Summary of proposals

[Scott Hazen Mueller]

I don't know but that everyone may be completely tired of this stuff, but...
I'm going to try to summarize the various proposals relating to comp.sys.att
and the unix-pc network, how they relate to each other, and how people can
see/post to them.

  The Status Quo:  comp.sys.att goes to one set of sites, unix-pc.* goes
to another.  Sites that get both can crosspost, News 2.11 sites that don't,
can't.  People who don't get unix-pc.* can contact any of a number of sites
for a feed; those who can't get it can contact me to get on the gateway
mailing list.

  The Proposal Nobody Likes Anymore:  completely merge comp.sys.att and the
unix-pc net.  I don't really think that this could be done, even by the
Usenet backbone, simply because unix-pc has its own routes and connections.

  The Proposal That Started It All:  split comp.sys.att into special interest
subgroups.  Originally, this had nothing at all to do with unix-pc.  This
survives in a proposal to split off a comp.sys.att subgroup dealing with
Unix-PCs and 'connecting' (method unspecified for now) to the unix-pc net.

  The Proposal That I Made :-)  :  simply stated, pick up postings from the
unix-pc network that aren't already cross-posted to comp.sys.att and put
them into comp.sys.att.  My gateway mailing list does this sort of thing
but puts the articles into mail rather than news.
---
  Where I Stand This Week:  The status quo has this going for it:  it works.
The gateway mailing list has pretty much stabilized; between the direct
subscribers and the redistributers I guesstimate that it has around 30
readers - not enough to start a new newsgroup up, but not too shabby either.
Running it is not too a lot of trouble and won't make me poor; however, I'd
still like to try the gateway approach.  I'd willingly support either of
the last two proposals above for a gateway; creating a new group has the
disadvantage that we would need to come with 100 more yes votes than no
votes and I haven't seen that kind of support.

  What I will propose now is to discuss the matter until around March 1 and
then take a vote with the following margins:

  100 more yes votes than no votes:  petition to create a subgroup,
comp.sys.att.unix-pc, for the purpose of discussion of the AT&T Unix-PC
and into which I will gateway the unix-pc.* groups (less unix-pc.sources).

  50 more yes votes than no votes:  don't try to get a new group created,
but I would take this to indicate that I should go ahead and gateway the
unix-pc.* groups into comp.sys.att.

  Less than 50 myvtnv:  do nothing; continue sending unix-pc.* via mail to
people who send requests to me.

*Don't* send or post any votes now.  Post pro or con comments and proposals
and such; if the discussion warrants it, I'll call a vote.  If nobody wants
to discuss this, I guess that means everyone is happy with the status quo.

         \scott
-- 
Scott Hazen Mueller   scott at zorch.UU.NET
(408) 245-9461        (pyramid|tolerant|uunet)!zorch!scott