emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (02/28/90)
In article <1990Feb23.183234.23830@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes: Rich Salz (rsalz@bbn.com) writes: > Things work well enough now that I do not see a need to get an "obvious" > group created six days earlier. ... From where I sit, this assertion about "working well" seems obviously wrong. I suggest that the person who proposed the "mercy rule" should conduct a survey on it. I say "survey" because, in the absence of a formal amending procedure for the voting guidelines, the results have to be non-binding. But they might, and I think will, be *convincing*. OK, I'll take a survey. This survey is to indicate the interest of amending the new group creation rules along the lines of article <EMV.90Feb15175723@duby.math.lsa.umich.edu>, which reads in part: I propose a 'mercy rule' for group creation. You know the story -- the Bombers are beating the Slugs 234 to 4 in the bottom of the 6th, and it's getting late, and the Slugs really want to go out for beer anyway and graciously concede. New groups with widespread interest and little controversy should be created quickly. If there is an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the group will be created with no substantial opposition, then the vote results can be sent in and the group created "early". As I proposed in that article, new groups might be created in advance of the 21 day waiting period upon the fulfilment of these conditions. - No group be created earlier than 7 days after the first vote. (currently 21) - If more than 20 NO votes are received the group may not be created early. (currently unlimited) - The minimum number of YES votes to create a new group early is 150 (currently 100). - There must be at least 20 times as many YES votes as NO votes. (currently 2 times). Please send survey results to emv@math.lsa.umich.edu with the subject YES survey on "mercy rule" or NO survey on "mercy rule" All results are non-binding. Comments are welcomed. Results will be brought back to news.groups in summary form when there is enough to summarize. The numbers above are somewhat arbitrary, if you have suggestions for different cut-off levels indicate that in your message like so: min-days: 7 max-no: 20 min-yes: 150 yes-no-ratio: 20 Thanks. --Ed Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept.