CFV: sci.physics.strings moderated
David E. Smith
moderated group sci.physics.strings
Newsgroups line:
sci.physics.strings String theory and related fields. (Moderated)
Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 16 Mar 2004.
This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions
about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent.
Proponent: Urs Schreiber <Urs.sc...@uni-essen.de>
Proponent: Lubos Motl <mo...@feynman.harvard.edu>
Proponent: Arvind Rajaraman <araj...@uci.edu>
Mentor: Ru Igarashi <r...@nucleus.usask.ca>
Votetaker: David E. Smith <da...@technopagan.org>
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.
CHARTER: sci.physics.strings
sci.physics.strings is a moderated newsgroup for discussion of string
theory (a theory of quantum gravity and unification of forces) 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. Original and interesting criticism of
string theory is welcome.
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 theoretical 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 messages that all say the same or very similar things; and
(4) Overly speculative postings and postings that are "not even wrong."
4) An article that is rejected will be tried to be returned (if that
is reasonable and feasible) 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 be
rejected.
6) Posting of binary files is prohibited. 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: Urs Schreiber <Urs.sc...@uni-essen.de>
Moderator: Lubos Motl <mo...@feynman.harvard.edu>
Moderator: Arvind Rajaraman <araj...@uci.edu>
Administrative contact address: s...@matfyz.cz
Article submission address: sci.physics.st...@matfyz.cz
END MODERATOR INFO.
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[ ] sci.physics.strings
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