Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sdcsvax!nosc!humu!islenet!richard
From: richard@islenet.UUCP (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: Dividing comp.sys.att
Message-ID: <3780@islenet.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 88 07:45:48 GMT
References: <167@mcmi.UUCP> <144800009@occrsh.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: richard@islenet.UUCP (Richard Foulk)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: Islenet Inc.,  Honolulu
Lines: 49

> >No.  There is no such 14 character limit on newsgroup names.  An article
> >in comp.sys.att is normally stored in a file named something like this:
> >
> >	/usr/spool/news/comp/sys/att/123
> >
> >So newsgroup names have the same restrictions as Unix filenames.
> >
> 
>  WRONG!
>   Or, though it is true for "news" systems, it is not always true.  The system
> I read netnews on uses "notes", which instead stores the newsgroups in archived
> files under a directory by the name of the newsgroup, which is limited to 14
> characters.  There are many notes sites on the net.  So.... the limitation
> stands and is heeded before new group generation takes place.  So sorry.

As I remember it the fix for that problem/incompatibility in the notes
software was distributed to the net several years ago.  That's why you
find so many newsgroups today with names greater than 14 chars long.

Some examples:

             |
news.software.b
news.software.notes
talk.religion.misc
talk.religion.newage
talk.politics.misc
talk.politics.theory
talk.politics.soviet
talk.politics.arms-d
talk.politics.mideast
misc.consumers
misc.consumers.house
comp.binaries.atari.st
comp.binaries.amiga
comp.binaries.mac
comp.binaries.ibm.pc

This was all resolved a long time ago.  I don't run notes here so
I'm a little fuzzy on the details now, but the old 14 character name
limit for newsgroups is no longer in force.

If your news software still has this limitation you might want to
check into getting a more recent version of the software.

[followups to news.groups]
-- 
Richard Foulk		...{dual,vortex,ihnp4}!islenet!richard
Honolulu, Hawaii