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>
(93 yes : 13 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.
(91 yes : 13 no)
(76 yes : 23 no)
After the most recent elections, in October 2007, the Committee comprises
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.
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.
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>.
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: ##: : : ## The last match found is used. ## Control message or "all" if it applies ## to all control messages. ## Pattern that must match the From line. ## Pattern that must match the newsgroup being ## newgroup'd or rmgroup'd (ignored for other messages). ## 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
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.orgThe 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
Currently,
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