From: rdd@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Robert Dorsett)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Alternate groupings in rec.aviation re-organization
Date: 22 Jul 1992 15:52:19 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Here's what I think should be in the final CFV on the rec.aviation 
re-organization, and how various possible groups listed in the survey 
would be absorbed.

In general, I'm considering HOW a topic would be used, rather than WHAT it 
is.  

I am also taking the position that a large number of groups, such
as in the RFD, is doomed to failure, either in a vote, or functionally,
once they're created.  Rather than try to make *everyone* happy at once, 
we should try to compartmentalize the major types of traffic.  Any further 
split can be made after an initial re-organization shows the new traffic-
patterns that *will* occur, using the traditional newsgroup-creation
process.

The following attempts to preserve the "strength" of rec.aviation, which
has always been recreational general aviation.  This is what its users
*do*, what they know the most *about*, and what, historically, they have been 
the most interested *in*.


GROUP I: Must have.  The re-organization fails if these don't pass.

1.  rec.aviation.misc          A group that all rec.aviators should read.

2.  rec.aviation.soaring       Soaring/ballooning/hang-gliding.

3.  rec.aviation.powered       Powered general aviation aircraft/flying/etc.

4.  rec.aviation.powered.ifr   IFR flight.
    
    
GROUP II: Should have.  They would make life a lot nicer.

5.  rec.aviation.answers       Maintenance group, moderated by Peck.

6.  rec.aviation.social        To keep traffic reasonable on misc.  Humor,
                               fly-ins, events, etc.

GROUP III: Nice to have.  Not a strong traffic-basis, but would likely 
flourish.

7.  rec.aviation.homebuilts    Homebuilt/experimental aircraft.  There is
                               likely a large user-base, and such traffic 
                               wouldn't really be appropriate elsewhere, but
                               so far, the homebuilt traffic has been very
                               low--hence, a third-tier group.

8.  rec.aviation.maintenance   A bit too technical for "misc," but not
                               really appropriate elsewhere.  Again, not an
                               overwhelming amount of such traffic, but what
                               does pop up can do so in weird places, if this
                               group isn't formed.

9.  sci.aeronautics.airliners  Moderated by Swartz, approved via a different 
                               proposal.  High-signal discussions on technical 
                               aspects of interest to airliner enthusiasts. 



And here's how all the various topics/interests would be absorbed in 
this setup.  By "in context" in the following, I mean that if a specific 
technical question arises in a thread, it should be discussed *in* that 
thread, and not laboriously cross-posted to "specialist" groups.  I take 
the position that these "specialist" groups would tend to be very tedious 
to read, since they would generally reflect the "tail-ends" of any 
discussion.
    
    rec.aviation.atc            as it appears in context.
    rec.aviation.ifr            rec.aviation.powered.ifr
    rec.aviation.legal          as it appears in context
    rec.aviation.ownership      misc
    rec.aviation.regulatory     as it appears in context
    rec.aviation.hang-gliding   soaring
    rec.aviation.helo           powered
    rec.aviation.lta            soaring
    rec.aviation.piloting       soaring/powered/powered.ifr
    rec.aviation.vfr            powered/soaring
    rec.aviation.digest         Undecided.  Not needed with small group-set.
    rec.aviation.products       Misc/in context
    rec.aviation.simulators     KILL/in context/games groups.
    rec.aviation.software       Misc/in context
    rec.aviation.events         misc/social
    rec.aviation.flyins         misc/social
    rec.aviation.history        misc
    rec.aviation.humor          misc/social
    rec.aviation.warbirds       misc
    rec.aviation.airline        KILL/sci.aeronautics/sci.aeronautics.airliners
    rec.aviation.airplanes      misc/in context
    rec.aviation.binary         KILL/news-binaries groups.
    rec.aviation.medical        misc
    rec.aviation.military       KILL/sci.military
    rec.aviation.safety         in context/misc
    rec.aviation.theory         in context/sci.aeronautics.
    rec.aviation.careers        misc
    rec.aviation.cfi            in contxt/misc
    rec.aviation.student        in contxt/misc




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