If you are looking at this site you must have an interest in creating a new alt.* group, this page is intended as an aid to that process, ending with the method of sending a control message to create a group.

Some brief points that may be of interest:

First off It should be pointed out that there are no rules in alt.*, there are traditions and there's common sense, but you are well within your rights to ignore both...That's the beauty of alt.

The alt.* Hierarchy was specifically made so that anyone can create and remove newsgroups,
for those same reasons not all news servers automatically accept cmsg newgroup[1]
and cmsg rmgroup[2] commands.

[1] cmsg newgroup is the command to create a new alt.* group.
[2] cmsg rmgroup is the command to remove an alt.* group.

Both the cmsg newgroup and rmgroup are taken by most server admin as being advisory instructions, few will instantly add a newgroup and a minuscule amount will ever remove one, but this is where the process begins.

Pitfalls to avoid:

Over the years groups have been shuffled into named hierarchies so that groups of a similar ilk sit next to each other in your newsgroups file. It has been done like this out of common sense and to make searching for a group easier.
No one can force you to place your group into one of these hierarchies, but you may find it detrimental to the groups success if you ignore convention.
You may want to check at news:alt.config to find the correct hierarchy for your group.

Here are some simple guidelines that you should attempt to follow when naming a group, deviations way from these principle are said to cause problems for some older News Server software.-

There is also the very real possibility that the group you wish to create already exists and is not being carried by your News Server. This can be remedied by asking your ISP/News Provider to add the group.
To find out whether the group already exist, ask in news:alt.config

Newsgroup propagation:

This is the real crux of the matter when it comes to creating an alt.* group. Anyone can send a cmsg newgroup to a server so many people do and as well as creating so called 'proper' groups they create joke groups, vanity groups, revenge groups and such like. There is nothing specifically wrong with doing this, but as a consequence of this freedom most servers wont automatically carry new newsgroups, and operate a policy of only adding alt.* hierarchy newsgroups on a customers request.

So how do I get my group on as many servers as possible?

There are a few methods of doing this:
1) Post interesting and On-Topic comments to the group, that way you will pull in any passer-bys.
2) Get your Usenet buddies to ask their own news provider/ISP to add the group to their News feed.
3) Keep dropping hints and plugging the newgroup in groups where you think that other people may have an interest in the group you have created.
4) Add your group to crossposts threads, some servers work on a need for a minimum amount of posts before they will add a group.
5) Write an attractive Charter[3] for your group, think of it as being similar to the blurb on the back of a book. A well written one may well sell the group to a few more News admin.

[3] The 'Charter' is a part of the traditional format of a cmsg newgroup, it isn't absolutely necessary but some news servers will not allow the group to be added unless it has a one so you may be harming your groups prospects if you don't bother. If you are going to write a Charter It should explain the purpose of the group in a clear and concise manner, remember that this may be all that some news admins use to make a decision on adding your group.

The cmsg newgroup:

This particular type of cmsg can only be sent with the excellent Agent or Free Agent newsreaders, which are available at http://www.forteinc.com/index.htm .

Also at this point, it is very important that you realise that not all newservers propagate control messages- in other words your news server may not allow you to create a newsgroup.
The simplest method to find out if they will allow 'newgrouping' is to e-mail they're support dept and ask.

Once you have Agent or Free Agent you must go to the agent.ini which you will find in the agent folder and modify (Close any instances of the Agent newsreader, open agent.ini with notepad and word-wrap TURNED OFF, make the changes and save.)-

Change ShowAllFields=0 to ShowAllFields=1
Close the ini file and start up Free Agent.
Click on the Post menu.
Click on New Usenet Message.
Click on All Fields>>...


============ example below ================

Subject: cmsg newgroup alt.(your group-name)
Newsgroups: alt.config,alt.(your group-name)
Control: newgroup alt.(group-name)
Approved: youre-mail@blah.com

For your newsgroups file:
alt.(group-name) [hit TAB] A one line description of group. Whole line must be no more than 80 characters long including group name, tab, description and all spaces.

Charter:
(Short paragraphs describing the purpose of your newsgroup. No more than one screen full if possible..)


[Add paragraph below for the pro-look]

Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are forbidden.
Posts must be readable as plaintext.
Advertising is forbidden

Justification:
(What ever you feel is justification for the group.)

============ example ===================

For your newsgroups file:
alt.example <PRESS TAB> This is an example of a cmsg newgroup.

Charter:
The creation of this group is intended to show how easy it is to create an alt.* newsgroup.
Anything whatsoever is On-Topic.
This is an unmoderated group.

Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are forbidden.
Posts must be readable as plaintext.
Advertising is forbidden

Justification:
Freedom of alt.*.

===============END EXAMPLE===============

Once you have created the group, confirmation of the control message should appear in news:control.newgroup
If you now refresh your newsgroups list or 'get newgroups' the group you have created should appear...Warning...This may not happen instantly and can take several hours and in very extreme cases (depending on how good/crap your news service is,) days to appear.

What is a rmgroup?

So you found news:control.rmgroup
The purpose of an rmgroup is to send out a control message that is the reverse of your own, i.e. it attempts to remove the group you have just created (rmgroup = remove group.)

"Why the hell would somebody want to do that?", your probably thinking.

Well firstly don't panic, as you are perfectly within your rights to create an alt.* newsgroup, it is just as legitimate for someone else to attempt to remove that group, its the way of alt.*- anyone can newgroup, anyone can rmgroup.
Supposedly the rmgroups original purpose was to remove the dead groups from servers, sadly it was misused to such a point that it is now tended to be ignored by most news admin.

If you feel you need more information on the rmgroup, the regulars of news:alt.config will be happy to clarify the situation for you :O)

A BOOSTER?

The BOOSTER message is basically a repeat of the original control message, but with the word BOOSTER on the first line of the control message, directly above 'For your newsgroups file:' The general idea being to give the newsgroup a bit of a propagation boost.
It is recommended that you send a BOOSTER two weeks after your original control message, and then once again six months later. Ideally you will just send the exact same control message with the word BOOSTER implanted as stated above.

In Conclusion

A newsgroup is easy enough to create, the hard part is making it a popular group instead of a spam trap, try not to add to the spam traps with the knowledge you have gained from this page. Better to attempt to make a worthwhile group to be proud of rather than another empty. And remember- it is you who must bring in the contributors, it is very rare that there is a bundle of people just waiting for you to create your group so that they can jump in and start posting.

Sounds like hard work?
Well it can be, it all depends on the group you want to make, sometimes its better to spend a bit of time doing some research at http://www.deja.com/usenet to see if there is already some interest in the subject. If there is a substantial amount of discussion already (not in a similar group you are thinking of) you will find it a lot easier to get your own group up and running.

For more in-depth reading and other Usenet related links:

Some UseNet history http://www.vrx.net/usenet/history/rename.html#intro"
UseNet FAQ and other stuff http://www.faqs.org/usenet/

Post to Usenet through a web page and read the archives http://www.deja.com/usenet

Free news servers http://www.newzbot.com/sorted-group-table.html
Premium news servers http://www.newsreaders.com/newsfeeds/index.html

To e-mail me: hamishmcsnetter@hotmail.com