Nan:2006-10-09-mac-binaries-lcc

From: board@big-8.org (The Big-8 Management Board)
Subject: RFD: remove comp.binaries.mac moderated (LAST CALL FOR COMMENTS)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, comp.binaries.mac,
 comp.sys.mac.announce, comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sys.mac.misc
Followup-To: news.groups
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 10:02:43 -0700

                      REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
                        remove comp.binaries.mac

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) to remove the moderated
newsgroup comp.binaries.mac.


PROCEDURE:

The B8MB plans to begin voting on this proposal after five days.  Please
offer any final discussion or comments before the end of this waiting
period.  Voting may take up to one week (7 days); a result will be posted
following the end of the voting period.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

The full (draft) group removal procedure is documented here:

  http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:rmgroup


SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION:

There were no comments received.


RATIONALE: remove comp.binaries.mac

There have been no approved messages since June 1996.

Distribution of binary programs via Usenet, and in particular the Big
8 comp.binaries.* groups is no longer particularly useful or viable.
The binaries groups were created before there was widespread access to
the Internet, so that propagation of binaries via Usenet was a viable
alternative to distribution via floppies or other removal storage
media sent by mail.

Binaries newsgroups typically have very short expiration periods, so
someone interested in acquiring programs would have to constantly
monitor a newsgroup, or hope that the programs were archived so that
they can be accessed via the internet (such as by FTP).  But if the
programs can be sent via internet, there is no need for the Usenet
alternative.

Google does not archive binaries in newsgroups.  So even though they
maintain archives of the comp.binaries.* groups, they do not archive
most of the content (the reason for existence of the group in the
first place).

Over the years, programs have generally become larger and more
complex.  When transmitted by Usenet this may require the programs be
distributed in many parts, some of which may be lost.  Again,
transmission via FTP is more reliable.

The moderators of binaries newsgroups may be legally responsible for
the reliability of software, whether it is legal to distribute, and
whether it is free of viruses and trojans.  Many may not be willing to
assume that responsibility, and unmoderated binaries groups are not
acceptable in the Big 8.

This proposal is one of several that will removal all groups in the
comp.binaries.* hierarchy except comp.binaries.cbm.


HISTORY: 

The unmoderated newsgroup net.sources.mac was created in January 1985.
In March 1986, net.sources.mac was split into the moderated newsgroups
mod.mac.binaries and mod.mac.sources.  The newsgroup mod.mac.binaries
was renamed to comp.binaries.mac in April 1987 as part of the Great
Renaming.


DISTRIBUTION:

This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:

  news.announce.newgroups
  news.groups
  comp.binaries.mac
  comp.sys.mac.announce
  comp.sys.mac.apps
  comp.sys.mac.misc


CHARTER:

The newsgroup line is:

comp.binaries.mac	Encoded Macintosh programs in binary.


PROPONENT: 

Jim Riley <jimrtex@pipeline.com>


CHANGE HISTORY: 

2006-10-09     2nd RFD/LCC
2006-09-28     1st RFD