Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!rutgers!mcdchg!ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Scrap the current NG creation procedure, invent a new one Summary: I like this -- it keeps the admins' from feeling disenfranchised Message-ID: <3199@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Date: 30 Mar 89 16:03:06 GMT References: <3010@looking.UUCP> <445@flatline.UUCP> Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL Lines: 67 In article <445@flatline.UUCP> erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >In article <3010@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: >>Replace it with what? The next posting says. If you have a real >>replacement, let's hear yours, too. > >Not having read the next posting... > >A cabal. Not a backbone cabal, but a siteadmin cabal. A mailing list >limited to "root", "postmaster" and "usenet" at each site on the Usenet. > >Anyone wanting a new newsgroup would have to convince a site's usenet >admin (needn't be their *own* siteadmin, just any site admin) to bring >it up on the mailing list. > >Site admins would "vote" on newgroup creation, with the vote count/names >posted to news.admin (or wherever). Summaries of mailing list traffic >could be regularly posted to news.whatever. I like this idea, as it keeps the administrators from feeling disenfranchised from the process. This is, after all, what we're trying to achieve, yes? A process that the administrators will accept is important above all -- after all, they are the ones who either (1) pay the bills, or (2) have to answer to the people who do pay the bills. It's necessary that the administrators feel that they have a voice, and that their views are important, or we'll have a hard time getting adminsitrators to comply with the decisions that are made. This applies not only to newsgroup creation and deletion (the most frequent requests) but other issues as well. There's no requirement that an admin vote on a particular issue. As with the current system, there will be many administrators who feel that the issue isn't worth replying to or wasting their breath on. It's enough to know that you can speak, and you will be heard. UNLAB lacks that sense of "belonging"; this proposal has it in spades. Automated software could be easily set up to handle the vote-counting and mailing list gatewaying; there's no need to send 5,000 copies of a mailing from one location. Instead, we have regional sites, who agree to host the list for a particular area (states/cities?). These people form a "fanout" structure, such that say, 100 copies of a mailing list entry are sent from the "origination" point, and it's propagated from there. Replies work the same way; they all funnel to one point, and then are repropagated from there. I'd suggest that the "central" site be directly on the Internet to cut both delivery time and local (telephone) load for the site which takes on this thankless task. Limiting participation to those who have been on the net for "x" years (where "x" is any number > 0) ignores the fact that the net has been growing by leaps and bounds the last few years, with no sign of stopping anytime soon -- and thus the restriction, by it's very nature, prevents a vast number of administrators from having a say. I believe that's a grave error to make. I'd bet that a 3-year experience requirement would disenfranchise nearly 70% of the current network. Thumbing your nose at people who haven't been here as long as you have is no way to get those (which are the _majority_) to follow your example -- like it or not, the "new admins" are those who REALLY set the policy, as they can (and might) simply vote with their feet rather than abide by a decision. I like this idea -- enough to volunteer to be the "fanout" site for our area should it be implemented. We have reasonably-good software for the purpose (smail3, locally hacked to do more than even it's normal great job). -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.