free.html . Much to your delight you will
find the words by the author Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@uiuc.edu), "Everything is
permitted. Nothing is forbidden", and that is so.

However,  that terrible word however, you must submit a control.newgroup message
that follows strict procedures due to software considerations.  Should you not
do so the group will not be created. 

The name must follow some form that can be handled by the software of news
servers.  You can find a document that outlines that form at
ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/README written by tale@isc.org (David
Lawrence).  It's only about two and a half pages so it will not take to much
time. 

I have pasted a portion of the document that pertains to naming requirements
below. 

--------------- 

All newsgroup names consist of components, which are the elements of 
the name between the dots.  For example, "news.announce.newgroups" has 
three components, "news", "announce" and "newgroups.  I do not add 
groups that do not conform to the following standard for Usenet group 
names: 

  + a component MUST contain at least one letter 
  + a component MUST not contain uppercase letters 
  + a component MUST begin with a letter or digit 
  + sequences 'all' and 'ctl' MUST not be used as components 
  + the name must have at least two components 
  + the first component MUST begin with a letter 
  + the first component MUST not be "control" or "to". 

Those criteria are based on rules written by Henry Spencer for the 
Internet draft standard that is to replace RFC 1036. 
----------------------------------- 

The document goes on to say... 

----------------------------------------- 
the limit on the length of a component. 
The de facto limit was 14 octets for over a decade and a 
half.  It is currently proposed that this be lifted to a "soft" limit 
of 30 octets (eg, it is recommended that name components be kept under 
30 octets, but it would not be illegal to have an even longer 
component). 
--------------------------------------- 

I think that takes care of the name but you can see that you do still have to
follow some rules if you
want the group to be accepted by the news server. 

Another important item that goes in the body of the message is the For your
newsgroups file: line.  This
should be as follows... 

For your newsgroups file: 
free.a tab 

Again from the document by tale@isc.org (David Lawrence) 

---------------------------------- 
Here's what I would like to see for each line: 

group.namedescription.[ (Moderated)] 

There should be one or more hard tabs (assume 8 column tab stops) to 
get to a description; if the group.name is more than 24 characters, 
just one tab.  The description should start with a capital and end in 
a period and not be more than 56 characters (80 - 24) long.  If the 
group is moderated, it should have " (Moderated)" following the 
period, not counted as part of the length of the description.  The 
goal is to keep the total line under 80 columns, so if the group name 
is 25 characters long you'd have eight less description characters to 
work with. 

Some over-long descriptions could be made to easily fit the length by 
dropping "puff" phrases like "Discussion of" which don't meaningfully 
contribute to the description.  Others are usually pretty easy to get 
to no more than column eighty, except when the group names start 
getting really long.  Hopefully then the group name itself contains 
quite a bit of description. 

----------------------------------- 

The control.newgroup message 

The control.newgroup message must absolutely have three components in the header
of the message. 
Subject: cmsg newgroup free. , 
Control: newgroup . 
(Do not include the "<" and ">" signs.) 
The rest the header fields are added by the newsreader in most cases. 

To get these fields you must have a newsreader that allows you to add the
fields.  There are several
newsreaders that will allow this but I have supplied two, and their source, that
are freeware.  I have
also included the process of adding the extra headers. 

Windows 95/98 
http://tucows.texoma.net/adnload/dlfreeagent.html 

Windows 3.x 
http://win3x.tucows.com/adnload/win3x/dlfreeagent3x.html 

Macintosh 
http://surfus.mac.tucows.com/blueberry/adnload/dlmtnwmac.html 

The MT-Newswatcher (Macintosh) 

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 
For version 3.0 MT-NewsWatcher the following change. 
In recent versions, you edit the headers in Personalities... under 
the Special menu, or in the "Extra News Headers" tab in the "New Posting"
window. 

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 or just agent). 

( Easy way to find the file is to use the find program.  Click the START button
in the lower left hand
corner of the screen.  Go up to FIND and over to and click FILES AND FOLDERS.
In the box that
opens enter AGENT.INI in the NAMED field. Click the FIND NOW button and it will
find the
AGENT.INI file for you.  click on the icon and it will open the file for you to
make corrections.) 

Open the file by clicking on the icon and using notepad or wordpad. 
Find the section labeled [message] and then  find ShowAllFields=0. 

(again you can find the item easily using the FIND function of notepad) 

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. (An icon at the top of the newsreader) 
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
another 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. 

some examples 
  

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) 
  

For your newsgroups file: 
free.group-name(tab or space)  A few words describing the newsgroup. 

{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.
or tabs, followed by a few words describing the group. Start with a upper case
character and end with a period.Do not run over the end
of the line!  80 charters max. Including spaces, tabs and period.) 

Not all the header fields in the example above need be added but don't forget;
The Subject:, Control:, and Approved: fields *must* be there. 

This is a first effort at writing this guide.  If you find mistakes or think
more needs to be added please contact me at eacalame@excite.com or through the
newsgroup alt.how.to.create.a.newsgroup.

Posted and e-mailed