🚀 go-pugleaf

Archive-name: none
Posting-frequency: every 14 days
Last-modified: Mon Jun 10 20:53:37 EDT 1996

Author: Dawn Whiteside, dawn@ca.dynix.com, Lord High Jester of can.config

As of the end of May, I've taken over maintenance of the FAQ.  I haven't
made any changes, except the ones made necessary by Dawn passing the FAQ
to me.  The only change of any significance is that I'm posting the whole
FAQ to can.config every 14 days, instead of just a pointer.

						Chris Lewis
						clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca

------------------------------

Subject: So this is can.config.  What's it for?

  It's a newsgroup for the discussion and evolution of the can.*
  hierarchy.  Discussion of and requests for the charters of existing
  can.* groups and discussions related to the creation, removal or
  modification of can.* newsgroups are welcome here.

------------------------------

Subject: Why would I want to create a newsgroup?

  If you earnestly believe that existing traffic on other newsgroups or
  electronic mailing lists would more efficiently reach its intended
  audience by being automatically propagated to thousands of machines
  across Canada, you would have a valid desire to create a newsgroup.

------------------------------

Subject: How do I create a new newsgroup in can.*?

  First make sure you understand how to write an RFD (request for
  discussion) that clearly states the important information about your
  proposed newsgroup.  A thorough understanding of Usenet history and
  politics is recommended -- it would be a good idea to wait until
  you've read and understood all the articles which are posted every
  month to news.announce.newusers.  Spending a week reading the
  newsgroup creation discussions in alt.config, can.config and
  news.groups (yes, there is a lot of stuff in news.groups) would also
  be a good idea.

  New can.* newsgroups are proposed in can.config, similar to the
  procedure for creating new alt.* groups.  The RFD is followed by a
  short (typically two weeks or less) discussion period which results
  in a general consensus as to whether or not the group will be
  created.

------------------------------

Subject: Okay, I think I understand all the stuff in news.announce.newusers.
 So what should I bear in mind when proposing a can.* newsgroup?
  
  That's a fine question.  While there have been many ideas and
  suggestions about newsgroup creation procedures here, no real
  consensus appears to have been reached at this point in time.

  What you want to do is convince the majority of Canadian news
  administrators to create the new newsgroup so it is propagated
  well across the country.  Some things which may help include:

    - a newsgroup name that is neither confusing nor misleading
      and fits into the current hierarchy structure without adding
      levels which are unlikely to be used by other new groups in
      the foreseeable future (if you think can.foo.bar is needed,
      can.foo should either exist or be a good place to start up a
      subtree of related newsgroups like can.foo.baz and can.foo.eh)

    - a charter describing the purpose of the proposed newsgroup
      (and nominating a moderator if a moderated group is desired)

    - a discussion period in which there is lots of public support for
      the creation of the newsgroup and a consensus on the name and
      charter.

      NOTE:  if your newsgroup does not get public support in the form
      of several articles from different people per day for several days
      arguing in favour of creating the newsgroup, it is unlikely that
      the group will be created because of the perceived lack of interest.

    - existing traffic in other newsgroups or an active electronic mailing
      list which belongs in its own Canada-wide, Canada-only newsgroup
      [ as opposed to a '.canada' subgroup such as 'soc.culture.canada'
        or part of the normal traffic of a 'big seven' or alt.* group ]

      NOTE:  if there is no existing traffic in other newsgroups and no
      electronic mailing list dealing with the topic exists, it is unlikely
      that the group will be created because of the lack of pre-existing
      traffic on the subject matter.

    - little or no controversy surrounding or objection to the proposed
      newsgroup

    - a well-known and respected news admin volunteering to create
      the group

    - a final call for objections and short [ 1 week ] waiting period before
      the group is created

  Most of the above points should make sense to someone familiar with
  the politics and nature of Usenet.  If you don't understand what an
  electronic mailing list is or are unfamiliar with newsgroup creation
  procedures in alt.* and the 'big seven', run do not walk to the monthly
  FAQs in news.announce.newusers and come back when you have read and
  digested the information there.  Bear in mind that the procedure for
  creating a new newsgroup described there does not apply to the can.*
  regional hierarchy.

------------------------------

Subject: What should I do if I have a great idea for a newsgroup but can't find
 any existing traffic to justify it?

  Get some discussion going on the topic in an electronic forum.  Start
  a thread about the topic in another newsgroup or start up and announce
  a mailing list.  If the thread dies or the mailing list doesn't take
  off as expected, it probably wasn't time for it anyway.  If there is a
  lot of discussion, you have something to point to when people ask whether
  there really is enough interest in the topic for its own newsgroup.

-------------------------------

Subject: What are alternatives to creating a newsgroup in can.*?

  You can create a newsgroup in alt.* -- for details, check out the
  article entitled "So You Want to Create an alt Newsgroup" which
  is periodically posted to alt.config, alt.answers and news.answers.

  You can create a newsgroup in one of the "big seven" hierarchies --
  for details, check out the article entitled "How to Create a New
  Usenet Newsgroup" which is periodically posted to news.announce.newusers,
  news.groups, news.admin.misc, news.announce.newgroups and news.answers.

  You can create a newsgroup in a different regional hierarchy -- try
  asking about newsgroup creation procedures in the hierarchy by posting
  to the "*.general" or "*.config" group for the hierarchy.

  You can create a mailing list, whose existence could be announced
  periodically in can.general or other appropriate newsgroups.  Ask your
  system administrator about setting up a mailing list.

  If your primary aim is the dissemination of information rather than
  discussion then a gopher server, a web page or an ftp site may be more
  appropriate than a newsgroup.

------------------------------

Subject: How can I choose a good newsgroup name?

  Avoid one-level names (e.g. can.widgets, can.television).  Many news
  administrators are of the opinion that the top level of can.* is too
  cluttered as it currently stands.

  Keep the number of levels in the name small (e.g. can.a.b or
  can.a.b.ccc, not can.a.b.c.d unless can.a.b.c already exists).
  
  Pick something that fits into a current hierarchy (e.g. can.talk.*,
  can.university.*) or is a reasonable starting point for a new hierarchy
  (e.g. can.org.* for organizations).

  Choose names that can be readily understood by someone not entirely
  familiar with the subject matter.

  Keep each portion of the name under 14 characters.

  Here are some hypothetical poor name choices and better versions:

    can.rec.sport.baseball.jays   How about those Blue Jays, eh?

     try instead:

    can.talk.blue-jays
     or
    can.talk.baseball

    can.rasc    The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
     or
    can.astronomy.rasc
     or
    can.org.royal-astronomical-society

     try instead:

    can.org.rasc

------------------------------

Subject: I got lots of messages in favour of the group and hardly any negative
 comments.  This is good enough to go ahead and create a newsgroup, isn't it?

  Maybe.  If the negative comments raise questions about the justification
  for creating the newsgroup or the proposed name or charter, make sure
  these questions and comments have been satisfactorily answered.  "We'll
  figure it out later" and "nobody could think of anything any better" are
  generally not considered to be satisfactory answers.

  This is one of the reasons for having an announcement that the newsgroup
  will be created about a week before the newgroup message goes out:  it
  gives people with serious objections that may have been overlooked during
  the discussion period a second chance to be heard and their opinions
  seriously considered.

------------------------------

Subject: I think I have enough support but nobody is volunteering to create the
 newsgroup for me.  Why?

  Post an article summarizing the proposal, its support and answers to
  any concerns raised during discussion.  In this article, ask whether
  a well known news administrator will consider issuing the newgroup
  message and if not, why not.

------------------------------

Subject: My friend sent out a newgroup message to start my new newsgroup and
 lots of sites are refusing to carry it.  Why?

  Many news administrators will not automatically create newsgroups when
  the request (newgroup message) comes from someone who does not have a
  reputation as a respected news administrator.  If you follow the
  guidelines for proposing a new newsgroup and and the proposal succeeds,
  odds are very good that a well known and respected news administrator
  will send out the message to create the newsgroup.

------------------------------

Subject: Just who are the well known and respected news administrators, anyway?

  [hmmm ... on this one I need input from the news admins at large.  I
   know I'm likely to respect a newgroup message coming from a few
   news admins based on my having known them electronically for years
   but others may have different opinions.  Would anyone care to
   volunteer to become the Head Newgrouper or Alternate for can.*?]

  Of late, Chris Lewis (news@bnr.ca) has been volunteering to create
  newsgroups but other well-known news admins are more than welcome to
  offer their services.  I remember Chris being on the net since about
  forever (and I've been around in one form or another since around '86)
  so his opinion does carry a fair bit of weight.  Chris is not the
  local Newsgroup Czar:  he's just one of the few news admins who makes
  the time to respond to proposals.

------------------------------

Subject: It looks like the newsgroup I want to create won't be created.  
 What should I do now?

  There are other hierarchies in which one may attempt to create a
  newsgroup (it just won't be a newsgroup under can.*).  Newsgroup
  creation procedures for the alt, comp, misc, news, rec, sci, soc
  and talk hierarchies are posted monthly to news.announce.newusers
  and crossposted to news.answers.  In addition, other regional
  hierarchies may have less stringent newsgroup creation procedures
  and be more suited to the subject matter of the proposed newsgroup.

  You can create a mailing list.  Talk to your system administrator and
  read comp.mail.list-admin.software and comp.mail.list-admin.policy
  for more information on setting up and maintaining mailing lists.

  If you are primarily interested in making information available to
  the public rather than the open discussion typical of newsgroups, you
  can publish that information on the Internet using gopher, WAIS, a mail
  or anonymous ftp server or the World Wide Web.  Such a resource could
  be mentioned occasionally (less frequently than once a week) in
  appropriate newsgroups to help attract the people you're trying to
  reach.

------------------------------

Subject: Some sites have can.foobar and others don't.  Why?

  The Canadian contingent of Usenet is not managed as strictly as
  the 'big seven' newsgroups.  News administrators throughout the
  country have different ideas about what newsgroups should and do
  exist in can.*.  Some sites may also be aware of the existence of
  newsgroups in can.* and simply choose not to carry them.

  There are two volunteers who periodically post a list of what they
  consider to be commonly-recognized Canadian regional newsgroups.  The
  former of these tends to be more permissive (including some groups
  which may not be accepted at a majority of Canadian Usenet sites).
  The headers of these articles typically look like this:

: From: can-reg@gts.org
: Subject: A listing of Canadian regional and school newsgroups
: Newsgroups: calgary.general,hfx.general,kingston.general,kw.networks,
: +mtl.general,ott.usenet,sj.general,tor.news,wpg.general,van.general,yk.general

: From: Tim.Nelson@Canada.ATTGIS.COM
: Newsgroups: can.general,ont.general,tor.general,tor.news
: Subject: CAN/ONT/TOR/KINGSTON/OTT Checkgroups message

------------------------------

Subject: Who died and made you king of this little patch of Usenet?

|  Dawn sez:

  Nobody and I'm not.  I was involved with the creation of can.config
  and have decided to volunteer a small chunk of time to reminding
  the readers of this newsgroup of what seems to be the state of
  affairs here.  If you have constructive comments or suggestions,
  mail them to news@ca.dynix.com [if they went to my personal address
  they might be inadvertently misfiled and you'd think I was ignoring
  you on purpose] and I'll incorporate them in this little missive
  next month.  Unless someone else wants to volunteer.

-------------------------------

Subject: Can I get a copy of this posting from somewhere?

  The most recent version of this article can be retrieved via anonymous
  FTP from ca.dynix.com.  The URL (no, it is _not_ HTMLized) is:

      ftp://ca.dynix.com/usenet/can.config
    
|  This will exist until the end of July, details afterwards TBD.

-------------------------------

Subject: Can I get the charters/FAQs of other can.* newsgroups?

  As of June 27, the only other can.* newsgroup that I know of which
  has a regular FAQ is can.uucp.  I have made that FAQ available by
  anonymous FTP at ca.dynix.com/usenet/can.uucp.  Future FAQs and
  newsgroup charters will be archived in the same directory.

  Anyone having a copy of any can.* newsgroup charter or willing to
  write a few paragraphs describing a newsgroup which has been around
  forever apparently without a charter is more than welcome to send me
  a copy (mail to news@ca.dynix.com) to make available to the public.
  In the case of newly-written descriptions, I may choose to post the
  description to the newsgroup in question and see if any serious
  objections are raised by the readership of the group.

  [The above will change as necessary in the next month or two.  CRL]
-- 
Chris Lewis: _Una confibula non sat est_