From: fath1@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Fath)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: RFD: rec.arts.marching
Date: 30 Sep 92 02:51:48 GMT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <BvAK0n.C9B@uunet.uu.net> pae@blackcat.stortek.com (Phil Earnhardt) writes:
>Request for Discussion
>
>Newsgroup: rec.arts.marching
>
>Purpose: Discussion of Drum & Bugle Corps, Bands, and Color Guards
>
>Why: The Drum & Bugle Corps (D&B) competetive season is held over the summer.
>This year, USENET discussion of D&B has been held in the newsgroup
>alt.drumcorps.  There was high-quality discussion of the competetive season,
>etc. from at least 100 different posters. We have a FAQ which has been posted
>to news.answers.
>
>The other two activities rec.arts.marching would include would be marching
>bands and color guards. Both competetive And non-competetive marching bands
>would be included in the discussion. The primary color guard activity is a
>guard-only competetive season held over the winter.
>
>Naming Options: During informal discussion, it was suggested that the group be
>either directly under rec, or under rec.music. The rec.arts hierarchy is
>recommended here, because music is not always present in these performances,
>but "marching" is. Also, the word "march" is used to describe what
>participants in these activities do, whether or not they're performing a
>rigid, military two-step.
>
>The absence of "drumcorps" from the name is to cast a wider net -- all three
>activities -- for the rec group. At a future date, there's a natural point for
>a drum corps-only group -- rec.arts.marching.drumcorps.
>
>An alternative suggestion is to go ahead and have the CFV be for two groups:
>rec.arts.marching.drumcorps and rec.arts.marching.misc. We may do a straw poll
>to see if we will issue the CFV for the two groups.
>
>Discussion of this proposal should take place in news.groups.
>
>--phil
>pae@blackcat.stortek.com

Thanks Phil for posting this.  We of alt.drumcorps have been eager to upgrade
to rec. status for awhile now.  The volume and quality of traffic supports
our thought that the group should be given rec. status.  Since this group
is intended to be the product of alt.drumcorps, I would like to suggest that
we should include the word drumcorps in the group name.  

Informal discussion on alt.drumcorps has prompted several names for the new  
group if it gets approved.  I strongly favor a name like:

rec.arts.drumcorps
or
rec.arts.marching.drumcorps

instead of rec.arts.marching.

While I understand the desire to be inclusive of bands and colorguard, I
believe that a name like rec.arts.marching will be too obscure for people
to follow.  Phil had mentioned earlier that he could remind people that
rec.arts.marching was a drumcorps discussion group by posting reminders
to alt.drumcorps periodically.  Unfortunately, this will not work for those
people who do not get alt. newsgroups.  And one of our goals for creating
rec.arts.drumcorps is to extend our readership to people without alt access.

We did have traffic about marching bands on alt.drumcorps; both college and
high school.  But such traffic died down during the summer.  Now that the
football season has started, I anticipate more traffic for marching bands.
In fact, in rec.sport.football.college, there have been many posts on
college marching bands.

This prompts me to suggest that ReadNews could also easily support a second
rec.arts.marching.band group. 

To summarize:

I strongly support the creation of a new newsgroup for drum corps and one
for marching bands.

I argue that rec.arts.marching is not a preferable name because it is not
informative enough.  I suggest instead that two groups be created:

rec.arts.marching.drumcorps
rec.arts.marching.bands

If people are unsure that ReadNews traffic is sufficient, please check out
alt.drumcorps and rec.sport.football.college 

Michael Fath
-- 
MM   MM FFFFF 	Michael Fath		fath1@husc.harvard.edu
M M M M F	Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
M  M  M FFF     Harvard Medical School         
M     M F       Boston, MA 02115				**Enjoy life!