Nan:2007-05-03-comp.virus-rfd

From: Jim Riley <jimrtex@pipeline.com>
Subject: RFD: remove comp.virus moderated
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, comp.virus, news.groups.proposals,
 alt.comp.virus
Followup-To: news.groups.proposals
Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 15:57:43 -0500
Organization: http://www.big-8.org/

                      REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
                           remove comp.virus

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


RATIONALE: remove comp.virus

The last approved article was in June 1999.  There had been previous
interruptions from August 1997 to March 1999, and September 1995 to
January 1996.  The virus-l listserv which was gated to the newsgroup
no longer appears to be in existence.

A Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI) was held in October 2004.  At
that time, the last moderator of the newsgroup/listserv, Nick
Fitzgerald, voiced his opposition to conversion of comp.virus to an
unmoderated newsgroup, or to robomoderation.

When asked whether his comments should be interpreted as a
recommendation for removal of the newsgroup, he replied:

   It is my feeling that the newsgroup really has no significant
   purpose any longer, but given its history I would also not like to
   see it "taken over" or re-implemented as something "less" than it
   once was.

Brian Edmonds said that he had contacted the moderators a couple of
years earlier (2002?) and they had indicated that at that time they
"had imminent plans to revive the gated list, and thus the group, but
that apparently went nowhere."


HISTORY:

The newsgroup comp.virus was created in May 1989 as a gateway for the
virus-l mailing list (which had been created in April 1988).  It had
roughly 5 to 10 articles per day until it was first interrupted in
September 1995.  After being restarted in January 1996, traffic
increased to over 10 articles per day until the group was again
interrupted in August 1997.  There was a one day burst in October
1997.  There was a final attempt at revival From March 1999 to June
1999, with under 2 articles per day.

There was a Moderator Vacancy Investigation in October 2004 (see
above), which did not come to a conclusion, and left the newsgroup in
its inactive state.


CHARTER:

The newsgroup line is:

comp.virus		Computer viruses & security.

The charter (extracted from the RFD):

This newsgroup will be devoted to the discussion of computer viruses.
Topics shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, virus
protection software, reports of new viruses, and behavior of viruses.
This group will not be specific to any machine or class of machines.
However, it is anticipated that the focus will be on microcomputers.


PROCEDURE: 

The full group removal procedure is documented here:

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

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.

All discussion of active proposals should be posted to news.groups.proposals.

If desired by the readership of closely affected groups, the discussion
may be crossposted to those groups, but care must be taken to ensure that
all discussion appears in news.groups.proposals as well.


DISTRIBUTION:

This document has been posted to the following newsgroups:

  news.announce.newgroups
  news.groups.proposals
  comp.virus
  alt.comp.virus


PROPONENT: 

Jim Riley <jimrtex@pipeline.com>


CHANGE HISTORY: 

2007-05-03     1st RFD