GEN-MARKET-L Archives

From: "John Pimentel" <>
Subject: POINTER: 3rd RFD soc.genealogy.computing reorganization
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 17:10:15 -0500

The 3rd RFD for the reorganization of soc.genealogy.computing has been
posted to news.announce.newgroups with discussions taking place in
news.groups.

Here are the header and rationales sections of the proposal:

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
unmoderated group soc.genealogy.computing.misc (renames soc.genealogy.computing)
unmoderated group soc.genealogy.computing.tech-support

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for reorganization of the
world-wide Usenet newsgroup soc.genealogy.computing. This is not a Call For
Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below.

CHANGES from previous RFD:

1) Revised Rationale section of the proposal.
2) Revised the charter of the parent newsgroup in this proposal to
contain language covering the potential of a child newsgroup(s).
3) Revised the common charter section on cross-posting, that if the
person has the "Followup-to:" feature and they are cross-posting
that they should use it.

Newsgroup lines:
soc.genealogy.computing.miscGenealogical computing & net resources.
soc.genealogy.computing.tech-supportGenealogical computing Tech Support.

RATIONALE: all groups

The soc.genealogy.computing newsgroup was established to create a
discussion area relevant to the use of computer software and hardware
as an aid in genealogy research. Almost from the beginning of the
newsgroup, there has been a desire that questions also be answered by
the vendor representative. In March 1995, the attached mailing list
GENCMP-L ran a policy change straw poll/vote and by a result of 134 to
8 desired to extend beyond the charter of the newsgroup, however the
policy change straw poll/vote did not maintain itself very long, nor
did the method to identify technical support posts. The newsgroup has
had a persistent "debate" as to whether or not vendor representation
in newsgroup responses are permitted by the charter of the newsgroup,
which specifically states advertising is not permitted, except for an
announcement of a product release. While it is agreed that vendor
representatives add more knowledge to the newsgroup, providing a place
where the negative impact on participants can be minimized has been a
major on-going "debate".

Soc.genealogy.computing is gated to GENCMP-L by a bi-directional gate
through ROOTSWEB.COM. It is presumed that following the passage of the
division of the soc.genealogy.computing newsgroup that a mailing list
will be gated to the soc.genealogy.tech-support newsgroup to provide
free access to those that wish to read the postings in the tech
support newsgroup.

RATIONALE: soc.genealogy.computing.misc

Years ago when soc.genealogy.computing came into existence the
standard practice in splitting a standing newsgroup was to rename the
existing newsgroup to *.misc and propose division(s) of that
newsgroup. This provides for the only opportunity in USENET to change
the charter - short of moderating the newsgroup - if such a change is
needed, and provide the "catch-all" group at each new level, meaning
if a topic exists that comes under the heading of
soc.genealogy.computing and a newsgroup under this newsgroup does not
exist then it is on-topic in this newsgroup. In this case, the
language in the current charter states that soc.genealogy.computing is
for "discussions of any type". This newsgroup is being proposed to
provide for revising the charter to permit child groups, such as the
one being proposed in this reorganization and to narrow the scope of
advertising in this newsgroup.

RATIONALE: soc.genealogy.computing.tech-support

The proposal for the soc.genealogy.computing.tech-support newsgroup is
to provide a location within the soc.genealogy.computing.* where
questions, ideas, bug reports, etc. can be addressed and vendor
representatives are requested to provide "tech support" style
responses.

In a four month study (May to Aug 1999) an analysis determined that
43.1% of the total traffic in the newsgroup pertained to questions and
answers of seven genealogy software programs. While genealogical
software is the main thrust of soc.genealogy.computing.*, from time to
time hardware is discussed.

------- End of forwarded message -------
---
John Pimentel

This thread:

• POINTER: 3rd RFD soc.genealogy.computing reorganization by "John Pimentel" <>