Nan:2025-11-15-2nd-rfd-comp.unix.sys5
From Usenet Big-8 Management Board
From: Usenet Big-8 Management Board <board@big-8.org> Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc, comp.unix.sys5.misc, comp.unix.sys5.r4, news.announce.newgroups, news.groups.proposals Subject: 2nd RFD: Remove comp.unix.sys5.misc and comp.unix.sys5.r4 Followup-To: news.groups.proposals,news.groups Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2025 13:37:00 EST Message-ID: <MPG.4382d7dcd99c72d7989702@news.eternal-september.org> Archive-Name: comp.unix-reorg This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove the following unmoderated newsgroups. comp.unix.sys5.misc comp.unix.sys5.r4 DISTRIBUTION: news.announce.newgroups news.groups.proposals comp.unix.misc comp.unix.sys5.misc comp.unix.sys5.r4 PROPONENT: Marco Moock <mmoock@big-8.org> RATIONALE: There are various groups in comp.unix.* that are not used regularly. I propose to delete groups that are not used well and to direct the people to more general groups like comp.unix.misc in case they want to discuss the topics they special groups covered. If people declare interest in using them, I suggest to not delete them. DISCUSSION SO FAR: Discussion took place primarily in news.groups.proposals with some further posts in news.groups. Responses were received in the threads "RFD: Remove comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc and comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc" (in news.groups.proposals) and "RFD: Remove comp.unix.user-friendly" (in news.groups.proposals and news.groups). No responses were received in the thread "RFD: Remove comp.unix.sys5.misc and comp.unix.sys5.r4". However, all of the points raised could be applicable to any of the five newsgroups currently under consideration, and therefore we have collated all of the responses into a single summary covering all five groups. Computer Nerd Kev argues that it is better to have separate newsgroups to discuss old platforms, as some users in the more general groups may not welcome discussions of old unmaintained software. Julien ÉLIE supports the proposals but suggests that a mass deletion of unused groups would be more efficient than removing groups a few at a time. Jesse Rehmer and ReK2 Hispagatos believe that a long list of newsgroups where many have had no traffic for years is discouraging for new users and makes it hard to find relevant groups. Computer Nerd Kev and Winston both note that they personally subscribe to groups with no traffic, and therefore lack of activity is not necessarily an indication that nobody has any interest in the group. noel, sticks, yeti, and DrunkenThon all expressed concern that removing the groups would also remove valuable historical discussions associated with those groups. Scott Dorsey countered that news service providers typically do not guarantee that old posts will remain available indefinitely in any case, and an archive server should not remove old posts if the group no longer exists. Todd McComb suggested that it would be more productive for anyone concerned about the availability of historical posts to direct their efforts at improving the state of Usenet archiving. Adam Kerman and Steve Bonine both consider the proposed changes a "make- work" activity that achieves nothing useful. GROUPS: comp.unix.sys5.misc Versions of System V which predate Release 3 Charter: Older versions of System V are still in use, however, and there should be a home for discussion of new releases. Thus the proposal to create "c.u.sys5.misc". History: comp.unix.sys5.misc is an unmoderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 252:50 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 17 Sep 1992. Rationale: 1 message in 2011 This operating system isn't developed anymore. If there is need for discussion, more general groups can be used. comp.unix.sys5.r4 Discussing System V Release 4. Charter: System V Release 4 has been an even bigger success than SVR3, not only on the IBM PC but also on the Amiga and other proprietary architectures. Thus the proposal to create "c.u.sys5.r4". History: comp.unix.sys5.r4 is an unmoderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 258:50 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 17 Sep 1992. Rationale: Last thread in 2010, last message in 2012. This operating system isn't developed anymore. If there is need for discussion, more general groups can be used. PROCEDURE: Those who wish to comment on this request to remove this newsgroup should subscribe to news:news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant threads in that newsgroup. To this end, the followup header of this RFD has been set to news.groups.proposals. All discussion of active proposals should be posted to news.groups.proposals. If desired by the readership of closely affected groups, the discussion may be crossposted to those groups, but care must be taken to ensure that all discussion appears in news.groups.proposals as well. For more information on the newsgroup removal process, please see https://www.big-8.org/wiki/Removing_newsgroups HISTORY OF THIS RFD: 2025-10-10: 1st RFD (remove) 2025-11-15: 2nd RFD (remove) -- Usenet Big-8 Management Board https://www.big-8.org/ board@big-8.org
