Date: 26 Mar 1996 21:01:44 -0000
From: rich@c2.org (Rich Graves)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.os.ms-windows.announce,comp.archives.msdos.d,comp.os.ms-windows.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.announce
Subject: RFD: comp.archives.ms-windows.{announce,discuss}

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
          moderated group comp.archives.ms-windows.announce
          unmoderated group comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss

Newsgroup line:
comp.archives.ms-windows.announce       Announcements about Windows archives. (Moderated)
comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss        Discussing Microsoft Windows archives.

This is a formal Request for Discussion for the creation of the
moderated Usenet newsgroup comp.archives.ms-windows.announce and the
unmoderated newsgroup comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss.  This is not a
Call for Votes - do not vote now. To participate in the discussion,
follow the topic on news.groups.  Please do not discuss the group
creation in other groups - it will most probably be off topic there.

RATIONALE: all groups

The comp.archives hierarchy exists for posting announcements about the
availability of new or updated software on FTP servers. This greatly
reduces the load on the comp.binaries hierarchy. The moderators of
comp.archives.msdos.announce and comp.os.ms-windows.announce agree
that the current comp.archives.msdos hierarchy is ridiculously
overloaded, and that splitting off Windows programs would help ensure
at least truth in advertising.

comp.os.ms-windows.announce is not at all appropriate for the high
traffic level of the comp.archives hierarchy.

The current moderator team for comp.archives.msdos.announce is ready
to take over moderation of comp.archives.ms-windows.announce at any
time, well, at least 43 days from now, I guess.

comp.archives.ms-windows.announce is to be a one-way announcement group;
comp.archives.ms-windws.discuss is intended for discussion.

CHARTER: comp.archives.ms-windows.announce

This moderated newsgroup is for the upload announcements and related
information from Microsoft Windows archive sites (also called FTP
sites) with Public Domain, Freeware and Shareware material. The
subjects include the upload announcements via the Microsoft Windows
FTP site moderators, the Microsoft Windows sites' periodical
summaries, potential policy statements and downtime warnings, and the
Microsoft Windows FTP site moderators' reports about the connectivity
problems with their archive sites. Unix announcements conform only if
they directly relate to transferring or handling the Microsoft Windows
material from the Microsoft Windows FTP sites. 16-bit programs, 32-bit
programs, programs for Windows 95 and Windows NT are all on-topic.

The purpose of comp.archives.ms-windows.announce is to be a ONE-WAY
channel for Microsoft Windows upload announcements which the
moderators handle, and other one-way, occasional information relating
to Microsoft Windows archive sites. The moderators will therefore not
be handling users' discussion material, questions, and replies. The
unmoderated comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss newsgroup (see below)
will cover that aspect.

The comp.archives.msdos hierarchy handles DOS programs.

END CHARTER.

CHARTER: comp.archives.ms-windows.discuss

This unmoderated newsgroup is the discussion subgroup of the moderated
comp.archives.ms-windows.announce newsgroup. The newsgroup covers
users' reports, questions and discussions about the Public Domain and
shareware programs at the Microsoft Windows archive sites (also called
FTP sites), and the users' questions about the Microsoft Windows FTP
sites such as the users' connectivity problem reports. The group is
also for posting requests/replies concerning where to find such
programs as are stored at the Microsoft Windows FTP sites. However,
users are expected to refer to the FTP site file indexes before
posting such requests. The newsgroup does not cover any discussions of
fully commercial programs or programs for other operating systems like
OS/2. (These programs have Usenet newsgroups of their own).

The comp.archives.msdos hierarchy handles DOS programs.

END CHARTER.


MODERATOR INFO: comp.archives.ms-windows.announce

Moderator: w8sdz@Simtel.Net (Keith Petersen)
Contact address: win-news-manager@Simtel.Net
Submission address: win-news-request@Simtel.Net

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This RFD initiates a discussion period of at least 21 days.  If a con-
sensus on the charter and the name of the group is reached, a Call for
Votes (CFV) for the group will be issued.  Exact voting conditions
will be outlined in the CFV and the vote will be conducted by a
neutral third party.  The voting period will last from 21 to 31 days
and the group will pass if the YES votes outnumber the NO votes by at
least 100 votes and if at least 2/3rds of the votes are in favor of
the new group.

For more detailed information about the procedure, see "How to Create
a New Usenet Newsgroup" in news.announce.newusers.  You can also find
information about the group creation at the UVV web site at
http://www.uvv.org/uvv/.


DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD is cross-posted to the following Usenet newsgroups:

 news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.os.ms-windows.announce,
 comp.archives.msdos.announce,comp.archives.msdos.d,
 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.announce,comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc,
 comp.os.ms-windows.misc

-rich
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