Nan:2008-07-29-talk.us.rhode-island-lcc

From: board@big-8.org (The Big-8 Management Board)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups.proposals,alt.rhode_island
Subject: 2ND RFD: talk.us.rhode-island - LCC/Last Call for Comments
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:23:29 EDT
Message-ID: <1ikt0s2.2my7401nqria6N%board@big-8.org>

                       REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
              unmoderated group talk.us.rhode-island

This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of the 
unmoderated newsgroup talk.us.rhode-island.

NEWSGROUPS LINE:
talk.us.rhode-island Issues related to the State of Rhode Island, USA.


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION:

During the RFD process, many objections were raised. The major 
objections are addressed below:

1. Would the existing group support the move?

A 6-day-long poll was conducted in alt.rhode_island regarding this 
proposal. The results were: Support: 18, Oppose: 0.

The poll can be found here: Message id: 
<WPNhk.18337$Ri.16021@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com> , Subject: "YOUR FEEDBACK IS
IMPORTANT! Show your support for the new newsgroup. Or not."


2. If this were approved, all of alt.* would be justified moving into 
talk.* hierarchy

No. We believe that alt.rhode_island is rather unique compared to the 
rest of the alt.* hierarchy. We have a stable, long-term community that
cares (and worries) enough about staying together to go through the 
process of Big 8 inclusion. We know each other. We meet regularly. 
Members of the community routinely drive or fly in from other states for
gatherings


3. Why not just switch to a different news server?

That's a possible solution, and probably what we'll have to do if this 
RFD is rejected. Granted, it's not unworkable, but it means additional 
cost for members and alt.rhode_island will be invisible to potential new
members using NSPs (eg: Verizon) which have alt.* blocked.


RATIONALE:

alt.rhode-island is thriving, stable newsgroup community more than ten 
years old that will soon be unavailable to many of its participants as 
their ISPs drop access to newsgroups external to the Big-8.

The existing alt.rhode_island group is already invisible to any 
potential new members who use Verizon (4th largest US ISP, 9.5M 
subscribers nationwide, a dominant ISP in the New England / Rhode Island
market) as their ISP/NSP.


CHARTER:

talk.us.rhode-island is an open, unmoderated group for the discussion of
all topics of interest to Rhode Islanders. Spam and advertising are 
unwelcome.


PROCEDURE:

The newsgroup creation process is currently undergoing revision.  Please
refer to the newsgroup creation policies listed here:
 
         http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:creation

All discussion of active proposals should be posted to 
news.groups.proposals.

To this end, the followup header of this RFD has been set 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.


DISTRIBUTION:

This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:

   news.announce.newgroups
   news.groups.proposals
   alt.rhode_island


PROPONENT:

Michael Zarlenga  mzarlenga@gmail.com


CHANGE HISTORY:

2008-07-20     1st RFD
2008-07-28     2nd RFD/LCC
                - newsgroup name changed to talk.us.rhode-island
                - DISCUSSION SUMMARY section added
                - LCC requested (last call for comments)