From: JLM@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin
Subject: BENDING THE GUIDELINES IS BAD NEWS
Date: 9 Apr 92 18:58:55 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center



 The RFD on soc.personals.* has said that two of the
proposed groups may not passed due to the so called
"homophobic" voters on the net; so in order to prevent
this alledged problem, the proposer of the RFD suggested
suspending the requirement that each group be considered as
a separate vote. After I and others voiced our objection to
the kind of precedent that such bending of the Guidelines
would create, the proposer has announced that following the
advice of several moderators (among them David Lawrence) he
will hold separate votes on each of the four groups. However,
he intends to put a provision in the CFV stating that if any
one of the groups fails then *all* groups fail regardless of
the votes. As he says it "what a loophole."

 Such a "loophole" in my opinion is no different than suspending
the Guidelines just to accomodate any one particular group (regardless
how altruistic or worthy that group may be); we are about to set a
terrible precedent. The result of what is about to take place can
already be seen in a post (be it serious or in jest) by Iain McCord
regarding another proposed group:



In article <9352@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk>, imcc@cs.strath.ac.uk (Iain McCord)
says:
>
>  It seems, from the RFD on soc.personals.*, that the 'powers that be' will
>allow the passing of a vote to be ignored if other groups on the same ballot
>fail.
>  I suggest that a rename of r.g.f to r.g.f.misc be added to the ballot and
>be conditional on the passing of at least 2 other groups.
>
>
>                ~~~~~/\~~~~~
>Iain McCord     ~~~~/()\~~~~    Thu Apr  9 11:26:25 WET DST 1992
>                ~~~~~~~~~~~~


 We have spent a long amount of time attacking another proposer/vote-taker
for disregarding the Guidelines, yet we are saying that we are willing
to allow certain groups to disregard the guidelines if we feel like it.

 Obviously the Net does not know the meaning of EQUALITY and FAIRNESS.

 Either we apply the Guidelines equally to every group, or we just simply
dispose of the Guidelines right now, once and for all and never mention
them again for any reason whatsoever. And live with the madness and chaos
that may come afterwards (as if we didn't have enough of that already).

 I for one will make one final attempt at keeping whatever shreds of
sanity and rationality we have left on the net and will ask David Lawrence
to withdraw his alledged support for "one vote for four different groups".

 I hope I am not alone in this.

 By the way, how do I feel about the four proposed groups ? I feel that
they all deserve to pass, but as four separate votes with no special
provisions attached to them. If done according to the guidelines
I'll vote YES for all of them, but if the guidelines are suspended
or twisted I intend to vote NO on all four.

 Sincerely,

Jose L. Martinez
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: I said what I said and that's all that I said and nobody else
            said it.
Newsgroups: news.groups