Big 8 (Usenet)

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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. Groups are added through a process of nomination, discussion and voting.

History

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

The Big 8 Management Board

The Big 8 Management Board was originally created in 2005 from former moderators of the news.announce.newgroups. The board's mission is to:

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