Re: Why not sci.a.b? [Was: PROPOSAL: alt.agriculture.beef]

Denis McKeon (news-relay.ncren.net!gatech!csulb.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!news.ironhorse.com!slotDenis McKeon)
Thu, 24 Apr 1997 09:55:07 -0600

In news.groups, in <ebohlmanE92ypv.n06@netcom.com> Eric Bohlman wrote:
>Angus (angus1@cris.com) wrote:
>
>: Frankly, I would prefer sci.ag.beef too.. and perhaps in the future we
>: can get a usenet group of that name. BUT, getting a usenet group in
>: sci.xx is a very long, laborious process compareted to getting one in
>: alt.xx and after looking through volumes of info on creating usenet
>: groups and balancing our own time constraints we figured it would be best
>: to start with this.. then if there's a need, try for sci.ag.beef later.
>
>However, it can can often take 6 months or more for a new alt.* group to
>get good propagation (meaning that there's an almost certain chance that
>a post made on one site that carries the group will make it to all the
>other sites that carry it). It will take less than half that time to
>create a sci.* group (assuming that there's enough demand for it to pass
>the vote), and once it's created it will get nearly complete propagation
>in a week or so. "Shorter time to create" really isn't a valid argument
>in favor of an alt.* group. If there's enough interest in a topic that
>one could reasonably argue that any well-stocked news server should carry
>a group on that topic, then you really should try for a Big 8 group first.

Other approaches to this choice include starting a mailing list first to
build a sense of community among the people interested in the topic, and/or
proposing a newsgroup with a larger scope so that you would be sure to
have the ~150 votes you would need to get a non-controversial group to
pass a Usenet 8 vote. Possible names for such a group might include:

sci.agriculture.livestock
sci.agriculture.hoofstock
sci.agriculture.cattle

or whatever other variations balance name, description,
probable traffic volume, and a sufficiency of users/voters.

-- 
Denis McKeon 
    One of twelve proponents for moderation of news.newusers.questions
    Get the Call for Votes (CFV) at news:861310314.10268@isc.org 
    or by email from the votetaker: bostwick@cas.chemistry.gatech.edu


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-- 
Denis McKeon 
    One of twelve proponents for moderation of news.newusers.questions
    Get the Call for Votes (CFV) at news:861310314.10268@isc.org 
    or by email from the votetaker: bostwick@cas.chemistry.gatech.edu