Nan:2013-10-26-mvi-misc.writing.moderated

From: Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@novia.net>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups.proposals,misc.writing.moderated,misc.writing
Subject: Moderator Vacancy Investigation:  misc.writing.moderated
Followup-To: news.groups.proposals
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 17:13:19 EDT
Message-ID: <526bd145$0$17669$740e82cd@novia.net>

		 MODERATOR VACANCY INVESTIGATION (MVI)
		 moderated group misc.writing.moderated

This is a formal Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI), begun because
moderated newsgroup misc.writing.moderated is not functioning, and may
have been abandoned by its moderator(s).

This investigation will attempt to verify the reasons for non-function,
and may result in the removal of the group or the selection and
installation of a new moderator.  In practice, the Big-8 Management
Board considers the third alternative -- changing the status of the
group from moderated to unmoderated -- as likely to cause more harm than
good.

NEWSGROUPS LINE:
misc.writing.moderated	Art, craft, business and creative process of writing. (Moderated)

RATIONALE:
Probe posts to this group resulted in bounces:

  mwm@panix.com> (expanded from <misc-writing-moderated@panix.com>): unknown user: "mwm"

No articles have appeared in the newsgroup in over two years.  One of
the last articles posted to the newsgroup was an announcement from the
moderators that that they are closing the moderation account and turning
off the submission address.  Attempts to contact the moderators at their
last known personal e-mail addresses have not resulted in any replies.

DISTRIBUTION:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups.proposals
misc.writing.moderated
misc.writing

CHARTER

Misc.writing.moderated is a forum for discussion of the process and
profession of writing.  It is a newsgroup where all participants are
treated as peers.  The focus in misc.writing.moderated is on developing
as writers, increasing writing income and/or discussing the process and
business of writing.

Misc.writing.moderated is inclusive in that discussion of all forms of
writing is considered appropriate, but it is exclusive in that all
discussion must be aimed toward the development of participants as
writers, or toward providing cooperative support for their writing and
their writing ambitions.  Questions of grammar and style are
appropriate, but should be sought in the FAQ.  Of greater interest are
topics such as plotting techniques, character or thematic development,
research methods, industry trends and news, market information, finding
and dealing with an agent, techniques for best marketing one's work,
software tools, manuscript formatting, how to avoid repetitive stress
injury, and other such concerns with which writers struggle.

Misc.writing.moderated accepts reasonable and timely announcements of
seminars, conferences, new markets, and other commercial ventures that
may be of interest to the practicing writer, though repetitive
commercial announcements are disallowed.  For the purposes of this
charter, "repetitive" is defined as more than once per month.

While questions about writing problems are appropriate in
misc.writing.moderated, the posting of long excerpts from written works,
or of shorter works in their entirety, is expressly forbidden.
Participants are free to quote from their work as part of a larger
discussion within a post.  This includes, but is not limited to,
illustrations of writing technique, questions of why certain passages do
or do not work, and short segments designed to spark a discussion about
the art or craft of writing.  Those looking for critiques are welcome to
post URLs where their work can be found, or to post short,
non-repetitive announcements that work is available for critique.

Articles that exceed the bounds of common courtesy -- e.g., personal
attacks against other posters -- are never acceptable, no matter what
the context of the article and no matter how small a part of the article
the attack may be.  Also unacceptable are articles that consist solely
of "yahoos", birthday greetings, and so on.

Signature files are subject to reasonable length restrictions, and may
not contain personal attacks against other posters.  A signature file
may contain non-writing-related URLs or personal advertisements.

Binaries with the exception of small cryptographic authentication such
as PGP signatures in non-binary messages are not acceptable.

This charter, or a URL pointing to it, is posted once a week to
misc.writing.moderated.

Misc.writing.moderated accepts no crossposts, except: RFDs, CFVs, and
related administrative postings (as approved by the moderators of
news.announce.newgroups) with followups set to news.groups and/or
misc.writing.moderated, articles in response to such postings
crossposted only between news.groups and misc.writing.moderated, and
FAQs and similar informational postings (as approved by the moderators
of news.answers).

HISTORY OF THE GROUP: The group passed its vote on 22 May 2000 by
155:45, as announced in article <1020117647.67601@isc.org>.  It was
active until 2005, when technical problems with the newsgroup submission
address, and loss of the moderation account with custom moderation
software shortly afterwards, caused it to become inactive.  Discussion
on news.groups.proposals in 2007, starting with article
<46b65efb$0$278$804603d3@auth.newsreader.iphouse.com>, expressed a
desire to reactivate the newsgroup.  The old submission address with new
moderation software (STUMP/WebSTUMP on Panix) was reactivated by members
of the original moderation team shortly afterwards, as announced in
article <nan.20070926145042$36e0@killfile.org>.  The newsgroup had
modest, but declining, activity until late 2011.  In September of 2011,
the moderation team posted an announcement, in article
<a0d52417-3f94-44a7-a0fa-a354173dcb34@t20g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
that due to declining activity, and the cost of running the moderation
account on Panix, the team was closing the Panix account and seeking
volunteers for replacement moderators.  No volunteers have stepped
forward, and no articles have appeared in the newsgroup since shortly
after that announcement.

PROPONENT:  Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@novia.net>

PROCEDURE:

Those who wish to comment on this moderator vacancy investigation should 
subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant 
threads in that newsgroup.  To this end, the followup header of this MVI 
has been set to news.groups.proposals.

For more information on the MVI process, please see
http://www.big-8.org/wiki/Moderator_Vacancy_Investigations

CHANGE HISTORY:

26 October 2013:  Moderator Vacancy Investigation