They were open and free for anyone to participate in (except for the moderated newsgroups), though they were subject to a few general rules governing their naming and distribution.
* was not part of the original seven but created separately as a place with more freedom and fewer rules than the Big 7.
In April 1995,[3] when Usenet traffic grew significantly, humanities.
* was introduced and it and the seven hierarchies created by the Renaming make up today's so-called "Big 8".
The Big 8 Management Board was originally created in 2005 from former moderators of the news.announce.newgroups.