🚀 go-pugleaf

Alan J Rosenthal wrote:
> 
> "Janis" <janisyates@golden.net> writes:
> >How is a can. newsgroup created.
> 
> It starts with discussion in can.config...
> hence the other poster's suggestion to begin that discussion...
> 
> Ultimately you have to convince Canadian news admins.
> There isn't a voting procedure or that sort of thing.

1- who are the "Canadian news admins."

2- Why is there not a set procedure for newsgroup creation
in the can.* hierarchy?

3- Why not establish a procedure that everyone can follow to
set up and maintain news groups in can.*

I am submitting an obsolete copy (mostly obsolete addresses)
of "Newsgroup Creation in the us.* Hierarchy"

It is by no means perfect, but it works fairly smoothly, and
gives a basis with which to work to rationalize the groups
in the can.* hierarchy 


From: Henrietta K. Thomas 
<admin@usenetnews.us>
 Newsgroup Creation in the us.* Hierarchy
http://www.usenetnews.us

NOTE - The document below is posted on 
the web at http://www.usenetnews.us


Original Creation Date: January 1998
First Amendment Date: November 2000


Newsgroup Creation in the us.* Hierarchy

These guidelines for newsgroup creation apply only to the
us.* hierarchy, and supersede all previous editions of this
document.  These guidelines will remain in force until such
time as a committee is formed to assume responsibility for
the day-to-day affairs of the hierarchy.

The procedures outlined below are to be used to propose the
creation, removal, renaming, and/or reorganization of us.*
hierarchy newsgroups; for amending newsgroup charters; for
changing a newsgroup's moderation status; and for making any
other necessary changes to newsgroups or their charters.

Introduction:

It is expected that, mainly, three types of newsgroups will 
be created:

a) administrative/announce groups, which may or may not be moderated;
b) commercial groups, which will generally be moderated; and
c) discussion groups, which will generally be unmoderated,
at least initially.

Topics for discussion or commercial groups should be
specifically related to the people of the United States --
how they live, work, and play in their everyday lives -- as
well as to topics of concern to the nation as a whole. 
Topics related to any of the several states of the Union or
to regions and cities of the United States which have their
own hierarchies should be proposed in the local
administrative group(s) for those states, regions, or
cities.  Persons wishing to establish international groups
should use one of  the existing international hierarchies,
such as alt.*, one of the Big 8 hierarchies, or one of the
international non-English hierarchies such as de.*.

Newsgroup Creation Procedures:

Proposals for new groups in the us.* hierarchy should be
posted to us.config and crossposted to any existing us.*
hierarchy group(s) whose readers might have an interest in
the proposal.  The us.* hierarchy maintainer will post
pointers to the proposal in related newsgroups in other
hierarchies if such practice is permitted under their rules.
 Such pointers shall contain a brief description of the
proposal and an invitation to interested parties to join the
discussions in us.config. Full RFDs from the us.* hierarchy
may not be posted to newsgroups in other hierarchies, but
excerpts may be included in the pointer to give readers of
other groups an idea of what is being proposed.

The acronym RFD stands for "Request for Discussion." 
New proposals shall be titled  "[RFD] Proposal  to create
<name of newsgroup>," and should include the following:

a) proposed name for the group;
b) a one-line description of the topic for the group;
c) a rationale as to why the group should be created;
d) a proposed charter for the group;
e) the name and email address of the proponent, and
 f) the name and email address of the Newsgroup Host,
if different from the proponent.

A sample RFD is posted in Appendix B.

The initial discussion period will be ten days, during which
time the proponent may revise and re-post at any time based
on any feedback received.   If after ten days, all revisions
have been made and there are no serious objections to the
group, the proponent should post the final product with the
following Subject line: [FINAL RFD] 
<name of newsgroup>, and the newgroup control message will
be issued by the hierarchy maintainer after a final week (7
days) has passed and no major objections are heard. Thus,
under normal conditions, it should
take about three weeks to create a new group in the us.*
hierarchy.

If by some chance, there is controversy over a proposal, 
the us.* hierarchy maintainer may extend the discussion
period or not more than two additional seven-day periods so
long as it appears that progress is being made in resolving
the issues in dispute. If at the end of these extensions of
time, the issues are still not resolved, the hierarchy
maintainer may decide the matter unilaterally according to
what appears to be in the best interests of the hierarchy,
and said decision shall be final.  Options include, but are
not limited to:

1. Creating the group despite objections under specified
terms and conditions.

2. Not creating the group under any conditions.

3. Advising the parties to get together and resolve their
differences by email and bring a better proposal back to
us.config.

4. Declare a cooling off period if emotions are running
high, anywhere from 10 to 30 days, during which time all
parties are asked not to discuss the proposal at all.

The hierarchy maintainer may conduct straw polls to aid in
the decision-making process.

Newsgroup Names and Short Descriptions:

Every RFD must contain what is called a 'Newsgroups line',
which consists of two parts -- the newsgroup name and a
short, one line, description of the purpose of the group.

Newsgroup names are comprised of a series of components 
separated by periods. Each component to the right narrows 
the topic indicated by the rest of the name to the left.  For
example, us.foo.bar (three levels) and us.foo.bar.baz (four
levels) would be for more specific subtopics of those
discussed in us.foo (two levels).   Each component should be
brief and highly descriptive to avoid confusing or
misleading readers as to the purpose of the group.

Name components have traditionally been limited to 14
characters each due to software limitations.  This is no
longer true.  This
means that long words can be used in newsgroup names rather 
than abbreviations.  It does not mean, however, that long words
should be used as a matter of course.  A range of between 15-20
characters per component should be sufficient to meet most needs.

Name components should be made up of lowercase letters (a-z),
digits (0-9), the plus sign (+), and a minus sign or hyphen (-).
A component must begin with a letter or digit, and may not
consist entirely of digits.  A hyphen (-) may be used for
indicating space between words, and a plus sign (+) to indicate
"and."  Do not use separate components where a hyphen 
may be more appropriate: us.misc.family-radio is a better group
name than us.misc.family.radio.

The first step in naming your group is to decide which top-level
hierarchy you want to use.  A good way to start is to examine
existing groups and charters to see if any are similar to what
you want to propose.  If not, take a good hard look at 'Top-Level
Hierarchies within the us.* Hierarchy', and select your top-level
there.  

Since the top-level hierarchies already contain two
components, 
your task is to choose the word(s) that will make up the third
and (possibly) fourth levels of the newsgroup name.  It is
expected that most groups will contain only three
components, 
and that fourth level components will be reserved mainly for
providing finer separation of the topic or as a place for growth.
The ideal is to convey the most meaning possible in the smallest
amount of space.

After you've decided on the newsgroup name, you'll need to 
write a short description.  There is a firm rule that the
newsgroup name followed by one or more 8-character tabs 
followed by the description should all fit on a single line
of 
79 or less characters.  The description should include a
terminating period.  There is also a rule that the description
should not begin until after the 24th space on the newsgroups
line. So the longer your newsgroup name, the less space you 
will have for the description. and vice versa.  The trick is to
balance the two so that each makes a maximum contribution to
understanding the purpose of the group.  A chart in Appendix 
A indicates the amount of space left for the description
depending on the length of the newsgroup name.

If the group is to be moderated, a space should follow the period
in the description, followed by "(Moderated)" - without the
quotes, but with the parentheses.  This 'moderation flag' is not
counted toward the 79-character limit of the newsgroups line.
:
Please resist the temptation to name your group after a
particular person or specific  news event.  These kinds of groups
tend to be short-lived; there is usually a flurry of
activity for
several months and then traffic dies down as posters run out of
things to say.  It is better, in such cases, to name the group
after the activity for which a person is known or after a
particular type of news event.  This broadens the scope of 
the newsgroup to cover more than one particular person 
or news event, and ensures a longer life for the group.

The Rationale

In the rationale, please state the purpose of your group,
why 
you think it should be in the us.* hierarchy, and what kind of
traffic you expect. Do a Deja search to see if your topic is
being discussed elsewhere in Usenet. If so, identify the groups.
If any of these groups have similar names or charters to your
proposal, be sure to make appropriate distinctions so that people
won't get confused.

The charter

The charter should elaborate on the purpose of the group
given 
in the short description and set forth specific guidelines for
prospective posters. The guidelines should include
statements 
as to what will be considered on-topic and off-topic for the
group, how to handle special situations that may be unique
to 
the group, and reminders as to what is generally accepted
newsgroup posting behavior.  This should be followed by a
statement that the us.* hierarchy posting guidelines are
incorporated by reference into the charter, and the us.*
hierarchy may take action to enforce the charter and the
guidelines.

The Newsgroup Host

When your group is first created, there will be no traffic 
at all.  Then slowly, one by one, people will stop by. 
introduce themselves, and start asking questions about 
the group.  It is important that someone be there on a
regular 
basis to answer the questions and encourage people to post.  
Newsgroup proponentss are therefore expected to 'host' their 
own groups or to appoint a trusted person to the job.  

Newsgroup Hosts are expected to:

a) greet new posters and help them get adjusted to the group,
b) encourage posters to stay on-topic in the group,
c) publicize the group in their .sig file to attract new posters,
d) monitor the group for unwelcome posts such as spam,
binaries, and excessive crossposting.

They may also, if they choose, write a FAQ for the group or 
encourage others to do so, set up a website for the group; 
add a link to the group on an existing website, and do 
whatever else seems reasonable to build and maintain 
a healthy newsgroup.

Newsgroup hosts are not expected to play netcop, and are
specifically requested not to issue any 3rd party cancels 
or get involved in any long, drawn out arguments with
offensive 
posters. Serious problems should be reported to the us.*
hierarchy administration, which will take appropriate action
whenever possible. Abuse reports should be sent to
usreport@wwa.com until such time as a net-abuse group 
has been set up for the hierarchy.

If a Newsgroup Host resigns, s/he may recommend his/her
successor, or the us.* hierarchy administration may call for 
nominations from the group.  If there is more than one
contender for the job, a vote will be taken within the group
by the us.* hierarchy administration.

Six-month Trial

New group charters shall remain in full force and effect for
six 
months, during which time proposals for amendment will not be
entertained.  At the end of the six-month trial period, proposals
for amendment may be made by any regular poster to the
group, 
the Newsgroup Host, or the us.* hierarchy administration.  Such
proposals must be made by RFD, as outlined in these
guidelines, 
the discussion shall be crossposted between the newsgroup
and 
us.config, and the decision shall be made by consensus in
us.config.

If a newsgroup appears to be in very serious trouble, a Call 
For Discussion may be made by the Newsgroup Host or the 
us.* hierarchy administration.  The notice shall be crossposted
between the group and us.config, and shall be titled "[CFD]
Formal Review of <name of newsgroup>. The discussion period 
shall be at least ten days, and shall focus on such topics as:

a) quality and quantity of traffic;
b) if the group is properly placed within the hierarchy;
c) if there is a need for changes in the charter to take
account 
of new conditions;
d) if the Host is having any problems that need to be resolved;
e) if conditions are such that the group needs to be moderated;
f)  if conditions are such that the group should be removed.

If at the end of ten days, no problems have been identified or
the problems identified have been satisfactorily resolved, the
newsgroup will remain as is without change.  But if major changes
are needed, a new RFD must be posted for full discussion in
us.config and the affected group, the procedures in this document
must be followed, and a new control message will be issued seven
days after the posting of a new charter for the group.

Amendments:

These guidelines may not be amended by the us.* hierarchy
maintainer without full RFD discussion in us.config.  Any person
directly connected with the us.* hierarchy may post an RFD
suggesting amendments to these guidelines.  The procedure to be
followed will be the same as for a new group proposal -- ten
days' discussion, possibly extended, followed by a decision by
consensus in us.config (hopefully) without the need for
conducting any votes.  Once the hierarchy committee is formed,
the committee is free to propose its own guidelines for newsgroup
creation or to make selective amendments to this document.


Appendix A: Short-line description chart in fixed pitch font.

   Name       Tab 	Maximum for
  Length      To 		Description
 1 to 23       24     	55 (25-79)
24 to 31      32	 	47 (33-79)
32 to 39      40	 	39 (41-79)
40 to 47      48	 	31 (49-79)
                         
Note: The length of the description includes the final period.


Appendix B: Sample RFD (was *not* the finished product)

		Request for Discussion (RFD)
	            unmoderated group us.military.history


This is a formal Request for Discussion to create a new newsgroup
in the us.* hierarchy, us.military.history.


Newsgroups line:
us.military.history	US military history from Colonial times
to the present.


Rationale: us.military.history

There are, at the present time, seven newsgroups in the 
alt.* and soc.history.* hierarchies devoted to discussions 
of specific wars in which the US was involved: The US Revolution,
the US Civil War, World War II, Korea, Vietnam.  But there
are no
groups in Usenet at all devoted to discussions of US military
history as a whole.

Some posters have been using us.military.army as a place to
discuss US military history, but this is inappropriate
because it
does not do justice to the full history of US military forces,
and because it unnecessarily expands the reach of the Army group
into other military branches and events which occurred hundreds
of years ago.  This proposal is intended to remedy that by
creating 
a separate newsgroup in the us.* hierarchy for the
discussion of
US military history from Colonial times 
to the present day.


Charter: us.military.history

us.military.history is an unmoderated newsgroup for the
discussion of US military history from Colonial times to the
present day, and is open to anyone who has a genuine
interest in
US military history.

For purposes of this newsgroup, "Colonial times" begins with the
founding of the first English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia,
in 1607.

The following types of articles are appropriate for this group:

- The acts and doings of British Colonial forces and local
militias in defending the original 13 colonies from outside
attack during the early Colonial years.
- Conflicts between British Colonial forces and the colonists
which contributed to the eventual rebellion of the colonists.
- The Continental Congress,  George Washington's Army,  and
the 
American Revolution.
- US military forces under the Articles of Confederation.
- US military forces under the Constitution.
- The establishment of West Point and other military academies.
-  Weapons systems and military strategies over the years.
-  Notable military leaders, including Robert E. Lee.
- Any and all wars in which US military  personnel were involved.
- The military occupation of the Confederate States at the
end of
the Civil War.
- The role of the US military in the settlement of the West 
and the suppression of the native tribes.

The following types of articles are off-topic for the group:

- British military operations prior to 1607.
- British military operations in Canada.
- The French in Louisiana prior to the Louisiana Purchase.
- The Spanish in the Southwest prior to the Spanish-American War.
- Wars between the native tribes prior to their coming into
contact 
with European forces.

To reduce factual arguments, posters are encouraged to cite their
sources of information, giving preference to supporting documents
available on the Internet.  Copyrighted materials should not be
posted in their entirety unless the poster has express permission
to do so from the copyright holder. Otherwise, the "fair use"
rules allow only a few well-selected quotes, together with a
summary of the copyrighted document.

Crossposting:

Crossposts are limited to no more than two other newsgroups,
and 
should be undertaken with great care, as there are a number of
military groups in the alt.* and soc.history* hierarchies which
may or may not be appropriate places to crosspost articles
dealing with US military history.

Articles regarding specific wars may be crossposted or
re-directed to appropriate newsgroups in other hierarchies,
to wit:

alt.war.civil.usa
alt.war.korea
alt.war.vietnam
alt.war.yugoslavia
soc.history.war.us-civil-war
soc.history.war.us-revolution
soc.history.war.vietnam
soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Crossposts to us.military.army and/or us.military.national-guard
should be *extremely* rare, as these groups are dedicated to
discussions of contemporary life in the US Army and the National
Guard rather than to historical events.

Posters who can are encouraged  to revise the newsgroups line
when responding to mis-crossposted articles.

Posters who cannot revise the newsgroups line should 
think twice before responding to mis-crossposted articles.

Posting Rules:

The Posting Rules for the us.* Hierarchy are incorporated herein
by reference. Where there is a conflict between this charter and
the hierarchy rules, the provisions of this charter will control.

Violations of this charter or the hierarchy rules may be reported
to the us.* hierarchy administration, your Internet Service
Provider, and/or legal authorities in appropriate situations.
This applies especially to illegal chain letters, forgeries,
unauthorized use of registered domains, newsgroup "spamming",
and/or the constant harassment of other posters.

Newsgroup Host

The Newsgroup Host will monitor the group on a regular basis to
answer questions about the group and keep an eye open for
newcomers who need help.  The host is also expected to report
serious violations of the us.* hierarchy  rules to the us.*
hierarchy administration.  Further action, including cancellation
of an offending post, is at the discretion of the us.* hierarchy
administration.

If for any reason, the host is unable or unwilling to continue
monitoring the group, the us.* hierarchy administration shall
post a notice asking for volunteers or nominations from the
group.  If there is no contest, a sole volunteer or nominee 
may be appointed directly by the us.* hierarchy administration.
But if there are more candidates, a poll will be conducted to
determine the wishes of the group.  The final decision then 
rests with the us.* hierarchy administration.

Six-month Trial

This charter shall remain in full force and effect for six
months.  At the end of the six-month trial period, the us.*
hierarchy administration shall post a Call For Discussion on the
status of the group in accordance with the procedures outlined
for annual reviews in the us.* hierarchy newsgroup creation
rules.  The discussion period shall be at least two weeks. 
If at
the end of two weeks, no problems have been identified or the
problems identified have been satisfactorily resolved, the
newsgroup will remain as is until the next evaluation.  But if
major changes are desired, a new RFD must be posted for full
discussion in us.config in accordance with the us.* hierarchy
newsgroup creation rules.

END CHARTER

Procedure:

This proposal will remain on the table for two weeks, until June
17, 2000, and may be re-posted whenever changes are desired.
 
If at the end of two-weeks, there are no serious objections and
all necessary changes have been made, a final charter will be
posted, and the control message creating the group will be issued
in about a week.

Distribution: us.config, us.military.army,
us.military.national-guard

Pointers to: alt.war.civil.usa, alt.war.korea, alt.war.vietnam,
soc.history.war.us-civil-war, soc.history.war.us-revolution,
soc.history.war.vietnam, soc.history.war.world-war-ii.


Proponent:  Henrietta K. Thomas <usadmin@wwa.com>

Newsgroup Host:  TBA (To Be Announced)

------------end sample RFD--------------

Approved by consensus in us.config
November 1, 2000
Henrietta K. Thomas
us.* hierarchy coordinator
usadmin@wwa.com
hkt@wwa.com