Template:Newsgroup/sandbox

Documentation

Note
This page is a template. It contains some standardized, often used text, which can be transcluded inside other pages. As this template is widely used in our wiki, it may be protected in which case only staff members can change it. Use the discussion page to propose enhancements or fixes, or to voice your opinion.

This article has some todo items:

#1 Add support for linking directly to usenet posts.
#2 Add support message link alt text
#3 Template test cases.

Use this template to specify in-line Usenet Newsgroup links so they can be rendered in a standard style across the Wiki. The template generates news: hyperlinks, which connect to a specific Newsgroup by name. This will launch a the user's default Newsreader and provide instant access to the specified group. As a web-accessible fallback method, an archive of an existing and historical Newsgroups can be accessed via the archive link.

Conveniently, Google Groups provides access to historical Usenet content. This archive is dedicated to the preservation of Usenet content — excluding binary file sharing groups — going all the way back to the early 1980's. The archive is not static, new content continues to be federated in from live Usenet peers. Anyone with a Google account can contribute to a Usenet conversation without needing a Newsreader.

See also
See also {{InfoBox_newsgroup}} for including Newsgroups in infoboxes.

Parameters

Parameter name	Required?	Default value	Description
Anonymous parameter `1`	Yes	(n/a)	The name of the Usenet Newsgroup for example, alt.os.linux.gentoo (weblink)
Anonymous parameter `2`	No	(n/a)	The NovaBBS id of a specific article in that newsgroup

While RFC1738 indicates that news:<message_id> is a valid link, this template does not yet support this usage.

Some Gentoo related Newsgroups include:

alt.os.linux.gentoo (weblink)
linux.gentoo.announce (weblink) — historical
linux.gentoo.dev (weblink) — historical

Note
Due to the peer-to-peer nature of Usenet once a Newsgroup gets created group name lives forever. Many early Usenet providers allowed users to create groups in an ad-hoc manner. Once created, these groups would promptly federate to the rest of the network. As a consequence, a number of group names contain NSFW references, bigoted humor, imply the presence of <fill in the blank> illegal content, etc.

Because Usenet is federated nobody can truly delete the newsgroup names from this list, this is unfortunate historical baggage. Words only have the power you give them, don't let them bother you.

For a complete list of all known Usenet Newsgroups, see the ISC's official list. Again, this is a factual representation of newsgroup names, current and historical. This list is a flat text file, there are no links to content. This is intended as an aid to Gentoo wiki article creators to ease the process of documenting all potential means of obtaining community support. There are still many active support communities on Usenet just as there are on IRC.

Unfortunately, it appears the file is available by FTP only, the first column contains the group name. As usual, perl, grep, and awk are your friends.

Usage

{{Newsgroup|group}}

Where group is the Usenet Newsgroup to be marked up.

See the template's testcases:

Specify newsgroup comp.lang.ada
Wiki code	`The {{Newsgroup\|comp.lang.ada}} newsgroup`
Main version	The comp.lang.ada (weblink) newsgroup
Sandbox version	The comp.lang.ada (weblink) newsgroup

Newsgroup not specified
Wiki code	`The {{Newsgroup}} newsgroup`
Main version	The {{newsgroup template error}} Parameter 1 not defined. For correct usage see newsgroup template's documentation on the `1` parameter. newsgroup
Sandbox version	The {{newsgroup template error}} Parameter 1 not defined. For correct usage see newsgroup template's documentation on the `1` parameter. newsgroup

Specify article in newsgroup
Wiki code	`A {{Newsgroup\|comp.lang.ada\|8320}}`
Main version	A comp.lang.ada article
Sandbox version	A comp.lang.ada article