Nan:2010-09-06-rfd-rec.arts.books.reviews

From: Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>
Subject: 2nd RFD: rec.arts.books.reviews moderated (remove)
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 11:37:38 EDT
Message-ID: <i6240m$1ru$1@news.albasani.net>

              REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
              moderated group rec.arts.books.reviews

This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove moderated
newsgroup rec.arts.books.reviews.

RATIONALE:

According to Google's archive the last regular post was approved on
2006-12-05. A probe message showed no result.

Miguel Farah posted in news.groups.proposals that the moderation is
not abandoned, yet the group is dead for all intents and purposes.
He thinks the newsgroup should be removed.

>Message-ID: <c4e91aae-3360-4dfd-bb8a-e76eb2d25e89@w30g2000yqw.googlegroups.com>

NEWSGROUPS LINE:

rec.arts.books.reviews	Book reviews. (Moderated)

DISTRIBUTION:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups.proposals
rec.arts.books.reviews
rec.arts.books

CHARTER OF REC.ARTS.BOOKS.REVIEWS

The purpose of this group is to carry reviews of books.  A review
consists of commentary on a book by someone who has read the book
designed to help those who have not read it make an informed decision
as to whether or not to do so.  

This newsgroup will be a moderated group.

The following materials will appear in the group:

    - Reviews of written works
    - Descriptions of reviewer philosophy or background

The following are not appropriate for the group:
    
    - Discussion of books
    - Announcements of book availability
    - Advertisements and promotional materials
    - Requests that a particular book be reviewed

Reviewers who have a financial interest in the books they review
should state this fact in their reviews.

Moderator: 

The moderator will be Steve Brock <brock@ucsub.colorado.edu>.
The backup moderator will be Danny Yee <danny@staff.cs.su.oz.au>.

The submissions address is book-reviews@colorado.edu.  There is no
special contact address.  

Moderation policy:

The function of moderation is to ensure that only reviews and related
materials appear in the group.  

    - Reviews must contain some details.  For example, "XXX is a great
      book!" is not a review.

    - Posts will never be rejected on the basis of relevant content,
      but the moderator would reject (for example) a post that
      pretended to be a book review of _Lord of the Rings_ but was
      actually an excuse for an anti-Armenian diatribe.

    - A review MUST clearly indicate the title, author and publisher
      of the book.  A book review SHOULD contain the length,
      publication date, ISBN, price, and subject or keywords.  The
      more bibliographic data the better.  No specific format will be
      required for this data, though some format may be encouraged. 

    - Posters should crosspost reviews into rec.arts.books and other
      relevant groups.  Followups should be directed to the
      appropriate group(s) (rec.arts.books if nowhere else is
      suitable).  The moderator may modify the Followup-To: header if
      necessary, perhaps after consultation with the author.

    - Reviews by people with vested interests will be permitted
      provided that they are substantive and that reviewers make
      explicit any financial connection they have with the subject of
      their review.  

HISTORY OF THE GROUP:

rec.arts.books.reviews is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for
creation by 286:6 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 1 Nov 1994.

PROPONENT:

Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>

PROCEDURE:

Those who wish to comment on this request to remove this newsgroup should
subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant threads
in that newsgroup.

To this end, the followup header of this RFD has been set to
news.groups.proposals.

In the course of the removal process four formal announcements are posted
(MVI, 1st RFD, 2nd RFD, and LCC), each taking two weeks. At the end of the
process the B8MB will vote on the issue.

Available options for rec.arts.books.reviews are:
- leave the group as it is
- remove the group

For more information on the removal process, please see 

http://www.big-8.org/wiki/Group_Removal_FAQ

CHANGE HISTORY:

2010-04-05	First probe post
2010-08-09	Moderator Vacancy Investigation
2010-08-23	1st RFD
2010-09-06	2nd RFD