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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Vote Requirements for Deleting Newgroups
Message-ID: <2894@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Mar-86 03:48:13 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2894
Posted: Sun Mar  9 03:48:13 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Mar-86 01:37:08 EST
References: <2273@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Organization: Amdahl Corp, UTS Products Group
Lines: 45
Summary: preserve them unless 2/3rds say no

In article <2273@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:

> 	The bottom line is that more people want to keep net.general around
> than want to delete it.  In one way I'm relieved at the result; if it had been
> 2:1 in favor of deleting it, we would then have to start fighting over whether
> that constituted enough of a majority to do it.

I'm sorry that this isn't already clearly defined, but then I am
not surprised (is *anything* on Usenet News clearly defined ... ?).

Well, it would be better to decide the issue of how many votes it
takes to *delete* a newsgroup (as opposed to creating a new one)
*before* this decision is made.  (tho' not as though it weren't made
in other cases already).

I hereby propose that newsgroups not be deleted unless 2/3rds
of the voters want the newsgroup to be removed.  A simple majority
is not sufficient for two reasons:

	[1]  Since a simple majority is needed to create the group,
	     such a majority can become a minority by the vote of
	     one person.  A rather silly situation could lead to
	     a newsgroup that is periodically created and deleted.

	[2]  I do not feel that a simple majority of the net should
	     have the authority to remove a newsgroup which,
	     not surprisingly, a majority of the net did not read.
	     This is an attempt to uphold freedom of the press and
	     provide support for a diversity of discussions on Usenet.


OK, I'm taking yet another poll.  This poll seeks to define for future
reference what sort of vote should force a newsgroup to be deleted.

	"QUESTION:  By what fraction of the total vote must the
		votes to delete a newsgroup be in order to force
		the newsgroup to be deleted?"

I believe that if this were already defined somewhere by some people,
it would probably call for a simple majority, which I thus seek
to overturn.
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,seismo,hplabs}!amdahl!gam

Everything you know is wrong.