Xref: utzoo ont.general:544 tor.general:512
Path: utzoo!edhnic!becker!ziebmef!ncrcan!lsuc!tmsoft!utgpu!attcan!telly!evan
From: evan@telly.UUCP (Evan Leibovitch)
Newsgroups: ont.general,tor.general
Subject: Re: Local newsgroup proposals
Message-ID: <327@telly.UUCP>
Date: 9 Sep 88 12:57:15 GMT
References: <320@telly.UUCP> <3191@geac.UUCP> <1988Sep2.175608.5257@sq.uucp> <3205@geac.UUCP>
Distribution: ont
Organization: System telly, Brampton, Ontario
Lines: 40

In article <3205@geac.UUCP>, david@geac.UUCP (David Haynes) writes:

> As an aside, how do you assess the value of a group of which you have
> no knowledge?
> [...]
> I just have a
> strong adversion to being asked to vote for things of which I have no
> knowledge, such as the validity of a new newsgroup.

That's a good point, but I don't know how well it can be answered. Nobody
but you can judge whether a group is worth reading or not (or whether it's
worth having or not). But nothing that a group proposer can say or promise
is sufficient to help you make that decision. Even traffic in another group
doesn't guarantee volume for a spin-off.

But unfortunately, that means you can't propoerly evaluate a newsgroup
until after it's been created.

Most of the debate that surrounded the creation of comp.women, were
concerns about whether its content would be apprporiate to 'comp'. It
was impossible for the proposers to adequately answer this, because
there was no track record for what they wanted to to. Anyone who saw
soc.women probably didn't like its s/n ratio, but the comparison was
unfair.

How about some kind of probationary period for all new groups? Allow them
to be created, but come back and re-vote (or whatever) after a certain
period of time. I don't consider making a group in 'alt' and trying to
move it later, a good way of doing this.

I'm sure many of the people who railed against comp.women probably don't
find the group (now comp.society.women) so hard to take now that its content
has been measurable. However, it appears obvious that ont.singles would not
have survived such a probation.

Comments? Does this address any of your concerns, David?
-- 
Evan Leibovitch, SA of System Telly, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
            evan@telly.UUCP / {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!telly!evan
The advantage of the incomprehensible is that it never loses its freshness.