List of newsgroups

Last updated August 10, 2025

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.

comp

Computer-related topics.

humanities

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

misc

Miscellaneous topics. Examples include:

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

news

Matters related to the functioning of Usenet itself.

news.admin.net-abuse.email — discussion of abuse of email by spammers and other parties.

rec

Recreation and entertainment topics.

rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated —discussion of Babylon 5 and other projects of J. Michael Straczynski.

sci

Science-related topics.

soc

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]

talk

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

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

The alt hierarchy

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

alt.atheism — discusses atheism
alt.binaries.slack — artwork created by and for the Church of the SubGenius.
alt.config — creation of new newsgroups in the alt.* hierarchy .
alt.sex — the first alt.* newsgroup for discussion of sexual topics.
alt.sex.stories — text-based erotic stories of all types.
alt.suicide.holiday — pro-choice discussion of suicide.
alt.tv.simpsons — discusses the TV show The Simpsons.

References

↑ Auerbach, David (August 20, 2014). "The First Gay Space on the Internet" . Retrieved 8 May 2018.
↑ Mutz, John (2010). Fundraising For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7645-9847-0.
↑ Cravens, Jayne. "A Brief Review of the Early History of Nonprofits and the Internet (before 1996)" . Retrieved 8 May 2018.
↑ Bickerton, Pauline (2007). Cybermarketing. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0 7506 4704 3.

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[1] Auerbach, David (August 20, 2014). "The First Gay Space on the Internet" . Retrieved 8 May 2018.

[2] Mutz, John (2010). Fundraising For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7645-9847-0.

[3] Cravens, Jayne. "A Brief Review of the Early History of Nonprofits and the Internet (before 1996)" . Retrieved 8 May 2018.

[4] Bickerton, Pauline (2007). Cybermarketing. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0 7506 4704 3.

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