This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a
world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup sci.physics.strings. This
is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.
Procedural details are below.

Newsgroup line:
sci.physics.strings     String theory and related fields. (Moderated)

RATIONALE: sci.physics.strings

Sci.physics.strings is primarily meant to be a forum for discussions
between the mainstream physicists who actively work in high energy
theoretical physics, especially string theory as well as other fields
that interact with the string theory community, including
high-energy phenomenology and high-energy experiments, and the laymen
interested in these questions.

The topics would include theoretical foundations of string theory,
dualities, physics of various backgrounds, quantum gravity,
mathematical methods and fields that are useful to study string
theory, stringy inspired models of particle physics beyond the
Standard Model, and the questions about their experimental
verification.

There are many string theorists who would like to discuss on the
internet such topics as those appearing in scientific papers on the
hep-th, hep-ph, and gr-qc archives at www.arxiv.org and who
currently don't find a suitable online discussion forum.

While several unmoderated online fora dedicated to string theory
do exist and have a large amount of traffic, experience shows
that the lack of moderation hampers the development of a
decent discussion.

The only other moderated newsgroup that offers some room for such
discussions today is sci.physics.research. Recently, however, the
traffic on this newsgroup has become rather large, and the
discussions about string theory are never focused because a
significant fraction of the participants on SPR prefers various
alternative approaches to theoretical physics, and serious
discussions about string theory are usually interrupted by
general critical remarks of the participants who find string
theory uninteresting.

The separation of string theory related issues from
sci.physics.research will hence avoid latent unproductive statements
of disagreement on the general relevance of string theory which was
felt to be unsatisfactory by all parties.

Moderation is clearly necessary and desirable in order
to ensure an interesting, productive, and focused discussion, just as
moderation in comparable newsgroups such as sci.physics.research or
sci.astro.research is generally believed to be beneficial

Please note that followups to this post will appear only in
news.groups, unless you explicitly crosspost to other groups. Keep in
mind that more than 5 crossposts will cause your post to be rejected
by many news servers. Consider subscribing to news.groups to
participate fully in the discussion.

CHARTER: sci.physics.strings

sci.physics.strings is a moderated newsgroup for discussion
of string theory and related fields of high-energy physics.

Posting guidelines:

1) Posts must be related to the discussion of string theory, which
includes all the modern aspects of the theory (such as branes,
dualities, "M-theory"), as well as related fields, but excludes
non-stringy proposals for theories of grand unification, quantum
gravity and high-energy physics, unless a direct relevance for string
theory can be made explicit.

2) The decisions of the moderators whether a posting is
interesting enough and appropriate for the newsgroup will reflect the
views generally held by typical members of the high-energy physics
community. But of course possibly unconventional and even
controversial stringy topics, as far as they are interesting for
physicists, are welcome.

Moderators will however not be responsible for the technical correctness
of accepted posts, though they may reject posts or send the posting
back suggesting revision when they note errors.

3) Posts may be rejected if they contain personal attacks, incitement
to retribution (i.e. flames and obvious trolling), or general hostility.

Clearly inappropriate postings include:
        (1) Personal attacks;
        (2) Discussion that isn't about or related to string theory
        (3) Multiple responses that all say the same things; and
        (4) Crackpot postings that are "not even wrong."

4) An article that is rejected will be sent back to the author,
perhaps with the suggestion of a more appropriate newsgroup, or a
suggestion of how to revise it to make it acceptable.

5) Posts may include links to websites or personal pages that
contain relevant and on-topic information about string theory.
Posts that are, in the opinion of the moderator, primarily intended
to solicit business, sell a product, or further some commercial
purpose, will cause the post to be rejected.

6) Posting of binary files is prohibited, except for small binary
files included as personal signatures or electronic business cards.
Short segments of source code or quotes from papers may be posted;
however, large projects and complete papers should be archived
elsewhere, and a link to the download site included in the post.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: sci.physics.strings

Moderator: Lubos Motl <m...@feynman.harvard.edu>

Moderator bio:

Lubos Motl earned his M. Sc. from Charles University, Prague, and
received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2001. He is now a
Harvard Junior Fellow. He is and has been working on nonperturbative
string theory and in particular on Matrix Theory.

Moderator: Arvind Rajaraman <araja...@uci.edu>

Moderator bio:

Arvind Rajaraman earned his M. Sc. from the Indian Institute of
Technology in India and obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from Stanford
University. He then held a postdoctoral position at Rutgers University
before joining the UCI Physics Department as an assistant professor
in 2001.  His research is mainly in the field of string theory. His
research directions include the study of D-branes, the AdS/CFT
correspondence, the Matrix model of M-theory, and the construction
of supergravity solutions for D-branes as well as cosmology.

Moderator: Urs Schreiber <Urs.schrei...@uni-essen.de>

Moderator bio:

Urs Schreiber is a graduate student in theoretical physics
at Essen University (Germany) working on string theory
related topics. He is a co-moderator of sci.physics.research.

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this
phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed
newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period
will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the
first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups),
after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote
taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote
until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup
creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet
Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".
Please refer to these documents (available in
news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the
process.

DISTRIBUTION:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
sci.physics.research
sci.physics.relativity
sci.physics.particle

Proponent: Lubos Motl <m...@feynman.harvard.edu>
Proponent: Arvind Rajaraman <araja...@uci.edu>
Proponent: Urs Schreiber <Urs.schrei...@uni-essen.de>

Mentor: Ru Igarashi <r...@nucleus.usask.ca>