Creating An ALT.* Newsgroup
This page will detail the information needed to create a newsgroup and then tell you exactly how to create a group. We will also show you how to create your own alt newsgroup without going through the voting process.

So you want to create an ALT newsgroup?
Creating a newsgroup is not difficult, nor is it time consuming. However one thing that needs to be kept in mind is “Does the group I want already exist?”. The odds are that it probably does exist but it may not exists on your news server. Download a copy of the newsgroups list and if the group is on there but not on your server then please contact your news administrator or ISP and request it.

If you cannot find a group that you need it is possible to create one. Creating an ALT newsgroup requires nothing more than sending out a message. Creating a group in any other heirarchy reuires a voting process. People will tell you that to create an ALT group requires voting as well, that is simply not true.

The only thing that I could stress enough about creating a newsgroup is that you do not create a group that duplicates another. Also remember to think before you create a group and make sure to name it properly.

Creating An ALT Newsgroup With Agent
With Forte Agent you first need to edit the agent.ini so you can have access to all headers. First make sure Agent is not running. Open agent.ini and go to the section labelled “[message]“. Below that you will see ShowAllFields=0. Change ShowAllFields=0 to ShowAllFields=1. Close and save agent.ini.

You are now ready to post your newgroup message and create your own newsgroup.
Click on “New Usenet Message
Click message on the menu and make sure “All Fields” is checked
You will now see a new box open with a number of fields such as Approved, BCC, CC, Control etc

Follow the template below to create your newsgroup and fill in the appropriate fields. If you have fields which are not described here you may leave them blank. The following are the headers for the message you are about to send.
From: Your email address
Newsgroups: name of group you want to create
Control: newgroup groupname
Subject: cmsg newgroup groupname
Summary: blank
Expires: blank
Approved: Your email address
Sender: Your email address
Follow up-To: poster
Reply-To: Your email address
Distribution: Leave empty except for a single space
Organization: blank or company name
Keywords: blank or keywords relating to the newsgroup
Cc: blank or email addresses you would like a coy of this sent to

Now begins the body of the message. Leave a blank line at the top of the message. You may copy and paste the rest but please pay careful attention to the formatting of the first two lines of text
For your newsgroups file:
groupname TAB/SPACE Describe the newsgroup

Charter:
A charter describes what the group is about and what it is for. If there is any dispute in the future about the newsgroup’s purpose the charter is used to dispel the myths that come with time. Please detail the groups purpose here so future users will have less issues to deal with.

Justification of Readership:
Describe why the group is being created and why there needs to be yet another group dedicated to whtever topic it is you are creating a group about.

After a newgroup message is sent it is a good idea to send a booster after a few weeks. A booster is simply the same message as the orgional.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.