From: alok@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (alok.vijayvargia)
Newsgroups: news.groups,soc.culture.indian.american,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.misc
Subject: Straw Poll: SCIA Revote or Not ?
Date: 14 Apr 92 23:12:19 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T


Net Users:

This is a call for a straw poll to determine how many netusers want to have 
a revote conducted for the group soc.culture.indian.american (SCIA).
This is a group for discussing issues of interest to American Citizens and 
Permanent Residents of Asian Indian origin residing in USA.

A RFD for SCIA was posted on October 19, 1991 by this poster. Subsequently 
after a 30 day discussion period a formal call for votes (CFV) was posted
on November 19, 1991. The voting closed on December 12, 1991. Results of
the voting were posted on December 13, 1991. A five day waiting period was
observed until December 18, 1991. There were no objections to the votes
or the voting procedures at all during this period. As such the
moderator of the news.announce.newgroups, in accordance with established
guidelines for newgroup creation, sent out a newgroup creation message to
the USENET sites. The group was created on December 19, 1991 and
was immediately put to use by a number of individuals including this
poster. The group is now carried at 48 % of the sites, mostly USA, as 
intended by the proposer and the users of this group.

A number of objections were raised about this group starting December 26,
1991. One of those objections was its name. A name poll was recently conducted
by Mr. Jose Martinez. This confirmed without doubt that SCIA was the 
appropriate name for the group.

There have been two other signifcant objections which may be cited here.
First being the posting of the RFD/CFV on alt.native in addition to
soc.culture.indian, soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.misc and news.groups.
SEcond being a post sent by this poster on a private
mailing list indicating a total of votes arrived without YES/NO counts,
and an appeal for more votes with an expression of hope that they be YES
votes. Many people believe that this resulted in additional votes
leading to passing of the group.

The discussion on news.groups on these objections indicates a difference
on opinions.  Impact of posting of CFV on alt.native was examined in a
recent query which was conducted for 27 days on news.groups and alt.native.
This indicated that posting CFV on alt.native resulted in only 1 additional
vote. Passing margin being 5, this does not change the result.

This leaves the charge some people indicated as serious enough to
require a revote. They believe this was unethical and against net spirit
for the vote-taker (this poster) to send such a message. Others note that
no YES/NO counts were provided in this message and as such it did
not amount to a violation of the guidelines. Furthermore they point out
that a voter is free to choose his/her voting option despite such a 
message. No one has indicated that any force was used in making someone 
vote YES. Noting all this, the second group believes that this charge
is not serious enough to require a revote.

A revote may or may not result in passing of this group again. The group is 
currently functioning healthy enough within USENET standards with an average 
of 10 posts being posted per day. It is perceived by most people that there 
is strong enough support to continue this group. However a few maintain that 
the group is not needed. Some other few continue to point out that the group 
was established unethically for the reason mentioned above.

This straw poll is intended to establish whether a revote should be
conducted for this group. If 2/3 of those voting indicate a preference for 
revote, a revote shall be carried out. Timing of any such revote, if required, 
will be established later in consultation with net users/group-advice. 
2/3 majority is desired for a revote since this is an existing group.

Please send in your vote to att!probe!alok latest by April 19. Receipt of 
votes will be acknowledged in batches until end of 19th. A final vote
tally will be posted on the morning of April 20.
All votes postmarked on or before April 19, 18.00.00 hours EST will be
counted. 

Please send in your vote as "YES, revote please" or "NO, no revote required".
No reason is required for your voting one way or the other.
I prefer that vote be succint without any reasons. 
Please put down your full name for identification purposes.
If you vote more than once, your last vote will be the one counted.

Thank you for your time.


Alok Vijayvargia
att!probe!alok
Newsgroups: news.groups,sci.astro