Nan:2009-11-15-rfd-comp-arch-hobbyist

From Usenet Big-8 Management Board
From: Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>
Subject: 1. RFD: comp.arch.hobbyist moderated (remove)
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:44:05 EST
Message-ID: <hdp6jh$esh$1@news.albasani.net>


              REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
              moderated group comp.arch.hobbyist

This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove moderated
newsgroup comp.arch.hobbyist.

NEWSGROUPS LINE:

comp.arch.hobbyist	Homebrew digital electronics design. (Moderated)

DISTRIBUTION:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups.proposals
comp.arch.hobbyist

PROPONENT:

Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>

CHARTER OF COMP.ARCH.HOBBYIST

A moderated forum to exchange ideas, techniques, problems, solutions,
and other information concerning the hobby of electronics design and
construction, specifically related to digital machines and their
peripherals.

Commercial advertisements (except when non-repetitive and directly
relevant to the topic of the group) are expressly forbidden; it is up
to the moderation group to make individual exceptions.

Binary postings in this group are unwelcome.  No postings containing
10K or more of binary content will be accepted.  Postings containing
less than 10K of binary content should only be used where no other
reasonable method is available to convey the information they contain.
All postings containing binary content of more than 10 lines or 300
bytes, whichever is the smaller, shall be forwarded to the daily
moderators for inspection in the same manner as articles from unknown
authors.

Posters wishing to post binaries that do not fit the above criteria
should upload this data to an FTP or WWW site and instead post a
pointer to that site.  The binary regulations do not apply to the
posting of ASCII schematics.

A 'bot moderator will be used, which will reject articles by authors
who have not read the posting guidelines. Articles rejected by the
'bot will be forwarded to a group of three daily moderators for
review. These daily moderators will be appointed by a moderation group
of at least eight and at most twelve members who will decide on
moderation policy in general and the workings of the 'bot in
particular. Moderation will follow the scheme outlined below:

The 'bot:

- auto-approves articles that match all of these:
  - known author
    OR keyword/phrase in article
    OR reply to approved article to the same set of newsgroups
  - article with less than 300 bytes or 10 lines of binary
    content, whichever is the smaller
  - plain text, without markup encoding
- mails notification of non-approval to original authors,
  without an attempt to circumvent spamblocks
  - notification message explains moderation system,
    and points poster to relevant posting guidelines
- sends non-approved articles to the daily moderators
- uploads non-approved articles to a WWW site, and
  regularly posts a pointer to them
- scans for forged approvals and cancels


The daily moderators:
- individually check articles the 'bot rejected;
  - if at least one of the daily moderators think the
    article is on-topic, it gets posted
  - if it is reposted, the original author is notified

The moderation group:
- appoints the daily moderators
- deals with group abuse that's not caught by the 'bot
  - it has the power to bar persistent abusers by
    unanimous decision for a period of up to
    30 days at a time
- deals with long-term moderation policy
- is obliged to post details of all moderation group
  decisions to the newsgroup
- if a moderation group member does not express an opinion
  on a matter, then their silence shall not be taken as
  supporting either side of a decision

Moderators of news.announce.newgroups and successor groups are
allowed blanket crossposting at their discretion.

RATIONALE:

Probe posts to this group resulted in bounces.

<comp-arch-hobbyist@moderators.isc.org>: host
    moderators.switch.ch[130.59.10.10] said: 550 Unrouteable address
    (in reply to RCPT TO command)

Theo Markettos is willing to take over moderation of there is demand.
>Message-ID: <Niv*0p+Us@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>

HISTORY OF THE GROUP:

comp.arch.hobbyist is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation
by 199:15 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 30 Jun 1998.

PROCEDURE:

Those who wish to comment on this request to remove this newsgroup should
subscribe to 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.

In the course of the removal process four formal announcements are posted
(MVI, 1. RFD, 2. RFD, and LCC), each taking two weeks. At the end of the
process the B8MB will vote on the issue.

Available options for comp.arch.hobbyist are:
- leave the group as it is
- remove the group

For more information on the MVI process, please see 

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

CHANGE HISTORY:

2009-10-29	Probe post bounced
2009-11-01	Moderator Vacancy Investigation
2009-11-15	1. RFD

S