From: Charles Lindsey (chl@clerew.man.ac.uk)
Date: Sat Jun 07 2003 - 14:53:21 CDT
There was some concern expressed that we were setting restrictions on
the length of newsgroup-names and components for non-technical reasons
(even though it was clear that the restrictions were only advisory). I
have therefore moved those restrictions into a NOTE.
There was also a suggestion that the recommended figure of 71, for a
newsgroup-name (chose to allow a sensible newsgroups-line should be
reduced to 66 (to allow a sensible Followup-To header). Do you want me
to make that change?
Here is the text as now proposed.
The format of newsgroup-names is ultimately determined by the
policies of those administrative agencies which have the
responsibility for creating new newsgroups within the various
hierarchies of Usenet. There are traditional, social and technical
arguments why there should be restrictions on these formats (and the
force of the technical ones changes over time with developments in
computers and operating systems) Therefore, such administrative
agencies SHOULD establish and promulgate the restrictions they intend
to apply within their own hierarchies.
NOTE: These issues are discussed more fully in [USEAGE]. The
following policy restrictions represent what is considered safe
and appropriate at the present time. Although purely advisory,
hierarchy administrators should consider the consequences
carefully before allowing them to be exceeded. They could also
be taken as the defaults in unmanaged hierarchies.
1. Uppercase letters are forbidden.
2. A component name is forbidden to consist entirely of digits.
3. A component is limited to 30 component-graphemes and a
newsgroup-name to 71 component-graphemes (counting also the
'.'s separating the components).
[There was a suggestion to reduce that 71 to 66 in order to allow such a
newsgoup-name to fit in the on the first line of a Followup-To-header
without exceeding 79 characters.]
Serving and relaying agents MUST accept any syntactially correct
newsgroup-name even if it would violate whatever policy restrictions
may be in place. Posting and injecting agents MAY enforce them (but
only with the explicit agreement of the poster).
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: chl@clerew.man.ac.uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
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