HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: emcguire@intellection.com (Ed McGuire)
Subject: Re: PROPOSAL:  Yes votes >= 200+2*No Votes
Organization: Intellection, Inc.
	<1992Dec21.191558.28303@ennews.eas.asu.edu>
	<EMCGUIRE.92Dec21174431@fuller.intellection.com>
	<id.0D1W.J32@ferranti.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 17:03:13 GMT

In article <id.0D1W.J32@ferranti.com> peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:

   I don't know. I find there is a higher correlation between a low
   absolute number of "NO" votes and a healthy group.  [...] I mean
   high signal-to-noise ratio.

Sounds like a natural correlation to me.  But then do you think that I
should be free to vote against a newsgroup which I expect to be poor
quality?  If not, why not?

A high s/n ratio is of value to both a newsgroup and a mailing list.
What we're after here is a way to decide when one or the other is the
better distribution mechanism.  Right now the rules assume that 100+
on the vote means there will be wide enough distribution that news is
better than mail.  The primary objection to the 100+ rule is that 100
is no longer enough given the growth of Usenet to establish that the
group will be widely enough read.

Another issue I have with easy newsgroup creation is that mailing
lists are generally of better quality in terms of s/n ratio.  I also
think that mailing lists are accessible to more people than
newsgroups.  This leads me to expect that the best way to grow a
quality group is to start it as a mailing list, then propose a
newsgroup when the traffic makes mail impractical, and gateway the
group and the mailing list.  I'm open to counterargument, but agreeing
may be difficult given that any disputes about s/n ratio will be hard
to settle objectively.
-- 
Ed McGuire                   1603 LBJ Freeway, Suite 780
Systems Administrator/       Dallas, Texas 75234
 Member of Technical Staff   214/620-2100, FAX 214/484-8110
Intellection, Inc.           <ed@intellection.com>

Raise Usenet quality.  Read news.announce.newgroups and vote.
Xref: sparky news.groups:24875 rec.autos.vw:7706
Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Wednesday, 23 Dec 1992 11:26:51 EST
From: Robert D. Haskins <HASKINS@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Newsgroups: news.groups,rec.autos.vw
Subject: Re: RFD: rec.autos.vw reorganization
Distribution: na
 <1992Dec22.182307.21487@gumby.dsd.trw.com>

I do not think that the traffic through rec.autos.vw justifies seperate
newsgroups.  As a newsgroup administrator, needless (IMHO) newsgroups
do not excite me.
From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: RFD: talk.politics.patriot
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:08:32 GMT
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC

In article <a_rubin.724456483@dn66> a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) writes:
> >	How about talk.politics.reactionary as an alternative?

> misc.activism.{reactionary,conservative}?

I think that a *moderated* misc.activism.conservative would be an excellent
idea, along with an unmoderated talk.politics.conservative.

(me, I always thought conservative meant, you know, conservative. Like the
 Nature Conservancy, and the conservation movement... but if they want to
 redefine this word I'll happily let them join the progressives in their
 mutilation of the language)
-- 
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Ferranti International Controls Corporation                'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012 USA
+1 713 274 5180                            "Zure otsoa besarkatu al duzu gaur?"
From: geoffb@coos.dartmouth.edu (Geoff Bronner)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: what happened to rec.arts.erotica??
Date: 30 Dec 92 18:52:48 GMT
Reply-To: geoffb@Dartmouth.EDU
Organization: Amos Tuck School
Disclaimer: I don't represent Dartmouth and Dartmouth doesn't represent me.

In <725728012snz@chaz.demon.co.uk> Ashley@chaz.demon.co.uk (Charles Ashley) writes:

>Is <rec.arts.erotica> still in existence?  Has it been renamed?  I haven't
>any news from this group for along time (but i'm getting news from all 
>other groups).

rec.arts.erotica has been very quiet. A few months ago some people
complained that the moderator was a) too slow to approved submitted
articles, b) too strict about content, and c) didn't answer email promptly
either. Nyah.
Anyway, the result of the complaints was the creation of alt.sex.stories
(which is mostly noise and has little worthwhile content) and an
announcement by Evan that he would step down as moderator in favor of
someone else (whose name escapes me at the moment).

Perhaps the new moderator has no submissions now that alt.sex.stories is
so popular?

-Geoff
--
geoffb@Dartmouth.EDU - Computing Support Consultant, Tuck School of Business
_____________________________________________________________________________
Cerebus for Dictator in 1993!! | "Whether you are quiet and alive or quiet
    "Vote for me or else."     |  and dead makes no difference to Cerebus."
Newsgroups: news.groups,alt.native
From: idoy@crux1.cit.cornell.edu (Mike Wilson)
Subject: NATIVE STRAW POLL: SPIN DOCTOR AT WORK
Summary: Comments on the results of the straw poll.
Keywords: native newsgroup
Organization: Cornell Information Technologies
Date: 22 Dec 92 06:09:22 GMT

My two cent's worth about the poll. It seems to me that, at the
very least, it's clear that the preferred hierarchy is 
soc.culture.native*.  The question becomes whether we want
to say with soc.culture.native or move ahead with soc.culture.
native.american. 

My own feeling is that we will be better served to create a
soc.culture.native and then later make divisions as the traffic
warrants.  I believe, furthermore, that a revised charter should
reflect this greater inclusiveness, calling for discussions
for and about native people all over the world. Later, divisions 
by region may be in order, but we can cross that bridge when
we come to it.

I hope that those who want to push ahead with soc.culture.native.
american will settle for soc.culture.native for now.  If we can
come together on the name issue at this point, I believe we have
an excellent chance of finally having a mainstream native newsgroup,
something we should have had a long time ago.  I further hope that 
after the first of the year, we can come back and put together 
a name and charter that will finally allow us to work together 
in the spirit of compromise to get the job done.

Thanks for your help and happy holidays,

Mike Wilson
Newsgroups: news.groups
From: phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie)
Subject: Re: what does it take to get someone to vote?
Organization: Digital Transmission Systems, Duluth, GA.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 14:27:41 GMT

In article <n1258t@ofa123.fidonet.org> Kay.Shapero@f524.n102.z1.fidonet.org writes:
>On <Dec 17 12:40>, Spiros Triantafyllopoulos (1:103/208) wrote to All:
> ST>Perhaps something more drastic is needed. Force the USENET 
> ST>newsreader
> ST>programs to make it MANDATORY to vote on a certain percentage of 
> ST>CFV's
> ST>otherwise they can't read news... Totally automate the voting 
> ST>process
>
>And I can imagine a LOT of people voting NO on everything just out of
>sheer irritation...  I'm not so sure it's really so desirable to have
>everybody vote on usenet items - if the subject is neither one in which
>the user has an interest nor one that is so badly misnamed, adequately
>handled elsewhere or a Threat to the Net as We Know It (tm).. why SHOULD he
>or she vote?  What is the point?

Not to mention that this would no doubt create a barrier to the acceptance of
such newsreaders - why upgrade to them if Cnews lets you read w/o this
hassle.

I suppose that if the newsreader could automatically scan and report the
outstanding RFD/CFV count, and the groups affected, as a separate command,
this would be nice; this does have the problem with missing messages, history
file retention, etc, however.


-- 
Pete Hardie:  phardie@nastar  (voice) (404) 497-0101
Digital Transmission Systems, Inc., Duluth GA
Member, DTS Dart Team           |  cat * | egrep -v "signature virus|infection" 
Position:  Goalie               |
Xref: sparky news.groups:24944 rec.arts.movies:36234
From: rlm@surfcty.com (Robert McMillin)
Newsgroups: news.groups,rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Rec.arts.cinema : rmgroup?
Keywords: Hello!  McFly!
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 13:35:58 PST
Distribution: all
Organization: Surf City Software, Orange, Calfornia - DUDE!

jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (JKF) writes:

> In article <28153@dog.ee.lbl.gov> TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:
> >You propose rmgrouping a group because as of now in your newsreader
> >it has no posts?  Sheesh.  BTW, might you consider posting to 
> >rec.arts.movies also to let them know what you're up to?  I'd expect
> >that some folks there may have input since I would assume that
> >they helped bring it about in the first place.  Maybe we ought to
> >get rid of alt.cult.movies too since that's redundant too huh?
> 
> Sorry to inject some facts into this discussion, but it should be pointed
> out that rec.arts.cinema is a moderated group, and that no posts seem to
> have appeared for quite some time.  I posted to it a month ago and my post
> never appeared.  I tried again today; we'll see what happens.  
> 
> I wonder how many moderated groups are out there where the moderator has
> just given up, left, lost net access, etc. etc. etc?  There've been
> several threads over the past year saying "this group is moderated, but my
> posts never appear, in fact, NO posts every appear, what can we do?"  And
> nothing ever gets done because, in fact, this seems to bring up some
> problems with unmoderating newsgroups that sound mystic and arcane to all
> and sundry.  I can't recall any moderated newsgroup that's lost its
> moderator emerging from the discussion with a new moderator or with
> unmoderated status.
> 
> If memory serves, there is no way to "unmoderate" a newsgroup effectively,
> since some news software programs out there won't ever acknowledge it and
> CAN'T acknowledge it.  David Lawrence has said that basically what you
> have to do is rmgroup the group and then make a new one if people want. 
> In this case, I think that might be well advised.  

Yes indeedy.  I haven't seen any posts on this group now for ages (since
June!).  This group should be restarted unmoderated.  (How lame that
some people's mail readers can't handle a change from moderated to un-.)
Good luck!
Newsgroups: news.groups
From: pdh@netcom.com (Phil Howard )
Subject: Re: STRAW VOTE ON NAME FOR NATIVE AMERICANS NEWSGROUP
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 19:20:38 GMT

chisnall@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz (The Technicolour Throw-up) writes:

>How about soc.culture.autochthon?   Autochthon is precisely the word that
>people are looking for here.  Its unambiguous (unlike "native") and free of
>derogatory connotations (unlike "aboriginal").  The only thing against it is
>that it probably too obscure to most people.

We can't expect Usenet readers to learn something new  :-)

The problem with this proposal is that it makes sense  :-)
-- 
/************************************************************************\
| Phil Howard,  pdh@netcom.com,  KA9WGN    Spell protection?  "1(911)A1" |
| "It's not broken... it's just functionally challenged" --Phil and Pete |
\************************************************************************/
From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: talk.politics.conservative (Was: Re: RFD: talk.politics.patriot)
Date: 22 Dec 92 15:15:59 GMT
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC

In article <BzM6J8.175@polaris.async.vt.edu> jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr) writes:
> Don't be a cretin, Brandon.  Why should Norwegians be exposed to ideas on
> American conservative politics?  Do *you* regularly expose yourself to
> talk and debate on Norwegian political issues?

I don't know about Norway, but there's a lot of talk about British, Dutch,
Swedish, and German politics around here. Sweden has the unique position of
acting as a stalking horse for BOTH the right and the left, amusingly enough.

You should listen to Rush Limbaugh more often. You're likely to spend a lot
of time annoying the people next door as you scream at the radio, but you'll
get a better idea of what the other side thinks.

(I find myself screaming more at Rush than at the left simply because Rush
*tries* to be controversial, whereas the folks on the left on the radio tend
to be sweetness&light types. Both sides badly need a clue)
-- 
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Ferranti International Controls Corporation                'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012 USA
+1 713 274 5180                            "Zure otsoa besarkatu al duzu gaur?"
Newsgroups: news.groups
From: twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce)
Subject: Re: newgroup comp.archives.msdos.announce moderated
Organization: Elitist Usenet Administrators, Turkey Division
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 01:15:37 GMT

In article <9212211020.AA10732@tacom-emh1.army.mil> w8sdz@tacom-emh1.army.mil (Keith Petersen) writes:

>This is a repost of the newgroup originally posted 15 Dec 92 18:43:50 GMT
>by tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence).

Third time's the charm, or what?

-- 
____ Tim Pierce                / 
\  / twpierce@unix.amherst.edu /               Rocks say goodbye.
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) / 
Newsgroups: news.groups
From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb)
Subject: Re: RFD: rec.sport.rowing
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:07:47 GMT

In article <1gjc0nINN2q1@news.UU.NET> gumby@spock.uucp (Danny Richman) writes:
>Proposed Newsgroup: rec.sport.rowing
>
>The proposed newsgroup, rec.sport.rowing, would open up a new frontier for 
>rowers around the world.  Currently the only newsgroup which rowers are only 
>slightly welcome to is rec.boats.paddle.  Rowing is completely unrelated to 
>canoeing, kayaking, or river rafting, and the discussions which take place 
>there are of no interest to rowers.

I do think rec.sport.rowing is a good idea. I would beg to differ over the
assertion that "rowing is completely unrealted to canoeing, kayaking..." 
etc. This could only be claimed by someone so involved in the minutia
of the sports as to be unable to see the larger picture. I once knew a
weight lifter who was upset that his particular version of weight lifting
was not included in the Olympic games. He also claimed that his event was
"completely unrelated" to other forms of weight lifting. For his benefit
I listed a couple of dozen target shooting events that were "completely
unrelated" to each other and, thus, also needed Olympic recognition. I
think he got the idea. 

In fact, the sport of flatwater canoe or kayak racing is probably more
closely related to crew than it is to whitewater kayaking. I think that
the new rowing newsgroup should make room for flatwater racers whether
they use a paddle or oar.
-- 

Donald R. Newcomb                * Life only admits two states: 
dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu        * growing and dying. So what,
newcomb@usmcp6.bitnet            * if I've put on a little weight?
Xref: sparky news.groups:24943 sci.crypt:6240
From: shri@unreal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar)
Newsgroups: news.groups,sci.crypt
Subject: Re: RFD: sci.crypt.research
Summary: GOOD name ... but PLS DONT MODERATE!
Date: 28 Dec 92 20:57:52 GMT
Reply-To: shri@unreal.cs.umass.edu (H.Shrikumar)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Sys & Computer Networks Bombay India

In article <4fDb2em00WB=84isY1@andrew.cmu.edu> 
   strong+@CMU.EDU (Thomas W. Strong, Jr.) writes:

> 		create	sci.crypt.research

>   The idea of a moderated group has been floating around for a while,

  Good idea, good name too. Suggestive enough to keep the politics out.

But please DO NOT moderate it ! Considering the percentage of various
kinds of traffic in sci.crypt at the moment, those interested in the
"research" will only move to the new group, and that should be small 
enough.

This posted to sci.crypt to attract attention to my request NOT to
moderate. All further follow-up to news.groups only please!

-- shrikumar ( shri@legato.cs.umass.edu )
From: geoffb@coos.dartmouth.edu (Geoff Bronner)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Manly Geoff Bronner (Re: RFD: soc.culture.native.american)
Date: 23 Dec 92 20:04:34 GMT
Reply-To: geoffb@Dartmouth.EDU
Organization: Amos Tuck School
Disclaimer: I don't represent Dartmouth and Dartmouth doesn't represent me.

In <EMCGUIRE.92Dec23093005@fuller.intellection.com> emcguire@intellection.com (Ed McGuire) writes:

>Be serious, it's hard for me to type and laugh at the same time.
>What's your damage?  Who's being rude?  It was rude of Brian to foist
>his minority view of the issue on me and everyone with his comment
>"what we want here is soc.culture.native," 

Actually, the 'we' refered to the people in the current discussion, not
Native Americans. If you missed that then you are dense.

>and it was rude of you to
>name me a fool.  If you think that punchline is rude, then the joke
>has not been told to you properly by a Native American and you are
>compounding ignorance with hostility.  But the point of the punchline
>was to slam Brian's imputation of his view to everyone, not to label
>him a white man, and I doubt that you missed the point.  

I didn't miss the point, but that really isn't the point. Throwing a
racial comment like that (and it is, no matter whay you may think) into a
discussion like this is foolish and rude. So I stand by my earlier post.

>It is
>ridiculous for you to defend his race and his manliness, and I'm
>unimpressed that you dragged his Nation into it in the process.  If he
>takes offense, I hope he confronts me himself.  He certainly doesn't
>need you to fight his battles for him.  

No he doesn't, I'm sure he'll have a comment or two when he gets back from
vacation.

>Your posturing is more
>egotistical and overbearing than his comment and his antagonistic
>attitude in general towards the consensus forming on the new group,

If you don't like his attitude then address that in email. Some of his
points are valid (I don't agree with him 100% but so what...) and if they
aren't addressed now they could come back to screw up the vote later.

>and I'm not surprised to hear that the two of you sleep in the same
>house.  It's obvious from your signature that you want absolute power
>to bludgeon to death anyone who doesn't defer to you.

Oh, that's just too cute. Now we're even because you just gave me the
laugh of the day.

-Geoff
--
geoffb@Dartmouth.EDU - Computing Support Consultant, Tuck School of Business
          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
            "Before we had 'Freedom To,' now we have 'Freedom From.' 
          Don't underrate it."     - Aunt Lydia, "The Handmaid's Tale"
From: chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chua HakLien)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Rec.arts.cinema : rmgroup?
Date: 23 Dec 1992 16:00:10 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandstorm.berkeley.edu

Since we already have rec.arts.movies, and nobody seems to be using
r.a.cinema, why not remove it?

Chua
+==+
Lines: 11
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 14:10:06 MST
From: gritton@alaska.et.byu.edu (Jamie Gritton)
Organization: Brigham Young University, Provo UT USA
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: talk.politics.usa.conservative (Was: Re: RFD: talk.politics.patriot)
Reply-To: gritton@byu.edu
	<id.US1W.YS3@ferranti.com> <BzqrD5.8JC@polaris.async.vt.edu>

jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (J. Furr) writes:

> If there were a us. hierarchy, I'd say "put this group there."  But as
> mail trickles in from people explaining the us. hierarchy to me, I'd say
> that it's not real likely to be a functioning hierarchy anytime soon. 
> Thus, the least ambiguous name would be "talk.politics.usa.conservative". 

   Ah, here we see the very attitude that is standing in the way of
us.* ever gaining its ground.
--
James Gritton - gritton@byu.edu - I disclaim
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: sci.crypt.research -> sci.crypt.theory
Date: 29 Dec 92 09:21:26 GMT
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

In article <75982@apple.apple.COM> lenoil@catalogic.com (Robert Lenoil) writes:
>>Maybe `sci.crypt.theory' is better.
>
>This is probably splitting hairs, but I guess that's what news.groups is for.
>I'll second the motion - sci.crypt.theory sounds less imposing than

(For some reason, our site never got the end of your article; the text
stops here).


I can agree with your reasoning, but I do *not* think that
sci.crypt.theory is a good name, since that name would exclude a lot
of technical questions that aren't really about theory but about
implementation. 

On the other hand, sci.crypt.research is not perfect either, but it
has a precedent in sci.math.research, comp.compression.research and
the proposed sci.physics.research.

              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 magnus@thep.lu.se, thepmo@seldc52.bitnet  |  /      \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e-      \q
From: jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel K. Furr)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: talk.politics.usa.conservative (Was: Re: RFD: talk.politics.patriot)
Date: 22 Dec 92 20:04:17 GMT
Organization: Virginia Center for Lemur Fandom (subscribe to alt.fan.lemurs TODAY)

In article <id.OF0W.KA@ferranti.com> peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
>In article <a_rubin.724456483@dn66> a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) writes:
>> >	How about talk.politics.reactionary as an alternative?
>> misc.activism.{reactionary,conservative}?
>I think that a *moderated* misc.activism.conservative would be an excellent
>idea, along with an unmoderated talk.politics.conservative.
>
>(me, I always thought conservative meant, you know, conservative. Like the
> Nature Conservancy, and the conservation movement... but if they want to
> redefine this word I'll happily let them join the progressives in their
> mutilation of the language)

Oh, come ON, Peter, don't be such a bleeding rocket scientist.  Assuming
you live in the USA, where has your mind BEEN for the last twelve years
while we've had Presidents in the White House who only used the word
"conservative" about every fifth word, and used it to mean
right-of-the-political-center?  

Seems to me that *you're* the one who needs to get in line here and stop
trying to redefine a word that has a clear meaning to most people.
Newsgroups: news.groups,alt.messianic
From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: talk.politics.usa.conservative (Was: Re: RFD: talk.politics.patriot)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 20:25:35 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.135845.2219@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jfurr@nyx.cs.du.edu (Joel Furr) writes:
> I'm sorry, but according to Peter da Silva, the word "Conservative" is
> used almost everywhere to mean ecological-conservation etcetera, not a
> political viewpoint.

According to Peter da Silva, the word "Conservative" even within the United
States of America composes such a wide variety of people that it's virtually
meaningless. I've given a number of examples. The way you've picked up on just
one of them is either a bogus debating point, or an indication of a lack of
comprehension that's nearly the equal of Kent Paul Dolan at his unmedicated
finest.

There are members of the American Political Right on BOTH sides of just about
any question. The same is true of the American Political Left, the American
Political Center, and any other American Political Label you want to name.
-- 
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Ferranti International Controls Corporation                'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012 USA
+1 713 274 5180                            "Zure otsoa besarkatu al duzu gaur?"
Newsgroups: news.groups,rec.arts.movies