hirai@swatsun.uucp (Eiji "A.G." Hirai) (04/02/88)
There's a joker with a bad taste for jokes who's running a real
vote collection for the establishment of a joke newsgroup called
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac on news.groups. Now, this may be a joke and
come to nothing but I think we should err on the safe side and prevent
such a group from forming.
He has in mind discussions along the lines of talk.bizarre under
this new newsgroup. He has over 160 yes votes and 40 or so no votes.
He needs only 100 more yes votes than no votes so the group might be
created (if he's not joking) if we don't say "hey, this is stupid".
So I plead to you, send in a short mail to him saying "I vote no
to you newsgroup proposal". He may be joking, but it's always better to
err on the safe side and prevent this newsgroup from getting created.
I think this newsgroup proposal flies in the face of what the
comp.* newsgroup are supposed to be. It's totally ignores the Usenet
naming scheme that brought some semblance or order to Usenet. The
people in talk.bizarre can talk all they want but let's not invite them
into the comp.* groups with this absurd idea that Bob Webber has
conceived.
If you don't want talk.bizarre discussions in the comp.* groups
which you read, why, send in your vote! I beg you in the name of
sanity.
I'll append his article explaining what his newsgroup is so you
can judge for yourself how absurd this is.
-a.g. hirai
----- forwarded article from news.groups -----
From: webber@athos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber)
Subject: Repeat of the Original comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac Proposal
Date: 26 Mar 88 10:53:18 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Now, 26 Mar, we are closing in on the last week of voting for this group.
As things stand, the tally is about 145 yes versus 26 no votes. However,
this by no means means the voting is over. As per Usenet regulation #1095
the period of voting lasts 30 days. So, please send your yes votes
to:
rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber
or
webber@aramis.rutgers.edu
depending on the preferences of your local system. In case your
system expired the original proposal, I enclose it below
(Originally posted: Sun, 6 Mar 88 07:47:45 EST):
After rereading a whole lot of news.groups messages, ending with:
From: heiby@falkor.UUCP (Ron Heiby) Message-ID: <142@falkor.UUCP>
...
(Now I have to live in fear that some moron starts taking a vote on
the creation of misc.silly.putty or, even worse, sci.silly.putty and
the whole net blames me. Oh, the nightmares!)
I have finally figured out what group is in desparate need of creation.
It has been noted that talk.bizarre has become mundane.
It has been noted that soc.sex waves a red flag at the bean counters.
It has been noted that junk food is not the soul of cyberpunk.
It has been noted that we lack sci.silly.putty.
How can we solve all of these problems. Clearly what is needed is an
inconspicuous group for people who know what the group is about to
post and yet whose name is such that it won't draw postings (or
attention) from the beancounter mentality.
I propose the unmoderated group:
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac
If you don't know what should be posted to such a group, don't worry
-- it's just some obscure high tech stuff. If you think this posting
is some kind of joke, fine -- enjoy -- and just for the heck of it:
send me a YES vote. If you understand the true meaning of this group
proposal, I look forward to collecting your YES vote. If you are on
some site that just can't support one more group, then go ahead and
send your NO vote (everyone will sympathize and perhaps someone will
even donate a machine to you so you will have room). DO NOT POST VOTES
TO NEWS GROUPS. SUCH VOTES DO NOT COUNT IN THE TOTALS PRESENTED TO
THE BACKBONE. Send your votes by email to:
webber@aramis.rutgers.edu
rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber
[rutgers is a backbone site, so if you can reach any backbone, getting the
path to reach rutgers is no problem -- if you have difficulties, check with
your local sysadmin or the nearest usenet site that has a mail wizard.
don't expect to be able to rely on the reply command in your news
program -- many things about mail on usenet have changed since it was written.]
The voting starts now: which my machine says is
Sun Mar 6 07:30:41 EST 1988
According to the backbone rules, the vote will end:
Wed Apr 6 07:30:41 EST 1988
Since it is unclear what the significance of votes mailed before this time
but recieved after it is, I urge you to vote in favour of this group
as soon as you can see your way free to.
---- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)