Nan:2007-03-23-comp.protocols.dns.ops-result

From: The Big-8 Management Board <board@big-8.org>
Subject: RESULT: comp.protocols.dns.ops will be removed
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.dns.ops, news.announce.newgroups,
 news.groups.proposals, comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Followup-To: news.groups.proposals
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:04:17 -0500
Organization: http://www.big-8.org/

                                 RESULT
                 comp.protocols.dns.ops will be removed

The Last Call for Comments (LCC) on 17 Mar 2007 initiated a five-day period
for final comments.  Following the comment period, the Big-8 Management Board
has decided by consensus to remove the newsgroup comp.protocols.dns.ops.

This group will be removed on 27 Mar 2007.


RATIONALE: remove comp.protocols.dns.ops

The last approved message was in January 1999.  The group had modest
traffic (about 5 threads per month) from its creation in September
1996 until June 1998.  After a 4 month interruption, an announcement
was made in November 1998 that the group was alive again.  The group
was active for another 3 months before its last approval.

Alternatives include:

(1) Assigning a new moderator.

(2) Converting the group to unmoderated status.  When the group was
created, it was styled as a renaming of the unmoderated
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains (see History, below).  However, the
primary reason for the renaming appears to have been to create a
better namespace for comp.protocols.dns.bind and
comp.protocols.dns.std which were created at the same time.  The
moderation of comp.protocols.dns.ops appears to have been a secondary
consideration, simply because the other two groups were also being
moderated.

If the group is converted to an unmoderated status, it might be better
to use a different name (eg. comp.protocols.dns.misc).  ".ops" does
not have an obvious meaning.  In addition, users of news servers where
the group is configured as moderated will not see articles from
servers where the group is configured as unmoderated and vice versa.

(3) Remove the group.  Since the renaming of
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains failed to occur (see History),  any
discussion could continue in that group, albeit with a poorly named
group.

Regardless of which alternative is chosen, there will be no effect on
comp.protocols.dns.bind and comp.protocols.dns.std.


HISTORY: 

The newsgroup comp.protocols.dns.ops was created in September 1996, as
part of the proposal that also created comp.protocols.dns.bind and
comp.protocols.dns.std.  During its active period from September 1996
to June 1998, it had roughly 5 approvals per month.  A four-month
interruption from July to October 1998, was followed by a three-month
revival from November 1998 to January 1999, when the final approval
occured.

The creation of comp.protocols.dns.ops was styled as renaming of
comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains (CPTID), however the renaming was never
executed (that is, CPTID was not rmgroup'ed).  This was probably
related to the fact that CPTID was part of the Inet distribution.

The group CPTID was created as part of the Inet distribution before
December 1987.  After comp.protocols.dns.ops was created, no rmgroup
control message was issued for CPTID, and it continued to appear among
the Inet groups in the checkgroups messages.  In October 2002, all
remaining Inet groups, including CPTID were incorporated in the
standard Big 8 distribution.  In the summer of 2006, roughly half the
former Inet groups were rmgroup'ed, based on their lack of traffic.
CPTID was not one of the removed groups because of its continued light
traffic, and remains in the Big 8 checkgroups list.


DISTRIBUTION:

This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:

  news.announce.newgroups
  news.groups.proposals
  comp.protocols.dns.ops
  comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains


PROPONENT: 

Jim Riley <jimrtex@pipeline.com>


CHANGE HISTORY: 

2007-03-05     1st RFD
2007-03-17     2nd RFD/LCC
2007-03-23     Results (passes)