2nd RFD: remove comp.org.fidonet (LAST CALL FOR COMMENTS)
The Big-8 Management Board
remove comp.org.fidonet
This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) to remove the
newsgroup comp.org.fidonet.
PROCEDURE:
The B8MB plans to begin voting on this proposal after five days. Please
offer any final discussion or comments before the end of this waiting
period. Voting may take up to one week (7 days); a result will be posted
following the end of the voting period.
All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.
The full (draft) group removal procedure is documented here:
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:rmgroup
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION:
One suggestion was made to convert the group to unmoderated. The
group is misnamed for use as an unmoderated newsgroup. Created just
before the Great Renaming as mod.mag.fidonet, it was stuck in
comp.org.* because there was no other apparent place for the group.
The comp.bbs.* hierarchy was created several years later.
Over the years, discussion about Fidonet has occurred in comb.bbs.misc
and other platform-specific comp.bbs.* groups. There would be no
purpose in an additional unmoderated newsgroup with a more specialized
focus, especially with its poor name.
The other comment was from a participant in comp.bbs.misc who was
unaware the comp.org.fidonet even existed.
RATIONALE: remove comp.org.fidonet
The last approved message was in May 1994.
Almost all of the content in the group was a re-posting of the FidoNet
Newsletter, which was also distributed over Fidonet itself. It appears
that the Newsletter continued to be published after 1994. I found an
edition as late as 2003.
Since the group had not been used for 13 years, and was always an auxiliary
distribution channel, there is no reason for keeping the newsgroup.
HISTORY:
The newsgroup comp.org.fidonet was created in April 1987, as a replacement
for mod.mag.fidonet. mod.mag.fidonet appears in a January 1987 checkgroups
message, but the group is not archived at Google. From an Arbitron posting
it appears to have had some traffic. The creation of mod.mag.fidonet
occurred in the midst of the Great Renaming.
DISTRIBUTION:
This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
comp.org.fidonet
comp.bbs.misc
CHARTER:
The newsgroup line is:
comp.org.fidonet FidoNews digest, official news of FidoNet Assoc.
PROPONENT:
Jim Riley <jim...@pipeline.com>
CHANGE HISTORY:
2006-09-15 2nd RFD
2006-08-30 1st RFD