No. It never did. However, some news servers are buggy and allow things to be posted there.
A general newsgroup in the rec hierarchy would conventionally be called rec.autos.makers.mazda.misc, but no one went through the RFD RFV etc procedure to start one. I understand the alt hierarchy process is much easier.
It would be a better place to post stuff like the cargo ship Cougar Ace that is being salvaged with 4700 Mazdas onboard.
Sadly, one salvage operator fell 80 feet and died. They are still working on the salvage. A ship that big with over 80 tons of cargo, that must be something nasty to deal with.
Since when is there a vote to create an alt group?
The procedure is to post a message on alt.config explaining your intent. If, after a bit of discussion, you still want to create a group, you send out a newgroup control message. Admins all over the planet then decide on an individual basis whether or not to carry your new alt.whatever group.
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You also SHOULD NOT refer to the newsgroup as having passed a vote for its creation. There are no votes in alt, so any such implication is likely to provoke an rmgroup response.
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There are no Guidelines or Rules for creating alt groups. There is no one "in charge" of the alt hierarchy. The key to creating a successful alt newsgroup depends only on convincing the thousands of news administrators across the globe to carry your newsgroup. Here are some tips that will help you achieve this. [...] Votes? Did someone say vote? Let me repeat. There are no votes in alt. Period. If you want to gather an "opinion poll" for your own purposes to see how popular the group will be, great. Do not post votes to alt.config.
No votes in the Big Eight either these days. Big Eight now has a management board that decides on group creation/deletion. Read up on the process in news.groups.
There is already a rec.auto.makers.mazda. Why would you want to recreate it under alt also? Would having an alt be somehow better than using the group that already exists?
Not on any well-run site. Groups in the Big8 go through a process to be added. rec.auto.makers.mazda has not done so. You may find it on poorly run sites where they create any group that someone puts in the newsgroups header.
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