Moderator Vacancy Investigation: comp.os.linux.answers
Steve Bonine
moderated group comp.os.linux.answers
This is a formal Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI), begun because
moderated newsgroup comp.os.linux.answers is not functioning, and may
have been abandoned by its moderator(s).
This investigation will attempt to verify the reasons for non-function,
and may result in the removal of the group or the selection and
installation of a new moderator. In practice, the Big-8 Management
Board considers the third alternative -- changing the status of the
group from moderated to unmoderated -- as likely to cause more harm than
good.
NEWSGROUPS LINE:
comp.os.linux.answers FAQs, How-To's, READMEs, etc. about Linux. (Moderated)
RATIONALE:
A probe post to this group resulted in a human response that submissions
were no longer being approved. Traffic stopped in 1998.
In an email exchange with the individual who is monitoring the
submission address for the newsgroup, I was told, “There's not supposed
to be any humans posting to the group.” Another email contained the
explanation “It's really not useful, the purpose of the group is to
distribute the Linux HOWTOs which are *much* better distributed via the
web - at the time the group was created that was a bit more useful but
these days there's no real point. It's not realistic to expect that
someone's going to find stuff in a flood filled dump of documents that
they couldn't more easily find via other distribution media. If someone
is struggling to find the documentation dumping the content into Usenet
group is unlikely to help with that.”
Based on the activity in the comp.os.linux hierarchy, there remain
people who appreciate Usenet as a resource. If there is sufficient
interest in reviving comp.os.linux.answers as a repository for HOWTO
articles, it could be a valuable addition to the Usenet resource. If
not, it should be removed from the list of groups.
DISTRIBUTION:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups.proposals
comp.os.linux.answers
comp.os.linux.misc
CHARTER
For posting Linux FAQs, How-To's, READMEs and other documents that
answer questions about Linux. This will help keep the traffic down in
other c.o.l.* groups and will leave comp.os.linux.announce for true
announcements.
HISTORY OF THE GROUP:
The newsgroup was created in a split of comp.os.linux.help on 13
December 1994 by a vote of 1510:79. With the exception of a few months
with no traffic, it was active between December 1994 and March 1998.
In October 2004, an MVI was filed for the newsgroup. On 9 November in
<11000151...@isc.org> the following result was announced:
“comp.os.linux.answers will have a new moderation team. Brian Edmonds
will setup a moderation team among those who volunteered. An
announcement will be made by them, in the group only, when they are
ready for the group to become active again.” No such announcement ever
appeared.
PROPONENT: Steve Bonine <s...@pobox.com>
PROCEDURE:
Those who wish to comment on this moderator vacancy investigation should
subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant
threads in that newsgroup. To this end, the followup header of this MVI
has been set to news.groups.proposals.
For more information on the MVI process, please see
http://www.big-8.org/wiki/Moderator_Vacancy_Investigations
CHANGE HISTORY:
12 June 2011: Moderator Vacancy Investigation