From: fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu (Sean P. Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan)
Newsgroups: alt.config
Subject: New (and again, old) group proposals
Date: 14 Oct 92 01:48:00 GMT
Organization: University of Fairbanks, Alaska...no wait, that's not right...
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41.UAC

Twice during the spring (12 March and 27 April), I proposed several new
alt.* groups.  A lack of time on my part to follow-up led to nothing
happening with these groups.  Now, I intend to resurrect the proposals
and propose some new alt.* groups as well.  For your reference, the
Message IDs on those two posts are <12MAR92183555@acad3.alaska.edu> and
<27APR92114910@acad3.alaska.edu>.

Here are the proposals that I have previously made to this group:

alt[.culture].alaska (originally proposed March 1992)
--------------------

Alaska seems to hold a certain mystique with those not entirely
acquainted with it.  I get unsolicited e-mail all the time from people
who see that I live here and who go absolutely apeshit.  No doubt,
others who post to the net from here are similarly innundated.  The idea
here is to provide discussion far beyond what e-mail between two
individuals is capable of.  There are lots of things to talk about and 
lots of people who wish to know.  I myself have lived in Alaska since 
1976 and have more stories to tell than have the time to tell them.  The 
group alt[.culture].alaska will be for discussing the state of Alaska, 
its stories and myths (including debunking them), its history and 
future, as well as those elements known outside of Alaska as having ties 
or relevance (i.e. Tom Bodett, Andre Marrou, Northern Exposure, the 
ongoing Alaska Highway anniversary, etc.).  It will also serve as a 
means for the large number of ex-patriates out there on the net to stay 
connected with their former (and perhaps again future) home.

As well, there exist forums similar to this on both WWIVnet and Fidonet,
and gateways to those networks are being considered.  The host of the
WWIVnet subboard, Dan LeVaugh <1-9702@wwiv.cojones.com> gave his okay to
such a gateway back in May.  It will simply be a matter of finding a
site to serve as the gateway (two sites have expressed an interest).  I
attempted to establish contact with the host of the Fidonet echo, Gordon
Rasnick <gordon.rasnick@f559.n355.z1.fidonet.org>, regarding a gateway,
but never received a response.  We'll see how things turn out, though.

alt[.culture].oregon (originally proposed February 1992)
--------------------

This proposal grew out of the existence of alt.fan.tom_peterson, in the
fact that the majority of traffic on that group concerned Oregon in
general, and not just Tom Peterson.  Back in February, Tom Peterson was
going out of business, so we were looking at replacing a.f.t_p with an
Oregon newsgroup.  Well, Tom is back in business, sort of, so the group
should continue to exist, though no doubt it will continue to receive
little to no traffic.

I'll leave it to someone who actually lives in Oregon to provide a
description of what should be discussed in this newsgroup.


Now, on the above two groups, should they exist directly under alt.*,
like alt.appalachian, alt.california and alt.rhode_island do, or should
they go under alt.culture.*?  I'm simply asking for an opinion on what
would be best for the sites that would carry these groups.  Since it
appears that a U.S. regional hierarchy is dead for now, I would offer
that these groups do belong in alt.*.  And besides, though I can't
recall any Alaska inquiries from outside the U.S., the Oregon
discussions in a.f.t_p have included people from outside the U.S.

Continuing on...

alt.rock-n-roll.classic (originally proposed October 1990)
-----------------------

This is a group that I've proposed to here three times before, but was
never put into place due to my aforementioned lack of time to follow-up
on the proposals I made.  This newsgroup would be for discussing classic
rock, both as a separate genre of music and as a marketing concept for
radio and album sales.  Undoubtedly, everyone's definition of classic
rock is different, but my persoal definition of such would be any album-
oriented rock 'n roll recorded between 1967 and 1982.  Either discussing
the music and artists involved itself, or discussing the packaging of
the music in the 1990's is fair game in this group.

In addition to this group being proposed to here before in alt.config,
the idea of a classic rock newsgroup was proposed by someone else before
as a mainstream group in news.groups.  I participated in that thread,
lending my views, but the proposal didn't go anywhere in there.  Being
that items which are rejected from the mainstream, but still have merit
for discussion, can and should be accomodated in alt.*, I would offer my
recommendation for this group to be placed in alt.*.  In addition, the 
nature and volume of traffic in alt.rock-n-roll at various times related 
to "classic rock" (to the greater degree, in terms of the music itself,
and to the lesser degree, the marketing of it) has given me indications 
that there is a justification for this group.

alt.rock-n-roll.symphonic (originally proposed April 1992)
-------------------------

As originally proposed, this group would be for discussion of rock 'n
roll music that contains influences from classical and/or operatic
music.  Well, by and large, that concept has found a home in
alt.music.progressive.  If you recall the discussion, I proposed
a.r-n-r.s, didn't do anything about it for a while, then Scott McMahan
proposed a.m.r, acknowledging that he didn't read my proposal, and
because he had the time to deal with it and I didn't (yeah, I know
you're probably sick and tired of hearing this from me, but it's the
truth - let's face it, folks, Usenet is far from a full-time endeavor
for me and many of you are probably in like situations), his group went
through.  So, given that my idea is already serving it's purpose in
another group, I would like to propose an alternative purpose for this
group.  The new purpose of alt.rock-n-roll.symphonic would be strictly
to discuss the specific relationship between rock 'n roll music and
classical and/or operatic music.  This group would probably not generate
a high amount of traffic, but it would be my hope that regardless of the
level of traffic, it would be very high in the S/N ratio department. 
From what I gather, a.m.p is dedicated to general discussion of the
artists involved in making this sort of music.  Perhaps Scott can inform
us if discussion such as I have proposed for this group has taken place
in a.m.r or if it is welcome in there.

alt.fan.hucksters (originally proposed April 1992)
-----------------

This group would be for fans of colorful television spokesmen, referred
to in slang terminology as "hucksters."  In the United States, examples
of such would include Crazy Eddie, the late Earl Scheib, Cal
Worthington, Tom Peterson and Jack Roberts.  Hell, even people like
Robert Tilton and Hulk Hogan would qualify for inclusion here.  
Likewise, countless thousands of lesser-known "hucksters" exist 
everywhere else, including, no doubt, your local area.  I don't know if 
the phenomenon of "hucksters" exists elsewhere in the world or if it 
just an American thing, but if at all possible, I would hope that it 
wouldn't be an American-dominated newsgroup by any means.

alt.talk-radio (originally proposed April 1992)
--------------

(Alternate names for this newsgroup would include alt.radio.talk and
alt.radio.news-talk)

I originally was thinking of the name alt.talk-shows, but came to the
conclusion that the group would be swamped with people wanting to talk
about last night's Arsenio Hell show.  I first thought of this idea
about a year and a half ago.  Someone first proposed the idea of a talk
radio newsgroup to here before me, so it's been around this newsgroup at
least a few times before.  Back in 1990, during the early days of
alt.rush-limbaugh, there was a lot of discussion about how there should
be a separate group for every major talk show host out there. 
Thankfully, that never came to any fruition.  But there does appear to
some degree to be a demand for discussion about radio talk shows, and I 
don't think either of the Rush Limbaugh groups is appropriate for having
discussions about the shows of other hosts.  So, here we are.  Talk 
shows, anywhere, either national, regional or local, as well as 
discussion about the hosts of these shows and the intracacies of this 
genre of radio.

If alt.radio.news-talk is decided to be the best name, then add in with
the above the whole phenomenon of "news/talk" radio.


In addition, I proposed alt.bbs.wanted back in April.  I decided that
such an idea would be best dealt with as part of the growing comp.bbs.*
sub-hierarchy, especially since most of what plagued alt.bbs.* in this
regard has now been taken care of with alt.internet.access.wanted and
alt.internet.services.wanted.  So, sometime, I will issue an RFD on 
comp.bbs.wanted.

Now, for the new alt.* group proposals:


alt.tv.infomercials
-------------------

Yes, I will admit it, I've become an infomercial junkie.  For the
benefit of those of you who live in caves, infomercials are half-hour
paid advertisements for products and services, usually presented under 
the guise of being talk shows, and usually airing late at night on cable
TV.  Topics which can be discussed here are the production values and
comedy values of the shows, the merits of the products being advertised
and anything else that's relevant.  I don't know if misc.consumers or
rec.arts.tv already cover the ideas that this group would cover, though. 
Maybe someone could let me know about that.

Plus, the following alt.politics.* groups.  These would cover some of
the lesser-known presidential candidates, and would serve the same
purpose as the currently-existing alt.politics.* groups for presidential
candidates.

alt.politics.fulani
-------------------

Discussion about Lenora B. Fulani, candidate of the New Alliance Party,
running with Maria Elizabeth Munoz.

alt.politics.gritz
------------------

Discussion about James "Bo" Gritz, candidate of the Populist Party,
running with Cy Minett.

alt.politics.hagelin
--------------------

Discussion about John Hagelin, candidate of the Natural Law Party,
running with Mike Tompkins.

alt.politics.larouche
---------------------

Discussion about Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., running under the banner of
Independents for Economic Reform with running mate James L. Bevel.

alt.politics.phillips
---------------------

Discussion about Howard Phillips, candidate of the U.S. Taxpayers Party,
running with Albion W. Knight, Jr.

I believe that the existing alt.politics.* groups are far too overloaded
and dominated with discussion about the media candidates (Bush, Clinton,
Perot).  As such, it makes it impossible to carry on meaningful
discussions about anyone else running for President.  I know that
supporters of the above-mentioned candidates exist on the net, as I talk
to them quite often when I'm actually able to identify them through the
mass of dreck about the media candidates.

I know that I'm probably asking for too much here, but the only thing I
would ask with these alt.politics.* groups would be no cross-posting,
and all articles should have a 'usa' or lesser distribution.


That's all for now.  I would ask that you give me feedback on the
alt.politics.* groups immediately, if not sooner, as they are time-
critical.  In fact, I would like for the newgroups to be issued by
Friday.  IMO, waiting until next week would be meaningless for these
groups' existence.  "Well, why are you waiting until now to propose
these groups, Sean?"  Like I've mentioned several times above, I try my
best to maintain a life, although this sloth, er ah, VAX seems to insist
that I should spend my entire life on here waiting for it to catch up
with me.  As for the other groups, well, they can wait until whenever I
have the time to deal with it, which should be soon.  Let me know what
you think of these ideas.

************************************************************************
Sean Patrick Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan*****Internet: fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu
WWIVnet: 220@9704*CFN: au414*IRC: RadioKAOS, Aoxomoxoa*Ph: (907)488-8365
BITnet: FSSPR@ALASKA****Snail: P.O. Box 83381, Fairbanks, AK  99708-3381
***"I'm gonna Kentucky Fried Chickenize your prostate surgery." - Oswald
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Newsgroups: alt.config