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UK Newsadmin's FAQ

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Archive-name: uk/newsadmins-faq
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Last-modified: Mon Jan  4 10:25:10 GMT 2010


		UK Newsadmins' FAQ
		------------------


Subject: Introduction This FAQ is prepared by Charles Lindsey <chl@clerew.man.ac.uk> for the purpose of disseminating the current status concerning management of the uk.* hierarchy to newsadmins throughout 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@clerew.man.ac.uk please. This FAQ is archived at <http://www.usenet.org.uk/newsadmins.html> and at <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/uk/newsadmins-faq>
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.*, scot.*, ni.* and england.* 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 Tue Apr 23 15:09:49 BST 2002 Cleanup of moderation submission Mon Aug 5 19:46:39 BST 2002 New Demon Committee representative Mon Dec 9 11:45:06 GMT 2002 New Energis Committee representative Sun Feb 9 11:55:17 GMT 2003 New committee england.* and ni.* Wed Apr 23 14:04:20 BST 2003 Coopt Graham Drabble; Dave Williams as Control Wed Jul 2 16:32:41 BST 2003 Mentors, Jack Howard, Jon Ribbens, eunet, europa, moderators, INET Thu Jan 1 16:20:33 GMT 2004 New committee Wed Jan 14 10:05:20 GMT 2004 Netnews Managers list & pcserv defunct Fri Feb 20 19:16:22 GMT 2004 rtfm.mit.edu Thu Apr 29 16:24:19 BST 2004 No uk.adverts.stolen.announce Wed Jul 21 09:52:34 BST 2004 Chris Croughton as Control Fri Dec 10 14:21:53 GMT 2004 New committee members Tue Jan 4 09:50:52 GMT 2005 Committee changes Tue Jan 4 09:50:52 GMT 2005 Moderation cleanup Tue Jan 11 10:36:45 GMT 2005 URL for scot.* Tue Jan 18 09:58:02 GMT 2005 wales.* and scot.* Thu Feb 16 11:49:52 GMT 2006 Committee changes Wed Jan 16 10:19:28 GMT 2008 Committee changes Thu Oct 16 14:24:04 BST 2008 Committee changes Mon Dec 1 13:13:39 GMT 2008 Committee changes Fri Jan 2 15:03:21 GMT 2009 Committee changes Sat Sep 19 16:41:15 BST 2009 missing line break Mon Jan 4 10:25:10 GMT 2010 Committee changes
Subject: 2. Who manages the uk.* hierarchy? Four documents set out the procedures for creating and/or removing/renaming newsgroups within the uk.* hierarchy. GUIDELINES FOR GROUP CREATION WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY <http://www.usenet.org.uk/guidelines.html> <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/uk/guidelines> VOTING PROCEDURES WITHIN THE UK HIERARCHY <http://www.usenet.org.uk/voting.html> <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/uk/voting> THE UK USENET COMMITTEE <http://www.usenet.org.uk/committee.html> <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/uk/committee> GUIDELINES FOR UK USENET MENTORS <http://www.usenet.org.uk/mentors.html> Three of 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) The Mentors document was added on 13 Jul 2000 (17 yes : 8 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, and a group of mentors to assist proponents with the preparation of RFDs. After the most recent elections, in October 2009, the Committee comprises Open members Until Dec 2010 Molly Mockford Charles Lindsey Martyn Bailey (aka 'Mother') Until Dec 2011 Geoff Berrow Mark Goodge Until Dec 2012 Fiona Gostling (aka 'Kat') Graham Drabble Clive D. W. Feather Matthew Vernon Appointed members From BTnet - Martin Stewart Ex-Officio member Chris Croughton (as Control) The committee as a whole may be reached by email to committee@usenet.org.uk.
Subject: 3. Who is Control? The Committee have appointed Chris Croughton as Control, and Charles Lindsey as Deputy Control. For official purposes Control may be reached at control@usenet.org.uk. It is required that all RFDs and CFVs should be posted to uk.net.news.announce in accordance with the Guidelines document, and it is advised that all those responsible for the administration of news servers in the UK should subscribe to that group. 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 Jon Ribbens, reachable via ukvoting@ukvoting.org.uk. They also have their own website at <http://www.ukvoting.org.uk>.
Subject: 6. What about the wales.*, scot.*, ni.* and england.* hierarchies? For wales.*, the contact address is Emyr Wyn Morris control@wales-usenet.org. There used to be an elected committee, but it now appears to be defunct. The website is at <http://www.wales-usenet.org/>. For scot.*, the contact address is Simon Brooke control@scot.news-admin.org. There used to be an elected committee, but it now appears to be defunct. The website is at <http://www.scot.news-admin.org>. For ni.*, the contact addresses are Paul Gregg pgregg@ni.org and John Kennedy john.kennedy@tibus.com, and the website is at <http://www.ni.org>. For england.*, the contact address is Darren Wyn Rees admin-mail@england.news-admin.org, the control address is admin@england.news-admin.org and the website is at <http://www.england.news-admin.org>.
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. # group-admin@isc.org run the main Usenet hierarchies comp,sci,misc,rec,soc,talk,news,humanities group-admin@isc.org n p news.announce.newgroups # but their name can be forged, so don't let them 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 england admin@england.news-admin.org nrc p england-usenet europa group-admin@usenet.eu.org nrc p group-admin@usenet.eu.org 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: ## <message>:<from>:<newsgroups>:<action> ## The last match found is used. ## <message> Control message or "all" if it applies ## to all control messages. ## <from> Pattern that must match the From line. ## <newsgroups> Pattern that must match the newsgroup being ## newgroup'd or rmgroup'd (ignored for other messages). ## <action> 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 checkgroups:admin@england.news-admin.org:england.*:verify-england-usenet=mail checkgroups:group-admin@usenet.eu.org:europa.*:verify-group-admin@usenet.eu.org=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:admin@england.news-admin.org:england.*:verify-england-usenet newgroup:group-admin@usenet.eu.org:europa.*:verify-group-admin@usenet.eu.org=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:admin@england.news-admin.org:england.*:verify-england-usenet=mail rmgroup:group-admin@usenet.eu.org:europa.*:verify-group-admin@usenet.eu.org=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, normally to moderators.isc.org which is an MX record pointing to several sites which maintain a complete list of moderators worldwide. However, you will save one hop if you use usenet.org.uk for groups in uk.*, and this is recommended. 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 uk %s@usenet.org.uk england.* %s@england.news-admin.org all %s@moderators.isc.org -------------------------------- 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 uk.*:%s@usenet.org.uk england.*:%s@england.news-admin.org *:%s@moderators.isc.org
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 they all 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.announce mod-uk-announce (at) usenet.org.uk uk-announce-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.answers uk-answers (at) usenet.org.uk uk-answers-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.business.telework uk-business-telework (at) usenet.org.uk uk-business-telework-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.gay-lesbian-bi uk-gay-lesbian-bi (at) usenet.org.uk uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.legal.moderated uk-legal-moderated (at) usenet.org.uk uk-legal-moderated-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.local.yorkshire.moderated uk-local-yorkshire-moderated (at) usenet.org.uk uk-local-yorkshire-moderated-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.net.beginners uk-net-beginners (at) usenet.org.uk uk-net-beginners-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.net.news.announce control (at) usenet.org.uk uk-net-news-announce-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.org.bcs.announce uk-org-bcs-announce (at) usenet.org.uk uk-org-bcs-announce-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.org.starlink.announce announce (at) starlink.rutherford.ac.uk also uk-org-starlink-announce (at) usenet.org.uk uk.people.bdsm.personals uk-people-bdsm-personals (at) usenet.org.uk uk-people-bdsm-personals-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.politics.announce uk-politics-announce (at) usenet.org.uk uk-politics-announce-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.religion.christian uk-religion-christian (at) usenet.org.uk uk-religion-christian-request (at) usenet.org.uk uk.religion.jewish uk-religion-jewish (at) usenet.org.uk uk-religion-jewish-request (at) usenet.org.uk Where a separate "-request" address is provided, this is guaranteed to point to a human moderator rather than a robot. Such addresses should be used to contact the moderator directly, as opposed to submitting an article. Currently, uk.announce uk.answers uk.business.telework uk.gay-lesbian-bi uk.legal.moderated uk.local.yorkshire.moderated uk.net.beginners uk.people.bdsm.personals uk.politics.announce uk.religion.jewish 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 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/> Usenet Software: History and Sources <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/> 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. <http://www.usenet.org.uk>
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 periodically. In between, for an up-to-date list see <http://www.usenet.org.uk/checkgroups> (in 'checkgroups' format); <http://www.usenet.org.uk/newsgroups.html> (for human readers).
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 <ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/> 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: PGPfreeware 5.0i for non-commercial use mQCNAjGL0cgAAAEEAJ6p7fQHn139U9zQawLixrExOUrkFhi1yLb8m8fLxmKTprKn ZNM1nnxMSbRyO8vXohXKKs4G1U2jTpaCkSRrbCiJ5VxWB/B31E/p/vrBXqqQ2amq 3gb4Df9DZub0ZtOhHTF/pPjQmXvAv08umjZWpYlXRmUHBlBhMmOfGXkh8vHZAAUR tBR1ay5uZXQubmV3cy5hbm5vdW5jZYkAlQMFEDhCcUxjnxl5IfLx2QEB6e8EAJDt gIkNXdLiyL07lgDBr+Wq/Zckgm70JhNaHWxLPqckMLOJZGPFKlOlKA6W62UrwDWI yktEosLHd8whbPCaMOSbIOX7mmTrIySOKf+rBxhFLlRY+fAQ4h2oEyEWYhJ80wiN GgKgMJC+UqQD/ylMB1VcCsTYuZWEQ18ldKgtTsOZtBc8Y29udHJvbEB1c2VuZXQu b3JnLnVrPokAlQIFEDGL1R1jnxl5IfLx2QEBF/gD/ikHjpmJuG10X3PXA/yciZ0r qqVo01/4q5yy8vHBGGfopfxpqrjGnNtUV4kWluNo0/1uYZm1o7TeqHI6Siv/yWQp +QldN4nED3RPauqCtj5cubmMgryXg2pcCBiY+brHWEr0tBV7cSSOHFipwM55FA22 ctQzQ5nIPZQ+KPC3WjdZiQB8AwUQMvCcUq1e6k0sFfGpAQE6nwMzBdaFclXiv48C aMXBUG8S3bLUtx3u2OBajzpe8G2nJlCKYkCY482p2MjtfCDi7+eYDfqgKMDoGrUM zSfMraDRyoXjNC/nIKf1+R2EFMyaLoC9FWggCKTov/I/2BE2+grvQ7ewQSWEUokA lQIFEDGL1FGemw5PLx059QEBje0EAKx99yOZ0zQ9FjibuEBStP8t0BCsRNqkrVjx O513RBXecgcdXdv9hWn+8LNRZx6JLHv/ZpWsdGXqP3oiqj+LRt7WpHnZ55He/njx 5DAoPAM/TjgTk7arazSjsJuFhcTP7gHitLDoHxVkUfdLX8h4HH9LWhEnrWEx82EY /29z/xQ6iQCVAgUQMYvTeKSiIc7jUXyJAQHLNwP/Qz+g2RRsuSZrJ9L0HAVPLcml oAEGOMFfYJDM/mvxegAYzL8i0HGFbwTH/+E94WSmsWAx1KZ/Z2DYKdI7BUaS8c09 a2OtqOEbCd7QBI37seyxG0rTWNpuE0ZXBo0eiQBg37oIW+Faf/tqJQZnALVsV5LD Kcf+6+MhgS47HWJ6ZjQ= =iInx -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Subject: 13. What other questions are there? Well, you should tell me that. -------------------------------- ns are there? Well, you should tell me that. --------------------------------

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