> [...] I really don't understand the basis
> of the no votes. Isn't the issue demonstrating that enough
> interest exists for the new newsgroup to survive rather than
> showing some folks don't approve of its formation?
>> [...]
> This prompts a question - Would it be "legal" for someone to
> do a mass e-mailing to people on a list telling them of
> an impending vote and requesting their support? If so,
> then what's the difference between doing this and posting
> the same message to another newsgroup? I'm not
> trying to be picky here but wonder about how you can or
> even if you should regulate this type of "politicking". I've
> been reading newsgroups for several years now and have only
> once seen sombody advertise voting on the creation of one
> newsgroup in another. And, in that case it seemed appropriate.
> So, while I see your concerns, I wonder how much of a problem
> really exists. Seems to me that the cost of solving the problem
> might be more than the cost of putting up with it.
>>Michael W. Folsom
Have we reached consensus that we will condone and actively promote
recruitment of *readers* from other NEWS groups and Email lists to our
discussions about proposed bionet/BIOSCI forums in bionet.general/BIOFORUM,
but will condemn lobbying for *votes* outside of bionet.general/BIOFORUM?
If so, here's what I see as the pros and cons of NO votes.
Con: It's unreasonable to oppose what others want do to without openly
explaining one's opposition and giving them an opportunity to take it
into account or explain to you why you're wrong.
Pro: We don't want the discussions to evolve into an annoying series of "I
agree's" versus "I disagee's" instead of cogent expressions of the
readership's desires and concerns (e.g., whether the new group will have
an adverse effect on an existing group; whether "reorganization" of
existing groups should be implemented instead, etc.) that move quickly
and efficiently toward a consensus -- and it's unreasonable to hope that
complete consensus will be achieved for every proposal.
I suspect that "reorganization" issues will regularly pop up during
discussions of proposed groups (e.g., the general_help/bionaut_reorganization
and plant-botany-germs discussions currently on hold; the "impending"
discussion w.r.t. (a) database-related forum(s)). Once the substantive
discussion has occurred, the option to formulate "this seems to be what most
of the people who care would prefer" version of the proposal and *finally*
just count the YES's *and* NO's may be more important than it seemed (at least
to me) at the outset of the present discussion.
Fote
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