From: skirv@big-8.org (Tim Skirvin)
Subject: [B8MB] State of Affairs - Voting, Removals, Polling, Committees
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups
Followup-To: news.groups
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:12:27 -0700
It's been about a month since my last report on the goings-on with
the Big-8 Management Board. I've got a few things to report.
Reporting Voting Counts and Consensus
-------------------------------------
Astute observers of news.announce.newgroups may have noticed that we are
now reporting some vote results as "by consensus". This change was
implemented in large part due to a suggestions by Geoff Berrow and Mark
Goodge; what it indicates is that there were no Board objections to the
proposal, and that a vote was deemed unnecessary. A single objection
can still force a vote. We hope that this will streamline the process
somewhat - and, in fact, our initial runs using the system have been
both faster and more clear.
Note that when a proposal does go to a vote, we will continue to report
the actual vote totals.
Group Removals
--------------
Much of the work we've put into the system over the last few weeks has
concerned group removals, and particularly large-scale removals. The
Deadwood Groups Task Force currently has eleven groups in the NAN queue,
as well as a larger proposal for 31(!) more groups that we're delaying.
The Board is currently working on drafting procedures that will allow
us to handle this kind of load gracefully. How we currently expect this
to work:
1. The proponent posts a comprehensive RFD to NAN and news.groups.
2. A message is posted to each target group which points to the
message ID of the RFD and announces that all development of the
RFD will take place through discussion in news.groups and posts
in n.a.n.; such notices should have followup set to news.groups,
although those who wish may crosspost to the groups slated to be
removed.
3. All further versions of the RFD, Last Call for Comments, and
results are posted only to n.a.n. and news.groups.
Comments on this meta-procedure are, as always, welcome and encouraged.
The relevant web pages for all removal issues:
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:rmgroup
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:removal
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:rmgroup_rfd
Polling
-------
The B8MB is still extremely interested in setting up a useful polling
system that would (amongst other goals) help proponents decide on basic
issues regarding their proposals - group names, charter information,
etc - and to gather information that will allow the Board itself to make
better decisions. To this end, we have proposed the creation of the
Usenet Volunteer Pollsters, the spiritual successor to the UVV.
At this point, there are several people on the UVP mailing list, and
there have been some preliminary discussions. But there are still
many issues to work out, including:
o The UVP's mission and goals.
o Membership guidelines and policies.
o Who "speaks" for the UVP.
o Overall technical goals for any software.
o Who writes and maintains the software. (Licensing, too.)
If you have any interest in any of these issues, please subscribe to
(and participate in) the mailing list, at:
http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/uvp/
In the mean time - on behalf of the Big-8 Management Board, I would like
to thank Geoff Berrow for the work he has already put into his polling
system. I believe that his software offers an excellent start to help
us build up a robust, effective service to the proponents and the Board.
Actions
-------
For the record, the following list summarizes the changes to the Big-8
hierarchy newsgroup list since my last posting:
- soc.culture.asatru (moderated) has been created.
- comp.os.ms-windows.win95.moderated has been removed.
- soc.culture.ethiopia.moderated has been removed.
- soc.culture.galiza has been unmoderated.
- comp.soft-sys.octave has been created.
- comp.lang.prograph has been removed.
- comp.binaries.apple2 has been removed.
That's not too bad for a month.
Moderator Vacancy Investigations
--------------------------------
Thanks to the work of the Deadwood Groups Task Force, we plan to begin
a pair of Moderator Vacancy Investigations shortly. We are currently
working out the procedures; please help us revise the rules as we go
through the new system.
Volunteer Committees
--------------------
As a reminder - the B8MB is attempting to put together several volunteer
organizations to handle individual aspects of the new group creation
system. These groups are not currently fully populated, but they have
fairly clear (if general) goals. And most importantly, they have
mailing lists, so it's possible to start getting them organized.
If you would like to volunteer for any of these organizations, please
subscribe to the relevant mailing lists. We are not restricting
membership at this point.
Usenet Volunteer Pollsters
==========================
Coordinator Tim Skirvin
Mailing List http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/uvp/
Description http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:polltakers
Usenet Volunteer Moderators
===========================
Coordinator Jonathan Kamens
Mailing List http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/uvm/
Description http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:moderators
Group Mentors
=============
Coordinator Tim Skirvin
Mailing List http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/group-mentors/
Description http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:mentors
Deadwood Groups Task Force
==========================
Coordinator Dave Sill
Mailing List http://lists.big-8.org/mailman/listinfo/deadwood/
Description http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=workgroups:deadgroups
- Tim Skirvin (skirv@big-8.org)
Chair, Big-8 Management Board
--
http://www.big-8.org/ Big-8 Management Board
http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/ Skirv's Homepage <FISH>< <*>
