emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) (05/31/91)
trial.* has already been reformed. Its function has been taken over by (surprise!) alt.*, in particular newsgroups like alt.comp.compression alt.sci.astro.fits alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk These groups were created in alt with names which exactly reflect their eventual names in ``mainstream usenet''. Traffic flows, people get an idea of what the eventual group charter will be once there's enough interest gathered together to go through the rigor of a full vote, and incompletely specified ideas get lost in the morass of alt. (no great loss there). If the name loses, the group never gets put to vote. The voting rules are still useful -- given the incomplete distribution of alt.*, the measurement of when it's reasonable to migrate to ``mainstream usenet'' is a show of hands, and using a vote as a show of hands is as good as any. Many of the yes voters will be people who don't have access to alt.* because of resource constraints at their site. This analysis, like all analyses of alt.* behavior, is strictly my own opinions; there is no monthly What is the Altnet monthly posting with hoary interpretations of the lore and collected wisdom of alt. Just as well. It does suggest that people newgrouping alt groups should take care to pick a good name if they eventually want a ``mainstream usenet'' group. So picking a name alt.fax is not as good as what could have been done in retrospect as alt.comp.dcom.fax since the eventual vote would have been trivial to run. There are alt groups which belong in alt forever -- alt.sex, alt.drugs, alt.security come to mind -- which have an alternative manner about them. I don't expect these groups to be renamed with dumb stupid five-part disjointed names to satisfy organization freaks. -- Edward Vielmetti, MSEN Inc. moderator, comp.archives emv@msen.com "often those with the power to appoint will be on one side of a controversial issue and find it convenient to use their opponent's momentary stridency as a pretext to squelch them"