LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)
unmoderated group comp.os.geos.misc (renames comp.os.geos)
unmoderated group comp.os.geos.programmer
REMOVE comp.os.msdos.pcgeos (renamed to comp.os.geos.misc)
Newsgroups line:
comp.os.geos.misc GEOS O/S by Geoworks in general.
comp.os.geos.programmer GEOS O/S Programming in general.
Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 17 Mar 1997.
This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Direct questions
about the proposed group to the proponent. Do not distribute this CFV or the
information contained in it in any form without the votetaker's permission.
Proponent: Lee Grant <camilee@aol.com>
Votetaker: Jani Patokallio <jpatokal@alpha.hut.fi>
RATIONALE: all groups
Discussion of the GEOS operating system has taken place on the group
comp.os.geos (and to a lesser extent on the now-obsolete group
comp.os.msdos.pcgeos) for more than three years.
In that time, PC's running GEOS-based environments such as Geoworks
Ensemble and IBM SchoolView have been joined by word processors from
Brother and Canon, palmtop pen computers from AST, Casio,
Hewlett-Packard, Sharp and Tandy, recently introduced smart phones
from Nokia and the recent announcement of republisher New Deal, Inc.
with the desktop product known as New Deal Office.
Numerous small software development firms and hobbyists have acquired
GEOS software development tools, which are used to create all manner
of cross-platform third-party software. Many third-party shareware
programs have been distributed via the comp.binaries.geos newsgroup.
Increased interest of GEOS development is reflected in the traffic on
comp.os.geos and comp.os.msdos.pcgeos: A recent snapshot of
comp.os.geos shows that of 280 posts, 140 made reference to code,
drivers, GOC, ESP, the SDK, programming, or development. Ongoing
threads on programming have thrived for months, and numerous users
have expressed a desire for a distinct newsgroup dedicated to GEOS
programming.
RATIONALE: comp.os.geos.misc
To facilitate the proliferation of the GEOS O/S, and the need to be able
to expand the scope of the newsgroups to embrace the diversification that
will no doubt follow; also to help maintain the organizational protocols
of Usenet to organize newsgroups into a proper and maintainable heirarchy,
it is neccessary to reorganize and rename the newsgroup known as
comp.os.geos into a root newsgroup from which other GEOS O/S newsgroups may
be created from. For this purpose comp.os.geos.misc is being proposed as
that root from which all other GEOS O/S newsgroups may branch from.
RATIONALE: comp.os.geos.programmer
To better serve the users and the increasing numbers of programmers,
third-party developers, content developers, international and beginning
programmers of the GEOS O/S, the creation of comp.os.geos.programmer is
being proposed. The group creation will enable discussions in both
groups to carry content neccessary for the good of each respectively;
to reduce traffic in the other; create a common meeting place for
developers to discuss issues that are more technical in nature than the
general user community may wish to see; to foster an open and cooperative
group that allows developers in many countries to come together for the
discussion of GEOS O/S development not available by any other means.
CHARTER: comp.os.geos.programmer
The newsgroup comp.os.geos.programmer will be dedicated to the
discussion of software development for the GEOS operating system from
Geoworks. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the structure of
the GEOS operating system itself; the use of development tools for
GEOS, including the Geoworks SDK (Software Development Kit), Geoworks
Bindery, IZL (Interpreted Zoomer Language) from Feras Technologies,
and additional tools as may be created by Geoworks or third-party
programmers in the future; and the marketing and distribution of
third-party software for GEOS as appropriate among software
developers.
This group is intended for developers, programmers, content authors,
and others who create, or intend to create, software to run with the
GEOS operating system to assist each other and share their knowledge
and expertise. Prospective developers and other interested individuals
are welcome to participate here. End-user discussion about GEOS
software, products, and devices should appropriately take place in
other comp.os.geos.* groups.
END CHARTER.
CHARTER: comp.os.geos.misc
Comp.os.geos.misc is an unmoderated forum for general discussion of
the GEOS operating system and related products from Geoworks
(Alameda CA), their associated third-party development partners, and
independent software vendors.
GEOS is a pre-emptive multitasking, multithreading, object-oriented
graphical operating system which runs on PC-compatible processors.
All topics related to GEOS are welcome on comp.os.geos.misc, except
those which have a more specific group (such as programming issues,
which would use comp.os.geos.programmer). These include - but are not
by any means limited to - Geoworks Ensemble 1.0, 1.2, and 2.0,
Geoworks Pro, the Geoworks Personal Office Series, Geoworks Escape,
Certified Software's utilities and games, America Online, the
Tandy/Casio Zoomer palmtop and the applications being
developed for it by Palm, Intuit, and others, configuration and
performance-tuning of GEOS systems, bugs and "undocumented features,"
and announcement and discussion of new hardware and software products.
END CHARTER.
HOW TO VOTE:
* Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after
the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines. Don't worry about
the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your
reply inserts. Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me!
* Mark the ballot and then MAIL it to: < voting@hut.fi >
Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line.
* In order to properly record your vote, please provide your REAL NAME and
indicate your desired vote in the appropriate locations inside the ballot.
* Examples of how to properly indicate your vote:
[ YES ] example.yes.vote
[ NO ] example.no.vote
[ ABSTAIN ] example.abstention
[ CANCEL ] example.cancellation
* DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot!
If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot.
======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line =======
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2ND CALL FOR VOTES: comp.os.geos reorganization
| Official Usenet Voting Ballot <COG-0002> (Do not remove this line!)
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Place
| ONLY your name (ie. do NOT include your e-mail address or any other
| information; ONLY your name) after the colon on the following line:
Voter name:
| Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each
| newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name):
Your Vote Newsgroup
--------- -----------------------------------------------------------
[ ] CREATE comp.os.geos.misc (renames comp.os.geos)
[ ] CREATE comp.os.geos.programmer
[ ] REMOVE comp.os.msdos.pcgeos
======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ==============
IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES:
Standard Guidelines for voting apply. One account per person and one vote
per person. Votes must be mailed directly from the voter to the votetaker.
Anonymous, forwarded or proxy votes are not valid. Votes mailed by
WWW/HTML/CGI forms are considered to be anonymous votes.
Vote counting is automated. Failure to follow these directions may
mean that your vote does not get counted. If you do not receive an
acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker
about the problem. It's your responsibility to make sure your vote
is registered correctly. Duplicate votes are resolved in favor of
the most recent valid vote. Addresses and votes of all voters will
be published in the final voting results post.
The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest of
persons who would read a proposed newsgroup. Soliciting votes from
disinterested parties defeats this purpose. Please do not distribute
this CFV. If you must, direct people to the official CFV as posted
to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing pre-marked or otherwise
edited copies of this CFV is generally considered to be vote fraud.
When in doubt, ask the votetaker.
-- Jani Patokallio <jpatokal@alpha.hut.fi> Voting address: <voting@hut.fi>