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	<id>https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?action=history&amp;feed=atom&amp;title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation</id>
	<title>1987 Guidelines for Group Creation - Revision history</title>
	<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?action=history&amp;feed=atom&amp;title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation"/>
	<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;action=history"/>
	<updated>2026-04-30T13:54:23Z</updated>
	<subtitle>Revision history for this page on the wiki</subtitle>
	<generator>MediaWiki 1.43.1</generator>
	<entry>
		<id>https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=4312&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Tristan Miller: Fix dead link</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=4312&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2025-09-06T23:16:30Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Fix dead link&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122;&quot; data-mw=&quot;interface&quot;&gt;
				&lt;col class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; /&gt;
				&lt;col class=&quot;diff-content&quot; /&gt;
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				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 23:16, 6 September 2025&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot; id=&quot;mw-diff-left-l1&quot;&gt;Line 1:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 1:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; data-marker=&quot;−&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;From [http://www.panix.com/&lt;del style=&quot;font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;%7Ejosephb&lt;/del&gt;/newsgroups/history/guidelines/revisions.txt Joe Bernstein&#039;s history]:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; data-marker=&quot;+&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;From [&lt;ins style=&quot;font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;http://web.archive.org/web/20050510192801/&lt;/ins&gt;http://www.panix.com/&lt;ins style=&quot;font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;~josephb&lt;/ins&gt;/newsgroups/history/guidelines/revisions.txt Joe Bernstein&#039;s history]:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;GENE SPAFFORD, author&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;GENE SPAFFORD, author&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Tristan Miller</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=467&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Moleski at 13:26, 8 July 2010</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=467&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2010-07-08T13:26:40Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122;&quot; data-mw=&quot;interface&quot;&gt;
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				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 13:26, 8 July 2010&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot; id=&quot;mw-diff-left-l79&quot;&gt;Line 79:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 79:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; data-marker=&quot;−&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;[[Category:History]]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; data-marker=&quot;+&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;[[Category:History&lt;ins style=&quot;font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;|G&lt;/ins&gt;]]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Moleski</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=466&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Moleski at 13:26, 8 July 2010</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=466&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2010-07-08T13:26:15Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122;&quot; data-mw=&quot;interface&quot;&gt;
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				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 13:26, 8 July 2010&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot; id=&quot;mw-diff-left-l79&quot;&gt;Line 79:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 79:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-side-deleted&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;diff-marker&quot; data-marker=&quot;+&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins style=&quot;font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;[[Category:History]]&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Moleski</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=461&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Moleski: Created page with &#039;From [http://www.panix.com/%7Ejosephb/newsgroups/history/guidelines/revisions.txt Joe Bernstein&#039;s history]: &lt;pre&gt; GENE SPAFFORD, author  GENE SPAFFORD, reviser  October 31, 1987 …&#039;</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.big-8.org/w/index.php?title=1987_Guidelines_for_Group_Creation&amp;diff=461&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2010-07-08T13:15:23Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Created page with &amp;#039;From [http://www.panix.com/%7Ejosephb/newsgroups/history/guidelines/revisions.txt Joe Bernstein&amp;#039;s history]: &amp;lt;pre&amp;gt; GENE SPAFFORD, author  GENE SPAFFORD, reviser  October 31, 1987 …&amp;#039;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;New page&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;From [http://www.panix.com/%7Ejosephb/newsgroups/history/guidelines/revisions.txt Joe Bernstein&amp;#039;s history]:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
GENE SPAFFORD, author&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
GENE SPAFFORD, reviser&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
October 31, 1987&lt;br /&gt;
Sample Message-ID:  &amp;lt;2177@arthur.cs.purdue.edu&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This document explicitly appeals to the authority of the Backbone and&lt;br /&gt;
involves the Backbone in newsgroup creation, but also includes a&lt;br /&gt;
number of features of the modern system already.  Here&amp;#039;s its core&lt;br /&gt;
process:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
--begin quote--&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
1) Determine if a new newsgroup is actually needed.  Look carefully&lt;br /&gt;
through the lists of active newsgroups and mailing lists to be sure&lt;br /&gt;
there is currently no existing forum for your topic.  If there is such&lt;br /&gt;
a group or mailing list, try using it before attempting to create a new&lt;br /&gt;
group -- it might be just what you want.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
2) Determine an appropriate name for your proposed newsgroup -- a name&lt;br /&gt;
should be informative, reasonably short, and in an appropriate&lt;br /&gt;
top-level hierarchy.  Also determine if you want the newsgroup to be&lt;br /&gt;
moderated or not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
3) Post an article to the newsgroup &amp;quot;news.groups&amp;quot; describing your&lt;br /&gt;
proposed new group.  Be sure to describe why you think the group is&lt;br /&gt;
needed and/or interesting, and what you think it should be named.  Ask&lt;br /&gt;
for comments to be posted and for votes to be *MAILED* to you.  Be sure&lt;br /&gt;
to cross-post your article to any newsgroups where there might be&lt;br /&gt;
interest, but set the &amp;quot;Followup-to&amp;quot; header so that responses only&lt;br /&gt;
go to the &amp;quot;news.groups&amp;quot; group.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
4) Consider carefully all comments and objections, whether posted or&lt;br /&gt;
mailed.  Answer objections and questions in a timely fashion.  Change&lt;br /&gt;
the name or nature of the group, if needed, based on the comments of&lt;br /&gt;
others.  Remember that the success of the group is based on the support&lt;br /&gt;
and participation of the other people on the network, so listen to&lt;br /&gt;
their advice and concerns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
5) Collect MAILED votes on the issue of the new newsgroup.  The&lt;br /&gt;
threshold currently set as necessary for creating a new group is 100&lt;br /&gt;
more &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; votes than &amp;quot;no&amp;quot; votes in a 30 day period.&lt;br /&gt;
   a) If you get at least 100 more &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; votes than &amp;quot;no&amp;quot; votes,&lt;br /&gt;
      post an article to the news.groups newsgroup including the&lt;br /&gt;
      totals and the list of account names of people voting.&lt;br /&gt;
   b) If you fail to get at least 100 more &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; votes than &amp;quot;no&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
      votes, consider starting a mailing list for your topic&lt;br /&gt;
      instead of a new group, or else think about starting the&lt;br /&gt;
      group as an &amp;quot;alt&amp;quot; group.  If a group cannot get the support&lt;br /&gt;
      of at least 100 people in one month&amp;#039;s time, it does not&lt;br /&gt;
      belong on the Usenet until such time as it gains sufficient&lt;br /&gt;
      support.&lt;br /&gt;
   c) If you are trying to get an exisiting mailing list upgraded&lt;br /&gt;
      to a newsgroup, consider the current subscriber list as a&lt;br /&gt;
      set of &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; votes of equal number, but only if they have&lt;br /&gt;
      already agreed that they want the list turned into a&lt;br /&gt;
      newsgroup.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
6) Send mail to &amp;quot;backbone@rutgers.edu&amp;quot; and ask that the group be&lt;br /&gt;
created.  You can issue the control message yourself, but many sites&lt;br /&gt;
will ignore the group unless the control message originates from one of&lt;br /&gt;
the known backbone admins (usually one of: spaf@arthur.cs.purdue.edu,&lt;br /&gt;
mark@cbosgd.att.com, rick@uunet.uu.net, woods@hao.ucar.edu or&lt;br /&gt;
fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu).  If the group is moderated, be sure to&lt;br /&gt;
include information about the moderator and submission addresses in&lt;br /&gt;
your mail message so that the appropriate postings and databases can be&lt;br /&gt;
updated.  The group will likely be created at this time, but if the&lt;br /&gt;
members of the backbone list perceive that there are serious unanswered&lt;br /&gt;
questions about the group&amp;#039;s creation, it may be postponed until those&lt;br /&gt;
questions are resolved.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
--end quote--&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The trusted sources for control messages named are Gene Spafford, Mark&lt;br /&gt;
Horton, Rick Adams, Greg Woods, and Erik Fair, respectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Moleski</name></author>
	</entry>
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