Re: Welcome to comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad!

Hmmm. My reader says this is ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad

Is there some clandestine plan to usurp this group?

Forged headers? WTF is John Navas?


On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:12:52 GMT, John Navas <> wrote:

>comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad is a new official "Big 8" Usenet newsgroup for
>discussions pertaining to IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad notebook computers that
>should be more widely and freely available than other forums.
>
>Anyone interested in ThinkPad computers is cordially invited to
>participate.
>
>In addition to regular Usenet news services, current and past articles
>can be easily and freely accessed on Google Groups at
><http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad> (old look)
>or <http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad/>
>(new look).
>
>CHARTER:
>
>comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad is for discussions pertaining to ThinkPad (IBM
>and Lenovo) laptop computers. It is NOT an official support forum for
>IBM or Lenovo.
>
>General Usenet "netiquette" guidelines as posted in
>news.announce.newusers and news.answers shall apply to this newsgroup.
>In particular, participants are asked to show courtesy and respect for
>other participants, and to avoid the use of offensive language,
>excessive quoting, or long signature blocks. Participants are encouraged
>to use descriptive Subjects (e.g., "T41 won't boot after disk swap"
>rather than just "Help").
>
>The following types of posts are prohibited:
>
> * Off-topic (not directly related to ThinkPad laptop computers)
> * Binaries (except for appended text-encoded digital signatures)
> * Spam (including excessive cross-posting)
> * Make-money-fast or other chain or fraudulent schemes
> * Work-at-home or other scams
> * Commercial advertisements, "infomercials," or announcements
> * Auction notices (e.g., eBay)
> * Forged articles (anonymous articles are allowed)
> * Personal insults or repetitive flaming (attacks)
> * Employment (help and/or position wanted) notices
>
>The use of e-mail addresses from articles posted to this group for the
>purpose of sending junk (mass unsolicited) e-mail or for compiling a
>list so that others may do so is specifically prohibited.
>
>In the absence of moderation, prohibitions can, of course, only be
>enforced by the collective will of the group and/or by after-the-fact
>complaints to the offender's service provider. Nevertheless, it is hoped
>that this charter will help in getting complaints resolved.
>
>PROPONENT:
>
>John Navas <>
>
>RATIONALE:
>
>ThinkPad is a major and very popular brand of laptop/notebook computers,
>formerly part of IBM, now part of Lenovo, with many unique features that
>set the brand apart from other brands of laptop computers.
>
>Discussions pertaining to ThinkPad laptop computers are currently
>carried in:
>
> * comp.sys.laptops:
> - generic laptop discussion group
> - traffic of 40 articles per day, down from peak of over 100 per day
> - will remain for discussions not pertaining to ThinkPad
> - Google archive of over 170,000 articles
>
> * ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad:
> - invalid newsgroup not carried by many news providers
> - traffic of 10 articles per day
> - Google archive of over 9,000 articles
>
> * http://forum.thinkpads.com/
> - broken down into multiple specific topics
> - over 15,000 registered users
> - over 200,000 articles
>
> * ThinkPad mailing list
> - List: http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
> - Archive: http://zurich.ai.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/
> - traffic of 5-15 messages per day
>
>The existence of ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad and the popularity of
>forum.thinkpads.com, and traffic on the ThinkPad mailing list, are
>evidence of the demand for a ThinkPad brand-specific forum.
>
>Once it becomes carried widely, comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad is expected to
>have initial traffic of at least 20 articles per day.
>
>comp.sys.laptops would remain for discussions not pertaining to ThinkPad
>computers. Although some traffic would presumably be siphoned off into
>comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad, the creation of a specific subgroup might
>re-stimulate interest enough to result in more traffic, and possibly in
>the creation of other comp.sys.laptops.* subgroups.
>
>HISTORY: comp.sys.laptops
>
>comp.sys.laptops was created in about 1990. Traffic apparently peaked at
>over 100 articles per day before declining to its current level of about
>40 articles per day. This decline is believed to be more due to
>siphoning off by brand-specific web forums (e.g., forum.thinkpads.com),
>and lack of brand focus, not any lack of interest in laptop computers.
>
>Adding specific subgroups (IBM, Toshiba, etc.) to comp.sys.laptops was
>proposed in 1994-1995, but apparently went nowhere:
>
><ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/comp/comp.sys.laptops-reorg>
>
><ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/comp/comp.sys.laptops.toshiba>
>
><<>>