This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the reorganization
of the unmoderated newsgroup, rec.food.cooking.

This RFD is being posted to news.announce.newgroups, news.groups,
rec.food.cooking, rec.food.drink, rec.food.historic,
rec.food.recipes, rec.food.sourdough, rec.food.veg and
rec.food.veg.cooking, with followups set to news.groups. All
discussion regarding this proposal should take place in news.groups.

Rationale: Rec.food.cooking has been a high-volume newsgroup for
many years, and the subject of splitting has been brought up with
a fair amount of regularity. Traditionally, rec.food.cooking had
been an amazingly civil, calm and flame-free newsgroup, so a split
never seemed to be justified.

However, in recent years the noise level and number of inappropriate
posts has skyrocketed, and polite pointers to the FAQs (which usually
did the trick before) now go ignored or become targets for flames. I
feel that splitting rec.food.cooking will help bring back the focus
that it once had.

Proposal: rec.food.cooking be split into 5 unmoderated groups:

rec.food.cooking.misc
rec.food.cooking.cookware
rec.food.cooking.recipes
rec.food.cooking.books
rec.food.cooking.discuss

Charters:

rec.food.cooking.misc (unmoderated) What rfc used to be and should
be. For general cooking discussion. This newsgroup will replace
rec.food.cooking.

rec.food.cooking.cookware (unmoderated) Bread machines, microwaves,
crockpots, knives, cutting boards, glass-top stoves, barbecues, cast
iron, woks, Calphalon, aluminum, dehydrators, pasta makers, rice
cookers, etc.

rec.food.cooking.recipes (unmoderated) Recipes and requests. Before
you say that this is redundant with rec.food.recipes, from moderating
rec.food.recipes, I've discovered that crossposting between
rec.food.cooking and rec.food.recipes is virtually non-existent.
Recipe management software discussion should go in here as well.

rec.food.cooking.books (unmoderated) Cookbooks, cookbook authors, tv
shows.

rec.food.cooking.discuss (unmoderated) For all the spam and tripe
that currently plagues the group. For flames, rumors, controversial
topics (such as food poisoning), the $250 cookie, and those threads
that bear marginal relevance that seem to go on forever like, "What
did you have for dinner last night?" "What is your favorite fast
food restaurant?" "What is your least favorite fast food
restaurant?" Etc, etc.

Discussion will run for a minimum of 21 days. The newsgroups in this
proposal are subject to change, and if major changes are necessary,
the discussion period may be extended an additional 7 days.

A Call for Votes (CFV) will be posted after the end of the discussion
period. The vote will be run by a neutral third party.

This RFD attempts to fully comply with Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines set in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup". Please
refer to this document if you have questions about the process.