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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site burl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!rcj
From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Vote Fraud and Newsgroups
Message-ID: <828@burl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-Aug-85 11:33:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: burl.828
Posted: Sun Aug 25 11:33:16 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Aug-85 01:25:03 EDT
References: <755@vortex.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 47
Summary: 

In article <755@vortex.UUCP> lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) writes:
>It occurs to me that there's a fundamental flaw in the way we handle
>newsgroup creation/deletion.  The person who wants the group says,
>"I want this group.  Send your votes to me."  Then he or she sometime
>later (almost inevitably) says, "well, I got 20 yes votes (or 50, or 
>whatever) for the group, so let's create it now."  
>
>Outside of the issue of whether or not 20 or 50 or even 200 votes
>justifies a newsgroup going all over the world to many 10's of 1000's
>of people, there's another issue.  How do we know that the person
>proposing the group is going to be completely honest about the
>responses they receive?  I hate to make the suggestion that there might

I'd hate to do that, too; and I think that most people would be quite
honest.  Also, you'll find that the person usually does receive a vast
majority of positive responses -- if I agree that a group should be
created I send mail to the original suggestor/poster; if I disagree then
I post to net.news.group.  I believe most people do the same, so the
negatives DO get put on the public forum.

>With a small network and few groups (and low traffic) newsgroup
>creation wasn't such a big deal.  But we now have a big network,
>lots of traffic, and lots of people--a new newsgroup can immediately
>impact disk space, costs, and various other factors for many, many
>people around the world.  It seem only prudent to try assure some

A new newsgroup can only immediately impact all those things if there
are people posting to it.  So what if a new group gets created due to
dishonesty on the part of the vote-taker?  If there is really not
sufficient interest in the group, it doesn't impact disk space, costs,
or anything else and will be history in 6 months when the next cleanup
takes place.  I personally see net.news.group not as a forum where we
discuss whether or not a group deserves to be created, but rather as
a forum where we:

a) find out if anyone else is interested enough in the subject that
we are rabid about to sustain a newsgroup for it, and
b) make sure that we don't allow stupid things like creation of
net.unix.bugs when we already have net.bugs.*

Does it really matter what the actual votes were on net.bizarre?  It
is PAINFULLY obvious now that the interest IS present.
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj