nyuuzyou/wikis huggingface dataset:
News.groups

This article was written as part of a description of news.groups.proposals. A much more complete discussion and history is in the group-history section.
news.groups came into existence as net.news.group as a place to discuss proposals for new newsgroups. Its purpose remained unchanged until the establishment of news.groups.proposals.
There never was, is not now, and probably never will be a formal charter for news.groups. It is the lineal descendant of the process that created Usenet. Although news.groups is not the mother of all newsgroups, it is the grandchild or great-grandchild and principle heir of the mother of all newsgroups.
Besides meaning "a formal document on file with the ISC, a "charter" may also be thought of as the purpose or scope of a newsgroup. In this sense, news.groups has a purpose and scope, and therefore it has a charter.
__TOC__
=== What is the relationship between news.groups and news.groups.proposals? ===
news.groups.proposals handles a subset of the traditional discussion in news.groups -- the "formal" discussion process. This begins when the RFD is posted in news.announce.newgroups and ends when the decision is made whether to create the group.
=== Does news.groups have a charter? ===
* The one-line description of news.groups is: Discussions and lists of newsgroups.
 
* For a sense of how news.groups developed in the past, see how the group came into being.
* For a general understanding of what a charter is, see "What is a charter?".
=== If proposals are discussed in news.groups.proposals, what is left for news.groups? ===
* news.groups will not be removed or moderated. It is a group that has been in long existence and there are innumerable FAQ's that reference it by name. It may continue to be used by those who do not have access to news.groups.proposals or prefer to post to an unmoderated newsgroup.
* As an unmoderated newsgroup, news.groups is, in a sense, whatever the users make of it. Based on the developments in the news.group community, it is apparent that "discussions ... of newsgroups" may include:
** developing ideas that could become formal proposals for new groups or improved policies.
** discussing issues related to established groups.
** evaluating proposals, policies, and changes regarding the Big-8 newsgroup hierarchies.
** explaining how newsgroups work.
** examining the culture of Usenet and the Big-8.
** offering advice on netiquette or providing strategies for dealing with problems in newsgroups.
** preserving and transmitting the history of Usenet and the Big-8.
** maintaining contact with friends and colleagues.
** providing feedback on the management of the Big-8.
** cultivating volunteers to help manage the Big-8.
** pooling resources to solve technical problems.
** public communications with members of the Big-8 Board.
* Any discussion that would be on-topic in the news.groups.* hierarchy is encouraged.
* We hope that participants in news.groups will abide by normal Usenet standards of conduct and to ignore articles intended to disrupt the group. The usual suspects are discouraged - spam, binaries, html, direct advertising, etc.
Category:History
Category:FAQs
News.groups.proposals

is a moderated newsgroup that was created in November 2006 to address issues with the news.groups newsgroup. As described in the news.groups.proposals charter, the goal is to provide a "healthy environment where ideas can be raised, discussed, and developed."
news.groups.proposals is used primarily in Step 3 of the newsgroup creation process.
To remove the flames, attacks, and other noise from this phase of the discussion, news.groups.proposals is moderated. The moderators try to ensure that articles relate to a newsgroup proposal and are civil. Dissenting opinions are encouraged. For additional information, refer to the news.groups.proposals moderation policy.
You should be able to submit articles to news.groups.proposals just as you do for any other newsgroups. If you find that your news provider has misconfigured the group as unmoderated, you can email submissions to ngp@nan.users.panix.com.
If you have problems (including misconfiguration of the group by your provider) or questions, the administrative address for the group is ngp-board@ngp.big-8.org.
== Moderators ==
* Jason Evans
* Rayner Lucas
* Tristan Miller
* Marco Moock
== Further information ==
* news.groups.proposals FAQ
* news.groups.proposals charter
* Moderation policy for news.groups.proposals
* Signing key for news.groups.proposals
News service providers

The purpose of this page is to provide information without any express or implied preference for any of the services listed.
Please contact us to correct or expand the lists on this page.
* NSP configuration bug.
== Free Text-Only Usenet Servers ==
List of free Usenet servers:
Server 	Notes
Eternal September 	Provides access to the Big 8, alt.*, and many regional hierarchies.
Solani 	Provides access to the Big 8, alt.*, and many regional hierarchies.
SunSITE.dk 	Provides Danish and Open Source related groups.
Usenet.ovh 	Provides access to the Big 8, fr.*, and linux.*, plus some other regional hierarchies.
nntp://news.mixmin.net 	This is a *read-only* service. This is the nntp link.
nntps://news.mixmin.net	Same as above but with a nntps link.
Neodome 	Website non-functional as of 2023, but NNTP access still works.
A site with more information about free NNTP servers:
http://www.nntpeng.willemijns.com
== Internet Service Providers and Usenet Access ==
For comparison information on ISPs who provide Usenet access to their subscribers
you can see the following web sites:
Lists of ISPs Who Provide Usenet and/or Usenet Providers
Free and Public Usenet News Servers (may be out of date)
Geeks.org Usenet Servers (may be out of date)
Newsgroup Reviews Lists of Free Trials or Special Offers
Newsgroup Reviews Premium Usenet Provider Chart
Newzbin Usenet:ISP Providers
Newzbin Chart of Premium Usenet Providers
NGProvider FAQ
Usenet Tools - News Server Addresses
Note: the Big-8 Management Board is not responsible for information on nor has any affiliation with the above sites. We would appreciate hearing from you if you have further information on Usenet providers. 
== Standalone News Service Providers ==
Paid Usenet Providers
== Bulk Providers ==
The following NSPs sell services to resellers who,
in turn, provide access to end users. They do 
not provide news access subscriptions to individuals.
Highwinds Media Group
== Web-to-News Gateways ==
Some websites offer access to Usenet newsgroups. Some allow posting access, while others act as read-only archives.
== Mail-to-News Gateways ==
It is possible to gain access to some newsgroups through
Mail-to-News Gateways.
Category:Help for new Usenet users
NoCeM

NoCeM (pronounced "No See 'Em") is a protocol for issuing notices that other Usenet participants can use to identify and filter out spam or other unwanted messages. Notices are authenticated using PGP signing to prevent forgery.
= Who can use NoCeM? =
End users can filter using NoCeM if they have a newsreader that supports it. Gnus for Emacs is one such newsreader, although unfortunately it has not been widely adopted in other newsreaders. In practice, NoCeM notices are mostly issued and acted upon by server administrators, to filter spam at server level.
Administrators can use NoCeM-on-spool software such as perl-nocem for INN 2.
= How can I find out more about NoCeM? =
The most up-to-date site is the NoCeM Registry.
There is also some older information at the CancelMoose Home Page.
= Where can I discuss NoCeM on Usenet? =
The following newsgroups would be good places:
	Discussion of methods to control spam and other abuses of Usenet
	NNTP server software and administration
	Notices for automated news filtering systems (including NoCeM)
	Discussion of the NoCeM project (also used for publishing NoCeM notices)
Note: there used to be a news.admin.nocem newsgroup, but it was removed in 2011 as part of a reorganisation of the news.* hierarchy.
Category:Usenet infrastructure
Notes for new users

== Getting started ==
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
* Configuration settings list
* MediaWiki FAQ
* MediaWiki release mailing list
== Prettytable template ==
See Template:Prettytable for details on this template. It collapses the table border and does other things to format a table relatively nicely.
== Namespaces ==
In the old wiki, the custom was to group pages by namespace (blogs, board, faqs, history, member, nan, ngp, playground, policies, rfd, volunteer, wiki, workgroups). Articles had to be prefaced by the proper namespace and a colon in order to locate them in links.
MediaWiki has approximately seventeen standard namespaces. The convention is to create all articles in the same namespace and to use categories and other aids to organize the material for readers.
== Redirects ==
Short names or abbreviations for pages can be created by using redirects. On the page with a short name, put #REDIRECT [[long target name]]. Redirect pages can be categorized like any other pages.
== Edit the navigation sidebar ==
MediaWiki:Sidebar
== How to create new users ==
* Special pages
* Log in / create account. 
* Click link: "Create an account."
** Fill in required details.
* Special pages
* User rights management
* Enter username.
* Assign rights and save.
Personals and requests for girlfriends or boyfriends

The newsgroup is not the proper place to post "personals" or requests or solicitations for boyfriends, girlfriends or partners. However, many newsgroups are devoted to such topics:
* There is a moderated newsgroup for the posting of personal ads named .
* There is a non-moderated hierarchy and newsgroup within alt.* named , with the related groups:
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
** 
* You may also have access to a local personals group, such as or *.personals, where the * is replaced by your local hierarchy, as in or .
You might be able to subscribe to these groups by simply clicking on the group name in your web browser. If not, we have advice on how to go to other newsgroups.
For more information on finding friends and partners through newsgroups, please read:
* Usenet Personals: Advice for Straights FAQ
* Usenet Personals: Advice for Gay Men FAQ
* A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists, by Dave Taylor
----
This article is based on material authored by members of the Moderation Board and nnq-workers mailing list, particularly by Dennis D. Calhoun (until 2005) and Thor Kottelin (since 2007).
Category:news.newusers.questions
Pictures, sounds and document files

Binary encoding is a way to send a picture, sound, or other non-text file across newsgroups, email or some other text-based medium. This is done by converting the message data into text characters. The encoded file usually looks like gibberish to the human eye, but a recipient armed with suitable software can decode it into the original content.
Such encoded messages may not be posted to the newsgroup. They are often huge; the file may have been large to start with, and encoding it as text will make it even larger. The latter occurs because there a fewer characters to choose from, and so a longer file is necessary in order to convey the same information.
Such files can take forever to download. They may even crash some people's newsreaders. In addition, an unsuspecting newsgroup reader who pays for his or her Internet access by the minute or by the megabyte may have to pay a lot of money to download a binary message he or she does not even want. Finally, binary files tend to clutter up even the message overview, especially since they are often split up across several messages.
Please post binary files to the most appropriate binaries newsgroup only. Here are a few places to get you started, but be warned — the files may take a long time to download due to their size!
* 
* 
You can post a note in a group that you have sent a binary file to another newsgroup, but please do not post (or crosspost) the file in . If you post pointers to the groups where readers might be interested, and only post the binaries in binaries newsgroups, everything works out fine!
For more information, please read Decoding Internet Attachments by Michael Santovec.
----
This article is based on material authored by members of the Moderation Board and nnq-workers mailing list, particularly by Dennis D. Calhoun (until 2005) and Thor Kottelin (since 2007)
Category:news.newusers.questions
Polling Techniques

This is an initial page to start collecting some ideas about how information may be collected about various aspects of RFDs.
Generic interest poll.
The material on this page should be considered a draft that may be revised as various polling methods are tested.
== Interest Polls ==
The UVP may conduct polls on behalf of the Big-8 Management Board using the techniques that they judge will limit fraud and provide meaningful information. At present, the Board recommends web-forms followed by an e-mail exchange to verify that the person filling out the form has a 
repliable e-mail address.
Proponents may use other methods as well, according to their taste, time, and talents. The Board will evaluate such polls on a case-by-case basis to see what weight should be given to the poll results in the final decision about the RFD.
== Feedback from Usenet ==
One of the main weaknesses of surveys based on web pages and e-mail confirmation is that they do not show that the respondents understand and use Usenet.
The Board strongly encourages proponents to keep track of positive responses to the RFD and provide a list of such responses with the Usenet ID of the authors and the message-ID of the posts. This list could be published in a companion thread to the RFD thread so that those who wish to see the summary of feedback may do so, and a Message ID pointing to the first post in the thread might be placed in the RFD.
There are, of course, serious drawbacks to placing too much trust in such feedback, since it is easy to multiply Usenet identities. Nevertheless, it seems worthwhile to encourage this kind of feedback since those who are acting in good faith do show their familiarity
with Usenet. It may be possible to rank the value of the feedback given in Usenet posts by assessing the quality of the posting history associated with particular IDs. 
As with the Interest Polls, time will tell whether feedback from Usenet posts will prove helpful in evaluating the likelihood that a proposed group will be well-used.
== Clarifying Usenet Feedback ==
It may be possible to develop a tradition of providing one's own categorization of one's own feedback using the following scale:
Token	Interpretation
+1 	for the idea, it should be implemented, will use the group
-1 	against the idea, it should not be implemented
+0 	for the idea, will not use the group
0 	no opinion or cancellation of a previous view
-0 	against the idea, but it should not fail to be implemented on the strength of this opinion
Then again, it may not be possible to persuade people to categorize
their own opinions. In the absence of such a classification system,
proponents will just have to do the best they can to call 'em as they see 'em and be willing to revise their summaries as needed.
Problems with moderated and unmoderated groups on nonstandard setups

From Paul Schleck:
- At least one news service provider, Usenetserver.com, may cause
 problems for a newsgroup that is inconsistently listed among servers
 as both moderated and unmoderated. They will forward to the moderator
 submission address any post to a moderated newsgroup that reaches
 their server without an Approved header, even if it originated outside
 their domain. This is clearly inconsistent with established Usenet
 protocols and best practices, and will cause duplicate submissions,
 but I have been unable to get anyone at Usenetserver.com to
 acknowledge and act on this misconfiguration. Usenetserver.com
 resells its news service to private-label ISP's, so there is the
 potential for many, many origins of misformatted submissions causing
 duplicates. Over on rec.radio.amateur.moderated, we noticed this when
 we started getting duplicate submissions. Someone or something was
 reinjecting our articles without an Approved header, and they were
 getting mailed back to us. Procmail configuration allowed us to trap
 and report them, but it was still a hassle. We were finally able to
 reach someone at the ISP that was using Usenetserver.com as its NSP,
 and put a stop to the duplicates. See:
 http://groups.google.com/group/news.admin.net-abuse.policy/msg/a62e29151474aed2
 but that only stopped them at this particular ISP. Another ISP could
 cause the same problem as the Usenetserver.com bug is still there.
Public news servers

If your news server doesn't carry a newsgroup that you want to read, you may be able to read that group on a news server that allows access from the public (and not just its own customers).
== Free lunches are scarce ==
Before you set out to find a so-called "public" news server, you should be aware that many — perhaps even most — such servers are not intentionally public. Inadvertently configuring a news server so that outsiders can connect to it is a mistake inexperienced administrators often make. Eventually, they will notice their error and shut off outside access. This is especially likely to happen if the server carries any alt.binaries groups.
Most organizations that run news servers do not want usage by outsiders to degrade service to their own employees, students or customers. In addition, most organizations do not appreciate being used as a conduit for unsavoury activities. Therefore, if you do find a "public" news server carrying newsgroups that you want, please:
Don't hog that server's resources by downloading scores of articles, especially large binaries.
Don't use that server to disguise your identity and location so that you can post abusive messages, "spam" newsgroups with advertisements, etc.
Don't be surprised when you eventually get the message, "sorry, this server can't talk to you".
If you want reliable access to a large number of newsgroups, including binaries, then you should look for a commercial service provider that carries what you want, and pay for it.
== The Newzbot ==
Now that you've made it all the way through our sermon, here's a link to a possibly useful list of "public" news servers. James W. Abendschan periodically runs software that scans for publicly accessible NNTP (news) servers and creates a list.
Please read James's FAQ before using the list. Besides some of the same stuff that you see above, the FAQ also explains how his list works and what its limitations are.
----
This article is based on material authored by members of the Moderation Board and nnq-workers mailing list, particularly by Jon Bell (until 2005) and Thor Kottelin (since 2007).
Category:news.newusers.questions
Removing board members

* Announce the removal of the member in n.a.n.
* Remove from board mailing list (Google Groups).
** Promote another member to owner/moderator, if need be.
* Remove from the wiki.
** User account
** User page(s)
* Remove linux user account (if any) on big-8.org.
* Change panix password for joint username.
* Remove panix user account (if any).
* Request any fragments of big-8 key in the member's possession (passphrase or a half-key).
* Search for the member's name on the wiki and modify all lists and board functions accordingly.
Signing key for news.announce.important

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Category:news.announce.important
Category:Signing keys
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Category:news.announce.newgroups
Category:Signing keys
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Category:news.announce.newusers
Category:Signing keys