List of newsgroups

This is a partial list of newsgroups that are significant for their popularity or their position in Usenet history.

The Big-8 hierarchies

These are the most widely distributed and carefully controlled newsgroup hierarchies. See Big 8 (Usenet) and the Great Renaming for more information.

Computer-related topics.

Topics related to the humanities (fine arts, literature, philosophy, Classical Latin, etc.).

Miscellaneous topics. Examples include:

misc.legal.moderated — A moderated legal forum.
misc.taxes.moderated — A moderated professional tax forum open to the general public.

Matters related to the functioning of Usenet itself.

news.admin.announce (moderated)
news.admin.net-abuse.blacklisting (moderated)
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins (moderated)
news.admin.net-abuse.email — discussion of abuse of email by spammers and other parties.
news.admin.net-abuse.misc
news.admin.net-abuse.policy (moderated)
news.admin.net-abuse.sightings (moderated)
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet — discussion of abuse of usenet by spammers and other parties.

Science-related topics.

Discussion related to society and social subcultures. Examples include:

soc.motss— for the discussion of gay and lesbian issues.^[1]
soc.org.nonprofit— for the discussion of nonprofit organization management issues.^[2]^[3]
soc.rights-human— for the discussion of human rights^[4]

Discussion of various topics, especially controversial ones. Includes political topics as well.

talk.origins — evolution-creationism controversy which maintains an extensive FAQ.

This is the most extensive newsgroup hierarchy outside of the Big 8. Examples include: