Talk:Great Renaming

Move
Can we change the name of the article to "The Great Renaming" of Usenet? This phenomenon is not popular to just name it without reference to what it comes from 69.17.59.230 19:14, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Quibble
A minor quibble:

I was responsible for initiating the newsgroup misc.education which I can assure you was created well after the great renaming. The k12 groups were not in existence at that time either. This account makes it seem as though those groups all resulted from the great renaming.

I guess the cited groups are being used here simply to exemplify the hierarchies. However that is funny too. Many people thought I had pulled a fast one with misc.education since I switched the proposed name from talk.education right at the very end of the discussion period just before the start of the vote. At that time the talk groups were not propogated as widely and were regarded as second rate. Some of these groups were always attempting to escape from the talk hierarchy creating a great deal of suspicion towards groups that were naturally `talk' trying to call themselves something else.

I do confess I WAS just a touch sneaky. By switching the name from talk to misc right at the very end of the required discussion period I bypassed what would have been almost certain loud objections from those who saw their role in life as keeping the talk groups confined. However in my opinion a talk.education group would not have been nearly as successful as misc.education subsequently turned out to be. I therefore find it quite amusing to see misc.education today cited as the very archetype of a misc group. It wouldn't have been misc at all if I hadn't connived and bent the rules to make it so.

Ian H
 * The poster is right on k12.*, I was around when this renaming occurred, and they did not exist. I suggest removing that reference. 148.87.67.139 (talk) 01:06, 15 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Ditto. I was around on USENET starting in mid-1980's into the 2000's. I have no memory of a high level hierarchy called K12.* back at that time. Gcronau (talk) 00:20, 22 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I need a fat hairy linux dude to be my dad — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.113.175.73 (talk) 03:37, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

faq in french?
The link to the faq on this subject is a page in french, or some other romantic language. I really think English would be far more appropriate. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thaddeus Slamp (talk • contribs) 17:01, 26 March 2007 (UTC). Thaddeus Slamp 17:02, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Great Renaming FAQ (in English)
Great Renaming FAQ

Scanlyze 17:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

A published reference which should replace dead link in reference 2
A published reference is:

Hardy, Henry Edward, 1993. The Usenet System, ITCA Teleconferencing Yearbook 1993, ITCA Research Committee, International Teleconferencing Association, Washington, DC. pp 140-151, esp. p 146 at subheading "The Great Renaming" and "The Breaking of the Backbone Cartel".

NB I have not put this in the main body of the article as I am the author of the reference provided above from the ITCA Yearbook, and therefore will leave the determination about including it to others.

Scanlyze 17:43, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Reference note two which is a dead link (not made by me) to some of my academic papers which were once at http://www.vrx.net/usenet/history/hardy/ should be replaced with the reference above.

Scanlyze (talk) 07:22, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Is "alt" an acronym or abbreviation?
In the "Post-Renaming" section of this article, the following is stated:

"An additional hierarchy, alt.*, was also created shortly after the Renaming. The term alt is short for 'alternative'"

Yet the article referenced by the link states:

"Contrary to popular belief, the name does not stand for 'alternative', but rather is an acronym for for 'Anarchists, Lunatics, and Terrorists'."

I have no idea which is accurate, but the discrepancy should probably be taken care of by someone who does. --71.240.159.90 (talk) 17:44, 31 July 2008 (UTC)


 * From my experience, Alt has always just been short for "alternate". The idea that it's short for "anarchists...",etc, is funny(and spot on, BTW), but I'm fairly certain it's just a backronym/joke. Gcronau (talk) 00:24, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

definition of abbreviation
I worked the text (and cite) from the other article in....so if I've just fallen for an urban legend, at least the wiki is consistent! We should find some better cites and attach them to both articles, though. Oregonerik (talk) 18:42, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

K-12 did not pre-exist the Great Renaming. Needs a reference.
Scanlyze (talk) 07:25, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

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