, and about 600
groups overall (not including the club groups).
The more Top Level names there are, the larger the List will be.
The larger the list, the more difficult it will become for people to find
a group. Therefore, considerate namng of the group will be an
asset, rather than a hinderance, as more people will be able to find
the group.
Here are some examples of poorly named groups that could have
fit within the existing hierarchy:
alt.discuss.titanic could have been
alt.discuss.history.titanic or
alt.discuss.entertainment.movies.titanic or
alt.discuss.movies.titanic (the "movies" topic was not in
existance at the time of the naming of this group)
alt.discuss.advanced.html should have been proposed as
alt.discuss.html.advanced
alt.discuss.autoperformanceIt was requested that this be
placed under the "car" section, but the proposer was adamant that it
was necessary that it stand alone. It is empty at this time. It should
have been named alt.discuss.cars.autoperformance.
alt.discuss.health-care.home Without the hyphen and with
a period, this would have fit well within the health section. There is
no need for this group to be Top Level.
I could go on and on, as there are a huge
number of mis-named groups on the list. Suffice it to say that each
one of these could have been more properly named.
Choosing The Name
First, think about what the group is about and where you would look
for such a group.
Second, see if the Topic you would look under is in the list. If it is,
then it's easy to figure out what the name should be. If it isn't in the
list, consider whether the Topic would be one others will be able to
use in the future.
Example:
alt.discuss.wicca.serious was proposed and failed.
alt.discuss.religion.wicca passed. It was the first group
to start the "religion" category, which has since been expanded
upon.
What was the difference here? There were neither a Wicca nor a
Religion Topic on the List. But Religion was a necessary Topic that
had been sorely missing. It is a Topic that many other people will
be able to use in the future. (The
Christian groups all seem to be under the "god-talk" category,
though some have been poposed and passed in the Religion
category now.)
Example 2:
alt.discuss.menofwebtv was poorly
named. With one single period it could have opened up a Topic
that would have been useful for the full life of the alt.discuss groups.
If it had been proposed as alt.discuss.men.ofwebtv numerous
men's groups could have grown from that single Topic.
So, naming a group responsibly is of great
benefit for the groups to come. Another reason to name a group
with the hierarchy in mind is that poorly named groups get a large
number of NO votes, based on the naming of it, and not on the
proposed content of the group. It is much easier to pass a group
that has been named with the
hierarchy and the Topic List taken into consideration than one that
has not.
Periods and Hyphens
A PERIOD is a seperator. Each time a period is used it creates
another sub-category.
Example:
alt.discuss.entertainent (15 groups under this heading)
alt.discuss.entertainment.tv (5 groups)
alt.discuss.tv.cartoons (1 group)
Even the last one, alt.discuss.entertainment.tv.cartoons can,
with
another period, supply a whole section for more
groups (ie: .simpsons, .spiderman, .king-of-the-hill, .southpark,
.rug-rats, etc.).
A HYPHEN on the other hand, is a connector. It should only be
used when there is a specefic reason to connect the words
together.
Examples where it makes sense:
alt.discuss.arts.audio-video and
alt.discuss.entertainment.tv.red-dwarf
alt.discuss.music.heavy-metal
An Example where it does not make sense:
alt.discuss.webtv-tricks.and-help
thus creating the Top Level webtv-tricks when there was already in
existance a
webtv.tricks section.
Here is an even worse Example of the mis-use of the hyphen
alt.discuss.post-real-pictures-vid-caps-of-yourself-naked
Yes, this is a real alt.discuss group. I couldn't make up
anything this bizarre.
#1 This group should have been placed within the
alt.discuss.sex.e.vid-caps category. Any sexually related group is
highly recommended to be proposed within the sex or sexy Main
Topics.
#2 This has created a new Top Level Main Topic that will
never be expanded upon.
The Order Of The Words
The name of a group should NOT be a sentence. Sentence
structure is very wrong here. The order of the words should be
from broadest topic in the beginning, to the most specific at the end.
Example of a well named group:
alt.discuss.games.cards.magic
Games: a broad category
Cards: more specific, but still broad
Magic: the name of the specific role
playing card game.
Examples of poorly ordered groups:
alt.discuss.musical-theater
Musical: this is the more specific of the two words, it
belongs at the end
Theater: this could have opened up a whole new Main
Topic of alt.discuss.theater which could have been used for
.theater.acting, .theater.broadway
,theater.off-broadway, etc.
alt.discuss.beaniebabies.buy.sell.trade
Beaniebabies: should have been at the end, it is very
specific
Buy.Sell: This could have gone under "forsale" which
is an existing Topic
Trade: This also could have gone under "collecting"
which was another existing
Topic at the time.
So the beaniebabies group could have been placed under a few
different topics, if the words had been rearranged or re-thought
through.
Well, that's it for this page. There are other pages by webtv/msntv users that are on this same subject. They are certainly worth looking at also.
An adaptation (for webtv/msntv users) of instructions for naming Usenet groups, this one is very informative. Newsgroup Naming
This one is laid out in a question and answer format. A Naming FAQ
If you have already proposed a group and would like to change the
name on the proposal, go to Cancelling and
ReProposing
For information on soliciting for votes, go to Soliciting For Votes