"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit
the
content to boating related topics.

Please let me know the name of the new newgroup once it's formed. Thanks.
;-)

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 10:51:44 -0800, "QLW" wrote:

It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit the
content to boating related topics.

There is nothing that says you can't have a moderated group, but it's
difficult on Usenet - you have to have people who will cooperate, you
have to go through the alt.config process, build a group charter/FAQ -
it's a process. Then you have to have newsservers pick up the group,
etc.

However, speaking with the voice of experience, it's much better to
get a good newsreader like Agent or Xnews, build a good filter with
parameters you want and do it that way. Normally, you can filter out
95% of the nonsense. The reason for using personal filters on a good
newsreader is that all groups eventually devolve along either
personal, political or whatever lines - it's just the nature of the
beast.

Here's something for you to read about starting a newsgroup.

http://www.duke.edu/~mg/usenet/newnewsgroup.html

Good luck.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------
"My rod and my reel - they comfort me."

St. Pete, 12 Lb. Test

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 10:51:44 -0800, "QLW" wrote:

It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton


Here's some information to get you started:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/crea...sgroups/part1/ (How to create a new
newsgroup)

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/moderated-ng-faq/ (moderated newsgroups FAQ)

http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/mod-pitfalls.html (Pitfalls of moderated
newsgroups)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...&output=gplain
(moderated newsgroups FAQ)

HTH,
Joe Parsons

It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit
the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

Looks like you gotta jump through a lot of hoops. But if they can get all
those binary porno groups we could get another boating group. Maybe
rec.boating?

- - - - -
Lee Yeaton
www.thebayguide.com

the boats of rec.boats
www.thebayguide.comrec.boats

"QLW" wrote in message
...

So how is a new news group formed?

Well, it is a lot of work and frustration, but it isn't rocket science and
it doesn't take any specific qualifications.

I was part of the committee that formed rec.boats.sailing and
rec.boats.cruising some ten years ago. The basic proceedure is that you put
together a proposal for a new group and then post the proposal in several
different spots as a "request for discussion", or RFD. I think the reqired
groups are "news.groups" and any existing newsgroups that have similar
discussions (such as rec.boats).

This will, of course, create tons of controversy and you may decide to
change the proposal, which will start the process over. Eventually, you
will get tired of the whining and bitching and just go foward with what you
currently have.

The next step is to have a vote. Before you can have a vote, you need to get
an "advocate" from the main usenet guru people, and that can take a while.
The advocate is the guy who actually tallies the votes and decides YES or NO
on the creation of the group.

Now, here is the frustrating part: you will get a LOT of people who vote NO,
so you have to make sure that you get enough people to vote YES to override
it. People will vote NO who have never in their life owned a boat and have
never read rec.boats. There will be hundreds of them!


To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit the
content to boating related topics.

As soon as you attempt to make it a moderated group, then there will be
LOTs more NO votes you have to counter. You will also need to really think
hard about the moderators. Most of the moderated groups fail because the
moderators get tired of dealing with it, or the users get fed up with the
moderator.

What does work fairly well is to have a "bot" do the moderating. A common
bot moderation is to reject any posting that was cross posted to more than
"n" groups, contains certain key words (like "viagra") or was from a list of
banned sources.

Creating a new group can be done, but it will take 6 months or so and
someone will have a lot of work ahead of themselves.

Rod McInnis

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:07:37 -0500, "Lee Yeaton"
wrote:

"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit
the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

Looks like you gotta jump through a lot of hoops. But if they can get all
those binary porno groups we could get another boating group. Maybe
rec.boating?

Those binary porno groups are in alt.*, not rec.*. It's free form over
there and much easier to get a group started.

Steve

"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit
the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

I know I'll get slammed for this but.....

Why don't we just start a new group ourselves. Instead of doing it on
Usenet we could do it on the Internet.

I can get some free server space for a year and I'll buy the domain name,
it's $20.00 so it's not a lot of money. I also know where to get free
message board software. You can see the software on my other site
chesapeakeforums.com. All we would need is a list of topics and some people
to donate their time to moderate.

Think of it like a boatered but not moderated by a business owner, but
moderated by us. If a moderator gets out of line we can vote him off. The
group would have control, not just one person.

I am sure I left out a bunch of details but I think this is doable if we can
get the people to donate some time and to participate.

Ok, let me have it......

- - - - -
Lee Yeaton
www.thebayguide.com

the boats of rec.boats
www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

there is already a "alt.boats" group on many servers. It might be easier to
just get those who want to discuss boating to use alt.boats and turn
rec.boats over to the OT crowd.

"Steven Shelikoff" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:07:37 -0500, "Lee Yeaton"
wrote:

"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are
good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here.
I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how
is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to
limit
the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

Looks like you gotta jump through a lot of hoops. But if they can get
all
those binary porno groups we could get another boating group. Maybe
rec.boating?

Those binary porno groups are in alt.*, not rec.*. It's free form over
there and much easier to get a group started.

Steve

Think of it like a boatered but not moderated by a business owner, but
moderated by us. If a moderator gets out of line we can vote him off. The
group would have control, not just one person.

You might have good luck with an approach where your new site would have a
moderator "election" at various intervals.
They might be as frequent as every 120 days.

This would allow a moderator who discovers he or she has bitten off a larger
bite than is easily chewed to opt out, gracefully, after a short period of
time.

The approach would keep small groups of people from leaving the site because
they couldn't stand the moderator (we all know of sites like that), as nobody
would feel "stuck" with a moderator for an indfinite period of time.

A moderator who wanted to continue could stand for reelection, and if the
majority of the group wanted him or her to remain in the post that would settle
the question.

Would it be more difficult to cross post from the political groups to your new
site?
A lot of the political threads in rec.boats start off as mass cross postings to
or from political sites- with the trolling author then checking a long list of
sites to see if he or she got any bites.