Newsgroups: uk.net.news.announce,uk.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!yama.mcc.ac.uk!cs.man.ac.uk!clerew!chl From: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) Subject: UK Newsadmin's FAQ Message-ID: Followup-To: uk.net Summary: Information for News Administrators specifically relevant to maintaining the uk.* hierarchy. Supersedes: Sender: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 08:36:57 GMT Approved: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk (with permission from control@usenet.org.uk) Expires: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 08:36:56 GMT Lines: 521 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu uk.net.news.announce:1999 uk.answers:307 news.answers:173052 Archive-name: uk/newsadmins-faq Posting-frequency: every 4 weeks Last-modified: Tue Sep 14 10:55:37 BST 1999 UK Newsadmin's FAQ ------------------ ------------------------------ Subject: Introduction This FAQ is prepared by Charles Lindsey for the purpose of disseminating the current status concerning management of the uk.* hierarchy to newsadmins througout the UK and elsewhere. I don't know whether these particular questions are in fact "Frequently Asked", but I certainly believe that they should be. Comments and suggestions for future editions to chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk please. This FAQ is archived at and at ------------------------------ Subject: Table of Contents 1. Recent Changes 2. Who manages the uk.* hierarchy? 3. Who is control? 4. What is usenet.org.uk? 5. Who are the UK Volunteer Votetakers? 6. What about the wales.* and scot.* hierarchies? 7. So which groups should I take on my site? 8. How do I send articles to a moderated group? 9 . Who are the moderators of the uk.* groups? 10. What other sources of information are there? 11. Where can I find an up-to-date list of newsgroups? 12. PGP signature of control messages 13. What other questions are there? ------------------------------ Subject: 1. Recent Changes Wed Mar 4 15:12:29 GMT 1998 New committee Mon May 4 12:49:24 BST 1998 New control address for nl.* groups Mon Sep 14 19:09:48 BST 1998 Revised moderated group access Wed Oct 7 09:40:43 BST 1998 New control.ctl/controlperm Fri Oct 30 19:47:17 GMT 1998 New BT member on Committee Tue Nov 3 21:01:27 GMT 1998 New wales.* hierarchy Thu Dec 10 09:50:43 GMT 1998 New UKVoting coordinator Mon Jan 18 17:02:01 GMT 1999 New committee Mon Jan 18 17:02:01 GMT 1999 wales.* again Fri Feb 12 11:06:31 GMT 1999 Committee dates Thu Jun 3 16:45:04 BST 1999 New moderator info Wed Jun 16 10:43:17 BST 1999 More new moderator info Fri Sep 3 11:05:51 BST 1999 New info about scot.* Tue Sep 14 10:55:37 BST 1999 Removed epsrc mod info, etc. ------------------------------ Subject: 2. Who manages the uk.* hierarchy? Three documents set out the procedures for creating and/or removing/renaming newsgroups within the uk.* hierarchy. GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY VOTING PROCEDURES WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY THE UK USENET COMMITTEE These documents were accepted on 7 Aug 95 following a vote conducted in uk.net.news, with the results, respectively, of (93 yes : 13 no) (91 yes : 13 no) (76 yes : 23 no) Essentially, they provide for a Committee to be elected each October, with a person known as Control, answerable to the Committee, to oversee the process of group creation. The Committee elected in October 1998 comprises Permanent members For BTnet - Stuart Davies For Demon - Dave Williams For Pipex - Mark Turner For PSINet - James Dyer Open members Until Oct 99 Paul Carpenter Thomas Lee Until Oct 2000 Claire Speed Dave Mayall Until Oct 2001 Charles Lindsey Iain Bowen Newsadmin members Until Oct 99 Jon Harley (2 vacancies) The committee as a whole may be reached by email to committee@usenet.org.uk. ------------------------------ Subject: 3. Who is control? The Committee (as elected in October 1997) have confirmed the appointment of Richard J. Letts to exercise the functions of Control on their behalf. For official purposes Richard may be reached at control@usenet.org.uk (unofficially, richard@illuin.demon.co.uk will also find him). It is requied that all RFDs and CFVs should be posted to uk.net.news.announce in accordance with the Guidelines document. BTNet, Demon, Eunet-GB and Pipex wish it to be known that they will in future honour all and only newgroup and rmgroup control messages for the uk.* hierarchy issued by control@usenet.org.uk, and they urge all other news administrators to adopt that same policy. ------------------------------ Subject: 4. What is usenet.org.uk? A domain name. Silly question! Next? But to be serious, it is a domain name set up to facilitate communication with the Committee, in such a manner that the relevant officers can be reached even if their identities change. Currently, the following services are available. control@usenet.org.uk to reach Control committee@usenet.org.uk to reach the whole Committee ukvoting@usenet.org.uk to reach the group of independent UK Volunteer Votetakers http://www.usenet.org.uk the UK Usenet Website ------------------------------ Subject: 5. Who are the UK Volunteer Votetakers? A group of people, independent of the Committee, who are empowered by the VOTING PROCEDURES to conduct votes. The coordinator of this group is Robert Felton, reachable via ukvoting@usenet.org.uk. ------------------------------ Subject: 6. What about the wales.* and scot.* hierarchies? For wales.*, there is a similar elected committee (reached at committee@wales-usenet.org) and control (reached at control@wales-usenet.org). For scot.* there is also an elected committee, (reached at committee@scot.news-admin.org) and control (reached at control@scot.news-admin.org) and also a website at . ------------------------------ Subject: 7. So which groups should I take on my site? Well that is your prerogative to decide. If you want to take a standard uk.* "full feed", then you should accept the periodic 'newgroup', 'rmgroup' and 'checkgroups' control messages issued by control@usenet.org.uk, and (for the uk.* groups) no others. You may of course decide to take less than this if your disc space and/or range of interests are limited. It is possible to automate the acceptance of these control messages issued by control@usenet.org.uk, and it is always safe to do so if you first verify the PGP signatures with which they are authenticated (if you are unable to do that, it is recommended that at least 'rmgroup's and 'checkgroups' be inspected manually before acceptance - there are not so many of those, anyway). If you run CNews, then the following 'controlperm' file will achieve the necessary effects. Note that this example also shows the correct way to handle control messages for the "Big-8" and also what is believed to be correct for several other hierarchies. Note that this example assumes that you have installed the latest patch for CNews to implement the verification of PGP signatures. -------------------------------- # Four/five fields per line, # first a newsgroup pattern, # second an author name (or "any"), # third a set of operations ("n" newgroup, "r" rmgroup, "c" checkgroups), # fourth a set of flags ("p" do it iff poster's identity is pgpverified, # "y" do it, "n" don't, "q" don't report at all, "v" include # entire control message in report) (default "yv"), # fifth (optionally) the entity allowed to pgpsign it. # Dave Lawrence runs the main Usenet hierarchies comp,sci,misc,rec,soc,talk,news,humanities group-admin@isc.org n p news.announce.newgroups # but his name can be forged, so don't let him rmgroup unless you use 'p'... comp,sci,misc,rec,soc,talk,news,humanities group-admin@isc.org r p news.announce.newgroups # likewise checkgroups comp,sci,misc,rec,soc,talk,news,humanities group-admin@isc.org c p news.announce.newgroups # and nobody else gets any attention in these hierarchies comp,sci,misc,rec,soc,talk,news,humanities any nrc nv uk control@usenet.org.uk nrc p uk.net.news.announce wales control@wales-usenet.org nrc p wales-usenet eunet news@noc.eu.net n y eunet news@noc.eu.net rc nv de moderator@dana.de nrc p de.admin.news.announce nl nl-admin@nic.surfnet.nl nrc p nl.newsgroups nz root@usenet.net.nz nrc p nz-hir-control bionet dmack@*.bio.net n y bionet dmack@*.bio.net rc nv bionet kristoff@*.bio.net n y bionet kristoff@*.bio.net rc nv bionet shibumi@*.bio.net nrc nv linux hpa@yggdrasil.com nrc nv bit jim@*american.edu nrc p bit.admin biz edhew@xenitec.on.ca n y biz edhew@xenitec.on.ca rc nv clari clarinet@clarinet.com nrc p ClariNet.Group # it's really tempting to change this one to nq... alt any nr nv alt any c nq # to.all groups are manually manipulated only to any nrc nq # final default: refuse noisily all any nrc nv -------------------------------- If you run INN, the corresponding file is 'control.ctl' and the facilities available are slightly different. Here is the nearest equivalent to the 'controlperm' file above. -------------------------------- ## $Revision: 1.4 $ ## control.ctl - access control for control messages ## Format: ## ::: ## The last match found is used. ## Control message or "all" if it applies ## to all control messages. ## Pattern that must match the From line. ## Pattern that must match the newsgroup being ## newgroup'd or rmgroup'd (ignored for other messages). ## What to do: ## doit Perform action (usually sends mail too) ## doifarg Do if command has an arg (see sendsys) ## doit=xxx Do action; log to xxx (see below) ## drop Ignore message ## log One line to error log ## log=xxx Log to xxx (see below) ## mail Send mail to admin ## verify-ddd doit if pgpverified by ddd ## verify-ddd=xxx ## xxx=mail to mail; xxx= (empty) to toss; xxx=/full/path ## to log to /full/path; xxx=foo to log to ${LOG}/foo.log ## last entry matched is used ## DEFAULT all:*:*:mail ## CHECKGROUPS MESSAGES checkgroups:*:*:mail checkgroups:group-admin@isc.org:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*|humanities.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups=mail checkgroups:control@usenet.org.uk:uk.*:verify-uk.net.news.announce=mail checkgroups:control@wales-usenet.org:wales.*:verify-wales-usenet=mail ## IHAVE/SENDME MESSAGES ihave:*:*:drop sendme:*:*:drop ## NEWGROUP MESSAGES ## Any newsgroups newgroup:*:*:mail newgroup:group-admin@isc.org:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*|humanities.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups=newgroup newgroup:control@usenet.org.uk:uk.*:verify-uk.net.news.announce=newgroup newgroup:control@wales-usenet.org:wales.*:verify-wales-usenet=newgroup newgroup:news@noc.eu.net:eunet.*:doit=newgroup newgroup:moderator@dana.de:de.*:verify-de.admin.news.announce=newgroup newgroup:nl-admin@nic.surfnet.nl:nl.*:verify-nl.newsgroups=newgroup newgroup:root@usenet.net.nz:nz.*:verify-nz-hir-control=newgroup newgroup:dmack@*.bio.net:bionet.*:doit=newgroup newgroup:kristoff@*.bio.net:bionet.*:doit=newgroup newgroup:shibumi@*.bio.net:bionet.*:mail newgroup:hpa@yggdrasil.com:linux.*:doit=newgroup newgroup:jim@*american.edu:bit.*:verify-bit.admin=newgroup newgroup:edhew@xenitec.on.ca:biz.*:doit=newgroup newgroup:clarinet@clarinet.com:clari.*:verify-ClariNet.Group=newgroup ## RMGROUP MESSAGES ## Any newsgroups rmgroup:*:*:mail rmgroup:group-admin@isc.org:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*|humanities.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups=mail rmgroup:control@usenet.org.uk:uk.*:verify-uk.net.news.announce=mail rmgroup:control@wales-usenet.org:wales.*:verify-wales-usenet=mail rmgroup:news@noc.eu.net:eunet.*:mail rmgroup:moderator@dana.de:de.*:verify-de.admin.news.announce=mail rmgroup:nl-admin@nic.surfnet.nlnews@a3.xs4all.nl:nl.*:verify-nl.newsgroups=mail rmgroup:root@usenet.net.nz:nz.*:verify-nz-hir-control=mail rmgroup:dmack@*.bio.net:bionet.*:doit=mail rmgroup:kristoff@*.bio.net:bionet.*:doit=mail rmgroup:shibumi@*.bio.net:bionet.*:doit=mail rmgroup:hpa@yggdrasil.com:linux.*:doit=mail rmgroup:jim@*american.edu:bit.*:verify-bit.admin=mail rmgroup:edhew@xenitec.on.ca:biz.*:doit=mail rmgroup:clarinet@clarinet.com:clari.*:verify-ClariNet.Group=mail -------------------------------- ------------------------------ Subject: 8. How do I send articles to a moderated group? Normally, you mail it to a server which keeps an up-to-date list of moderators. In CNews, one of the following entries in your 'mailpaths' file should suffice. -------------------------------- bionet %s@net.bio.net gnu %s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu linux submit-%s@ratatosk.yggdrasil.com it %s@news.nis.garr.it nl %s@nl.net nz %s@usenet.net.nz all %s@moderated.news.pipex.net -------------------------------- The entries for gnu.* and nz.* were taken from the "nz.* Usenet Hierarchy FAQ". Entries for other top-level hierarchies would be welcomed. The arrangements in INN are, as usual, similar but different. I believe the following should work. -------------------------------- bionet.*:%s@net.bio.net gnu.*:%s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu linux.*:submit-%s@ratatosk.yggdrasil.com it.*:%s@news.nis.garr.it nl.*:%s@nl.net nz.*:%s@usenet.net.nz *:%s@moderated.news.pipex.net -------------------------------- It is also possible to use moderators.isc.org which is an MX record pointing to most of the sites which maintain a complete list of moderators worldwide. It should automatically select the 'nearest', which in practice should be moderated.news.pipex.net for the UK. However, I am not convinced that it really does find the nearest (as opposed to choosing one at random) which is why I have suggested using moderated.news.pipex.net above. Note that moderators.uu.net, which used to be the official global address, still works but does not seem to be kept up to date anymore. Also britain.eu.net, which used to be an official submission address within the UK is not one of the sites currently listed under moderators.isc.org, so its continued use is not to be recommended. ------------------------------ Subject: 9. Who are the moderators of the uk.* groups? You do not really need this information, unless you want to construct your 'mailpaths' file d-i-y style. But here is the information available at the present time, if you really like to see it. Note how all except some of the very early ones go through "@usenet.org.uk". This has been done so that any change requested by the moderator can be implemented speedily, without the necessity of negotiating the details with isc.org. uk.adverts.stolen.announce mod-uk-adverts-stolen-announce@usenet.org.uk uk-adverts-stolen-announce-request@usenet.org.uk uk.announce mod-uk-announce@usenet.org.uk uk-announce-request@usenet.org.uk uk.announce.events uk-announce-events@usenet.org.uk uk-announce-events-request@usenet.org.uk uk.answers uk-answers@usenet.org.uk uk-answers-request@usenet.org.uk uk.business.telework uk-business-telework@usenet.org.uk uk-business-telework-request@usenet.org.uk uk.education.students.aged11-14 uk-education-students-aged11-14@usenet.org.uk uk-education-students-aged11-14-request@usenet.org.uk uk.education.students.aged7-11 uk-education-students-aged7-11@usenet.org.uk uk-education-students-aged7-11-request@usenet.org.uk uk.gay-lesbian-bi uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk uk.net.news.announce control@usenet.org.uk uk-net-news-announce-request@usenet.org.uk uk.org.bcs.announce uk-org-bcs-announce@usenet.org.uk uk-org-bcs-announce-request@usenet.org.uk uk.org.starlink.announce announce@starlink.rutherford.ac.uk uk.people.bdsm.personals uk-people-bdsm-personals@usenet.org.uk uk-people-bdsm-personals-request@usenet.org.uk uk.politics.announce uk-politics-announce@usenet.org.uk uk-politics-announce-request@usenet.org.uk uk.religion.christian uk-religion-christian@usenet.org.uk uk-religion-christian-request@usenet.org.uk uk.religion.jewish uk-religion-jewish@usenet.org.uk uk-religion-jewish-request@usenet.org.uk uk.telecom.moderated uk-telecom-moderated@usenet.org.uk uk-telecom-moderated-request@usenet.org.uk Where a separate "-request" address is provided, this is guaranteed to point to a human moderator rather than his robot. Such addresses should be used to contact the man himself, as opposed to when submitting an article. Currently, uk.announce uk.announce.events uk-business-telework uk-education-students-aged11-14 uk-education-students-aged7-11 uk-gay-lesbian-bi uk.religion.jewish uk-telecom-moderated are the only groups where this makes a difference. In the other cases, the two aliases actually point to the same address, although this may change in the future. ------------------------------ Subject: 10. What other sources of information are there? You might like to look at the following regular postings to news.admin.misc. How to become a Usenet site Usenet Software: History and Sources You might like to join the mailing list uk-netnews-managers@warwick.ac.uk (send subscription requests to majordomo@warwick.ac.uk with subscribe uk-netnews-managers end in the body of the message). The following Web site is maintained on behalf of the Committee. It contains the official management documents for uk.* as referred to above, the complete set of charters for uk.* groups, and pointers to much other useful information. Many of these same documents, together with FAQs for some uk.* newsgroups can also be obtained from an Email Listserver. Send email to infolist@pcserv.demon.co.uk with the following in the body of the message help index end A message "Checkgroups message (with INET groups)" is posted regularly to news.admin.misc. This contains a correct list of all the groups in the "Big-8" Usenet hierarchy. Checkgroups messages for the UK hierarchy will be issued periodically by Control. ------------------------------ Subject: 11. Where can I find an up-to-date list of newsgroups? A checkgroups message giving the exact current state of the uk.* hierarchy will be issued by control@usenet.org.uk approximately every 6 months. In between, for an up-to-date list see . ------------------------------ Subject: 12. PGP signature of control messages The headers of control messages issued by control@usenet.org.uk are authenticated with a PGP signature. See for technical details, patches for CNews and INN, and a list of public keys used by various control message issuers worldwide. For control messages issued by control@usenet.org.uk the public key is: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAjGL0cgAAAEEAJ6p7fQHn139U9zQawLixrExOUrkFhi1yLb8m8fLxmKTprKn ZNM1nnxMSbRyO8vXohXKKs4G1U2jTpaCkSRrbCiJ5VxWB/B31E/p/vrBXqqQ2amq 3gb4Df9DZub0ZtOhHTF/pPjQmXvAv08umjZWpYlXRmUHBlBhMmOfGXkh8vHZAAUR tBR1ay5uZXQubmV3cy5hbm5vdW5jZbQXPGNvbnRyb2xAdXNlbmV0Lm9yZy51az6J AJUCBRAxi9UdY58ZeSHy8dkBARf4A/4pB46ZibhtdF9z1wP8nImdK6qlaNNf+Kuc svLxwRhn6KX8aaq4xpzbVFeJFpbjaNP9bmGZtaO03qhyOkor/8lkKfkJXTeJxA90 T2rqgrY+XLm5jIK8l4NqXAgYmPm6x1hK9LQVe3EkjhxYqcDOeRQNtnLUM0OZyD2U Pijwt1o3WYkAlQIFEDGL1FGemw5PLx059QEBje0EAKx99yOZ0zQ9FjibuEBStP8t 0BCsRNqkrVjxO513RBXecgcdXdv9hWn+8LNRZx6JLHv/ZpWsdGXqP3oiqj+LRt7W pHnZ55He/njx5DAoPAM/TjgTk7arazSjsJuFhcTP7gHitLDoHxVkUfdLX8h4HH9L WhEnrWEx82EY/29z/xQ6iQCVAgUQMYvTeKSiIc7jUXyJAQHLNwP/Qz+g2RRsuSZr J9L0HAVPLcmloAEGOMFfYJDM/mvxegAYzL8i0HGFbwTH/+E94WSmsWAx1KZ/Z2DY KdI7BUaS8c09a2OtqOEbCd7QBI37seyxG0rTWNpuE0ZXBo0eiQBg37oIW+Faf/tq JQZnALVsV5LDKcf+6+MhgS47HWJ6ZjQ= =SaMt -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ------------------------------ Subject: 13. What other questions are there? Well, you should tell me that.