Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version VT1.00C 11/1/84; site vortex.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!vortex!lauren
From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: proposed 'standard' for creating new groups
Message-ID: <886@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 15:14:24 EST
Article-I.D.: vortex.886
Posted: Mon Mar  3 15:14:24 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Mar-86 05:43:10 EST
References: <1073@burl.UUCP>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 35

Greetings.  I'm not going to dig up all the details again, but as I've 
pointed out in the past:

1) Voting on Usenet is flawed.  If nothing else, we should be counting
   ONE VOTE PER SITE, not one vote per person.  And any form of voting
   in this environment is of only minimal value in any case.  If sites
   are going to be counted, then the RATIO of sites that vote "yes"
   to the TOTAL NUMBER OF SITES on the network should be the issue,
   not the absolute number of sites.  The point is that it should be
   necessary for a SIGNIFICANT fraction of the TOTAL network to be
   interested in a topic before newgroup creation is even considered.

2) Human nature is such that you'll almost always receive more yes
   votes than no votes.  The people interested respond "yes," while
   the people who don't care about such a group simply ignore the
   whole issue and never bother voting "no."  Thus, the fact that you
   get plenty of yes votes may still often mean that many more people 
   thought the group was worthless, but didn't have the time nor
   inclination to send in a vote.  Of course, the people who WANT the
   group are highly motivated to vote yes.

3) Simply because some number of people want a group doesn't make it
   appropriate for Usenet newsgroups.  You'll recall my scenario
   where I suggested that even the most bizarre topics could achieve
   a threshold of yes votes, but that that alone didn't make the 
   creation of a newsgroup appropriate.

4) The issues of mailing lists vs. newsgroups are still far from fully
   understood.  I personally believe that most of the statistics
   posted on this issue (thresholds for newsgroups vs. mailing lists)
   are currently misleading and cannot be relied upon until more 
   complete research is done into this issue.  We just don't have 
   enough information about this yet.

--Lauren--