In Usenet, whenever a single newsgroup got too large, it tended to fork. So
from comp we got comp.sys.ibm.pc which split into smaller and smaller groups
like the unloved comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video, created because people were
sick of talking about video drivers on the main group.

I didn't like forks, because they make discussions less interesting. I mean,
it's bad enough there's a comp.software.windows.nt.40.microsoft.notepad,
does there have to be a
comp.software.windows.nt.40.microsoft.notepad.helpfile.index? Seriously now.

Joel Spolsky, blog entry of September 2, 2004
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/oldnews/pages/September2004.html