
The Group Data is layed out in the folling manner:
        (SB = See Below) (SE = Self Explanatory)

NEWSGROUP NAME

  SHORT DESCRIPTION

  LONG DESCRIPTION

  MODERATION INFO

  FAQ SUBJECT(S)
    SUMMERY
    <ARCHIVE NAME>
    From: EMAIL ADDRESS OF WHO POSTED IT
    Repley to: EMAIL ADDRESS OF WHERE TO SEND REPLAYS TO
    Posted: FREQUENCY (LAST POSTED DATE)

  MAILING LIST INFO

  Readers: SB-1 [SB-2] (SB-3)        Mesgs per month/day: SE/SE
  Crossposting: SE                   Megs  per month/day: SE/SE
  Sites reciving this Group: SB      Cost ratio ($US/month/rdr): SB-4

SB-1 estamated number of readers
SB-2 Actual number of readers in sample population
SB-3 Percentage of the total number of newsreaders who read this group.
SB-4 The estamited cost ratio in US dollers per mounth per reader

Please note that if there is no information on any given area the line(s)
are left out.

   (This is a first draft, suggestions and comments are more then
   welcome)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Short Description

   A Brief One Line Description of the Group. (Active, Alt)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Long Description

   A Long Description for the group when availble. A lot of these will be
   the offical chartes sligtly reworded. This is where I could use the
   most help.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Moderation Info

   A number of moderated groups exist on the net. These are groups which
   usually have one or more individuals (acting as editors and/or
   moderators) who must approve articles before they are published to the
   net. In general, these groups fall into one of five categories:
    1. Groups with postings of an informative nature not suited to
       discussion and always originating from the same (very small) group
       of posters. Groups within this category include news.lists,
       news.announce.newusers, and comp.mail.maps.
    2. Groups derived from regular groups with such a high volume that it
       is hard for the average reader to keep up. The moderated versions
       of these groups are an attempt to provide a lower volume and
       higher quality version of the same forum. An example of this
       category is news.announce.newgroups (a reduced form of
       news.groups).
    3. Groups derived from regular groups that have often been abused.
       That is, the regular groups often received postings of items that
       were not germane to the stated topic of the group (or sometimes
       even within the realm of politeness for the net). This also
       includes groups suffering from an annoying number of duplicate
       postings and inappropriate followups. Moderated groups in this
       category include comp.sources.unix.
    4. Groups designed to serve also as direct feedback to an off-the-net
       group. The discussion in comp.std.mumps is an example of this.
    5. Groups which are gatewayed into the Usenet from an Internet
       mailing list. These groups are moderated by someone on the
       Internet side but are shared with the Usenet population.
       Submissions mailed to the proper addresses, given below, will
       appear in both the group on Usenet, and the Internet list. This
       includes some groups in the "inet" distribution which are listed
       here for completeness: comp.ai.vision and comp.std.announce.
       
   The Data is Displayed in the folling fields: 
   
   Moderated by
          Below is a list of the current moderated groups and the
          moderators of those groups.
          
   Requests to
          The addresses to use if you have questions of comments about
          the groups.
          
   Submissions to
          The addresses for the submissions of articles to that group.
          These addresses can be used to build the "moderators" file so
          that "postnews" can automatically mail an article to the
          correct moderator.
          
   Many of the in hierarchies other than the "main Usenet" have been
   collected from a number of different sources, including the alias file
   at uunet.uu.net, and they may not be completely accurate over time.
   
   UUCP-only sites, the addresses given are in Internet/domain form. You
   can mail to an Internet (EDU, GOV, etc.)-only site by mailing through
   the gateways using a uucp-style path, e.g.:

     ...!{mcnc,rutgers,ucsd,uunet,uw-beaver,watmath}!site.domain!address

   To post to a moderated group, write your article and mail it to the
   listed SUBMISSION address. The moderator will then do the actual
   posting of the article. The news software on the Usenet will not allow
   direct posting to moderated newsgroups, nor will it forward
   unauthorized articles to other sites. The only way to post to a
   moderated group is to mail it to the moderator. If your system is
   running a version of news more recent than B news 2.10 -- including C
   News and INN -- your news software will automatically mail your
   article to the moderator if you attempt to post it. Thus, posting to a
   moderated newsgroup should appear the same as posting to any other
   group (except you don't see the posting right away).
   
   Depending on the newsgroup involved, if the moderator feels that your
   article is inappropriate for the group, s/he will return the article
   to you with a suggestion for other newsgroups in which to post it,
   and/or an explanation of why it is not appropriate for the moderated
   group. You may still post such articles to the regular groups as you
   currently do, if such groups exist.
   
   If you have questions or complaints about the way a moderated group is
   run, please contact the moderator by mail. If you don't get a response
   in a reasonable amount of time, you can send mail to the mailing list
   "moderators-advice@uunet.uu.net" and it will be rebroadcast to many
   electronic group moderators, who might be able to help.
   
   If your system is running a version of news more recent than B news
   2.10 -- including C News and INN -- posting to moderated newsgroups is
   done by mailing your submission to well-defined aliases at a nearby
   well-connected site. The mail path to that site should be in your news
   library, in the file "mailpaths" -- there is no need to update a
   moderators file with the information in this article, nor is there a
   need for you to mail your articles individually. Information on how to
   construct the paths in the "mailpaths" file so this works correctly
   are posted in a companion article.
   
   If you are NOT running a recent version of news, you are *STRONGLY*
   advised to upgrade to it so as to take advantage of this feature, as
   well as the numerous bug fixes and other enhancements.
   
   (List of Moderators for Usenet)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
FAQ Info

   Many newsgroups contain articles which are posted on a periodic basis.
   These articles tend to be useful for both novice and experienced
   users, as they usually fall into one of these categories:
    1. How-to articles explaining some of the basics and fine points of
       network usage, etiquette, standards, etc.
    2. Introductory notes about one or more newsgroups, covering policies
       (if any) for submissions to that group, usage, etc. Common
       questions and answers pertinent to a newsgroup(s).
    3. Indexes of archives, or pointers to archives for various groups.
       Periodic newsletters, calendars, pointers to publications.
    4. Statistical information and reports about Usenet; tables of Usenet
       hosts, links, etc.
    5. Miscellany, including small useful sources, "fun" lists, etc.
       
   A few points on the fields: 
   
   FAQ Subject(s)
          The Subject line(s) to the FAQ. If more then once subject
          appears it means that all of those FAQ go together in one
          Collection. The character '*' is used as a wildcard, e.g.
          "v*INF1" matches "v01INF1", "v02INF1", etc.
          
   Archive Name and Summery
          The Archive-name, where present, indicates the archive name
          that appeared in the posting when it was last posted. Note that
          if one entry matches multiple postings because of wildcarding,
          then only one archive name will appear. Similarly, the Summary
          indicates the summary that appeared.
          
   Frequency
          The Frequency the FAQ is posted.
          
   Last Posted Date
          The Date in a posting's entry indicates, where given, when the
          posting last appeared. However, it may be inaccurate if (a) the
          maintainer of the posting has changed the Subject line, or (b)
          the most recent version has not reached my site, or (c) the
          entry actually corresponds to multiple postings because of
          wildcarding.
          
   
   
   Corrections and additions (via MAIL) are most welcome. New entries for
   the list should be submitted in the same form as the entries below,
   with From, Newsgroups, Subject, Frequency, and (optionally) Comments
   lines, in that order.
   
   Several archives of USENET periodic informational postings exist. To
   find out more about them and how to access them, see the posting
   entitled "Introduction to the news.answers newsgroup" in the
   news.answers newsgroup. If you do not know how to get that newsgroup
   and/or your site does not receive it and/or that article has expired
   in it, you can retrieve it via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu
   [18.181.0.24] in /pub/usenet/news.answers/news-answers/introduction.
   If you do not have access to anonymous ftp, you can retrieve it by
   sending a mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command
   "send usenet/news.answers/news-answers/introduction" in the message.
   
   (List of Periodic Informational Postings)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Mailing List Info

   There are many known gateways between public mailing lists and network
   newsgroups in the seven USENET hierarchies and other worldwide
   alternative hierarchies.
   
   Gateways exist in several forms. They can be fully bi-directional
   between the list and the group, one way from the list to the group, or
   only partially passed from the group to the list and back, with the
   list moderator selecting articles which are appropriate. Lists can
   also be packaged as digests --- single multiple messages bound in a
   single collection --- and possibly appear as such in the corresponding
   group.
   
   Traffic on mailing lists whose incoming traffic from the corresponding
   newsgroup is unrestricted is often very unlike that which comes to
   lists that solely exist in the mail realm. This is because of
   differences of the two overall environments and how they are used by
   people. Both list members and group participants should be wary of it
   and try to be sympathetic with the other side, but this is often a
   point missed by the group users who don't even realise their articles
   are being redistributed via an automatic gateway.
   
   Mailing lists also have administrative contact addresses for reaching
   the people who run them. These addresses are meant to be used for
   issues pertaining to the operation of the lists, rather than for
   messages which are meant to be published in the list.
   
   You can subscribe or unsubscribe most mailing lists by writing to an
   address formed by putting "-request" after the list name but before
   the "@"; eg, to subscribe to apl-l@unb.ca, send a request to
   apl-l-request@unb.ca. Some lists do not support the -request
   convention, but support automated subscription. If the -request
   address fails, try mailing "subscribe LISTNAME YOURNAME" in the body
   of a message to "listserv" at the site. That is, to subscribe to
   swl-l@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu, send "subscribe swl-l YOURNAME" to
   listserv@cuvmb.columbia.edu, substituting your full name in for
   YOURNAME.
   
   Also note that moderators of Usenet groups may not be in charge of the
   corresponding mailing list or gateway. For example, the moderator of
   comp.sources.unix does not have anything to do with the unix-sources
   mailing list; matters concerning the mailing list should be addressed
   to unix-sources-request@arl.army.mil.
   
   (Mailing Lists Available in Usenet)
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Stats (Last Part)

   The info in this section comes from a monthly posting series from the
   Network Measurement Project at the DEC Network Systems Laboratory in
   Palo Alto, California.
   
   This survey is based on a sample of data taken from various USENET
   sites. At the end of this message there is a short explanation of the
   measurement techniques and the meaning of the various statistics. The
   messages that follow this one show survey data sorted by various
   criteria.
   
   The newsgroup volume and article counts that gets posted are often
   significantly different from the ones posted by Rick Adams, because he
   includes the size of a crossposted article in every group to which it
   is posted, whereas that size only gets charged to the first-named
   group.
   
  HOW ITS DONE
  
   Survey data is taken by having one person at each site run a program
   called "arbitron", which looks at the news or notes files and
   determines the newsgroups that the user has read within a recent
   interval. To "read" a newsgroup means to have been presented with the
   opportunity to look at at least one message in it. Going through a
   newsgroup with the "n" key counts as reading it. For a news site,
   "user X reads group Y" means that user X's .newsrc file has marked at
   least one unexpired message in Y. If there is no traffic in a
   newsgroup for the measurement period, then the survey will show that
   nobody reads the group. For a notes site, "user X reads group Y" means
   that user X has been in the notesfile with the sequencer in the last
   14 days. The "14 days" interval for notesfiles corresponds to
   "unexpired" for news.
   
   The "arbitron" program is periodically posted to comp.sources.d, or is
   available from me (decwrl!reid). The notesfiles version of the program
   should be available through standard notesfiles software distribution
   channels as well.
   
  SITES SURVEYED IN THIS SAMPLE
  
   "This Sample" means the set of sites that have sent in an arbitron
   report within the past "Readership measurement interval" days. In
   every case the most recent report from each site is used. At the
   moment, some of the readership reports are several months old. In
   future postings those reports will have expired and will not be
   included.
   
   The number in parentheses after the site name is the number of users
   that the site reported. A value of (0) usually means that the software
   has been configured to use the wrong technique for counting users at
   that site; a report showing 0 users but 6 readers of rec.humor.funny
   is statistically meaningful.
   
   One might argue that the sample is self-selected, and thereby be
   biased. It does in fact have a certain self-selection factor in it,
   because we only get data from sites at which someone participates in
   the survey. However, we do not require the participation of every user
   at a site, only one user. The survey program returns data for every
   user on the system on which it was run. Since there are an average of
   30 people per site reading news, there is a certain amount of
   randomness introduced that way. Of course, the sample is biased in
   favor of large sites (they are more likely to have a user willing to
   run the survey program) and software-development-oriented sites (more
   likely to have a user *able* to run the survey program).
   
  NETWORK SIZE
  
   the network size is determined by looking at the set of sites that are
   mentioned in the Path lines of news articles arriving at decwrl. This
   number is consistently higher than the number of sites that posted a
   message (as measured and posted from uunet) because it includes
   passive sites that are on the paths between posting sites and decwrl.
   Each month the names of the hosts that are named that month get
   stored. 13 months of data gets stored for this report.
   
   There are 257417 different sites in the Path lines of articles that
   arrived at decwrl in the last 13 months. There are 19296 different
   sites in the comp.mail.maps data, but comp.mail.maps tends to include
   only one or two machines for each organization, leaving the rest
   unmentioned. Also a large number of sites participate in USENET
   without participating in UUCP.
   
   Brian Reid believes that 260000 is the best estimate for the size of
   USENET. Because it is actually a measurement of the number of sites
   that have posted a message or that are on the path to a site that has
   posted a message, it will be slightly smaller than the number of sites
   that actually read netnews. Any site that believes it is not being
   counted can just ensure that it posts at least one message a year, so
   that it will be counted.
   
  NUMBER OF USERS
  
   The number of users at each site is determined in a site-specific
   fashion. Sometimes it is done by counting the number of user accounts
   that have shells and login directories. Sometimes it is done by
   counting the number of people who have logged in to the machine in
   some interval. Sometimes other techniques are used. This number is
   probably not very accurate--certainly not more accurate than to within
   a factor of two.
   
  SITE PARTITIPATION
  
   Brian Reid would like to receive data from every site on USENET. The
   arbitron programs (posted comp.sources.d along with this report) work
   on news 2.9, 2.10.[1-3], 2.11, and on many versions of notesfiles.
   
  HOW THE FIELDS ARE CALCULATED AND WHAT THEY ARE:
  
   Readers
          Estimated total number of people who read this group,
          worldwide
          
          There are two sources of error in this number. The number is
          computed by multiplying the number of people in the sample who
          actually read the group by the ratio of estimated network size
          to sample size. The estimated total can therefore be biased by
          errors in the network size estimate (see above) and also by
          errors in the determination of whether or not someone reads a
          group. Assuming that "reading a group" is roughly the same as
          "thumbing through a magazine", in that you don't necessarily
          have to read anything, but you have to browse through it and
          see what is there, then the measurement error will come
          primarily from inability to locate .newsrc files, which can
          either be protected or moved out of root directories. There is
          no way of measuring the effect on the measurements from
          unlocated .newsrc files, but it is not likely to be more than a
          few percent of the total news readers.
          
   Sites reciving this Group
          Propagation: How many sites receive this group at all
          
          This number is the percent of the sites that are even receiving
          this newsgroup. The information necessary to compute
          propagation was not generated by early versions of the arbitron
          program, so the "basis" (number of sites) used to generate the
          Propagation figure is smaller than the "Sites in this sample"
          figure. A site's data will be used to compute propagation if
          either (a) it reports zero readers for at least one group, or
          (b) it is using an arbitron with an explicit version number
          that is high enough.
          
   Mesgs per month/day and Megs per month/day
          Messages per month/day and kilobytes per month/day
          
          Traffic is measured at decwrl, in Palo Alto, California. If for
          some reason decwrl has not received any traffic in that
          newsgroup during the measurement period, this is indicated with
          dashes ("-") in the traffic columns.
          
          Any message that has arrived at decwrl within the last "Traffic
          measurement interval" days is counted, regardless of when it
          was posted. Monthly rates are computed by taking the total
          traffic, dividing by the number of days in the traffic
          measurement interval, and multiplying by 30. Daily rates are
          taken by dividing this number by 30.
          
          By definition the message traffic values are correct, because
          they are an exact measurement, but they may differ from the
          traffic at your site because of differences in timing and
          propagation. Timing differences will be random, but will
          average out in the long run.
          
          If a message is crossposted to several groups, it is charged
          only to the first-named group in the list. Note that this
          differs from the statistics posted from uunet every 2 weeks:
          the uunet data charge a message equally to every group that it
          is crossposted to.
          
   Crossposting
          Crossposting percentage: What fraction of the articles are
          crossposted
          
          "Crossposting" means to post the same article simultaneously in
          more than one newsgroup. In genuine "news" systems crossposting
          is implemented with Unix links and does not increase the
          storage or transmisison cost, though in some other systems
          crossposted articles are unbundled and must be stored and
          transmitted separately.
          
          The "crossposting percentage" is the percentage of the articles
          in this group that are crossposted to at least one other group.
          If every article in this group is crossposted, the percentage
          will be 100%; if none is crossposted, then the percentage will
          be 0%. The crossposting percentage figure does not take the
          size of the article into account, only the number of articles.
          Crossposting a 50,000-byte article or a 50-byte article both
          cause the same tally.
          
   Cost ratio ($US/month/rdr)
          Cost ratio: Dollars per month per reader
          
          The most controversial field in the survey report is the "$US
          per month per reader". It is the estimated number of dollars
          that are being spent on behalf of each reader, worldwide, on
          telephone and computer costs to transmit this newsgroup. The
          rate of $.0025 per kilobyte is the same value used in the UUNET
          statistics reported biweekly. It is based on discussions among
          system administrators about the true cost of news transmission.
          
          

The cost ratio is computed as follows:

$US/month/reader = ($USPerMonthPerSite * numberOfSites) / numberOfReaders
$USPerMonthPersite = KBytesTrafficPerMonth * $USPerKByte * Propagation factor
$USPerKByte = 0.0025

Combining all these gives

$USPerMonthPersite =
    KBytesTrafficPerMonth * 0.0025
  = KBytesTrafficPerMonth / 400

Therefore:

$US/month/reader =

    (KBytesTrafficPerMonth * numberOfSites) / (400 * numberOfReaders)

   The accuracy of this number is in fact better than the accuracy of the
          participation ratio, because the source of error--the network
          size estimate--is present both in the numerator and the
          denominator, and therefore cancels out. The primary source of
          bias in this number comes from the bias in the "estimated
          number of readers, worldwide", which is described above. Treat
          this value as being accurate to within about 25%.
          
          
          
   (Usenet Readership Summary Report)
     _________________________________________________________________
