humanities.*

For almost a decade after the Great Renaming there were seven hierarchies, and the humanities had to squeeze into rec.* and soc.*, where Shakespeare and classical music were filed as hobbies. humanities.* was created to give those subjects a home of their own with a more academic bent, and with it the set got its final name: the Big 8.

The timing was unfortunate. 1995 was the year the web and the big consumer ISPs pulled attention away from Usenet, and the new hierarchy remained the smallest of the eight. It is hard to found an academy just as your audience discovers Netscape.