Greetings from BEIJING95-L! On Wed, 2/22/95, I submitted the following proposal for the creation of a new .alt USENET group: "alt.women.u-n.conference.beijing95 concerning the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 9/95" So far the responses I have received from alt.config folk have been negative but helpful. Several suggested that I rename the news group in keeping with the current .alt heirarchy. Also several suggested that I may want to create the newsgroup in .soc because .alt groups have a limited distribution, whereas the .soc groups have a much wider distribution. I am reproducing (with permission) one of the responses by way of further explanation of the .alt vs .soc group creation process. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 11:11:29 -0800 From: Bruce Baugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Jennifer Gagliardi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: alt.women.u-n.conference.beijing95 The alt hierarchy is in the process of breaking down, for a variety of reasons not relevant here. No new alt group can get propagated to more than about 20% of sites taking a news feed. That 20% _does_ include most of the large commercial providers, but does _not_ include smaller sites or the vast majority of academic sites. New Big 7 groups, on the other hand, will be propagated to at least 40% of all sites, and generally to more than that. In addition, system administrators are generally more willing to add a new Big 7 group than a new alt group, which means that the Big 7 version will add new readers and posters more rapidly. The voting process is not horribly tedious - at its heart is 4-6 weeks of discussion and about the same time for voting. There's preparation before that, of course, but the whole thing can be done (and routinely is done) in one quarter. And the payoff is worth it. -------end Forwarded message ---------- May I also add that feminist USENET groups are notorious targets for flaming by mysogyinists. We could get around this by moderating the group but that would take more time & resources than which I currently have at my disposal. There is also something to be said on behalf of the free flow of ideas, hence no moderation. There is much more to be said about staking out a corner of USENET on behalf of feminists and profeminist men--if there can be hundreds of alt.binary pornographic groups, surely USENET can stand several more feminists groups besides soc.feminism, soc.men, alt.lesbian.feminist.poetry, etc. So even thought the immediate inspiration for the creation of a new USENET group is the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, I would also like the new USENET group to address issues concerning women of color/creed/class plus national & international feminist activites that are rarely addressed in other feminist and progressive USENET groups (as a previous BEIJING95-L post proposed). Several of the many options are listed below. Please respond by Sunday, March 5 to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so I can resubmit a proposal for a new feminist USENET group by Wed, March 8, Internation Women's Day. Please also note if your internet service provider carries .alt, .misc, .talk USENET groups. The responses will be gathered into one post & the results will appear on Monday, March 6 with instructions how & where to post to USENET. Possible names for a new feminist USENET group: alt.activism.feminism alt.current.events.u-n.womens.conference.beijing95 alt.feminism.international alt.feminism.politics alt.women.u-n.conference.beijing95 soc.feminism.international soc.feminism.politics misc.activism.progressive.feminism talk.politics.feminism talk.politics.international.feminism Thanks for your continued interest, Jennifer Gagliardi [EMAIL PROTECTED] moderator BEIJING95-L
