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Hierarchies

`comp'

Topics of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists, including topics in computer science, software sources, and information on hardware and software systems.

`misc'

Group addressing themes not easily classified into any of the other headings or which incorporate themes from multiple categories. Subjects include fitness, job-hunting, law, and investments.

`sci'

Discussions marked by special knowledge relating to research in or application of the established sciences.

`soc'

Groups primarily addressing social issues and socializing. Included are discussions related to many different world cultures.

`talk'

Groups largely debate-oriented and tending to feature long discussions without resolution and without appreciable amounts of generally useful information.

`news'

Groups concerned with the news network, group maintenance, and software.

`rec'

Groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational activities

These "world" newsgroups are (usually) circulated around the entire Usenet--this implies world-wide distribution. Not all groups actually enjoy such wide distribution, however. The European Usenet and Eunet sites take only a selected subset of the more "technical" groups, and controversial "noise" groups are often not carried by many sites in the U.S. and Canada (these groups are primarily under the `talk' and `soc' classifications). Many sites do not carry some or all of the comp.binaries groups because of the typically large size of the posts in them (being actual executable programs).

Also available are a number of "alternative" hierarchies:

`alt'

True anarchy; anything and everything can and does appear; subjects include sex, the Simpsons, and privacy.

`gnu'

Groups concentrating on interests and software with the GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation. For further info on what the FSF is, see section The Free Software Foundation.

`biz'

Business-related groups.

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