05 Feb 1999: uk.education.gcse+standard
From: control@illuin.demon.co.uk (- as control)
Date: 5 Feb 1999 00:10:09 -0000
Subject: RESULT: uk.education.gcse+standard PASSES 23:5
Newsgroups: None
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RESULT OF CALL FOR VOTES
Summary: Creating new newsgroup uk.education.gcse+standard
Create newsgroup uk.education.gcse+standard PASSES 23:5
======================================================================
Voting closed at 23:59:59 GMT, 21 January 1999.
Proponent: ImranG@btinternet.com (Imran Ghory).
Votetaker: chris@dickson.demon.co.uk (Chris M. Dickson).
======================================================================
Distribution:
uk.net.news.announce,uk.net.news.config,uk.education.misc,
uk.people.teens,alt.teens,uk.education.teachers,
alt.school.homework-help,misc.education
======================================================================
Proponent's summary of the discussion:
The primary points in the discussion were coverage of the
Scottish equivalent exams (the Standard Grades) and the possibility
of having a group for the age 16, instead of GCSEs. This idea was
discarded as all people taking GCSEs are not necessarily 16. The
rest of the discussion was on minor points all of which were
adopted by later RFDs.
The changes between the first and second RFD were that the prohibition
of non-English posts was removed and that posts containing binaries
(with the exception of PGP signatures) or using HTML were prohibited.
The changes between the second and third RFD were that homework
questions were made "off-topic" and that signatures were limited
to 4 lines.
The changes between the third and fourth RFD were that the RFD's
distribution was expanded to the current state and that the RFD was
expanded to cover Standard Grades which cover a similar syllabus to
GCSEs and are the Scottish equivalent of GCSEs. The rationale section
was expanded to include details of the number of posts on GCSEs.
A change between the fourth RFD and the CFV was that the limitation
on the size of cryptographic signatures permissible was changed from
"10 lines" to "short".
======================================================================
RATIONALE:
Other groups available do not provide an area for discussion
of GCSEs and Standard Grades, as alt.teens and uk.teens aren't
academically focused and the majority of the education hierarchy
is aimed at teachers rather than students.
Doing a search on the term "GCSE" for the period 21st October
to 21st November, DejaNews came up with 14000 results in the
last month. As the figure of 14000 is very high for any topic
I have checked the first 700 of these messages and they were on
the topic of GCSEs.
On a search for "G.C.S.E" in the same the same time period their
was 300 posts.
Also to confirm DejaNews's results I searched for the same terms
on two more usenet search engines, from www.reference.com I
obtained a result of 388 posts and from Alta Vista I obtained a
result of 322 posts. The difference between the number of posts
on DejaNews which I checked and the number of posts on the other
search engines is because of the larger newsfeed DejaNews has.
======================================================================
CHARTER: uk.education.gcse+standard
NEWSGROUPS LINE:
uk.education.gcse+standard GCSEs, Standard Grades and related topics
The group will be for discussion of GCSEs and Standard Grades in
general. Also it will provide pre-GCSE/Standard Grades students
an opportunity to communicate with people who are currently
taking, or have previously taken various GCSEs/Standard Grades so
that they can find out opinions on different courses. The group
is primarily aimed at UK students. The group will be unmoderated.
The following topics will be on-topic:
Discussions regarding GCSEs and Standard Grades in general
Discussions regarding specific GCSEs/Standard Grades
And the following off-topic:
Discussion that would better fit into uk.teens or alt.teens
Adverts
Homework questions
What will be permitted is adverts from suppliers of goods that
are relevant to GCSEs/Standard Grades which have pointers how
to get further details. These may not exceed four lines and
may be posted no more often than once every three months. The
subject line should begin "AD:". Signatures should not exceed
four lines. Adverts should not be crossposted.
Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, word processor files, Zip files,
"business cards", etc.), are *forbidden*, with the exception of
short cryptographic signatures. However pointers to FTP/web sites
of interest to the readers of the newsgroup are welcome.
Posts must be readable as plaintext and contain no HTML format
marks. Posts duplicating their text content as fully-marked up
HTML, or only the latter, should not be made.
======================================================================
PROPOSAL - Create newsgroup uk.education.gcse+standard
YES = 23
NO = 5
ABSTAIN = 3
YES beat NO by a majority of 18 votes, this is more than the 12
majority required to beat the status quo. The newsgroup is
therefore created.
======================================================================
The Particulars of the Vote
YES VOTES
Andrew Norman nja $ le.ac uk Y
Daisy Andrews Daisy $ chictochic.demon.co uk Y
Daniel Toye daniel.toye $ cableol.co uk Y
Denis McMahon denis $ pickaxe.demon.co uk Y
G. Nagel-Smith gns $ ballard.hants.sch uk Y
Gurpal S. Gosall gsg $ gosall.globalnet.co uk Y
Imran Ghory ImranG $ btinternet com Y
James Farrar james.farrar $ ic.ac uk Y
Jim Hill jim $ jh-c.demon.co uk Y
John A. Green u04jag $ zetnet.co uk Y
Juliette Rossi Juliette $ chictochic.demon.co uk Y
Mark Vincent Norwood mark $ norwoody.demon.co uk Y
Martin Paterson m.paterson $ consunet nl Y
Mike Henry mike $ tw2 com Y
Natalie Masters Natty $ chictochic.demon.co uk Y
Paul Dundas pdundas $ bfsec.bt.co uk Y
Paul Hornshaw paul $ smartart.demon.co uk Y
Sam Blackburn sblackburn $ yeimagine.freeserve.co uk Y
Samuel Anderson Samson $ chictochic.demon.co uk Y
Roger Watts roger $ roger-watts.demon.co uk Y
T. Lee tfl $ psp.co uk Y
Tim Jackson tim_jackson $ bigfoot com Y
Vanessa Carr carr $ clue.swinternet.co uk Y
NO VOTES
Alex Dawson a.dawson $ pmail net N
Craig Cockburn craig $ scot.demon.co uk N
Darren Wyn Rees merlin $ cvnet.co uk N
Niall Saville niall.saville $ usa net N
Peter Cooper pete $ bizuk net N
ABSTENTIONS
Dave Mayall david.mayall $ ukonline.co uk A
simon gray simon $ star-one.org uk A
sjfbeckwith sjfb $ cirra com A
======================================================================
Votetakers comments:
Remarkably, every single ballot paper submitted had a name and e-mail
address filled in at the correct places and there wasn't even one
instance of an acknowledgement bouncing. It is a rare thrill to be
able to take a ballot without any invalid votes. Thank you very much!
(Not everyone managed to act correctly about which parts should be
cut out when casting a vote, but I'm happy enough just to see a full
set of names and addresses on ballot papers...)
It was my perception, however, that the proportion of "yes" votes
appearing to be in response to the second CFV was considerably higher
than the proportion of "yes" votes appearing to be in response to the
first CFV; indeed, the votes in response to the first CFV largely
appeared to be from people who might have seen the vote announced on
uk.net.news.announce and uk.net.news.config and the votes in response
to the second CFV largely appeared to be from people who might have
seen the vote announced on the subject-specific newsgroups.
My investigations at the time suggested that the first CFV might
not have propagated as well as it should have done, though I am much
happier with the apparent distribution of the second CFV. I am led
to wonder whether a cross-post with as many as eight different
groups in the To: line should now be considered wise and whether the
usual maximum of eight groups in the To: line should be lowered.
Particular attention was paid to a set of four votes coming from the
same Demon Internet node. All four votes stand and count as valid.
======================================================================
This vote was conducted by a neutral third party member of UKVoting.
UKVoting is a group of independent votetakers who count votes on CFVs in
the uk hierarchy. The rules under which this vote is taken are posted
regularly to uk.net.news.announce or can be found at the following URL:
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/voting
The UKVoting web pages can be found at http://www.ukvoting.org.uk/
There is a five day discussion period after these results are
posted to the uk.net.news.announce newsgroup; any allegations of
irregularity should be sent to control@usenet.org.uk by e-mail.
======================================================================
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