SUBSCRIPTIONS(5)

💌 SUBSCRIPTIONS(5) — the InterNetNews glow-up guide 💌

okay so bestie, this is the subscriptions(5) page from the InterNetNews docs, and no cap it's like the easiest page you'll ever read. it's giving "starter pack energy" and honestly? iconic. 🎀

---

✨ NAME ✨

subscriptions — the default recommended subscriptions, aka the little list of newsgroups you hand to baby Usenet users on day one 🍼

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the pathetc/subscriptions file is literally just a list of newsgroups, and the whole point is that the NNTP command LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS returns it. that's it. that's the vibe.

clients that support this command usually send it the first time they connect to a new news server — like a lil "hey bestie what should i subscribe to" moment 🫶. they take the list you send back and use it to initialize the user's list of subscribed newsgroups. so the file should lowkey contain groups meant for new users, for testing, or groups that hold FAQs and other useful info for first-time Usenet users. main character groups only, yk? 👑

the syntax is trivial, fr fr — it's a simple list of newsgroup names, one per line. and heads up: the order of newsgroups may be significant 👀 the news reading client may present the groups to the user in exactly that order. so like, curate it, don't just dump it.

bestie be aware: use of the LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS command is not widespread (though it is documented in RFC 6048), and most news clients will literally never ask for this file. 💀 so don't stress too hard about it, but if a client does ask, slay. ✨

---

🦋 EXAMPLE 🦋

your typical subscriptions file may look like this:

news.announce.newusers
news.newusers.questions
local.test
local.general
local.talk
misc.test
misc.test.moderated
news.answers
news.announce.newgroups

so what's the reasoning here? this gives the client the FAQs and the question newsgroup for new users first, then a local newsgroup for testing plus various commonly-read local discussion groups, followed by the world-wide test groups, all the FAQs, and announcements of new world-wide newsgroups. it's giving organized. it's giving thoughtful. we love a structured queen 💅

and if there's a local new users group, you might want to list it first. just a suggestion, but like… a good one 🍓

---

🧚 HISTORY 🧚

written by Bettina Fink <laura@hydrophil.de> for InterNetNews. periodt. 💜

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• nnrpd(8) — go read it, iykyk ✨

---

aaand that's the whole page, bestie! no notes, 10/10, ate and left no crumbs 🔥 this was SUBSCRIPTIONS(5) from INN 2.7.4, dated 2022-07-10 — catch you on the next manpage, mwah 💖🎀