Usenet Sample — news.* hierarchy

A Usenet (sample) dataset of 7,361 posts from 53 newsgroups, collected by OwnedByDanes via Hugging Face. Each record contains post text, newsgroup, date, author, subject. Sample of Usenet posts from 1980–2013, with 5,000 posts per top‑level hierarchy. Covers comp.*, sci.*, rec.*, alt.*, etc.. Suitable for historical discourse analysis, early internet culture, topic evolution, authorship attribution.

#Authorship attribution#Early internet#Newsgroup

Download data BibTeX JSONSimilar datasets

Analytics

8.7
Flesch–Kincaid grade
US school grade level
11.7
Automated readability index
Frequent terms
emailalt000newssubjectfaqcompfontdatesexmessageusemailanswersftpnewsgroupslistfilenewversionlikerecinformationdontimewrotecontentinfomiscgroupsystemtypeeduusenettextarchivepeoplegmtarticlesoftwaresizeavailablespamdieserverpoststylepostingconfigfrequency
Topic clusters

Topic 0

everybody
try
llama
lot
mean
rarely
whilst
let

Topic 1

news
file
inn
run
problem
article
server
group

Topic 2

file
use
program
dos
system
command
run
disk

Topic 3

usenet
people
post
power
thing
group
idea
think

Topic 4

eee
ete
ree
ere
eet
oet
eie
eae

Topic 5

group
vote
moderator
people
think
moderation
write
rfd

Topic 6

info
spam
pgp
asn
aug
report
content
country

Topic 7

font
receive
family
size
color
content
text
bookmark

Topic 8

thank
know
burnore
hello
page
reply
need
help

Topic 9

college
university
state
saint
institute
california
york
new

Topic 10

write
article
news
search
barbara
email
post
click

Topic 11

write
susan
jamie
uncle
boy
jan
hello
jun
Show all 40 topics

Topic 12

news
socialize
penpal
delete
append
article
reply
test

Topic 13

info
content
html
spam
type
pgp
report
div

Topic 14

vote
proposal
rfd
yyy
group
cfv
moderator
discussion

Topic 15

email
ncm
pgp
notice
exon
poster
cancel
barrymore

Topic 16

god
religion
man
christ
jesus
miracle
allah
lie

Topic 17

test
lef
lbr
mle
kee
sle
oee
bbe

Topic 18

hedgehog
book
skater
list
play
puppy
information
good

Topic 19

write
article
boursy
law
steve
post
email
stop

Topic 20

article
write
site
problem
thing
think
email
uunet

Topic 21

interface
flood
weird
junk
slow
supercede
sly
whilst

Topic 22

write
jamie
asshole
kook
fuck
snip
lie
stupid

Topic 23

newsagent
stifle
cancelbot
trigger
filter
learn
nntp
method

Topic 24

html
content
argosoft
span
receive
float
type
encoding

Topic 25

article
write
email
keegan
punishment
forge
lie
james

Topic 26

write
keegan
article
email
think
post
hayes
grubor

Topic 27

faq
frequency
subject
archive
summary
monthly
date
gmt

Topic 28

spam
opt
spammer
mail
andrew
spamme
unsolicited
confirm

Topic 29

netscape
javascript
navigator
click
mail
thank
save
java

Topic 30

write
article
email
maybe
message
ditty
bloggs
bod

Topic 31

report
abuse
account
online
action
user
usenet
earthlink

Topic 32

write
article
email
kathy
darnell
seth
wow
morgan

Topic 33

write
gmt
dec
oct
nov
tue
sat
email

Topic 34

argosoft
pro
content
receive
aug
priority
version
microsoft

Topic 35

div
face
font
times
love
info
cate
content

Topic 36

nntp
jul
pdt
mon
posting
lines
date
post

Topic 37

conference
university
database
registration
chair
session
systems
prof

Topic 38

info
html
dec
content
spam
pgp
type
printable

Topic 39

hst
spw
relay
job
requirements
resume
company
opportunity
Top hashtags
#ffffff264
#endif198
#include178
#define174
#ifdef147
#1137
#000000102
#3c3c3c82
#280
#98000060
#543
#if43
#332
#630
#729
#829
#8d4bad29
#else29
#80808028
#0000ff25

Computed over the full corpus.

Record

Catalog key
usenet-news
Authors
OwnedByDanes
Year
2026
Source paper
Usenet Corpus Sample (5000 posts per hierarchy)
License
Free sample — full corpus gated (contact usenetoverlord@gmail.com)
Records
7,361
Languages
en
Collected
1980–2013 (Before 1990, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s)
Region
Global (inferred: the platform is used worldwide)

Provenance

Originally published at
https://huggingface.co/datasets/OwnedByDanes/Usenet-Corpus-1980-2013 link checked
Hosted copy
Mirrored on echo.directory on 2026-10-02, 101.9 MB across 1 files. Checksums in MANIFEST.json.

How to cite

BibTeX

@misc{echo2026,
  title  = {ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online},
  author = {Switzer, Braden and Zafarani, Reza},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://echo.directory},
  note   = {Syracuse University}
}

@misc{usenet_sample_2026,
  title     = {Usenet Corpus Sample (5000 posts per hierarchy)},
  author    = {OwnedByDanes},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url       = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/OwnedByDanes/Usenet-Corpus-1980-2013}
}

APA

Switzer, B., & Zafarani, R. (2026). ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online [Data repository]. Syracuse University. https://echo.directory

OwnedByDanes (2026). Usenet Sample — news.* hierarchy [Data set]. https://usenet-news.echo.directory/

MLA

Switzer, Braden, and Reza Zafarani. ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online. Syracuse University, 2026, echo.directory.

OwnedByDanes. Usenet Sample — news.* hierarchy. 2026, usenet-news.echo.directory/.

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON

Similar datasets 10 all with scores →