Start of FAQ 2.4 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Subject: FAQ 2.4 for RFD2: soc.genealogy.* groups > Newsgroups: news.groups > Followup-To: news.groups > This is a companion post to: > Subject: RFD2: soc.genealogy.* groups These questions pertain to other groups mentioned in the revised RFD. FAQ 2.4 ==== Q & A ON MAILING LISTS AND ARCHIVES ==== Q Where can I get the "Guidelines" you mention? Q This is Usenet, why have mailing lists? Q What's the big deal about archives? FAQ 2.4 ==== Q & A ON RELATED NETWORKS AND OTHER GROUPS ==== Q You mention some other networks in the RFD and FAQ - tell me more. Q What genealogy-related mailing lists currently exist? Q How can I subscribe to one of the existing mailing lists? Q My site/provider does not get news.groups - what can I do? Q What vote will be required for groups to be passed? Q What will the ballot look like? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ==== Q & A ON MAILING LISTS AND ARCHIVES ==== Q Where can I get the "Guidelines" you mention? A To read the complete "Usenet Guidelines," see: Newsgroups: news.groups,news.announce.newusers,news.answers Subject: How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup Subject: Usenet Newsgroup Creation Companion or get the files by FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.groups How_to_Create_a_New_Usenet_Newsgroup Usenet_Newsgroup_Creation_Companion or by e-mail by sending mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu, with a blank subject line, and with one or more of the following commands in the message body: To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu send usenet/news.groups/How_to_Create_a_New_Usenet_Newsgroup send usenet/news.groups/Usenet_Newsgroup_Creation_Companion Q This is Usenet, why have mailing lists? A The mailing lists mentioned in this RFD are not necessary for the success of the reorganization. Usenet groups are being requested, and could be formed alone. This RFD is really a vote for or against the Usenet groups proposed. However, having associated mailing lists will provide great benefits to the proposed groups. Mailing lists provide access to additional participants and also provide the benefits of archives and other resources, such as search tools. The gateway of ROOTS-L and soc.roots which existed for several years was a benefit for all readers. It joined people whose only access was by email with people who were Usenet newsgroup readers. The archives provided for ROOTS-L were also archives of soc.roots. The benefits of that kind of gateway can be useful again, especially for the s.g.surnames group, but also for others. If the new Usenet groups are formed, the gateways to mailing lists at gatech and elsewhere will provide for additional readers - and for archives. Mailing lists can be changed or added later, but are provided for in the proposal now because of the benefit to all. Q What's the big deal about archives? A Usenet newsgroups are sent to sites which, due to limited disk space, store them for a rather short time, typically 7-12 days. They are then overwritten with other files, and are gone. Soc.roots, at present, has no permanence. Readers of soc.roots benefit from the cross-posting of some ROOTS-L files, including the Roots Surname List, and have the same access as others to the archived files of ROOTS-L. However, there is no way now to retrieve old files from soc.roots. They are all gone. A question asked must be answered within a week or two, or will not be answered unless asked another time. Genealogists depend on archives of all sorts for their research. They, of all people, should appreciate our desire for archived genealogy newsgroups. At this time, the soc.g.computing group is not proposed for archiving. We feel the nature of the posts to that group will be of short-term usefulness. If it appears later that archives would be useful, that could be added at a later time. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ==== Q & A ON RELATED NETWORKS AND OTHER GROUPS ==== Q You mention some other networks in the RFD and FAQ - tell me more, A While the proposal only addresses the Usenet newsgroups, we realize you may be reading this message through some method other than in a Usenet newsgroup, and perhaps wondering what the proposed changes may mean to your online environment. Here is an overview of online genealogy as we see it from Usenet. The Internet is a global network of networks. It has popularly been called the Information Superhighway. There are many tools for navigating the Internet such as gopher, ftp, archie, WWW and Mosaic. A large number of computers are connected to the Internet, and these include many resources and interesting sites such as library catalogs, National Archives, and more - and Usenet newsgroups. Usenet and the Internet differ, though people blur the distinction. Usenet is seven newsgroup areas: comp, rec, soc, news, sci, misc, and talk. These are often propagated over Internet connections, but are also transmitted by UUCP by dial-up phone calls and other means. There are also many non-Usenet news hierarchies, including alt, biz, gnu, eunet, clari(net), fj, de, fr and others. Most sites carry only a limited number of hierarchies and newsgroups. Sites which attempt to carry all available newsgroups have about 7,000 groups. Many service providers refer to "Internet newsgroups," by which they usually mean both Usenet and non-Usenet hierarchies, taken together, and including the alt.* groups. The alt.* hierarchy, however, was created as an alternative to Usenet, and has a different newsgroup creation process with less stringent guidelines and consensus requirements than Usenet has. We use the term "service provider" to include companies or sites that provide Internet access (such as newsgroups, ftp, gopher), BBSs (bulletin board systems), BBS networks such as Fidonet, and large commercial services. Each of these access methods typically has its own policies, style of interface, vocabulary and culture. In general, each net or service has appeared to be an alien culture to each of the others and the culture shock of looking in on each other and on Usenet has temporarily caused some misunderstandings. With time and good organization, perhaps we can all share information more profitably. The large commercial service providers such as America Online, Compuserv, Genie, Delphi and Prodigy provide genealogy forums which may be divided into many subtopics. Other networks, such as Fidonet provide similar forums. Some of these forums (or echoes, conferences, groups, or SIGs) are available only from the particular service provider. Some service providers provide gateways between non-commercial nets such as Usenet or Fidonet and their service interface, so customers can access the outside groups or forums. Q What genealogy-related mailing lists currently exist? A For people who use any access method that allows them to send and receive e-mail at a low or reasonable cost, but who, for whatever reason, do not wish to follow a newsgroup or equivalent forum, mailing lists on nearly a thousand topics are available. People can subscribe to mailing lists, including several lists on topics of genealogical interest, and receive in their e-mail messages that are posted to the list hub. Mailing lists often provide permanent archives. Several genealogy mailing lists exist, among them: listname topic ROOTS-L ROOTS-L Genealogy List LINES-L LifeLines Genealogical System GEDCOM-L Genealogical Data Communications Specs PAF-L PAF program (gated to PAF Fido echo) JewishGen Jewish Genealogy (gated to Fido echo) Q How can I subscribe to one of the existing mailing lists? A Generally, look in the newsgroup news.lists for the list of lists. For genealogy, you can subscribe to any of several lists by sending email to the right listserv with the BODY of the mail containing: SUB For example: --- To: listserv@vm1.nodak.edu SUB ROOTS-L your full name SUB GEDCOM-L your full name SUB LINES-L your full name --- To: listserv@genesplicer.org SUB PAF-L your full name --- To: listserv@israel.nysernet.org SUB JEWISHGEN your full name --- From BITNET, for the nodak lists only, send To: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1 instead of listserv@vm1.nodak.edu Q My site/provider does not get news.groups - what can I do? A If your news site or service does not now provide you with access to news.groups, e-mail or talk to your system administrator or service provider. Tell them you want to read the news.* groups and ask them to carry them. If they refuse, you might seek access through some other method or provider. Q What vote will be required for groups to be passed? A Since the soc.genealogy.* hierarchy will be in a big seven top-level it comes under the Usenet guidelines. The voting guidelines attempt to ensure both support for a new group, and consensus on the name. Each group will be voted on separately. Those that receive a 2/3 yes vote, and 100 more yes votes than no votes, will pass. (2/3 Yes, (Yes-No) >= 100). Q What will the ballot look like? A The ballot will look similar to the ballot used in the Straw Vote. There will be votes on each of the seven groups - voted separately on one ballot. The CFV will have complete instructions about how to mark the ballots and where to send the vote by email. You will need to edit a ballot from the RFD in your text editor to remove some excess lines and to mark your vote with YES or NO or ABSTAIN in boxes next to each of the seven proposed groups. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End of FAQ 2.4