From: control@illuin.demon.co.uk (- as control) Subject: RESULT: uk.education.gcse+standard PASSES 23:5 Date: 5 Feb 1999 00:10:09 -0000 Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- 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. ====================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBNro2xWOfGXkh8vHZAQHquAP/UlfvX95UhW6VjteZaEWSRSOu9D/5U8JC js2WeG8EfvF3hsCiIHvU6l4aG/92N3ihq03WqGL1Ulf1Utgd/XigCEFV6a5WPPV/ f3sMz/FseZ3p4pSkxOKDN2kKpvDRpWeKjpMreMXr9RnkV0Ip6146X2ZecBHOPWo2 EYsDJeUVtaI= =NJwG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----