Note to people arriving here through random links: THIS IS PART OF A WIKI.
To crosspuff to multiple categories join addresses with whitespace, i.e. `pub.comp.unix@ofb.net ugcs@ugcs.caltech.edu'
As a general rule we avoid capitalization and whitespace, even for proper nouns.
pub.books.Douglas Adams@ofb.net WRONG pub.books.Douglas-Adams@ofb.net WRONG pub.books.douglas-adams@ofb.net RIGHT
Also see the section on Keywords, below.
![[Home]](/usemod-wiki/debian-logo.png){kind=logo}
new@gale.org The global staring place for newbies. There are no
strong existing conventions for subcategories; go
crazy. Feel free to ask for help getting started.
pub@ofb.net Main public chat area. See conventions below.
local@ofb.net For discussing things of local interest to people in a
certain geographic area. See conventions below.
local@kuci.org
University of California at Irvine discussion forum.
ugcs@ugcs.caltech.edu
Discussion about of and for the UGCS cluster. (This
replaces local.ugcs)
test@ofb.net "Is this thing on?" By definition there is no
conventional subcategory structure. Please subscribe
here and puff here under here if you are trying to see
if you've set up Gale properly.
gateway@gale.org
Various bots (computer programs) puff here when certain
web pages are updated. See conventions below. Note
that the domain is GALE.ORG, not OFB.NET!
bot@ofb.net Commands and responses from "bots" (computer
programs). See the Bots section, below.
cvs@gale.org Check-ins to the ofb.net CVS repository (changes to
computer programs) get puffed here automatically.
cvs.gale The Gale distribution cvs.fugu A Gale client cvs.toxin Concentrated essence of fugu cvs.airhook A TCP replacement cvs.game We don't know cvs.liboop.org The eponymous informational website cvs.gale.org The eponymous informational website cvs.airhook.org The eponymous informational website cvs.yammer.net A web-based Gale client (warning: high traffic)
_notice@ANY.DOMAIN
Don't send here, but you can subscribe to get
login/logout notices. (Note your system administrator
has to explicitly create key for this, and you may not
have permission to subscribe to foreign domains.)
Documentation at gale.org pending.
_gale@ANY.DOMAIN
Don't send here, but you can subscribe to watch system
messages go back and forth. Documentation at gale.org
pending.
You may occasionally see a crosspuff to/from one of these places to pub@ofb.net, but really, they're private.
chickzone@ofb.net Women only, enforced by private key. "Female complaints"
dfmm@dfmm.org Technically public, but a small community with
different norms. See www.dfmm.org
diet@ofb.net Discussion of diets. Some combination of not wanting
to bother people at large with boring stuff, and not
wanting to announce failures.
This is list is illustrative of existing conventions, but hardly exhaustive. New subcategories are created all the time by extending the name of an existing category. pub.tv.buffy becomes pub.tv.buffy.willow when the discussion becomes specific. Since not everyone listens for traffic on all categories, it's a good idea to use an existing category or hierarchy if one exists for what you want to talk about. But if you need to create a new one, go ahead and be creative.
Sometimes there are multiple places that people talk about the same thing. This list tries to indicate the most popular one in practice.
Questions about pub@ofb.net categories should be puffed to: pub.rfc@ofb.net
pub.rfc Discussions of pub@ofb.net category structure. Feel free
to ask questions or make proposals here. As in "Request
For Comments", which is nerd-speak for "proposal".
pub.noise General chatter on no particular topic. (Think
"signal to noise ratio".)
pub.morning General chatter about no particular topic. Generally
used when it's morning wherever you are. pub.evening
and pub.afternoon are also often used.
pub.today Discussion of holidays. pub.yesterday and pub.tomorrow
are also seen.
pub.krak Chatter about people who are "on krak" (crazy) and
stuff
pub.poll Ask the community at large a question.
Spoilers
Spoilers are those parts of books, TV shows, movies, games, etc., which the author intended people to be surprised about when they experience the work for the first time. Having advanced knowledge of these points (like when you hear other people talking about them) will spoil the experience for some people.
In current practice, polite puffers put the word "spoiler" somewhere in the category name, or puff with the keyword "/spoiler". Sometimes it's "spoilers" instead of spoiler, so watch out if you actually care. Sometimes people are very polite and give a minute or two warning that spoilers will be puffed on a given category.
Used in practice:
pub.movies.matrix.spoiler
pub.movies.matrix.spoiler.phil (Philosophical implications of
surprises plot points in The Matrix)
pub.books.rowling.spoiler
pub.games.nethack.spoiler
pub.comics.unicornjelly.possible-spoilers
pub.me We use subcategories here when we want to talk about a
Gale user. See also pub.people for non-Gale folks.
People also often post stories about their lives,
comment on how they're feeling, what they're doing at
the moment, and so on. The general pattern is
pub.me.USERNAME however there are a few rare
exceptions such as
pub.me.mi
Use instead of pub.me.phoenix
pub.me.menya
Use instead of pub.me.clynne
pub.me.sarah.grad.paper
pub.me.jtr.health-care
pub.me.whuang.presence
whuang is saying that he's going offline, or coming back
online, or leaving the house, or whatever.
pub.me.wren.lbc
wren is asking a "living by committee" question, which is
often a multiple-choice question about a decision one is
having trouble making. Everyone will then chime in with
witty, if not helpful, answers. /lbc is also used as a
keyword.
pub.me.joew.moatm
joew is probably quoting song lyrics again... ("music on
at the moment")
pub.meow Discussion about cats. Most subcategories involve the
cat's name.
pub.meow.spooge
The cat is actually named Spooge. Ahem.
pub.meow.hector
pub.meow.gestation-period
pub.people Discussion of non-Gale people, individually or
collectively
pub.people.intelligent
pub.people.alan-greenspan
pub.corp For discussion of the corporate world (not .com web
sites; see pub.web.)
pub.corp.goto
pub.corp.havenco
pub.corp.ispheres
pub.corp.xyzfind
pub.corp.catori
pub.corp.microsoft
pub.corp.idealab
pub.corp.google
pub.stocks See also pub.econ for general economics. pub.stocks.pcln pub.stocks.msft pub.stocks.ntwo pub.stocks.goto pub.stocks.nasdaq pub.stocks.goog
pub.edu pub.edu.hmc (Harvey Mudd College) pub.edu.mit pub.edu.caltech
PUB.CALTECH ** Please use local.caltech@ofb.net for discussions
mainly of interest to Caltech people. Use
pub.edu.caltech for discussions about Caltech that you
think are of general interest. **
pub.world For general-interest discussion of a particular geographic
area or country. See local@ofb.net for discussions of
local interest. See also the section on Current Events.
pub.world.america
pub.world.uk
pub.world.uk.freakiness-thereof
pub.world.china
pub.world.sealand (An independent nation off the coast of England,
home of HavenCo?.)
pub.world.diplomacy
pub.world.canada
pub.bot Discussion of Gale robots, gateways, etc.
pub.cars pub.cars.rental pub.cars.suv pub.cars.vw
pub.comp For discussion of (almost) anything computer-related.
See also pub.tech, pub.web, and pub.spam.
pub.comp.linux
pub.comp.linux.redhat
pub.comp.linux.debian
pub.comp.linux.sound
pub.comp.linux.kernel
pub.comp.unix
pub.comp.unix.shell
pub.comp.unix.tools
pub.comp.unix.environment
pub.comp.lang (general discussion about computer languages)
pub.comp.java
pub.comp.c++
pub.comp.c
pub.comp.perl
pub.comp.python
pub.comp.html
pub.comp.zsh
pub.comp.hardware pub.comp.games
pub.comp.solaris pub.comp.mac pub.comp.windows
pub.comp.dns pub.comp.cvs pub.comp.ssh pub.comp.email pub.comp.networking
pub.comp.mozilla pub.comp.netscape
pub.comp.programming
More popular now than the old pub.comp.prog for
general programming Q&A, though the
pub.comp.LANGUAGENAME style seems a popular place to ask
for programming help in a specific language.
pub.gale For discussion of Gale itself, and related topics. (See
also pub.rfc)
PUB.GALE.OFB
PUB.GALE.SERVER
** Please use ofb@ofb.net instead. That would be for
discussion of the machine ofb.net (a.k.a. gale.org) and
its status and user community. **
pub.gale.fugu (Fugu is a client)
pub.gale.logs
pub.gale.verisimilitude
(Puff a URL for a picture of yourself here
to be included in the Gale mugbook.)
pub.gale.help (See also new@gale.org)
pub.gale.rfc (For discussion of new features. To make put your
suggestion on the official "todo" list, or to report a
bug, see http://bugs.gale.org; very different from
pub.rfc.)
pub.gale.dangermouse
For discussion of the 0.99dangermouse release.
pub.gale.people
For talking about people on Gale in general, usually
about how they are misbehaving. (See pub.me for
talking about individuals.) Highly flammable category.
pub.gale.bugs
pub.gale.keys
pub.gale.bot
pub.gale.competition
For discussion of alternative IM systems
pub.gale.gsub (gsub is another client)
pub.gale.force10
A pun on the "wind" theme; chatter about the high
amount of traffic that is occasionally seen.
pub.gale.force0
For when there's not the slightest breeze.
PUB.GALE.RFC ** Use pub.rfc instead. **
pub.rfc Discussions of pub@ofb.net category structure. Feel free
to ask questions or make proposals here. As in "Request
For Comments", which is nerd-speak for "proposal".
pub.net Discussion about real-time Internet connectivity problems
is sent here. General discussion about networking
technologies should go to pub.comp.networking.
pub.net.icb
pub.net.suck
PUB.OFB ** Please use ofb@ofb.net instead. That would be for
discussion of the machine ofb.net (a.k.a. gale.org) and
its status and user community. **
pub.spam Discussion of e-mail spam.
pub.tech Discussion about technology (not computers; see pub.comp) pub.tech.batteries pub.tech.cell-phones pub.tech.dvd pub.tech.megastructures pub.tech.rfid pub.tech.push pub.tech.radios.hobby
pub.web For discussion of web content. See pub.corp or pub.edu
for discussions of corporations or educational
institutions themselves. For discussion of a particular
site, follow the following conventions:
pub.web.slashdot (slashdot.org)
pub.web.memepool (memepool.com)
pub.web.onion (theonion.com)
pub.web.freshmeat (freshmeat.net)
pub.web.google (google.com)
pub.web.google.gmail (Google's gmail)
pub.web.google.earth (Google-earth)
... (Any of a variety of other google web products.)
pub.web.suck (suck.com)
pub.web.crashme (crashme.com)
pub.web.krak For discussion of web sites that are "on krak"
pub.books
pub.books.stephenson
pub.books.vinge
pub.books.sci-fi
"sci-fi" is more common now than "sf" or "scifi"
pub.books.pratchett
pub.books.egan
pub.books.banks
pub.books.harry-potter
(Use the author's last name, unless that's too ambiguous,
in which case do first-last, e.g. pub.books.iain-banks)
pub.cities General discussion of urbania. Things of local interest
should be in local@ofb.net.
pub.econ Economics
pub.health Discussion of health-related issues. pub.med is also
seen, but is less popular. pub.sci.med or pub.sci.health
are not seen. pub.fitness is out of fashion.
pub.health.flu
pub.health.diet
pub.health.diet.atkins
pub.health.dental-work
pub.health.exercise
pub.health.vitamins
pub.health.liver
pub.health.doctors
pub.med.flu
pub.med.ems
pub.lang Discussion of linguistics and natural languages. See
also pub.words and pub.comp.lang for computer languages.
pub.lang.english
pub.lang.chinese
pub.law pub.law.copyright pub.law.guns pub.law.traffic pub.law.systems pub.law.us.scotus (Supreme Court of the United States) pub.law.uk.self-defense
pub.math pub.math.formal-languages pub.math.stat
pub.phil Philosophy (see also pub.religion) pub.phil.sacredness pub.phil.nihilism
pub.religion
(See also pub.phil)
pub.religion.catholicism
pub.religion.krak
pub.sci (See also pub.econ, pub.space, pub.food, pub.health,
pub.lang, pub.math)
pub.sci.phys
pub.sci.bio
pub.sci.astro
pub.sci.geology Rocks are cool. Space rocks are only quasi-cool.
pub.sci.math
pub.sci.chem
pub.words Discussion of English definitions and usage, or just
pointing out cool words. See also pub.lang.
pub.words.dictionaries
pub.words.sounds
pub.words.dork
pub.words.amari
pub.words.math
pub.discuss General discussion of current events (logical
counterpart to pub.news). For example:
pub.discuss.gay-marriage
pub.discuss.gmo
pub.discuss.iraq
pub.discuss.protests
pub.discuss.lawsuits
pub.media See also pub.news, pub.radio, and pub.tv.
pub.media.bias
pub.media.news General discussion of how the news media outlets do
their jobs.
pub.news News reports (whether URLs or excerpts) are puffed to
subcategories here. (pub.news itself should probably
not be used.) Discussion often follows in the same
category, but sometimes moves to pub.discuss.* or
pub.politics.* if it goes on for too long. You
should use one of those other categories if you want
to start a discussion about current events and don't
actually have any news to share right this moment.
If you are puffing just a URL, it's polite to give at
least a terse summary of what the story is about, so
people can decide if they want to bother going there
to read more. A sampling of previous topics:
pub.news.iraq
pub.news.taiwan
pub.news.pollution
pub.news.terror
pub.news.shooting
pub.news.quake
pub.news.us
pub.news.san-francisco
pub.news.sad
pub.news.econ
pub.news.state-of-the-union
pub.politics (See also local.bayarea, local.los-angeles, etc.) pub.politics.labor pub.politics.us pub.politics.globalization pub.politics.privacy pub.politics.dissent pub.politics.democrats pub.politics.pharma pub.politics.street pub.politics.libertarian pub.politics.tort-reform pub.politics.minimum-wage
The following is a new convention: pub.politics.us.ca California politics pub.politics.us.ca.recall Recall of California Governor pub.politics.ca Canadian politics
pub.food For general discussion. For planning outings, instead please
use e.g. local.bayarea.food, local.pasadena.food, etc.
pub.food.cooking
pub.food.drinks
pub.food.fondue
pub.food.mcdonalds
pub.food.fast
pub.games Non-computer games (see pub.comp.games) pub.games.catan pub.games.roshambo pub.games.chess pub.games.the The Game (some weird thing)
pub.jobs About finding work. (See also pub.work) pub.jobs.jpl
pub.movies Remove articles from titles, please. pub.movies.matrix (Preferred to pub.movies.the-matrix) pub.movies.matrix.revolutions pub.movies.lotr (Now preferred to pub.movies.lord-of-the-rings) pub.movies.lotr.two-towers pub.movies.quality pub.movies.star-wars pub.movies.passion-of-christ pub.movies.kill-bill pub.movies.fight-club
pub.music See also pub.radio. pub.music.hiphop pub.music.kmfdm pub.music.dixie-chicks
pub.radio See also pub.media, pub.news, and pub.music. pub.radio.bbc British Broadcasting Service pub.radio.npr National Public Radio (USA) pub.radio.npr.fresh-air The show named Fresh Air pub.radio.internet Yay, convergence!
pub.sex "If you were getting any, you wouldn't be using Gale." pub.sex.noise pub.sex.condoms pub.sex.homosexuality pub.sex.animal pub.sex.feet pub.sex.hello-kitty
pub.soc Discussion about general social issues. See also
pub.religion and the sections on Current Events and
Academic Subjects.
pub.soc.parenting
pub.soc.gender
pub.soc.bankruptcy
pub.soc.transportation
pub.soc.protest
pub.soc.envy
pub.soc.isms
pub.soc.geek-culture
pub.soc.identity
pub.sports pub.sports.ice-skating pub.sports.baseball pub.sports.olympics pub.sports.insane.skydiving
pub.tv You may use pub.tv itself for general television-related
discussion. See also pub.news and pub.media.
pub.tv.buffy
pub.tv.angel (the Buffy spinoff)
pub.tv.dark-angel
pub.tv.alias.
pub.tv.simpsons
pub.tv.b5 (Babylon 5)
pub.tv.wb (the WB Network)
pub.tv.sci-fi (the Sci-Fi Channel)
pub.tv.xfiles
pub.tv.tivo
pub.tv.pbs
pub.tv.directv
pub.work About doing work. (See also pub.jobs) pub.work.layout pub.work.technical.general
For discussing things of local interest to people in a certain geographic area.
local.bayarea San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA local.bayarea.fun For planning outings local.bayarea.fun.movie For planning movie outings local.bayarea.food For planning food outings local.bayarea.sf San Francisco proper local.bayarea.sf.weather Weather in the City local.bayarea.earthquake local.bayarea.transit local.bayarea.wanted local.bayarea.east-bay.food local.bayarea.oakland
local.pasadena Pasadena, California, USA local.caltech California Institute of Technology local.caltech.people For talking about people around Caltech
local.nyc New York City, New York, USA local.boston Boston, Massachusetts, USA local.east-coast East coast of the USA
local.socal Southern California, USA
local.los-angeles Los Angeles, California, USA
local.uci University of California at Irvine
-> Use local@kuci.org instead.
local.seattle Seattle, Washington, USA local.seattle.fun For planning outings local.seattle.fun.movie For planning movie outings local.seattle.food For planning food outings local.seattle.weather local.seattle.traffic
local.denver Denver, Colorado, USA
Less commonly used:
local.pnw Pacific Northwest area of the USA
local.pnw.adventure
Road trips in the Pacific Northwest
local.uw University of Washington, Seattle
local.eastside East side of the lake near Seattle,
local.sandiego San Diego, California, USA
Washington, USA
For a LISP-like representation of all geographic places so far mentioned in any Gale category name, see: http://alum.mit.edu/www//beland/papers/gale/gale-local-db.txt
If you are interested in a geographically aware client-side filter, see http://alum.mit.edu/www/beland/papers/6.863/ (read docs.txt) or ask a question on pub.me.beland.loc-score@ofb.net,
Keywords are used to indicate messages with special properties, such as the format of the content, the type of emotion that should be read into these remarks, etc. They both aid interpersonal communication and can be used to filter out certain messages, such as spoilers, off-topic remarks, automated replies, and so on.
Many of the tags also work as topical subcategories, especially 'pub.me.USERNAME.TAG', as in 'pub.me.spaz.moatm'. Note that with gsend (and perhaps other clients) you use dots, not slashes, for sub-keywords, for example:
/offensive.sex RIGHT /fwd.secret-internal-mailing-list RIGHT /fwd/slashdot WRONG
Keywords used to be affectionately known as "condiments" because of "ketchup" (see below). The following documents common practice on pub@ofb.net and related forums.
A "heath" or a "mix" is an accidental puff to the wrong category. Sometimes amusing, sometimes revealing if the puff was meant to be private. "Mix" is MIT Zephyr slang. "Heath" is named after Heath Hunnicutt, of Caltech. Sometimes numerical ratings, on a scale from 1 to 10, are provided by observers to indicate how entertaining the mix was.
A "stark" is an untagged /catchup, the older the better. Named after Greg Stark, of MIT Zephyr. Only Beland uses this tag.
Auto-responders and other artificial denizens (all known as "bots") must follow certain rules to prevent infinite loops and other annoyances. Or Else.
Known operational bots:
bot@ofb.net
bot.today Lest you forget a birthday.
bot.stocks Daily stock prices for companies Gale people work
for.
See the below section on gateway@gale.org for more.
Note that the domain is GALE.ORG, not OFB.NET.
To prevent infinite loops, gateways must not respond to puffs, unless they obey the rules for bots (see above). Otherwise, any stimulus must be external (i.e. a feed from a non-logging web site or a timed puff).
gateway@gale.org Only automated gateway programs should post
here. Use pub.web to discuss stuff that appears
on sites; use pub.bot.BOTNAME to discuss the
gateway programs themselves. Known operational
gateways:
gateway.slashdot.org
gateway.freshmeat.net
gateway.mozillazine.org
gateway.happypenguin.org
gateway.idea-a-day.com
gateway.space.com
gateway.bottomquark.com
gateway.spaceweather.com
gateway.risks USENET group comp.risks (or)
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/ "Forum On Risks
To The Public In Computers And Related Systems"
gateway.muxway muxway.org
gateway.aip.org aip.org
gateway.alert.quake Real-time notification of earthquakes in or near
the United States of magnitude 3.0 or greater,
and 5.4 or greater worldwide and Alaska. Data
from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/
gateway.alert.quake.us.ca.minor /mag=3.1
gateway.alert.quake.us.ak.major /mag=5.5
gateway.alert.quake.world.major /mag=5.5
gateway.alert.tsunami.pacific
Real-time notification of tsunami (large,
slow-moving but city-destroying waves) alerts
from the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning
Center. Alerts are generally issued when a large
earthquakes occurs that has the potential to or
actually does cause waves. The system uses
tidal meters in strategic locations. See:
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/
gateway.alert.tsunami.pacific.no-worries
"NO - REPEAT NO - WATCH OR WARNING IS IN EFFECT"