usenet
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What is Usenet?
Usenet is a distributed discussion network. It is separated into different fora called newsgroups, some of them silly, some not so silly. Here's a silly explanation of Usenet, by net.god James Kibo Parry.Kibo has his own newsgroup (and religion): alt.religion.kibology
Creating New Groups
Depending on the hierarchy newsgroups are created differently. In the Big8 (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, talk), a new group is proposed through a so called RFD (Request For Discussion) and later an e-mail vote is taken after a CFV (Call Far Votes) has been published.You may want to regularly read news.announce.newgroups as all RFDs and CFVs are posted there. The discussion during an RFD phase is supposed to take place in news.groups.
It has often be said that one should read news.groups for at least six months before proposing a group.
Other hierarchies have different procedures. In alt for example you should discuss your proposal in alt.config, but it is much easier to get your group in alt than in a Big8 hierarchy.
There are also different national hierarchies which also have their own group creation rules.
History & Legends
Usenet has a long history. You might want to read the Great Renaming FAQ, as it explains a lot of it.Everything that has a history also has its legends. Usenet is no exception. Many individual newsgroups have their own net.personalities, but some are widely known and became legends. If you want to know who they are and what they did read the net.legends FAQ.