Types of Proposals That Are Discouraged

Reasons for Refusing to Publish Proposals in news.announce.newgroups

Publication of an RFD in n.a.n suggests that the Board considers the proposal to fall within the realm of possibility and/or to be worth consideration in news.groups.proposals. It also implies that the Board is willing to make a formal decision on the proposal if the proponents follow through on the steps necessary to bring the proposal to a vote.

The Board reserves the right to reject any proposals that it deems inconsistent with its mission.

The following points indicate some of the grounds the Board might have for refusing to publish proposals in n.a.n.

1. The Board will not publish proposals for:

• groups outside the Big-8 hierarchy;
• groups in which on-topic postings would constitute criminal activity in most parts of the world;
• unmoderated binary groups.

2. The Board will not approve proposals for posting to news.announce.newgroups that, in its judgment, are intended solely to game the system or otherwise seem to be offered in bad faith.

Note: The Board reserves the right to include some or all of the content of such proposals in a rejection notice published in news.announce.newgroups.

3. It is highly unlikely that the board would publish proposals for:

• a properly named, moderated binary group under *.binaries (see the FAQ about the crackdown on binary newsgroups);
• removal of an active moderator or removal of a moderated group without the consent of the moderator.

Note: The kind of binaries that we intend to discourage are movies, photographs, music files, executable files, and the like. We are not opposed to the use of PGP signatures or other such short binary inclusions.