[comp.sys.att] Attempt at choking the dead horse

templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon) (12/04/90)

OK, I am willing to try and write a charter for the new newsgroup and post
it to news.groups, if someone else will volunteer to take votes.  I will
shortly list points below that I intend to put in.  Unless there are serious
disagreements, I will use these.

1) name: comp.sys.att.3b1, comp.sources.att.3b1

2) purpose: discussion of 7300/3b1/UNIXPC and related CT machines (S/50, etc.)
	this is to replace unix-pc.general which will be removed (or suitably
	aliased - i don't know much about aliasing so if some kind soul
	wants to fill me in or provide a couple of sentences here, I'd be
	happy) after a six-month transition period.  the newsgroup is being
	moved into the comp hierarchy to solve problems with spotty
	distribution (almost nonexistent for our european friends) in the
	unix-pc hierarchy, and also to alleviate the confusion with the
	current name.

3) groups to be created:  	comp.sys.att.3b1	(unmoderated)
				comp.sources.att.3b1	(moderated)

	The names are chosen under the comp.sys.att hierarchy since there
	have been people interested in reorganizing the comp.sys.att
	group using subgroups like this.  we would like to make our group
	compatible with this possible reorg., thus the placement; however
	we are not proposing to do this reorg ourselves.

	comp.sys.att.3b1 is for general discussions and replaces the groups
	unix-pc.general and unix-pc.uucp (which has little traffic.)

	comp.sources.att.3b1 is for posting of sources and official patches
	to these sources.  it is moderated so that it will be in a form
	suitable for archiving at those sites which do this.


OK, let's try and get this going.  Please contact me if you feel I left
anything out.  'amen, brother' sort of messages are also welcome, since
usually the people who don't like things are vocal; positive messages will
help me judge whether I've really understood the consensus here.  obviously
we're not going to please everybody.

					jeff

markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) (12/04/90)

In article <75918@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon) writes:
>
>OK, I am willing to try and write a charter for the new newsgroup and post
>it to news.groups, if someone else will volunteer to take votes...
>
>1) name: comp.sys.att.3b1, comp.sources.att.3b1

I'm willing to run the vote, but I'd prefer to run a vote for the rest of
the new groups at the same time. I would be willing to write the charters
for all the groups. If some well-connected person will volunteer to moderate
the comp.sources.att.3b1 group I will run a vote for that, also. In order
to save time and trouble, a single vote could be used to create all of the
new groups at the same time: 

    comp.sys.att.3b1        3b1's, UNIX-PC's, 7300's, and related CT machines
    comp.sys.att.3b2        3b2's and related machines (3b5, 3b15, 3b20..)
    comp.sys.att.63xx       6300, 6300 PLUS, 6310, 6386
    comp.sys.att.misc       Miscellaneous discussions about AT&T machines
    comp.sources.att.3b1    Sources for 3b1's (moderated)

A simple "yes" vote would be interpreted as a "yes" for all five groups. A
simple "no" vote would be interpreted as a "no" vote for all five groups.
Mixed votes would also be allowed, I'll process them by hand.  Each group 
would have pass the guideline criteria (YES - NO > 100, YES:NO > 2:1) in 
order to be created.

Unless someone has a strenuous objection, I'll formulate a Call for
Votes and send it off to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups. 
Hopefully, voting can begin as quickly as the guidelines allow. If you feel
my proposal needs some modification, please send me email, as I think that
we've used up enough bandwidth in discussing this. If you would like to
moderate the comp.sources.att.3b1 group, send me email.


-- 
  Mark H. Weber                   | Internet: markw@GVL.Unisys.COM  
  Unisys - Great Valley Labs      |     UUCP: ...!uunet!cbmvax!gvlv2!markw
  Paoli, PA  USA  (215) 648-7111  |           ...!psuvax1!burdvax!gvlv2!markw

jan@bagend.uucp (Jan Isley) (12/04/90)

markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) writes:

>In article <75918@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon) writes:
>>
>>OK, I am willing to try and write a charter for the new newsgroup and post
>>it to news.groups, if someone else will volunteer to take votes...
>>
>I'm willing to run the vote, but I'd prefer to run a vote for the rest of
>the new groups at the same time. I would be willing to write the charters
>for all the groups. If some well-connected person will volunteer to moderate
>the comp.sources.att.3b1 group I will run a vote for that, also. In order
>to save time and trouble, a single vote could be used to create all of the
>new groups at the same time: 

no, no, and no.

>    comp.sys.att.63xx       6300, 6300 PLUS, 6310, 6386

I think you will have a real fight on your hands if you try to put the
386 unix boxes in with the rest of the dos boxes.

>Unless someone has a strenuous objection, I'll formulate a Call for
>Votes and send it off to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups. 
>Hopefully, voting can begin as quickly as the guidelines allow. If you feel
>my proposal needs some modification, please send me email, as I think that
>we've used up enough bandwidth in discussing this. If you would like to
>moderate the comp.sources.att.3b1 group, send me email.

Well, yes Mark, I do object.  I posted the call for discussion, remember?

No, I am not ignoring your mail, your mail bounces, user unknown.
 
I have been considering your proposals with great care.  However, it is my
opinion that there is a consensus for creating the 3b1 group but you have
really been the only proponent for reorganizing comp.sys.att.

Time, I think, is on our side.  Several people have said that they want to
get a vote in before the holidays.  Well, the holidays are already here.
Further, I think that a vote over the holidays would favor either proposal
because it is my belief that *many* people who are *really* interested in
this (and on our sides) are leaf sites with home systems who would not
miss out on a vote over the holidays.  But, I could be wrong.

Seems to be a lot of grumbling about "too much noise".  Well, people, this
is how the process is supposed to work, to give everyone a chance to voice
an opinion.  That takes time.  I should take time because if it aint done
right, you will have to live with it for  a long time.  Anyone remember
comp.unix.wizards?

I was probably going to post a call for votes this weekend, but if
everyone is really dying to beat me too it, I cannot stop you.

Jan
-- 
Do not suffer the company of fools.  | home jan@bagend 404-434-1335
Buddha                               | known_universe!gatech!bagend!jan 

markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) (12/05/90)

In article <1990Dec4.125658.6995@bagend.uucp> jan@bagend.uucp (Jan Isley) writes:
>markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) writes:
>
>>Unless someone has a strenuous objection, I'll formulate a Call for
>>Votes and send it off to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups. 
>>Hopefully, voting can begin as quickly as the guidelines allow. If you feel
>>my proposal needs some modification, please send me email, as I think that
>>we've used up enough bandwidth in discussing this. If you would like to
>>moderate the comp.sources.att.3b1 group, send me email.
>
>Well, yes Mark, I do object.  I posted the call for discussion, remember?
>
>No, I am not ignoring your mail, your mail bounces, user unknown.
> 

I'm truly sorry about this. A quick check of the system here shows that
our mailer is broken. The automatic forwarding from our gateway machine
"GVL.Unisys.COM" won't work, but mail directly to my workstation cluster
"gvlf1.GVL.Unisys.COM" will work OK. Serves me right for trying to do
this from work, rather than from my trusty 3b1 at home!

I erroneously assumed that the lack of correspondence from you indicated
that you were willing to go along with my proposal.

>I have been considering your proposals with great care.  However, it is my
>opinion that there is a consensus for creating the 3b1 group but you have
>really been the only proponent for reorganizing comp.sys.att.

I agree that the reorganization of comp.sys.att probably needs more
discussion. I was hoping to take care of both proposals with a single vote.
I think there is a fair amount of support for the reorganization from 
other AT&T users.

>>    comp.sys.att.63xx       6300, 6300 PLUS, 6310, 6386
>
>I think you will have a real fight on your hands if you try to put the
>386 unix boxes in with the rest of the dos boxes.
>

I got this idea from the maintainer of the pc63xx mailing list, who 
listed these machines as the boxes which are discussed on the list. 
I agree that the discussions about 386 unix belong in comp.unix.sv386,
but don't some people run DOS on 6386 boxes?

>I was probably going to post a call for votes this weekend, but if
>everyone is really dying to beat me too it, I cannot stop you.
>

Please do. I would only ask that you call the group comp.sys.att.3b1
rather than comp.sys.3b1. The has been some opposition to the new group 
proposal from people who don't understand why it shouldn't be under
comp.sys.att. While there are some similar Convergent and Motorola
boxes out there, the vast majority say AT&T on them. This name would
also be compatible with a future reorganization of comp.sys.att, which
I will propose later, probably after the holidays (and after I get my 
mailer fixed!).

Once again, sorry about this mixup. I'm looking forward to voting for
a new 3b1 group in the near future.


Mark

Internet: markw@gvlf1.GVL.Unisys.COM
UUCP: ...!uunet!cbmvax!gvlv2!lock60!mhw

(yes, these addresses DO work)

das@trac2000.ueci.com (David Snyder) (12/05/90)

In article <1990Dec3.205742.18931@news.gvl.unisys.com>, markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) writes:
> Unless someone has a strenuous objection, I'll formulate a Call for
> Votes and send it off to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups. 
> Hopefully, voting can begin as quickly as the guidelines allow. If you feel
> my proposal needs some modification, please send me email, as I think that
> we've used up enough bandwidth in discussing this. If you would like to
> moderate the comp.sources.att.3b1 group, send me email.
> 
Great, let's do it !!!!!

DAS
-- 
David Snyder @ UE&C - Catalytic in Philadelphia, PA

UUCP:  ..!uunet!trac2000!das     INTERNET:  das@trac2000.ueci.com

yarvin-norman@cs.yale.edu (Norman Yarvin) (12/05/90)

jan@bagend.uucp (Jan Isley) writes:
>
>I was probably going to post a call for votes this weekend, but if
>everyone is really dying to beat me too it, I cannot stop you.

Jan: If you are going to post a call for votes, indicate what you would do
about the sources group ahead of time.  Many people are assuming the call
for votes will include a sources group, but your call for discussion did not
provide for one.

--
Norman Yarvin					yarvin-norman@cs.yale.edu
  Christmas -- the day when we celebrate the birth of a 2000 year old
  superstition by watching pine trees slowly die in our living rooms.

bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) (12/05/90)

In article <1990Dec4.125658.6995@bagend.uucp> jan@bagend.uucp (Jan Isley) writes:
>markw@gvlf1-c.gvl.unisys.com (Mark H. Weber) writes:
>
>>In article <75918@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon) writes:
[ recent proposal to expand the 3b1 proposal to be a general reorganization
  of comp.sys.att ]

>>to save time and trouble, a single vote could be used to create all of the
>>new groups at the same time: 
>
>no, no, and no.

Hold it Jan.  That sounds like "I don't care that my idea stimulated some
others that might be beneficial to the entire newsgroup, let's stick with
mine".  More below, but I don't think that you should summarily dismiss a
co-proposal that pursues a greater good.  I don't think there is anything
"wrong" with comp.sys.att right now, I've got an `n' button, I can skip over
3b1/7300 things and read 3b2/63xx things.  There's nothing to "fix", but
there are some things to improve.  I think that's where Mark is coming from.
I'm pretty sure that he couldn't care less about 63xx or 3b2, but there
were some murmurings after you made your proposal (apologies if it was
Jeffrey Templon's or someone elses proposal), I think that's what Mark's
talking about.

>>    comp.sys.att.63xx       6300, 6300 PLUS, 6310, 6386
>
>I think you will have a real fight on your hands if you try to put the
>386 unix boxes in with the rest of the dos boxes.

Mark didn't bring that up, _I_ did.  I mentioned that if there was
interest, I would be glad to gateway the 63xx mailing list to a sys.att
subgroup for 63xx machines.  Thus far the reaction from the mailing
list folks has ranged from passive to mild interest.  I thought (and it
was the reason I made the suggestion) that 63xx owners who now throw
an occaisional m'aidez into comp.sys.att might benefit from the collective
wisdom of the people who are already on the mailing list.  Don't blame
Mark for my suggestion and don't suggest that he's headed for peril
"if you try to put the 386 boxes in with the rest of the dos boxes".
We're talking about _AT&T_ boxes, their idiosyncracies and advantages.
I'd be the first to scream if comp.sys.ibm.pc metastasized over to
comp.sys.att.  This is a matter of compartmentalizing comp.sys.att to
better handle discussions about _AT&T_ equipment, not DOS, not 386en;
it's still comp.sys.att.

I'm as willing to withdraw my offer to gateway the AT&T PC63xx mailing
list as I was to make it.  I thought that if there was interest in
having a place for it (to save cycles on your `n' button :-), it would
be for the overall betterment of AT&T system owners.  If anyone thought
I was being pushy and trying to horn in on a 3b1 proposal, please disabuse
yourselves of that notion.  I sort of chimed in because I thought it
would be nice to have a place for 63xx folk, much as the original suggestion
for 3b1/7300 folk.  If it has no appeal, no one need ask me to withdraw,
I'll bolt!

>>Unless someone has a strenuous objection, I'll formulate a Call for
>>Votes and send it off to the moderator of news.announce.newgroups. 
[ ... ]
>
>Well, yes Mark, I do object.  I posted the call for discussion, remember?
>
>No, I am not ignoring your mail, your mail bounces, user unknown.

Hmmm.  I don't seem to be having any trouble reaching him, maybe you
should forward through Pipe Creek, TX.  Sure, you posted the call for
discussion, are you now saying that the discussion that you called for
isn't what you wanted?  I'm confused!  We're going to discuss, but if
the discussion isn't something you like, we're discussing something
wrong?  This is starting to sound like a flame and I must add here that
it most certainly isn't.

I have no objection whatsoever to splitting out 3b1/7300 material into
some other group.  I don't care whether it resides in the comp.sys.att
namespace, some snobbish part of me thinks it should, but I don't care.
I'm a 3b2 and a 63xx person.  I'd like to have a playpen too.  Other 3b2
people suggested a 3b2 playpen, I suggested a 63xx playpen.  Every stitch
of this was stimulated by your call for discussion for a 3b1/7300 playpen.
I think it's time for each of us with a system with a death star on it to
have a place to hang out.

>I have been considering your proposals with great care.  However, it is my
>opinion that there is a consensus for creating the 3b1 group but you have
>really been the only proponent for reorganizing comp.sys.att.

Huh?  Mark didn't make this all up.  Admittedly, a lot happened via email
rather than being posted.  If Mark is guilty of summarizing email into
a posted proposal, so be it.  I helped him do that.  I point this out because
I posted one article, but flew quite a bit of mail back and forth.  I can
certainly see how you could thin he made this all up in a vacuum if you
haven't had reliable connectivity for mail.

>Seems to be a lot of grumbling about "too much noise".  Well, people, this
>is how the process is supposed to work, to give everyone a chance to voice
>an opinion.  That takes time.  I should take time because if it aint done
>right, you will have to live with it for  a long time.  Anyone remember
>comp.unix.wizards?

Thanks for giving me something to hide behind :-)  Seriously, I know that
Mark isn't trying to rain on your parade, he said it to me in terms not
much differently than those.  He wants to make an overall improvement in
the comp.sys.att group, maybe you just want to compartmentalize 3b1/7300
and that's quite all right, it would save me some cycles on the `n' button :-)
You're closer kin to Mark that either of you is to me.  I figure that there
are three architectures here, M68xxx, 321xx and 63xx, but they're all AT&T
(regardless of how we might feel about AT&T).  If we're going to make a
separate group for M68xxx, why not do the others too?  If that's too far
beyond what you had in mind when you called for discussion, then restrict
the discussion to M68xxx, the rest of us won't mind, we're used to it :-)

>I was probably going to post a call for votes this weekend, but if
>everyone is really dying to beat me too it, I cannot stop you.

I don't think that anyone wants to preempt or usurp you, but I did get
a feeling that there was good to be done in addition to what you proposed.

>Jan
>-- 
>Do not suffer the company of fools.  | home jan@bagend 404-434-1335
>Buddha                               | known_universe!gatech!bagend!jan 
-- 
Bill Kennedy  usenet      {att,cs.utexas.edu,pyramid!daver}!ssbn.wlk.com!bill
              internet    bill@ssbn.WLK.COM   or attmail!ssbn!bill

dwn@swbatl.sbc.com (David Neill-OKCy Mktg 405-278-4007) (12/05/90)

In article <1990Dec4.164232.22013@news.gvl.unisys.com> markw@gvlf1.GVL.Unisys.Com (Mark H. Weber) writes:
...
>Please do. I would only ask that you call the group comp.sys.att.3b1
>rather than comp.sys.3b1. The has been some opposition to the new group
>proposal from people who don't understand why it shouldn't be under
>comp.sys.att. While there are some similar Convergent and Motorola
>boxes out there, the vast majority say AT&T on them. This name would
>also be compatible with a future reorganization of comp.sys.att, which
>I will propose later, probably after the holidays (and after I get my 
>mailer fixed!).
>
I'm still unclear on the advantage of placing the 3b1 group under
the .att. group.  If the group ends up comp.sys.3b1 then there's
no problem with compatibility with the future re-organization of
comp.sys.att, right?  I really do believe the Convergent and Motorola
owners will find the group, regardless of it's location, but how do
we settle this group-name thing before a call for votes?

-- 
name & address   (this account) -> uunet!swbatl!dwn OR dwn@swbatl.sbc.com
David Neill       office -> 405-291-1990 -> uunet!swbatl!oktext!mktco
Mgr - Mktg.(SWBTCo) home -> 405-843-4464 -> uunet!swbatl!oktext!frodo!david

jan@bagend.uucp (Jan Isley) (12/07/90)

dwn@swbatl.sbc.com (David Neill-OKCy Mktg 405-278-4007) writes:

>I'm still unclear on the advantage of placing the 3b1 group under
>the .att. group.  If the group ends up comp.sys.3b1 then there's
>no problem with compatibility with the future re-organization of
>comp.sys.att, right?  I really do believe the Convergent and Motorola
>owners will find the group, regardless of it's location, but how do
>we settle this group-name thing before a call for votes?

There are 2 ways to settle it.

1. declare that there is a majority in favor of comp.sys.3b1 and call a
   vote for it.  There is some evidence that this position is justifiable.

2. do a "multi-way" vote that allows for voting for the name as well as the
   group itself.

I have sent a call for votes to Eliot.  It is #2, by the way.  I think it
is the only fair way to do it.

Jan
-- 
The good and the bad thing about drugs | home jan@bagend 404-434-1335
drugs is that they wear off. -Elliston | known_universe!gatech!bagend!jan