bogstad@smoke.BRL.MIL (William Bogstad ) (03/26/89)
I would like to propose the deletion of the newsgroup comp.sys.ridge. This newsgroup was created when a large number of ARPANET mailing lists were gatewayed to USENET some two or more years ago. At the time, I was the moderator of the mailing list INFO-RIDGE which was gatewayed to comp.sys.ridge. As originally set up, the newsgroup was listed as moderated by me (as info-ridge@bravo.cs.jhu.edu); but for some reason this was changed at some unknown time. Perhaps because there was some problems in getting mail to me. Neither the mailing list nor the newsgroup have ever had large amounts of traffic. As far as I know the only traffic in the newsgroup in over a year were two messages a couple of months ago commenting on the fact that Ridge Computers had announced that they were no longer going to manufacture new systems. With the apparent demise of Ridge computers and the essentially total lack of traffic, this group would appear to be a prime candidate for deletion. I have already requested that the mailing list entry be removed from the ARPANET list of lists and since there appears to be some interest right now in defining a policy on newsgroup deletion procedures, I would like to offer this group as a test case. I would like to use the following procedure: 1. An initial two week discussion period which will end on April 9, 1989. 2. Votes for or against deletion can be sent to bogstad@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu. They can be sent at any time but there will be a two week voting period after the discussion period. All votes must be via mail and must have a line of the form: DELETE: YES or DELETE: NO to be counted. I will post an initial vote summary on April 9th and also another call for votes. If there are 100 more votes for deletion then against AND the votes for deletion are more then 75% of the total vote by the end of the voting period, I will post the final summary and request that a backbone administrator post a remove group control message. 3. Votes for removal of a newgroup should take place no more often then every six months. (I don't think this problem will come up in this case.) For job related reasons, I will probably be unable to respond to messages for the next couple of days and may not get back until April 9th. If at that time I discover a storm of protest over my proposal or the procedures that I have suggested I will be happy to modify them if there appears to be a consensus. I believe that the time periods and required voting margins are reasonable and the builtin bias towards preserving a group should be maintained. I doubt that it will make a difference anyway. As to my qualifications in proposing these procedures, I was the moderator of the mailing list and have been a (usually silent) reader of USENET for about six years and as I said you can let me know if you don't like it. Bill Bogstad bogstad@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu Note: crabcake.cs.jhu.edu does not get news, but mail can be sent via your local neighborhood UUCP to Internet gateway.
aem@ibiza.Miami.Edu (a.e.mossberg) (03/27/89)
If a group doesn't have enough interest to continue, why would anyone think there'd be enought interest to vote on its deletion? I think inactivity over an extended period is a far better method of determining whether a group should be deleted. aem a.e.mossberg aem@mthvax.miami.edu MIAVAX::AEM (Span) aem@umiami.BITNET (soon) I am opposed to every war but one...and that is the worldwide war of social revolution. - Eugene Debs
brandt@bnrmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt) (03/29/89)
I have heard through the grapevine that Ridge is officially going to be closed and dead at the end of this month (March). This newsgroup should be removed/deleted for that reason as well as that there has been little or no activity on this group for years now.
rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi) (03/29/89)
We have lots of ridges here, and will soon have them all on the net. I know it is unfortunate, but because of that we need to support eachother (we and other poor ridge owners). I think we should keep the newsgroup going for another 6 months, and make a commitment to having discussion so we can exchange software patches (it takes a lot of patching to get a ridge to work!). I have just posted a couple of questions, and I hope someone will answer them!
bogstad@smoke.BRL.MIL (William Bogstad ) (04/12/89)
In article <234@noether.UUCP> rosalia@noether.UUCP (Mark Galassi) writes: > >We have lots of ridges here, and will soon have them all on >the net. I know it is unfortunate, but because of that we >need to support eachother (we and other poor ridge owners). > >I think we should keep the newsgroup going for another >6 months, and make a commitment to having discussion so >we can exchange software patches (it takes a lot >of patching to get a ridge to work!). > >I have just posted a couple of questions, and I hope someone will >answer them! I fully understand your feelings as I felt the same way as I watched Ridge slowly sink away; but this is not a situation that just suddenly happened. There wasn't any really significant work going on at Ridge (at least from one customers point of view) for some time and despite that the comp.sys.ridge newsgroup has been silent until my proposed deletion. Even when Ridge was a viable company I got few responses to queries I sent there and those I did get were usually from Ridge employees. I would suggest that you attempt to (re)start a Ridge mailing list by posting a message to that effect. I would be happy to send you the E-mail addresses of any NO votes who express an interest in the matter. To refesh every one elses memory here are some excerpts from my earlier posting: > I would like to propose the deletion of the >newsgroup comp.sys.ridge. ... > >As far as I know the only traffic >in the newsgroup in over a year were two messages a couple >of months ago commenting on the fact that Ridge Computers >had announced that they were no longer going to manufacture >new systems. ... > >1. An initial two week discussion period which will end on April 9, 1989. > >2. Votes for or against deletion can be sent to bogstad@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu. >They can be sent at any time but there will be a two week voting >period after the discussion period. All votes must be via mail and must >have a line of the form: > >DELETE: YES or >DELETE: NO As of April 12th, I have received the following votes: FOR DELETION: (9) John Hanley <hanley@cmcl2.NYU.EDU> steven%zaphod@gargoyle.uchicago.edu Jerry B. Altzman <jbaltz@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> charlie@mica.stat.washington.edu (Charlie Geyer) "a.e.mossberg" <aem@mthvax.miami.edu> srhqla!mml (Michael Levin) drd!mark (Mark Lawrence) jfh@rpp386.dallas.tx.us (John F. Haugh II) markw@gvlf1.GVL.Unisys.COM (Mark H. Weber) AGAINST DELETION: (1) rosalia@marconi (Mark Galassi) I intend to keep the voting booths open for 30 days (May 12th) now instead of the original 2 weeks. This will allow more people to vote and any current? users of comp.sys.ridge to make other arrangements. Votes can be sent to bogstad@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu and should have either DELETE: NO or DELETE: YES in them. Bill Bogstad bogstad@crabcake.cs.jhu.edu