Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:33472 comp.windows.ms:851 news.groups:11693
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!pyrnj!mirror!mguyott
From: mguyott@mirror.UUCP (Marc Guyott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.windows.ms,news.groups
Subject: Re: OS/2 newsgroup and archive
Message-ID: <30081@mirror.UUCP>
Date: 20 Aug 89 19:39:58 GMT
References: <30669@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1133@gtx.com> <225@lotus.UUCP> <30746@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: mguyott@prism.TMC.COM (Marc Guyott)
Organization: Mirror Systems, Cambridge Mass.
Lines: 61


   I want to preface this by saying that I was told today that I went
about attempting to create a new newsgroup in an incorrect manner.  I was
told to check all of the news.* groups to find out what the correct way to
create a new newsgroup is.

   That aside, here is what I did.  First I made a call for discussion in
news.groups and in any other newsgroups where I felt interested people
might live (in my case that was in comp.sys.ibm.pc and comp.windows.misc).
You wait for the discussion to die out (usually 2-4 weeks) and then you
post a summary of the discussion.  This discussion should occur in news.groups
not in any of the other groups.

   After (or along with) posting the summary of the discussion you post a call
for votes.  In order for the group to be created you have to receive 100 more
YES votes than NO votes.  For each vote you recieve you have to keep the From:
line and the vote (yes or no).  I also posted 2 followups.  One after 1 1/2
weeks had elapsed and one after 3 weeks had elapsed.  These helped to remind
people to vote, I recommend doing this.  Finally, you should post the final
results to news.admin, news.groups, and any other groups you feel are
appropriate.

   If you get enough votes than you talk to your system administrator about
sending an "intent to create a new newsgroup" message to other/as many sys
admins as possible.  This message should include the actual list of votes.
After waiting for any responses from the other sys admins (about 1 week) your
sys admin should send out the "new group" message to the entire network.
Actually, I am not sure if posting to news.admin has the same effect as
sending the "intent" messages.  It probably does.

   Remember, this is what I did but I am not sure that it was correct.

I have 6 files that I will send to anyone that requests them.  One file was
given to me as a good example of a posting to create a newsgroup.  It seems to
contain information about both calling for discussion and calling for votes so
I took it apart and used the pieces that I felt were appropriate.

The second file is an example of the count of votes you
would collect so that you can see what information has to be saved.

The third file is what I posted as the summary of discussion.

The fourth file is what I posted for my 2 updates.

The fifth file is what I posted as the final vote count/final results.

And the sixth file is the file I used to make the initial posting
to the news group.  As the creator of the news group you should post an
initial message once the group has been created.

Good luck and feel free to ask me about any other questions you have.  If you
find out any more about what is the right way to do this I would appreciate
hearing from you.
                                    Marc
----
              "All my life I always wanted to BE somebody.
               I see now I should have been more specific."
                             Jane Wagner
Marc Guyott                                         mguyott@mirror.TMC.COM
{mit-eddie, pyramid, harvard!wjh12, xait, datacube}!mirror!mguyott
Mirror Systems	Cambridge, MA  02140                617/661-0777