Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!dww From: dww@stl.stc.co.uk (David Wright) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Cabal and news group creation etc. Keywords: newgroup, vote, control Message-ID: <1307@acer.stl.stc.co.uk> Date: 5 Apr 89 09:04:27 GMT References: <290@ubbs-nh.MV.COM> <291@ubbs-nh.MV.COM> <4873@xyzzy.UUCP> <28368@apple.Apple.COM> Sender: news@stl.stc.co.uk Reply-To: "David Wright" Organization: STC Technology Limited, London Road, Harlow, Essex, UK Lines: 37 In article <28368@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: #The folks with the checkbooks are the people who should have the final say. That would *really* mean the EOTNAWHKI (End Of The Net ...). The people with the cheque books are the company/Univ. comptrollers/chief accountants plus some home PC owners. Most of the former don't even have e-mail (ours is an exception here), never mind read news (ours is no excepton here). How could they decide on what news groups are best? OK, I know Chuq means the site admins, but they don't usually control budgets. While the admins have final say over the domains they control, as the site admin here I would not support any scheme that did not take account of the views of the users. They are who the net is *for*. Any computer system designer or admin who forgets that is not doing their job properly. I therefor find Karl's scheme for votes by admins only unacceptable, and while Brad's idea of a small group which would decide uncontroversial create/deletes but take an advisory poll first for controversial ones has some merit, I have been unable to persuade myself that it would really work. It's just too complicated with all that shuffling people round monthly, and anyway how does it tell what is controversial? Also I fear that if it was started, it would soon be decided to simplify it into a permanent new cabal (I'm not suggesting that is the present intent), which we'd all have to suffer until eventually it got melted in a great flame war. Finally, the suggestion (I forget who by) that admins vote, and ordinary users have their say by posting in news.groups must have come from someone who was not about when the latter used to happen: that was why we agreed to introduce voting by mail in the first place! Conclusion: no suggestion which has appeared so far is an improvement on our present system. Keep thinking, folks, maybe there is a better way, but we haven't found it yet. Regards, David Wright STL, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK dww@stl.stc.co.uk ...uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!dww PSI%234237100122::DWW Living in a country without a written constitution means having to trust in the good will of the Government and the generosity of civil servants.