[comp.sys.amiga] First CALL FOR VOTES, comp.sys.amiga reorganization

csa-vote@zorch.sf-bay.org (Amiga Vote Mailbox) (11/26/90)

This is the official call for votes for the comp.sys.amiga newsgroup
heirarchy reorganization.  Accept no substitutes.  Forge no newgroups.

This is a complex proposal containing fourteen separate votes; read it all
carefully TWICE before voting, then check your work before sending your
vote.  Do NOT post votes; only email votes count, only timely votes count.

A companion article, updating the call for discussion information, has been
recently posted to news.groups and the comp.sys.amiga heirarchy.  This call
for votes contains only the voting instructions and the ballot showing the
actions to be taken.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          VOTING INSTRUCTIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below is a ballot. There are two groups in the existing heirarchy being
retained. two existing groups being renamed, and twelve new groups being
created in this proposal. The retained groups are not being voted upon,
but are included for information purposes only. For the other fourteen
items, your voting choices are one of the three letters at the start of
each proposal line in the ballot:

  "Y": "Yes, carry out the proposal,"
  "N": "No, do not carry out the proposal," or
  "A": "Abstain - I do not care to vote for or against the proposal."

Abstention is included as an option because this is really fourteen
separate votes, and if they were presented as fourteen separate
postings, any voter would be able to skip any vote. Since voting all on
one ballot is for the convenience of the vote taker, it seemed unfair to
omit this possibility from the options.

To vote, capture this article into an edit buffer and delete the two
letters you don't want, so that the one remaining represents your vote,
for each item.  Leave the ballot lines alone otherwise; they will be
used as search strings for the script processing the vote.  Please
make sure you leave exactly one of "Y", "N", or "A" at the start of
each ballot line, followed by a space, as your ballot will otherwise be
kicked out for hand processing.

To save bandwidth, those skilled with an editor are encouraged to omit
the rest of this article from your vote, just leaving the ballot lines
and perhaps a signature. This is not required; the votes will be
captured by an awk script anyway.

A separate account has been established to handle this vote.

Mail the result or your editing to the voting address; a reply to this
article should get the right address: csa-vote@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG. Check
that it did, and if not, send to this address anyway.

If your mail to the voting address bounces, I will (very reluctantly)
accept votes at one of the two addresses in my signature.  Contrariwise,
send mail you expect to be read to one of the addresses below; mail
"R"eplies to this posting that contain gossip will probably drown in
the vote mail and never be seen.

Exactly _one_ attempt will be made to email a response to your vote. If
it bounces, look for your vote in the mass acknowledgements to be posted
at mid-vote and the end of the voting.

The usual USENet rules hold: 21 days to vote from the posting date of this
article in news.announce.newgroups (anticipated to be 26 November 1990),
for each proposal, 2/3rds or more Yes votes and at least 100 more Yes than
No votes (abstentions will not count in either category); five days to
complain about incorrectly scored votes after the ballot period ends.

As mentioned during the discussion period, while the rules require a
vote on each proposal, I (the vote taker and convener of the proposals)
would much prefer a straight Yes or straight No vote, since it is not
immediately obvious that every subset of the proposals would be better
than the existing comp.sys.amiga heirarchy.

Just as an aside, the number of people objecting to the names shown was
such a minute handful of the more than 50,000 readers who saw the
proposal, the names proposed in the CFD3 document have been carried
forward unchanged.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   BALLOT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Retain comp.sys.amiga.games          (information only)
--- Retain comp.sys.amiga.hardware       (information only)
-----------------------8<--------- cut here --------- >8-----------------------
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.misc           (renames comp.sys.amiga)
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.programmer     (renames comp.sys.amiga.tech)
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.announce       (moderated)
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.reviews        (moderated)
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.introduction   (monitored)
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.audio
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.graphics
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.marketplace
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.applications
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.emulations
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
YNA Create comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
YNA Create comp.unix.amiga
-----------------------8<--------- cut here --------- >8-----------------------

The two renamed groups will be deleted under their old names after the
usual aliasing mechanism has had an opportunity to reroute late arriving
postings under the old names.

The moderator for comp.sys.amiga.announce will be:

      zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)

The moderator for comp.sys.amiga.reviews will be:

      HONP9@jetson.uh.edu (Jason L. Tibbitts III)

Both of these will have a backup moderator for vacations, illness, etc.:

      mwm@decwrl.dec.com (Mike Meyer)

the backup rerouting will be done by scripts without impact on the posters
to the groups.

The monitor for comp.sys.amiga.introduction will be:

      ferry@chorus.fr (Ferry de Jong)

wish him luck at maintaining a polite atmosphere in the group.

Again, an explanation of all of this is in a companion posting, as are
postings containing more detailed charters for three of the groups. You
may wish to read the companion articles in news.groups or the
comp.sys.amiga groups before voting.

Persons who have sent proxy votes due to being called to service in
Saudi Arabia, due to southern hemisphere summer school breaks, etc.,
need not vote again if your proxy was acknowledged and you are
unexpectedly still around reading this -- your voting instructions will
be carried out by the vote taker. You know who you are.

                                                           /// It's Amiga
                                                          /// for me:  why
Kent, the man from xanth.                             \\\///   settle for
<xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>   \XX/  anything less?
--
Convener, ongoing comp.sys.amiga grand reorganization.