arachne > wrote:

> sorry to get all philosophical, but isn't that what life (& newsgroups) is
> all about? - change. everything changes. we can't keep things how they are
> forever. change happens.

Why get so fatalistic? People are in control of a lot of things that
happen to them and creation - or not - of newsgroups is one of them.

> it seems like there is only a small percentage of australian posters on
> rec.food.cooking compared to other countries. i know you say that makes a
> difference. but what if aus.food was denied and these australian posters
> still decided all to unsubscribe or just lurk? the flavour of the newsgroup
> would still change. it's just not possible to control other people's
> behaviour like that.

It is possible to control one's own behaviour, though. And, why assume
Australian posters are particularly stupid and will cut into their own
flesh just out of spite?

> i know from my own unrelated newsgroup (aus.family) that many of the posters
> that would come to aus.food would be from aus.family. we have been
> interested in this for ages & would love a separate newsgroup for talking
> about food rather than on aus.family which is technically about parenting.

Good, simply great! Who are those posters? How many of them? How many
posting on the matter have appeared over the recent years? They could
be a part of statistics that would show some evidence of enough interest
to sustain the new newsgroup. Otherwise it is just empty talk, I'm
afraid.

> and this is not the only place that people wanting aus.food come from. there
> are many people in australian newsgroups that have never, ever visited
> rec.food.cooking which want aus.food. are you suggesting that these people
> all have no right to have a newsgroup they want?

No one has a right to a newsgroup. What you get to read is ultimately
decided by the newsadmins of ISPs and independent newsservers. Those
newsadmins pay attention to "serious" hierarchies and control messages
coming from approved sources precisely because they assume that new
newsgroups are created in a serious fashion, and are not just based on
hearsay or proclamations of nonexistent rights.

> i think this extends beyond the boundaries of changing one newsgroup
> slightly. it is what a sizeable (to our little country, anyway) number of
> people would like to see happen. (i know you keep asking for statistics, but
> i have no idea on how to do that! but you could google aus.family to see how
> many food related posts there are!)

Well, I answered that question, twice even, I believe. It has always
been the job of the proponents and, if they don't know how, they ought
to find someone who does. I even suggested David Formosa, thinking that
even if he can't help personally, he can possibly point to someone who
can. Has anyone asked him?

> i hope you still find rec.food.cooking an enjoyable place to go, whether
> aus.food happens or not.

I hope so, too. And I also hope that, if aus.food does happen, it will
be an enjoyable place to visit, too. I'm not going to sulk, unlike
those hypothetical Australians of whom you apparently have such a low
opinion. :-)

Victor