Minutes/2022-04-22

From Usenet Big-8 Management Board

Present: RL, TM, JE

  • Infrastructure/wiki
    • JE: No update yet on e-mail issues with ngp moderator notices. Will look into by next meeting.
  • Administration
    • TM: Update on rmgroup control messages for comp.software.shareware.authors and comp.software.shareware.announce
      • When a group is removed, the ISC is responsible for posting the rmgroup control messages to control.rmgroup control.rmgroup on Google Groups. These are typically issued on the day of removal, then again one day later, seven days later, and thirty days later. Currently all of these messages are issued in duplicate, once signed with the old key and another time signed with the new key. Both keys will be used for the foreseeable future. Russ Allbery has set things up so that the Board is e-mailed a copy of each control message. As described at How to Use Checkgroups and Control Messages, Administrators of individual news servers are responsible for monitoring the control groups for these control messages and then implementing them. Some admins may instead choose to follow the checkgroups list, which is posted on the 15th of each month. It can therefore be up to a month before a group removal takes effect on all participating servers.
      • Panix and Eternal September have not yet removed the comp.software.shareware.* groups so TM will ask them whether this is by choice, an oversight on their part, or due to some problem with the control messages
    • TM: JK has reported that the moderated group news.newusers.questions news.newusers.questions on Google Groups is dead. Indeed; KM had already reported to us in August 2020 that she is the moderator for this group and news.announce.newusers news.announce.newusers on Google Groups but no longer has access to moderation software. Apparently we forgot to follow up on this at the time.
      • Agreed that JE would post to news.groups looking for a new moderator
    • JE: No update yet on draft revisions to Adding Members to the Board. Will try to produce draft by next meeting.
    • TM: Should the Board continue to require RFDs to be discussed in the moderated news.groups.proposals rather than the unmoderated news.groups? At least two long-term Usenet users have advised us to go back to news.groups. The meeting saw no reason not to do so but out of an abundance of caution it was agreed that TM would post an RFD to news.groups to gather public feedback on the idea.
    • TM: Draft revisions to How to volunteer, including abolition of task forces, not yet done. Will try to do so by next meeting.
  • Publicity
    • TM: E-mail from PS (2022-04-06) re Usenet discussion/possible interview on "Off the Hook" radio show/podcast. Agreed that RL would listen to the past podcast. Decision on whether to offer ourselves for an interview deferred to next meeting.
    • JE: No update yet on possible Register story. JE will contact the journalist in the near future.
    • JE reported that he created https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicUsenet for Reddit base discussions on Usenet with a Usenet home at alt.fan.usenet alt.fan.usenet on Google Groups.
    • JE got word that his session at CarolinaCon will be at 1pm EST (UTC-04:00) on Saturday April 30th.