Re: [PROPOSAL] alt.comp.software.seamonkey

Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

>For your newsgroups file:
This is correct.

>alt.comp.software.seamonkey    Community support of browser/mail/news.

Syntax is incorrect. Remember, it MUST be
group.name<tab character>Description.

>CHARTER

>A group for unofficial support of Seamonkey by the community of users, 
>discussion will include configuration, add-ons and features in new 
>versions.  The group will not be moderated. Advertising and binaries and 
>multipart postings with HTML alternative parts are off-topic.

>JUSTIFICATION

>Existing discussions of Seamonkey take place on the private nntp server 
>news.mozilla.org, the group mozilla.support.seamonkey had 3144 messages 
>in the last 12 months.

I should have emphasized in the other two proposals that traditionally,
there is a 90-day lookback, not a one year lookback. The proponent
performs the justification FOR HIMSELF so that he knows where to
publicize the proposed newsgroup to, and to whom. Justification isn't
about quantity but quality of discussion. ONLY noncrossposted articles
count that are in threads in which on-topic discussion takes place along
the lines that the proponent wants to see in the proposed group.
Reposted articles from the Web do not count toward justification.

These are the people who may be subscribers to the proposed group.

>Unfortunately this server will be closed down 
>after 3rd April 2021.

>Other available groups include alt.fan.mozilla (essentially dead in 
>recent years and doesn't separate topics between seamonkey and 
>thunderbird or firefox)

Just a second. That a more general group has existed for a long time
does not mean that Seamonkey-specific discussion cannot be held there.
That the group is dead is bad for this proposal. Proposed newsgroups
are justified based on existing Usenet discussion. You have the added
difficulty here of convincing users of a non-Usenet institutional server
to subscribe to a genuine Usenet server if they haven't already done so,
request creation of the proposed group, then start posting.

You really don't need to mention alt.fan.mozilla unless your intent was
to revive that group as it saves the step of users requesting its
creation locally if it's already been created.

I will raise another concern here: Seamonkey was spun off years ago.
Were users generally using the news.mozilla.org, or was user support
generally on mailing lists? If the latter, can you please let the Seamonkey
community know what's going on and get their input before proceeding
here? They may want a Usenet newsgroup in addition, or they may feel that
users of news.mozilla.org should be invited to subscribe to mailing lists,
or however they're doing it. You can proceed without their support, but
it's best to try to gain additional allies since a few of them may wish
to post to the Usenet newsgroup.