Nan:2007-01-19-news-services-moderated-rfd

From: Nigel Sixsmith <n6smith@gmail.com>
Subject: RFD: news.services.moderated moderated
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups.proposals,
 alt.binaries.news-server-comparison
Followup-To: news.groups.proposals
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:51:50 -0600
Organization: http://www.big-8.org/

                      REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
                moderated group news.services.moderated

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of the
moderated Usenet newsgroup, news.services.moderated.


NEWSGROUPS LINE: news.services.moderated

news.services.moderated	News service providers - servers and services. (Moderated)


RATIONALE: news.services.moderated

The current name space for the un-moderated discussion of news servers and
news services is carried in the alt.binaries hierarchy (alt.binaries.
news-server-comparison).  This is not the correct placement for such a
newsgroup as not all news servers carry alt.binaries.  Proper name space
and placement will allow a wider Usenet audience to be addressed.  Many
news servers provided a limited or much reduced retention period for
groups in the alt hierarchy compared to those in the Big 8 groups.

The current group is not moderated. The new group being moderated would
ensure a 'noise' free' group where the topic of news service can be
discussed freely and without disruption from flame wars and excessive
off-topic cross posting from other, unrelated groups.


CHARTER:

news.services.moderated will consist of discussion of all aspects of
news services and news servers provided by both commercial and non
commercial news providers.

Acceptable on topic discussion would include as examples;

  a) Types of services available.
  b) Comparisons of costs of Services and different service plans
     provided by commercial NSPs.
  c) Comparisons between completion / retention /reliability of
     different commercial/non commercial NSPs.
  d) Announcements of new or updates services by commercial/non
     commercial NSPs.
  e) Types of issues or problems specific commercial/non commercial
     NSPs may be having.
  f) Technical aspects of news services being provided by commercial/non
     commercial NSPs.
  g) Help and advice for those new to Usenet and the kind of services
     provided by commercial/non commercial NSPs.
  h) Suggestions as to how current types and levels of services provided
     by commercial/non commercial NSPs, could be improved upon.
  i) Current status of news servers, transit servers, network issues,
     outages, maintenance and all other network related matters to the
     storage and propagation of news  in relation to NSP's and the services
     they provide would be deemed on-topic.
  j) Information on and discussion of different types of News Clients
     and announcements of new or updated News Clients which can take
     advantage of the different/new/old services offered by commercial/non
     commercial NSPs.
  k) Friendly banter and off topic posts would be considered by the
     moderators and appraised for acceptance based on content and not on
     who posted the article in question with the intention of making the
     new group a welcoming and friendly place for both long terms users of
     Usenet as well as those new to Usenet.. 


MODERATION POLICY: news.services.moderated

Moderation to initially be done via robo-moderation with the possibility
of human moderation if robo-moderation proves inadequate at keeping the
group free from the majority of 'noise' that proved so disruptive in the
original alt.binaries.news-servers-comparison group.

It may be that a combination of both robot and human moderation is needed
to ensure the inclusion of 'friendly banter' without such posts cluttering
up the group. This should to be discussed and considered in depth and if
needed, human moderators will need to be found to fulfil this stipulation
if such is agreed upon. Likewise, robo-moderation will need to be fully
discussed and methods decided upon if that method of moderation is agreed
to be needed in this group too.


MODERATOR INFO: news.services.moderated

Moderator:                 <no@address.invalid>

Moderators are currently being sought.


Article Submissions:      
Administrative Contact:   


PROCEDURE:

For more information on the newsgroup creation process, please see:

  http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:creation

Those who wish to influence the development of this RFD and its final
resolution should subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the
relevant threads in that newsgroup.  This is both a courtesy to groups in
which discussion of creating a new group is off-topic as well as the best
method of making sure that one's comments or criticisms are heard.

All discussion of active proposals should be posted to news.groups.proposals.
To this end, the 'Followup-To' header of this RFD has been set to this group.

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.

We urge those who would like to read or post in the proposed newsgroup
to make a comment to that effect in this thread; we ask proponents to
keep a list of such positive posts with the relevant message ID
(e.g., Barney Fife, <4JGdnb60fsMzHA7ZnZ2dnUVZ_rWdnZ2d@sysmatrix.net>).
Such lists of positive feedback for the proposal may constitute good
evidence that the group will be well-used if it is created.
 



DISTRIBUTION:

This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:

  news.announce.newgroups
  news.groups.proposals
  alt.binaries.news-server-comparison


PROPONENT:

Nigel Sixsmith <n6smith@gmail.com>



CHANGE HISTORY:

2006-01-17     1st RFD (Draft)
2006-01-19     1st RFD