New alt.discuss newsgroups are created through a voting procedure which is open to all WebTV subscribers (except those who have been banned from the voting site for abusive behavior. )
Before you can create a new newsgroup in the alt.discuss hierarchy, you must choose a name for the newsgroup, compose a charter which describes what the newsgroup will be used for, and a one-line description of the newsgroup which will appear in the WebTV newsgroup listing.
The process of creating a new alt.discuss newsgroup begins when someone proposes the newsgroup. This is done by going to http://www.munitions.com/~advotes/advotes.cgi and selecting the link entitled "Propose Creation of a New alt.discuss Newsgroup". You will be presented with a form which contains entries for the newsgroup name, the charter and a one-line description of the newsgroup which will be shown with the newsgroup name in the WebTV browser. The newsgroup name MUST begin with alt.discuss. and you MUST provide a charter. The one-line description (the tagline) is optional but strongly recommended.
The newsgroup name consists of a series of components separated by periods. Each component of the name must begin with either a letter or a number and may contain letters [a-z], numbers [0-9], hyphens(-) and underbars (_). It may not contain adjacent underbars or hyphens, (i.e., "--", "-_", "_-", or "__".) Each component must be no more than 20 characters long, and the name must contain no more than 10 components, including the 2 "alt.discuss" components. These rules are enforced by the CGI script on www.munitions.com - it will reject any newsgroup name that violates them.
The charter should describe what the newsgroup would be used for. The system will reject charters that are empty or which contain only whitespace.
When you make your proposal, it will be posted to alt.discuss.config for a 7-day preproposal period, during which other WebTV subscribers will be able to comment on the proposal. It is strongly recommended that you consider the advice given in response to your proposal; it is likely that you will receive quite a few responses (possibly contradictory) suggesting better names, improvements to the charter, or pointing you to existing newsgroups which fulfil the same function as the one you're proposing. Which advice you take (if any) is up to you, but a proposed newsgroup with a poorly-chosen name, an incoherent charter, or which duplicates the function of an existing alt.discuss group is more likely to be defeated.
You can revise the charter or the tagline for the group you've proposed by going to http://www.munitions.com/~advotes/advotes.cgi and selecting the link labelled "Revise the Charter for Your alt.discuss Newsgroup Proposal". You are only allowed to revise the charter and tagline during the 7-day preproposal period, and you can make revisions only three (3) times. During each revision, you may change the charter, the tagline, or both. Each time you make a revision, the revised version will be posted to alt.discuss and alt.discuss.config. When you go to revise the charter, you will be told how many more times you will be allowed to revise it.
You cannot revise the newsgroup name. You can cancel the proposal for this newsgroup and immediately propose a new newsgroup with the improved name. You will need to enter a new charter and tagline when you do.
Once the 7-day preproposal period is over, your proposed newsgroup will be automatically entered into the voting system. The proposal, including the final versions of the charter and tagline, will be posted to alt.discuss and alt.discuss.config.
WARNING: when you propose a group, that doesn't constitute a vote for it. You still need to vote for the group you've proposed.
Each WebTV box (not user) can issue one newsgroup proposal in a 30 day period. If you have made a proposal in the last 30 days, clicking on the Proposal link will bring up a message telling you how many days you have to wait before you can propose another newsgroup. If you cancel your proposal, either during the preproposal period or during voting, you can make another proposal immediately. If your proposal passes, you have to wait 30 day (from when you proposed the successful group) to make another proposal.
An account on the box where a new newsgroup proposal originated can cancel that proposal by going to http://www.munitions.com/~advotes/advotes.cgi and clicking on the link labelled "Cancel Your alt.discuss Newsgroup Proposal". If a proposal has been received from that box, you will be offered the opportunity to confirm that you really want to cancel the proposal.
When you cancel a proposal, your account cannot issue another proposal for a newsgroup with the same name for the next 180 days after the date of cancellation. You can propose a newsgroup with some other name immediately.
WebTV subscribers can vote on a newsgroup proposal by going to http://www.munitions.com/~advotes/advotes.cgi and selecting the link labelled "Vote for a Proposed alt.discuss Newsgroup".
If a newsgroup proposal would create a new top-level name in alt.discuss (for example, alt.discuss.newname, where no other newsgroup has alt.discuss.newname in its name), it will require 100 more votes for the group than against it to get it created. If the proposal does not create a new top-level name (for example, the proposal is for alt.discuss.newname.mytopic and alt.discuss.newname is already part of of the name of some other group), it will require 50 more votes for the group than against to pass it.
The vote for a new newsgroup goes on for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 30 days, The votes for all of the voting proposals are tallied at 1 AM PST each morning. If , at that time, the vote for a newsgroup has been going on for more than 7 days and has a sufficient margin of for votes over against votes (depending on whether or not it creates a new top-level alt.discuss name), the group is created and the vote ends. If, at the end of 30 days, the proposal still doesn't have a great enough margin of for votes over against votes, the vote fails and voting stops. If at the end of the first 7 days, a group has received no (0) "for" votes, the vote for that newsgroup fails.
If the vote for a newsgroup fails, the account that proposed that newsgroup will not be able to propose a newsgroup with that name for 180 days after the date on which the vote failed.
When you go to http://www.munitions.com/~advotes/advotes.cgi and click on the link labelled "Vote for a Proposed alt.discuss Newsgroup", you will be offered a list of all of the ongoing newsgroup proposals. Clicking on the proposed newsgroup name will show you the current version of the charter for the group. The current version of the newsgroup tagline is displayed under the newsgroup name. To the right of the newsgroup description block, you will be presented with "abstain", "for" and "against" buttons with which to vote. If you have already voted on a group, you will be presented with an "abstain" button and a button allowing you to cancel your previous vote. You may cancel your vote, then vote again if you choose. When you have made your voting decisions on all of the groups you wish to vote on, you need to click on the "Submit" button at either the top or the bottom of the voting page. If you have cancelled any previous votes, you will have to go through the voting page again to re-vote on those proposals. DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK ON THE "SUBMIT" BUTTON IF YOU HAVE VOTED OR CANCELLED A VOTE.
You should avoid ever hitting "Back" on your remote or keyboard while you are using the voting system. If you do, you will be shown a previous version of the page which has not been updated to reflect whatever changes you have made. If you do hit "Back", don't forget to hit "Reload" to get the current version of the page you're on. (You can use "Cmd"+"r" to force a reload with a wireless keyboard. With the remote, hit the "options" key, then select "Reload" - you must have enabled the advanced options menu in your home page settings first.)
Each WebTV unit gets a single vote for or against each proposed newsgroup. In other words, one box, one vote. This is to prevent people from voting over and over again by creating and deleting accounts.
There is no mechanism for requesting that an existing alt.discuss newsgroup be deleted; however, an alt.discuss newsgroup will be deleted automatically if no articles are posted in it for 14 consecutive days.
Certain newsgroups which are used for administrative purposes or which seasonally alternate between having many articles and having none will be excluded from deletion.
It is important to realize that there is no way for the system on www.munitions.com to determine who has entered a newsgroup proposal. You should not assume that a username in the charter of a proposal means anything. Fraudlently attributing a proposal to another subscriber will result in banishment from the voting system.
These rules may be changed at any time with or without warning at the discretion of the voting system administrator.