"Martin X. Moleski, SJ" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 May 2006 07:59:06 -0500, "Wolfgang" wrote in
:

... What's a "Big-8"?

A set of 8 newsgroup hierarchies all under one management (currently
news.announce.newgroups mods, potentially the Big-8 Management
Board).

http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=history:big-8

rec.* is one of the eight hierarchies in the big-8.

Marty

Thanks, Marty. That's about what I figured. Interesting
stuff.....particularly this part:

" ... The most significant part of the name is given first. The first
component of the name is special and more significant than the rest of the
name, since it defines the top-level Usenet hierarchy to which that group
belongs"

It comes as no surprise that "management" would find this true......though I
be go ta hell if I can think of a good reason that they should. To the end
user (and what, after all, is a newsgroup for?) precisely the opposite
should be true. I'm a fly fisher.....makes no difference to me how some
drudge wants to label and file the wing, the structure, the street address,
the city, the county, the state, the nation and the planet to which I go to
play. All I need is the room number.

By the way, "SJ"? Does that mean what any literate person would presumably
assume it does?

Wolfgang