Important changes to Usenet. news.stanford.edu was retired on September 1, 2009. The Computer Science department has implemented a replacement server—usenet.stanford.edu.
Note: newsreader server name change required.
- The server setting in Thunderbird must be changed from news.stanford.edu to usenet.stanford.edu.
- Several newsgroup hierarchies will be retired, including slac.*, bes.*, and hepnet.*.
- Article numbering should (for the most part) stay the same.
- As of 9/1/09, requests for new groups and/or hierarchies should be sent to action@cs.stanford.edu.
Overview
Usenet (also known as netnews or sometimes just news) is an online discussion system, similar to a computerized bulletin board but much larger in scope. Introduced in the early 1980s, Usenet has thousands of discussion areas, known as newsgroups, about everything from computers to politics to recipes.
Newsgroups local to this area have su (Stanford University) or ba (Bay Area) at the beginning of their names. The su newsgroups are used by students, staff, and faculty to exchange information and opinions about university-related matters.
