spaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (05/15/89)
This posting contains a listing of differences between the version of
the article (referenced in the "Subject:" line) just posted to the
news.announce.newusers group, and the version posted a few weeks ago.
It is intended to enable experienced users to track changes to the
regularly posted Usenet documents.
*** old/howto.n Sun May 8 23:36:20 1988
--- src/howto.n Sun May 14 22:46:33 1989
***************
*** 1,4
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.groups,news.admin
! Expires: 40days
! Approved: spaf@purdue.EDU
--- 1,4 -----
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.groups,news.admin
! Expires: 90days
! Approved: spaf@cs.purdue.EDU
***************
*** 4,7
! Original-from: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
! [Most recent change: 14 April 1988 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)]
--- 4,6 -----
! Original-from: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)]
***************
*** 8,10
! How to Establish a New Newsgroup
--- 7,9 -----
! GUIDELINES FOR USENET GROUP CREATION
***************
*** 10,17
! One question that frequently appears on the Usenet has to do with how
! newsgroups are created. Usually this occurs when someone believes they
! have identified a topic that deserves a new group and they are not
! aware of the conventions surrounding newsgroup establishment. The
! purpose of this article is to help provide some background and
! guidelines for users interested in establishing new groups.
--- 9,11 -----
! REQUIREMENTS FOR GROUP CREATION:
***************
*** 17,29
! Note that these guidelines are for new groups in the "regular" Usenet
! -- conventions for new groups in the alternate hierarchies (such as
! "alt" and "bionet") may be different and you should consult readers and
! admins in those groups for information specific to those groups. Also
! note that these are general *guidelines* -- there is no guarantee that
! any site will ever issue or honor a "newgroup" request for any group,
! even if all these guidelines are followed. In particular, problems of
! legality, volume and taste may keep some groups from being created in
! the regular newsgroup hierarchy at many (or most) sites, no matter what
! the perceived support; in general, such groups can be created in the
! alternate distributions without any such trouble.
--- 11,30 -----
! These are guidelines that have been generally agreed upon across
! USENET as appropriate for following in the creating of new newsgroups in
! the "standard" USENET newsgroup heirarchy. They are NOT intended as
! guidelines for setting USENET policy other than group creations, and they
! are not intended to apply to "alternate" or local news heirarchies. The
! part of the namespace affected is comp, news, sci, misc, soc, talk, rec,
! which are the most widely-distributed areas of the USENET heirarchy.
! 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
! should be dropped, except under extraordinary circumstances. The
! 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.
***************
*** 29,43
- Background
- ----------
- The Usenet is, for the most part, a loosely connected system governed
- by consensus and momentum. There is no "central authority" that
- actually runs the the network. In fact, it is not even possible to
- precisely define what groups and sites consititute the network -- the
- best we can do is provide a working definition: "The Usenet consists of
- sites exchanging articles in the news.* groups." This informal
- definition describes a collection of thousands of machines in over a
- dozen countries on four continents; total potential readership is in
- the hundreds of thousands. Total volume of all the newsgroups
- regularly surpasses two megabytes of information flow per day in almost
- three hundred newsgroups.
--- 30,31 -----
***************
*** 43,53
! A few years ago, the network began to exhibit overload problems. These
! overload problems include human overload as well as machine. Not only
! are some machines straining to handle the ever-increasing communication
! and storage needs of the network, but many (or most!) of the readers of
! the network find themselves unable to organize and read the incredible
! amounts of information available to them. Increasingly sophisticated
! software and organization have helped both problems, but overload of
! both kinds continues to be a problem. The creation of new newsgroups
! can sometimes help the problem and but can also sometimes make it worse.
--- 31,33 -----
! The Discussion
***************
*** 53,71
! To help promote the constructive creation of new newsgroups, the
! administrators of the Usenet backbone machines have formalized a set of
! guidelines for the creation of new newsgroups. These are based on
! historical precedent and perceived limitations.
! (The "members of the backbone" are a de-facto advisory committee
! for the Usenet, consisting of current and past administrators of
! machines whose connectivity and load are seen as critical to the
! functioning of the Usenet. This group includes authors of the
! original A and B news software and users of the Usenet since its
! inception. It includes programmers, researchers, professors,
! consultants and end-users; their collective experience with Unix
! and the Usenet can be measured in the hundreds of years.)
! No one is forced to adhere to these guidelines, but action on Usenet
! newsgroup creation or deletion that does not follow these guidelines
! may be ignored by the backbone sites and the majority of Usenet sites
! that usually follow the examples set by the backbone. It is thus in
! the best interests of the proposed newsgroup to follow the guidelines.
--- 33,38 -----
! 1) A call for discussion on creation of a new newsgroup should be posted
! to news.groups, and also to any other groups or mailing lists at all
! related to the proposed topic if desired. The Followup-to: header should be
! set so that the actual discussion takes place only in news.groups
***************
*** 71,72
--- 38,41 -----
+ 2) The discussion period should last for at least two weeks (14 days),
+ and no more than 30 days.
***************
*** 72,80
! Guidelines
! ----------
! The following guidelines assume you have determined that you want a
! newsgroup to be created. You may want this newsgroup to address a
! topic of particular interest, or it might be to help subdivide an
! existing newsgroup. Once you have decided you want a new newsgroup,
! you should do the following:
--- 41,50 -----
! 3) The name and charter of the proposed group and whether it will be moderated
! or unmoderated (and if the former, who the moderator will be) should be
! determined during the discussion period. If there is no general consensus
! 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.
***************
*** 80,89
! 1) Determine if a new newsgroup is actually needed. Look carefully
! through the lists of active newsgroups and mailing lists to be sure
! there is currently no existing forum for your topic. If there is such
! a group or mailing list, try using it before attempting to create a new
! group -- it might be just what you want. Also determine if there are
! potential objections to the creation of the group based on common sense,
! good taste, or possible legal difficulties -- such groups are best
! left as mailing lists or semi-private hierarchies.
--- 50,52 -----
! The Vote
***************
*** 89,95
! 2) Determine an appropriate name for your proposed newsgroup -- a name
! should be informative, reasonably short, and in an appropriate
! top-level hierarchy. The name should directly describe the purpose and
! content of the proposed group, to aid new readers in selecting it.
! Also determine if you want the newsgroup to be moderated or not.
--- 52,69 -----
! 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.groups and any
! other groups or mailing lists that the original call 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.
***************
*** 95,103
! 3) Post an article to the newsgroup "news.groups" describing your
! proposed new group. Be sure to describe why you think the group is
! needed and/or interesting, and what you think it should be named. Ask
! for comments to be posted and discussed. Be sure to cross-post your
! article to any newsgroups where there might be interest, but set the
! "Followup-to" header so that responses only go to the "news.groups"
! group.
--- 69,74 -----
! 2) The voting period should last for at least 30 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 may be counted.
***************
*** 103,110
! 4) Consider carefully all comments and objections, whether posted or
! mailed. Answer objections and questions in a timely fashion. Change
! the name or nature of the group, if needed, based on the comments of
! others. Remember that the success of the group is based on the support
! and participation of the other people on the network, so listen to
! their advice and concerns.
--- 74,81 -----
! 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.
***************
*** 110,129
! 5) Collect MAILED votes on the issue of the new newsgroup. The
! threshold currently set as necessary to suggest creating a new group is
! 100 more "yes" votes than "no" votes in a 30 day period.
! a) If you get at least 100 more "yes" votes than "no" votes,
! post an article to the news.groups newsgroup including the
! totals and the list of account names of people voting.
! b) If you fail to get at least 100 more "yes" votes than "no"
! votes, consider starting a mailing list for your topic
! instead of a new group, or else think about starting the
! group as an "alt" group. If a group cannot get the support
! of at least 100 people in one month's time, it does not
! belong on the Usenet until such time as it gains sufficient
! support.
! c) If you are trying to get an exisiting mailing list upgraded
! to a newsgroup, consider the current subscriber list as a
! set of "yes" votes of equal number, but only if they have
! already agreed that they want the list turned into a
! newsgroup.
--- 81,86 -----
! 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) may not be counted.
***************
*** 129,142
! 6) Send mail to "backbone@rutgers.edu" and ask that the group be
! created. You can issue the control message yourself, but many sites
! will ignore the group unless the control message originates from one of
! the known backbone admins (usually one of: news or spaf@cs.purdue.edu,
! mark@stargate.com, rick@uunet.uu.net, woods@ncar.ucar.edu or
! fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu). If the group is moderated, be sure to
! include information about the moderator and submission addresses in
! your mail message so that the appropriate postings and databases can be
! updated. The group will likely be created at this time, but if the
! members of the backbone list perceive that there are serious unanswered
! questions about the group's creation, it may be postponed until those
! questions are resolved.
--- 86,93 -----
! 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.
***************
*** 142,143
--- 93,100 -----
+ 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.
***************
*** 143,149
! Summary
! -------
! That's pretty much all you do to create a new newsgroup. You need to
! establish that there is sufficient support to create the group, and that
! there are no serious objections to its creation.
--- 100,102 -----
! The Result
***************
*** 149,151
! If you'd like more information about how to start a mailing list, send
! mail to "backbone-request@rutgers.edu".
--- 102,115 -----
! 1) At the completion of the 30 day voting period, the vote taker must post
! the vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of the
! votes received to news.groups and any other groups or mailing lists to
! which the original call for votes was posted.
!
! 2) AFTER the vote result is posted, there will be a 5 day waiting period
! 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 YES/create votes are received
! than NO/don't create, a newgroup control message may be sent out.
! If the 100 vote margin is not met, the group should not be created.
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spafspaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (06/20/89)
This posting contains a listing of differences between the version of
the article (referenced in the "Subject:" line) just posted to the
news.announce.newusers group, and the version posted a few weeks ago.
It is intended to enable experienced users to track changes to the
regularly posted Usenet documents.
*** old/howto.n Sun May 14 23:05:33 1989
--- src/howto.n Sat May 20 16:36:32 1989
***************
*** 116
If the 100 vote margin is not met, the group should not be created.
--- 116,125 -----
If the 100 vote margin is not met, the group should not be created.
+ The newgroup message may be sent by the vote-taker (if able to do so)
+ or by the system administrator on the vote-taker's machine. If this
+ option is not available, then the vote-taker may send mail to
+ "newgroup@ncar.ucar.edu" saying that a successful vote has been run
+ and requesting that a newgroup message be sent. DO NOT send the vote
+ results; we can look those up in news.groups if we haven't seen them
+ there already. In any case, please send mail to Gene Spafford
+ (spaf@purdue.edu) informing him of a successful vote, so he can add the
+ new group to the official list of groups which he maintains.
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spafspaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (07/22/89)
This posting contains a listing of differences between the version of
the article (referenced in the "Subject:" line) just posted to the
news.announce.newusers group, and the version posted a few weeks ago.
It is intended to enable experienced users to track changes to the
regularly posted Usenet documents.
*** /tmp/fo16086 Fri Jul 21 23:12:21 1989
--- /tmp/fo26086 Fri Jul 21 23:12:22 1989
***************
*** 125
new group to the official list of groups which he maintains.
--- 125,126 -----
new group to the official list of groups which he maintains.
+
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spafspaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (09/04/89)
This posting contains a listing of differences between the version of
the article (referenced in the "Subject:" line) just posted to the
news.announce.newusers group, and the version posted a few weeks ago.
It is intended to enable experienced users to track changes to the
regularly posted Usenet documents.
*** /tmp/fo121046 Sun Sep 3 17:24:27 1989
--- /tmp/fo221046 Sun Sep 3 17:24:28 1989
***************
*** 5,7
Original-from: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)
! [Most recent change: 14 May 1989 by Greg Woods]
--- 5,7 -----
Original-from: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)
! [Most recent change: 3 Sep 1989 by woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)]
***************
*** 35,39
1) A call for discussion on creation of a new newsgroup should be posted
! to news.groups, and also to any other groups or mailing lists at all
! related to the proposed topic if desired. The Followup-to: header should be
! set so that the actual discussion takes place only in news.groups
--- 35,42 -----
1) A call 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. This 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 "announce-newgroups@ncar.ucar.edu".
***************
*** 43,46
3) The name and charter of the proposed group and whether it will be moderated
! or unmoderated (and if the former, who the moderator will be) should be
! determined during the discussion period. If there is no general consensus
on these points among the proponents of a new group at the end of 30 days
--- 46,49 -----
3) 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
***************
*** 56,59
determined whether the group will be moderated and if so who will
! moderate it, a call for votes may be posted to news.groups and any
! other groups or mailing lists that the original call for discussion
might have been posted to. There should be minimal delay between the
--- 59,62 -----
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 call for discussion
might have been posted to. There should be minimal delay between the
***************
*** 81,82
group proposal, that a vote is in progress on it, and how to cast a vote.
--- 84,89 -----
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.
***************
*** 92,94
a different moderated/unmoderated status or (if moderated) a different
! moderator.
--- 99,101 -----
a different moderated/unmoderated status or (if moderated) a different
! moderator or set of moderators.
***************
*** 105,108
the vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of the
! votes received to news.groups and any other groups or mailing lists to
! which the original call for votes was posted.
--- 112,115 -----
the vote tally and the E-mail addresses and (if available) names of the
! votes received to news.announce.newgroups and any other groups or mailing
! lists to which the original call for votes was posted.
***************
*** 118,120
or by the system administrator on the vote-taker's machine. If this
! option is not available, then the vote-taker may send mail to
"newgroup@ncar.ucar.edu" saying that a successful vote has been run
--- 125,127 -----
or by the system administrator on the vote-taker's machine. If this
! option is not available, then the vote-taker should send mail to
"newgroup@ncar.ucar.edu" saying that a successful vote has been run
***************
*** 121,124
and requesting that a newgroup message be sent. DO NOT send the vote
! results; we can look those up in news.groups if we haven't seen them
! there already. In any case, please send mail to Gene Spafford
(spaf@purdue.edu) informing him of a successful vote, so he can add the
--- 128,131 -----
and requesting that a newgroup message be sent. DO NOT send the vote
! results; we can look those up in news.announce.newgroups if we haven't seen
! them there already. In any case, please send mail to Gene Spafford
(spaf@purdue.edu) informing him of a successful vote, so he can add the
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spafspaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (10/17/89)
This posting contains a listing of differences between the version of
the article (referenced in the "Subject:" line) just posted to the
news.announce.newusers group, and the version posted a few weeks ago.
It is intended to enable experienced users to track changes to the
regularly posted Usenet documents.
*** /tmp/fo123007 Tue Oct 17 00:32:13 1989
--- /tmp/fo223007 Tue Oct 17 00:32:14 1989
***************
*** 5,7
Original-from: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)
! [Most recent change: 3 Sep 1989 by woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)]
--- 5,7 -----
Original-from: woods@ncar.ucar.edu (Greg Woods)
! [Most recent change: 10 Oct 1989 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)]
***************
*** 73,75
! 2) The voting period should last for at least 30 days, no matter what the
preliminary results of the vote are. The exact date that the voting period
--- 73,75 -----
! 2) The voting period should last for at least 21 days, no matter what the
preliminary results of the vote are. The exact date that the voting period
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf