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From: tlegelst@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Thomas Lynn Egelston Ii)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Voter registration (was Re: Suspicious Results of sci.aquaria vote)
Message-ID: <1989Nov19.213702.21187@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 19 Nov 89 21:37:02 GMT
References: <4199@nigel.udel.EDU> <2421@stl.stc.co.uk> <48464@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: tlegelst@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Thomas Lynn Egelston Ii)
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Engineering Computer Network, Norman, OK
Lines: 34


In article <48464@bbn.COM> mesard@BBN.COM (Wayne Mesard) writes:
>Okay, if we're interested in taking this democracy thang seriously, I
>propose that we institute [da da da dahhhh] Voter Registration: In
>order to participate in a newgroup vote, a user must register with some
>central [gasp] authority [gasp] two months before the call for votes.
>
>       [Portion Deleted to avoid bandwidth flames]
>
> o Disenfranchised readers could not be rounded up to vote for a group
>   for which they have no genuine interest.

     This would not restrict the number of voters to those who are interested
in the proposed group, but restrict the number of voters to those who read
news.groups on a regular basis and who are interested in the proposed group,
which then defeats the purpose of voting for new groups, which is to see
if there is enough interest to justify a newsgroup.
     For example, lets look at the proposed group comp.graphics.images.  The
discussion of the possible need of a seperate group came up after some people
began posting uuencoded images in comp.graphics.  There was some discussion
of creating a new group in comp.graphics, but the discussion was then moved
here to news.groups, where it really belongs.  The people who were interested
in the possibility of a new group (namely, myself) then subscribed to this 
group, to keep up with that discussion.  Under your proposed system, I would
not be granted a vote for a group that I truly am interested in, because even
though I may have been reading comp.graphics for a year, I've only thought
(or known?) about voting for new group creation for two weeks.


-- 
          Tom Egelston      Internet: tlegelst@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
All opinions expressed are mine. Universities aren't allowed to have opinions.
"I'm out of it for a little while and everyone gets delusions of grandeur!"
       	 						     -Captain Han Solo