*** 19951027.txt Sat Feb 16 10:34:14 2002 --- 19951111.txt Sat Feb 16 10:34:20 2002 *************** *** 1,12 **** From: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) Subject: How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup ! Date: 1996/01/06 ! Message-ID: ! expires: 7 Mar 96 05:50:29 GMT sender: tale@uunet.uu.net ! supersedes: followup-to: news.newusers.questions ! summary: creating new groups in the hierarchies of comp, humanities, misc, organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.groups,news.admin.misc,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers --- 1,12 ---- From: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) Subject: How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup ! Date: 1996/02/03 ! Message-ID: ! expires: 3 Apr 96 18:59:26 GMT sender: tale@uunet.uu.net ! supersedes: followup-to: news.newusers.questions ! summary: creating new groups in the hierarchies of organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.groups,news.admin.misc,news.announce.newgroups,news.answers *************** *** 14,20 **** Archive-name: usenet/creating-newsgroups/part1 Original-author: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods) Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) ! Last-change: 27 Oct 1995 by newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) GUIDELINES FOR USENET GROUP CREATION --- 14,25 ---- Archive-name: usenet/creating-newsgroups/part1 Original-author: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods) Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) ! Last-change: 11 Nov 1995 by newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) ! ! Summary of changes from previous version: ! + group-mentors address changed from @amdahl.com to @acpub.duke.edu ! + formatted to 70 column left margin ! + six month rule noted to not apply to polls that were cancelled/invalidated GUIDELINES FOR USENET GROUP CREATION *************** *** 28,33 **** --- 33,39 ---- hierarchies. The part of the namespace affected is comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, talk, which are the most widely-distributed areas of the Usenet hierarchy. + Any group creation request which follows these guidelines to a successful result should be honored, and any request which fails to follow these procedures or to obtain a successful result from doing so *************** *** 35,182 **** reason these are called guidelines and not absolute rules is that it is not possible to predict in advance what "extraordinary circumstances" are or how they might arise. ! It should be pointed out here that, as always, the decision whether ! or not to create a newsgroup on a given machine rests with the administrator of that machine. These guidelines are intended merely as an aid in making those decisions. The Discussion ! group-mentors@amdahl.com is a body of volunteers experienced with the ! newsgroup creation process. They assist people who want to propose ! new groups with the formation and submission of a good proposal. It ! is strongly encouraged, though not required, that they be contacted ! with an outline of the basic idea for a proposal, and a mentor will ! work with the proponents to submit a formal proposal. People who have ! experience with the process and wish to help others should contact ! group-mentors-request@amdahl.com to join. ! ! 1) A request for discussion on creation of a new newsgroup should be posted to ! news.announce.newgroups, and also to any other groups or mailing lists at ! all related to the proposed topic if desired. The group is moderated, and ! the Followup-to: header will be set so that the actual discussion takes ! place only in news.groups. Users on sites which have difficulty posting to ! moderated groups may mail submissions intended for news.announce.newgroups ! to newgroups@uunet.uu.net. The article should be cross-posted among the newsgroups, including ! news.announce.newgroups, rather than posted as separate articles. Note that ! standard behaviour for posting software is to not present the articles in ! any groups when cross-posted to a moderated group; the moderator will handle ! that for you. ! ! 2) The name and charter of the proposed group and whether it will be moderated ! or unmoderated (and if the former, who the moderator(s) will be) should be ! determined during the discussion period. If there is no general agreement on ! these points among the proponents of a new group at the end of 30 days of ! discussion, the discussion should be taken offline (into mail instead of ! news.groups) and the proponents should iron out the details among ! themselves. Once that is done, a new, more specific proposal may be made, ! going back to step 1) above. ! ! 3) Group advocates seeking help in choosing a name to suit the proposed ! charter, or looking for any other guidance in the creation procedure, ! can send a message to group-advice@uunet.uu.net; a few seasoned news ! administrators are available through this address. The Vote ! The Usenet Volunteer Votetakers (UVV) are a group of neutral third-party ! vote-takers who currently handle vote gathering and counting for all ! newsgroup proposals. The coordinators of the group can be reached at ! uvv-contact@uvv.org; contact them to arrange the handling of the vote. ! The mechanics of vote will be handled in accord with the paragraphs below. ! ! 1) AFTER the discussion period, if it has been determined that a new group is ! really desired, a name and charter are agreed upon, and it has been ! determined whether the group will be moderated and if so who will ! moderate it, a call for votes may be posted to news.announce.newgroups and ! any other groups or mailing lists that the original request for discussion ! might have been posted to. There should be minimal delay between the ! end of the discussion period and the issuing of a call for votes. ! The call for votes should include clear instructions for how to cast ! a vote. It must be as clearly explained and as easy to do to cast a ! vote for creation as against it, and vice versa. It is explicitly ! permitted to set up two separate addresses to mail yes and no votes ! to provided that they are on the same machine, to set up an address ! different than that the article was posted from to mail votes to, or ! to just accept replies to the call for votes article, as long as it ! is clearly and explicitly stated in the call for votes article how ! to cast a vote. If two addresses are used for a vote, the reply ! address must process and accept both yes and no votes OR reject ! them both. ! ! 2) The voting period should last for at least 21 days and no more than 31 ! days, no matter what the preliminary results of the vote are. The exact ! date that the voting period will end should be stated in the call for ! votes. Only votes that arrive on the vote-taker's machine prior to this ! date will be counted. ! ! 3) A couple of repeats of the call for votes may be posted during the vote, ! provided that they contain similar clear, unbiased instructions for ! casting a vote as the original, and provided that it is really a repeat ! of the call for votes on the SAME proposal (see #5 below). Partial vote ! results should NOT be included; only a statement of the specific new ! group proposal, that a vote is in progress on it, and how to cast a vote. ! It is permitted to post a "mass acknowledgement" in which all the names ! of those from whom votes have been received are posted, as long as no ! indication is made of which way anybody voted until the voting period ! is officially over. ! ! 4) ONLY votes MAILED to the vote-taker will count. Votes posted to the net ! for any reason (including inability to get mail to the vote-taker) and ! proxy votes (such as having a mailing list maintainer claim a vote for ! each member of the list) will not be counted. ! ! 5) Votes may not be transferred to other, similar proposals. A vote shall ! count only for the EXACT proposal that it is a response to. In particular, ! a vote for or against a newsgroup under one name shall NOT be counted as ! a vote for or against a newsgroup with a different name or charter, ! a different moderated/unmoderated status or (if moderated) a different ! moderator or set of moderators. 6) Votes MUST be explicit; they should be of the form "I vote for the ! group foo.bar as proposed" or "I vote against the group foo.bar ! as proposed". The wording doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to be unambiguous. In particular, statements of the form "I would vote for this group if..." should be considered comments only and not counted as votes. ! 7) A vote should be run only for a single group proposal. Attempts to create ! multiple groups should be handled by running multiple parallel votes rather ! than one vote to create all of the groups. The Result ! 1) At the completion of the voting period, the vote taker must post the ! vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of the voters ! received to news.announce.newgroups and any other groups or mailing lists ! to which the original call for votes was posted. The tally should include ! a statement of which way each voter voted so that the results can be ! verified. ! 2) AFTER the vote result is posted, there will be a 5 day waiting period, ! beginning when the voting results actually appear in news.announce.newgroups, during which the net will have a chance to correct any errors in the voter list or the voting procedure. ! 3) AFTER the waiting period, and if there were no serious objections that might ! invalidate the vote, and if 100 more valid YES/create votes are received ! than NO/don't create AND at least 2/3 of the total number of valid votes ! received are in favor of creation, a newgroup control message may be sent ! out. If the 100 vote margin or 2/3 percentage is not met, the group should ! not be created. ! ! 4) The newgroup message will be sent by the news.announce.newgroups moderator ! at the end of the waiting period of a successful vote. If the new group is ! moderated, the vote-taker should send a message during the waiting period to ! David C. Lawrence with both the ! moderator's contact address and the group's submission address. ! ! 5) A proposal which has failed under point (3) above should not again be ! brought up for discussion until at least six months have passed from the ! close of the vote. This limitation does not apply to proposals which never ! went to vote. --- 41,193 ---- reason these are called guidelines and not absolute rules is that it is not possible to predict in advance what "extraordinary circumstances" are or how they might arise. ! ! It should be pointed out here that, as always, the decision whether or ! not to create a newsgroup on a given machine rests with the administrator of that machine. These guidelines are intended merely as an aid in making those decisions. The Discussion ! group-mentors@acpub.duke.edu is a body of volunteers experienced with ! the newsgroup creation process. They assist people who want to ! propose new groups with the formation and submission of a good ! proposal. It is strongly encouraged, though not required, that they ! be contacted with an outline of the basic idea for a proposal, and a ! mentor will work with the proponents to submit a formal proposal. ! People who have experience with the process and wish to help others ! should contact group-mentors-request@acpub.duke.edu to join. ! ! 1) A request for discussion on creation of a new newsgroup should be ! posted to news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, and any other ! groups or mailing lists at all related to the proposed topic if ! desired. news.announce.newgroups is moderated, and the ! Followup-to: header will be set so that the actual discussion takes ! place only in news.groups. Users on sites which have difficulty ! posting to moderated groups may mail submissions intended for ! news.announce.newgroups to newgroups@uunet.uu.net. The article should be cross-posted among the newsgroups, including ! news.announce.newgroups, rather than posted as separate articles. ! Note that standard behaviour for posting software is to not present ! the articles in any groups when cross-posted to a moderated group; ! the moderator will handle that for you. ! ! 2) The name and charter of the proposed group and whether it will be ! moderated or unmoderated (and if the former, who the moderator(s) ! will be) should be determined during the discussion period. If ! there is no general agreement on these points among the proponents ! of a new group at the end of 30 days of discussion, the discussion ! should be taken offline (into mail instead of news.groups) and the ! proponents should iron out the details among themselves. Once that ! is done, a new, more specific proposal may be made, going back to ! step 1) above. ! ! 3) Group advocates seeking help in choosing a name to suit the ! proposed charter, or looking for any other guidance in the creation ! procedure, can send a message to group-advice@uunet.uu.net; a few ! seasoned news administrators are available through this address. The Vote ! The Usenet Volunteer Votetakers (UVV) are a group of neutral ! third-party vote-takers who currently handle vote gathering and ! counting for all newsgroup proposals. The coordinators of the group ! can be reached at uvv-contact@uvv.org; contact them to arrange the ! handling of the vote. The mechanics of vote will be handled in accord ! with the paragraphs below. ! ! 1) AFTER the discussion period, if it has been determined that a new ! group is really desired, a name and charter are agreed upon, and it ! has been determined whether the group will be moderated and if so ! who will moderate it, a call for votes may be posted to ! news.announce.newgroups and any other groups or mailing lists that ! the original request for discussion might have been posted ! to. There should be minimal delay between the end of the discussion ! period and the issuing of a call for votes. The call for votes ! should include clear instructions for how to cast a vote. It must ! be as clearly explained and as easy to do to cast a vote for ! creation as against it, and vice versa. It is explicitly permitted ! to set up two separate addresses to mail yes and no votes to ! provided that they are on the same machine, to set up an address ! different than that the article was posted from to mail votes to, ! or to just accept replies to the call for votes article, as long as ! it is clearly and explicitly stated in the call for votes article ! how to cast a vote. If two addresses are used for a vote, the ! reply address must process and accept both yes and no votes OR ! reject them both. ! ! 2) The voting period should last for at least 21 days and no more than ! 31 days, no matter what the preliminary results of the vote ! are. The exact date that the voting period will end should be ! stated in the call for votes. Only votes that arrive on the ! vote-taker's machine prior to this date will be counted. ! ! 3) A couple of repeats of the call for votes may be posted during the ! vote, provided that they contain similar clear, unbiased ! instructions for casting a vote as the original, and provided that ! it is really a repeat of the call for votes on the SAME proposal ! (see #5 below). Partial vote results should NOT be included; only a ! statement of the specific new group proposal, that a vote is in ! progress on it, and how to cast a vote. It is permitted to post a ! "mass acknowledgement" in which all the names of those from whom ! votes have been received are posted, as long as no indication is ! made of which way anybody voted until the voting period is ! officially over. ! ! 4) ONLY votes MAILED to the vote-taker will count. Votes posted to the ! net for any reason (including inability to get mail to the ! vote-taker) and proxy votes (such as having a mailing list ! maintainer claim a vote for each member of the list) will not be ! counted. ! ! 5) Votes may not be transferred to other, similar proposals. A vote ! shall count only for the EXACT proposal that it is a response ! to. In particular, a vote for or against a newsgroup under one name ! shall NOT be counted as a vote for or against a newsgroup with a ! different name or charter, a different moderated/unmoderated status ! or (if moderated) a different moderator or set of moderators. 6) Votes MUST be explicit; they should be of the form "I vote for the ! group foo.bar as proposed" or "I vote against the group foo.bar as ! proposed". The wording doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to be unambiguous. In particular, statements of the form "I would vote for this group if..." should be considered comments only and not counted as votes. ! 7) A vote should be run only for a single group proposal. Attempts to ! create multiple groups should be handled by running multiple ! parallel votes rather than one vote to create all of the groups. The Result ! 1) At the completion of the voting period, the vote taker must post ! the vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of ! the voters received to news.announce.newgroups and any other groups ! or mailing lists to which the original call for votes was ! posted. The tally should include a statement of which way each ! voter voted so that the results can be verified. ! 2) AFTER the vote result is posted, there will be a 5 day waiting ! period, beginning when the voting results actually appear in news.announce.newgroups, during which the net will have a chance to correct any errors in the voter list or the voting procedure. ! 3) AFTER the waiting period, and if there were no serious objections ! that might invalidate the vote, and if 100 more valid YES/create ! votes are received than NO/don't create AND at least 2/3 of the ! total number of valid votes received are in favor of creation, a ! newgroup control message may be sent out. If the 100 vote margin ! or 2/3 percentage is not met, the group should not be created. ! ! 4) The newgroup message will be sent by the news.announce.newgroups ! moderator at the end of the waiting period of a successful vote. ! ! 5) A proposal which has failed under point (3) above should not again ! be brought up for discussion until at least six months have passed ! from the close of the vote. This limitation does not apply to ! proposals which never went to vote or polls that were cancelled or ! invalidated.