Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP 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