RFD: rec.radio.amateur reorganization
Ian Kluft KD6EUI
REORGANIZATION OF REC.RADIO.AMATEUR
This request for discussion is the beginning of the newsgroup creation process
outlined in GUIDELINES FOR NEWSGROUP CREATION, which can be found in
news.groups. Because of the high volume of traffic in rec.radio.amateur.misc,
a mail list was created (with an open invitation posted to the newsgroup) to
discuss the issue. This RFD is in response to two problems that were
identified by the mail list.
1) rec.radio.amateur.misc has a daily traffic volume which is too high for most
people to follow on a regular basis.
2) rec.radio.amateur.packet needs to be renamed due to the growth of other
digital modes besides packet on amateur radio.
30-DAY DISCUSSION PERIOD
------------------------
The newsgroup creation guidelines require a 30-day discussion period.
All comments which are to be considered toward this discussion must take place
on the news.groups newsgroup. For that reason, this RFD contains the header
line "Followup-To: news.groups" so that replies will only go there.
This discussion period is not a voting period. If the discussion period
shows that there is sufficient support, the process will continue on to
a 21-31-day voting phase, which will be described in a Call for Votes (CFV)
article.
Modifications may be made to the proposal during the current discussion phase.
Once a CFV is posted, the proposal at that time may only be approved or
rejected. No modifications will be made during the vote.
Comments and discussion posted to rec.radio.amateur.misc and
rec.radio.amateur.packet cannot be considered official. However, users of
the Info-Hams and Packet-Radio mailing lists, which are linked to these
newsgroups, cannot access news.groups. So discussion of how to handle the
mail lists may take place there on an unofficial basis. This unofficial
procedure is being acknowledged in the RFD because no alternative exists for
the mail list users. Users must remember 1) the process does not require
any action on articles posted outside news.groups and 2) final authority for
the mail lists lies with their administrators.
NEWSGROUP REORGANIZATION PROPOSAL
---------------------------------
The scope of this RFD is the newsgroups within the rec.radio.amateur hierarchy.
Other newsgroups (even others under rec.radio) are not a subject of this RFD.
The CFV following this RFD, if a CFV is issued, will not propose any changes
outside of rec.radio.amateur.
The current newsgroups are as follows:
[all the following groups are unmoderated]
rec.radio.amateur.misc Amateur radio practices, contests, events, etc.
rec.radio.amateur.packet Discussion about packet radio setups
rec.radio.amateur.policy Radio use & regulation policy
In determining a reorganization of rec.radio.amateur which frees some of the
traffic from the single newsgroup rec.radio.amateur.misc, the members of the
reorganization mail list considered the following guidelines which the
participants in this discussion are also asked to consider:
* More is not necessarily better. Several newsgroups were proposed and then
dropped because the traffic levels on those subjects do not warrant their
own newsgroup. (examples: video, repeaters, antennas)
* We were not trying to use new newsgroups as a place to discard unwanted
subjects. With as large an audience as rec.radio.amateur has, everyone
would want to discard some subjects somewhere so WE DID NOT CONSIDER THAT
A VALID REASON TO CREATE A NEWSGROUP. There is no rec.radio.amateur.cw in
this proposal because the productive areas of that subject fit better within
r.r.a.operating and r.r.a.instruction. Most of the heated arguments about
morse code requirements will still belong in r.r.a.policy under this
proposal. All newsgroups in this proposal were justified by sustained
traffic volume in that topic. A borderline case (emergency services) was
decided in its favor because it is part of the purpose of amateur radio,
as much as experimentation is.
The proposed reorganization of rec.radio.amateur would result in the following
groups: [all the following proposed groups are unmoderated]
Newsgroup name description
-------------- -------------------------------
rec.radio.amateur.misc all Ham radio topics not covered below
i.e. video, stories, humor, new topics
[no modification to existing newsgroup]
rec.radio.amateur.policy regulations & policy issues
[no modification to existing newsgroup]
rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc packet radio & other digital modes
[includes old rec.radio.amateur.packet]
rec.radio.amateur.digital.tcp-ip TCP/IP via packet radio
rec.radio.amateur.operating Operating procedures and questions: DX,
CW, contests, propagation, repeaters
rec.radio.amateur.products manufactured equipment, modifications
rec.radio.amateur.instruction Ham radio instruction & examination
rec.radio.amateur.construction homebrewing & experimentation
rec.radio.amateur.space amateur radio in space: satellites,
earth-moon-earth (EME), shuttle, MIR
rec.radio.amateur.emerg-services emergency services: RACES, ARES, NTS
Under this proposal, rec.radio.amateur.packet will become an alias for
rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc, which is intended to replace it.
An alternate proposal, aimed at having fewer newsgroups, found some support in
the reorganization mail list. It is presented here as a potential alternative
for use in the discussion, as a guage of which one the rec.radio.amateur
community prefers. It amends the proposal as follows:
Newsgroup name description
-------------- -------------------------------
rec.radio.amateur.tech Technical discussions about Ham Radio:
construction, satellites, theory,
examinations, video, repeaters
[unmoderated]
[this replaces r.r.a.instruction, r.r.a.construction, and r.r.a.space, plus
taking all technical topics from r.r.a.misc]
REFERENCES
----------
If any users wish to see a transcript of the discussion on the reorganization
mail list which led up to this RFD, it is available for anonymous FTP at
charon.amdahl.com (129.212.11.1) in /pub/radio/amateur/rra-reorg.log.1.Z
(160K+ after decompression.)
The mail list was created after a public invitation to join that was posted
with worldwide distribution. The following people chose to participate:
eh...@arrl.org (Ed Hare KA1CV)
ikl...@uts.amdahl.com (Ian Kluft KD6EUI)
jmay...@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard K5ZC)
br...@nucleus.amd.com (Brian McMinn N5PSS)
ma...@ve6mgs.ampr.ab.ca (Mark Salyzyn VE6MGS)
st...@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Steve Schallehn KB0AGD)
psch...@cwis.unomaha.edu (Paul W Schleck KD3FU)
st...@wattres.sj.ca.us (Steve Watt KD6GGD)
-----------------------------------REMINDER-----------------------------------
NO VOTES ARE BEING ACCEPTED AT THIS TIME - THIS IS FOR DISCUSSION ONLY
POST ALL REPLIES IN NEWS.GROUPS WHERE THEY CAN BE OFFICIALLY COUNTED
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Kluft
second didn't go out until several days later - without going to the moderated
newsgroup news.announce.newgroups.
This should clear up the complaints we had about the other posting not being
cross-posted to news.announce.newgroups. And a lesson for me... when a
blizzard hits the East Coast while the moderator is moving house, just be
patient - it can take a few extra days.
Anyway, this makes the OFFICIAL 30-day discussion period start today, 3/26.
Though I see no reason why any discussion already posted to news.groups would
be omitted from consideration. Continue with the discussion - there's no doubt
the RFD is official now. Official discussion will continue through April 25.
>Path: amdahl!rtech!decwrl!uunet!bounce-back
>From: ikl...@uts.amdahl.com (Ian Kluft KD6EUI)
>Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.radio.amateur.misc,rec.radio.amateur.packet,rec.radio.amateur.policy
>Subject: RFD: rec.radio.amateur reorganization
>Message-ID: <1ov8ns...@rodan.UU.NET>
>Date: 26 Mar 93 15:50:20 GMT
>Sender: ta...@rodan.UU.NET
>Reply-To: "rec.radio.amateur reorganization mail list" <rra-...@amdahl.com>
>Followup-To: news.groups
>Organization: UUNET Communications
>Approved: ta...@uunet.uu.net
> REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION
> REORGANIZATION OF REC.RADIO.AMATEUR
>[...]