From: spam@bde-arc.ampr.org 
  
 Is there an official position regarding invalidly named groups?  Although I 
 do note that many seem to have only spam on them, there does seem to be a 
 handful (e.g. "24hoursupport.helpdesk") that has valid article content (i.e. 
 not spam). 
  
 Rules:  ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/README  (as revised 2007-07-19) 
  
 "All newsgroup names consist of components, which are the elements of 
   the name between the dots.  For example, "news.announce.newgroups" has 
   three components, "news", "announce" and "newgroups.  No groups will be 
   added that do not conform to the following standard for Usenet groups: 
  
   - a component must not contain characters other than [a-z0-9+_-] 
   - a component must contain at least one non-digit 
   - a component must not contain uppercase letters 
   - a component must begin with a letter or digit 
   - sequences 'all' and 'ctl' must not be used as components 
   - the name must have at least two components 
   - the first component must begin with a letter 
   - the first component must not be "control", "to", or "example"." 
  
 Due to software interoperability constraints and limitations, it's my 
 understanding that these rules apply to ALL groups, even the alt.* and 
 free.* hierarchies which may break other rules.  I'm aware that such groups 
 are not reflected at isc.org's archive.  What is considered the "best 
 practice" - accept or reject them?  Ignore them? 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)