The elections for the UK Usenet Committee are currenting running, and
the following are standing:
         
Graham Drabble             usenet05@drabble.me (incumbent)
Clive D. W. Feather        clive@davros        (incumbent)
Fiona Gostling (aka 'kat') kat.news@ntlworld   (incumbent)
Ian Jackson                ijackson@chiark
Jonathan Amery             jdamery@chiark        
David Damerell             damerell@chiark
Matthew Vernon             matthew@debian        

To vote you will need to find the Call for Votes, which was posted to
uk.net.news.announce and uk.net.news.management, with Message-ID
<cfv1-committee-elections-2009-20091023210735$1561@gradwell.net>

The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.

In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth 
says...

> The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.

Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?


-- 
Conor
www.notebooks-r-us.co.uk

I'm not prejudiced. I hate everybody equally.

Conor  gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

>> The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.

> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?

Not even remotely.

Conor  wrote in 
news:MPG.2557aeb978767ae69898cf@news.eternal-september.org:

> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth 
> says...
> 
>> The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.
> 
> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?

There's some mad woman there called Judith.  And four mad blokes from 
Cambridge.

Conor  wrote:

> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth
> says...
> 
> > The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.
> 
> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?

Not really. All you need to do is to decide if you want four mad
cyclists on the committee or just one.

Mr. Benn wrote:

> 
> 
> Conor  wrote in
> news:MPG.2557aeb978767ae69898cf@news.eternal-september.org:
> 
>> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth
>> says...
>> 
>>> The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.
>> 
>> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?
> 
> There's some mad woman there called Judith.  And four mad blokes from
> Cambridge.

Aren't the four mad blokes the candidates?
-- 
Dave
da ve@llondel.org (without the space)
So many gadgets, so little time.

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 16:52:23 +0000, %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth)
wrote:

>Conor  wrote:
>
>> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth
>> says...
>> 
>> > The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.
>> 
>> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?
>
>Not really. All you need to do is to decide if you want four mad
>cyclists on the committee or just one.

Exacltly what power do they have?

Can they remove all uk.transport and uk.rec.auto groups that are not
pro cycling?
Can they declare a group that was unmoderated to be moderated and thus
suspend all posts by car users to it?

Or can they just start new groups that no one but them gives a toss
about?
-- 
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

"Dave {Reply Address In.Sig}" <noone$$@llondel.org> wrote in
news:q6s0s6-f9n.ln1@llondel.org: 

> Mr. Benn wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> Conor  wrote in
>> news:MPG.2557aeb978767ae69898cf@news.eternal-september.org:
>> 
>>> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve
>>> Firth says...
>>> 
>>>> The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full
>>>> flow. 
>>> 
>>> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?
>> 
>> There's some mad woman there called Judith.  And four mad blokes from
>> Cambridge.
> 
> Aren't the four mad blokes the candidates?

Err..... yes.  Militant cyclists.

On Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:06:07 +0000, Peter Hill put finger to keyboard
and typed:

>On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 16:52:23 +0000, %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth)
>wrote:
>
>>Conor  wrote:
>>
>>> In article <1j8hz8g.ft9nti1vpbrd4N%%steve%@malloc.co.uk>, Steve Firth
>>> says...
>>> 
>>> > The hustings take place in uk.net.news.management and are in full flow.
>>> 
>>> Is it funny enough to bother to subscribing to the newsgroup?
>>
>>Not really. All you need to do is to decide if you want four mad
>>cyclists on the committee or just one.
>
>Exacltly what power do they have?

De jure, or de facto?

>Can they remove all uk.transport and uk.rec.auto groups that are not
>pro cycling?
>Can they declare a group that was unmoderated to be moderated and thus
>suspend all posts by car users to it?
>
>Or can they just start new groups that no one but them gives a toss
>about?

According to the rules, they can't do any of that. In practice,
however, the committee has ultimate power over uk.* and, should the
committee collectively decide to go rogue and ignore all the rules,
there would be absolutely nothing whatsoever that anyone could do to
stop them. It's a highly unlikely scenario, of course, but the only
defence against it is to ensure that at least a majority of people on
the committee can be trusted not to abuse their power.

Mark
-- 
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

Peter Hill  wrote:

> >Not really. All you need to do is to decide if you want four mad
> >cyclists on the committee or just one.
> 
> Exacltly what power do they have?

Almost none.

> Can they remove all uk.transport and uk.rec.auto groups that are not
> pro cycling?

No.

> Can they declare a group that was unmoderated to be moderated and thus
> suspend all posts by car users to it?

No.
 
> Or can they just start new groups that no one but them gives a toss
> about?

No.

However some of them have made it clear that if elected what they want
to do is to change the rules. Some of them seem to be suggesting that
they want all of the answers above to change from "no" to "yes". Read
uk.net.news.moderated to discover what each candidate proposes. You can
also question them directly about their aims if elected.

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 22:39:25 +0000, %steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth)
wrote:

>Peter Hill  wrote:
>
>> >Not really. All you need to do is to decide if you want four mad
>> >cyclists on the committee or just one.
>> 
>> Exacltly what power do they have?
>
>Almost none.
>
>> Can they remove all uk.transport and uk.rec.auto groups that are not
>> pro cycling?
>
>No.
>
>> Can they declare a group that was unmoderated to be moderated and thus
>> suspend all posts by car users to it?
>
>No.
> 
>> Or can they just start new groups that no one but them gives a toss
>> about?
>
>No.
>
>However some of them have made it clear that if elected what they want
>to do is to change the rules. Some of them seem to be suggesting that
>they want all of the answers above to change from "no" to "yes". Read
>uk.net.news.moderated to discover what each candidate proposes. You can
>also question them directly about their aims if elected.

So then we have to wake up and have to kick them out with a vote of NO
confidence - takes 9 users.

http://www.usenet.org.uk/committee.html

OK it's possibly better to kick them in the teeth now than having to
go though that process.
-- 
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

Peter Hill  wrote:

> So then we have to wake up and have to kick them out with a vote of NO
> confidence - takes 9 users.
> 
> http://www.usenet.org.uk/committee.html
> 
> OK it's possibly better to kick them in the teeth now than having to
> go though that process.

A MoNC kicks out the entire committee, not just any trouble-making twats
who get onto the committee. So it's the "nuclear winter" option. Then we
have to have an election to vote in an entire new committee which would
possibly leave the way open for a particular group to field a candidate
for each vacant seat.

It could actually be the worst of all possible options.


One of those standing for election is a particularly nasty type. He
wants everything his own way and he wants it yesterday. If he doesn't
get what he wants he's happy to bully, blag and bend the rules.