From: gibbsm@ll.mit.edu (MargAret D. Gibbs)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps
Subject: ALL: Splitting r.a.t.s. mini-FAQ
Summary: Frequently Asked Question re splitting this newsgroup
Keywords: split faq
Date: 23 Nov 92 12:48:42 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Organization: M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory



Last-posted: new - not previously posted
Changes since last posting: none

This is an experiment aimed towards people who don't read the long,
monthly FAQ (Frequently Asked Question list) for one reason or another,
even though it could help them solve their problems!  I am going to
post some of the topics covered in the FAQ separately, and not all on
one day.  Hopefully the shorter articles will encourage more people to
become familiar with these topics.

**************

Approximately once every three months or so (sometimes more often), someone
brings up the idea of splitting rec.arts.tv.soaps (RATS) into several
smaller, easier to read newsgroups -- you can be assured that the idea will
be brought up at the beginning of each and every school semester as new
people get access to RATS.  While this may seem like a very good idea, it
is really quite impractical for at least the following two reasons (we're
sure there are more):

1.- Creating new newsgroups is very difficult and is a very long and drawn
    out process.  In order to create a new group, the proposal has to be
    discussed on news.groups and be voted on and approved by the net-world
    at large -- that means  everybody, not just us RATSers.  For a new
    group to be created it must receive at least 100 more "yes" votes than
    "no" votes *and* at least twice as many "yes" votes as "no" votes.

2.- How to split the group?  People in RATS are quite divided on this
    issue.  Do we split by each soap?  Obviously there aren't enough people
    discussing some soaps for them to warrant their own group.  Do we split
    by network?  Some people watch soaps from more than one network so they
    don't want a split -- and what about posts that are meant for everyone?
    Where would they get posted?  Do we split by volume?  Different soaps
    generate varying amounts of conversation depending on what's happening
    in the show -- it's hard to anticipate where to make such a split.
    While we might come to some sort of agreement on the split, there will
    be several RATSers who are against that particular split so they'd vote
    "no" -- add those "no" votes to the votes of the people against the
    creation of any new groups and the people who don't think a discussion
    of soaps is warranted on USENET and the split just won't pass.

Basically, the point is, this issue has been discussed over and over and
over here in RATS and the consensus is to just leave things the way they
are.  We've yet to find anyone willing to do all the work to separate the
group.  We recommend that anyone who wishes to attempt a split of RATS read
news.groups for at least two weeks (and we mean read *every* article) and
then decide if you really want to go to the effort.  In addition to the
difficulties involved in getting a new group created, we'd have the added
difficulty in trying to convince the net-world at large that soap operas
are important enough to even warrant the existence of RATS -- let alone the
creation of several new groups.  Simply announcing the idea in news.groups
would create an incredible amount of "nasty" anti-soap talk which would be
very unpleasant.

One last thing, check out the part of rec.arts.tv.soaps FAQ which explains
the use of kill files to weed out articles you are not interested in.  We
realize everyone doesn't have access to a kill file but there's nothing we
can do about that.  If you are such a person, you might consider speaking
with your system administrator about upgrading your news reading software.

[Thanks to Joanna Castillo (pefv702@humble.pe.utexas.edu) and
 Cindy Camp (snoopy@spacemanspiff.den.mmc.com)]

------
The complete soaps-faq is available through anonymous ftp from 
pit-manager.mit.edu under /pub/usenet/news.answers/tv/soaps/faq, 
or send email to mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu with 
"send /pub/usenet/news.answers/tv/soaps/faq" in the body of the 
message.  Send comments, corrections, additions to me, questions 
to the newsgroup (I don't know everything and can't answer 
everything). THANKS.
-- 
Margaret D. Gibbs              "Practice random kindness and 
Assistant Staff	                 senseless acts of beauty"
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
gibbsm@ll.mit.edu