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SRH-Reorg FAQ


The soc.religion.hindu-reorganization FAQ
-----------------------------------------

This document attempts to answer some commonly asked questions about
the soc.religion.hindu reorganization proposal, and it also attempts
to dispel a lot of the myths and fallacies about the proposal.

Modification History:
18 Dec 1995: FAQ Created

The latest version of this document can be found at
http://www-ece.rice.edu/~vijaypai/srh-faq.html


0) Where can I find the RFD?

This is the most important question that can be asked, yet it seems
that much of the discussion which is taking place comes from people
who have not read the RFD. This is unfortunate, because the RFD clears
up a lot of the questions regarding the motivation of this RFD, and
the resulting scenario if this proposal passes.

The simplest place to find the RFD is on news.announce.newgroups, on
which articles generally don't disappear for a long time. It was also
cross-posted to a number of other groups, such as news.groups, such as
news.groups and soc.culture.indian. In addition, it was submitted to a
number of other moderated groups and mailing lists. All of this is
outlined in the RFD proposal.

Also, it can be found at
gopher://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at:7119/0news.announce.newgroups%3A7608

and also at
http://www-ece.rice.edu/~vijaypai/srh.html

1) What is the purpose of the proposal?

An excerpt from the Rationale section of the RFD:

" There exists at present a moderated newsgroup soc.religion.hindu,
  which unfortunately has several shortcomings in its existing
  setup. These have recently been apparent, and this proposal seeks to
  fill in a number of such oversights in SRH's construction, by making:

  i>   - provisions for multiple moderators to ensure quick response and
         fairness;
  ii>  - provisions for replacement of moderators;
  iii> - clear definitions of moderation guidelines;
  iv>  - provisions for handling disputes between an author and a
         moderator;
  v>   - clarifications regarding what constitutes unacceptable behavior
         by a moderator."

2) Will this destroy soc.religion.hindu?

In short, no. It will replace soc.religion.hindu with three groups:
unmoderated group talk.religion.hindu
moderated group soc.religion.hindu.moderated (renames soc.religion.hindu)
moderated group soc.religion.hindu.info

3) Why form new groups?

Each of the proposed groups serves a different purpose. The RFD has
sections giving the rationale for each of the groups, and a charter
for each group is provided. To summarize, soc.religion.hindu.moderated
will be where (moderated) discussion about Hinduism takes
place. Soc.religion.hindu.info will be where informational
announcement of interest to Hindus takes place, and
talk.religion.hindu will provide an unmoderated forum where other
Hinduism-discussions can take place.

4) What about the claim that this is politically motivated?

If this claim is examined, you will see that it has little support in
reality, and is more of a smokescreen than anything else. All of the
events surrounding this RFD were very public, and this RFD was not a
surprise. The pre-RFD stage, in which people were invited to
contribute to the RFD and share their comments, took place on
news.groups some time ago.

Once the RFD was drafted, a copy of it was sent to Ajay Shah well in
advance of it being posted to the newsgroups, and Ajay Shah, who is
currently the moderator of soc.religion.hindu, was asked to be one of
the moderators of the proposed newsgroups. So, it cannot be said that
the current moderator of SRH was somehow not aware of the proposal, or
that he was not asked to be involved.

In fact, Ajay Shah requested one of his friends in Houston, Vijay
Pallod, to get in touch with one of the proponents, Vivek Pai, and
discuss the RFD. All of this happened well in advance of the RFD being
posted, so it cannot be said that this RFD was a surprise. The
conversation between Vivek Pai and Vijay Pallod was lengthy and
cordial.

5) Where can I find the RFD, again?

Once again, check news.announce.newgroups or
gopher://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at:7119/0news.announce.newgroups%3A7608

6) Who are the proposed moderators?

>From the RFD:

Moderator: Srinivas Kandala <srini@inrs-telecom.uquebec.ca>
Moderator: Anshuman Pandey <apandey@u.washington.edu>
Moderator: Srini Pichumani <srini@eecs.umich.edu>
Moderator: Raghu Seshadri <seshadri@cup.hp.com>

Note that the moderators represent diverse viewpoints, and this was
intentional. When a search for moderators was conducted, the goal was
to find honorable people who were familiar with Hinduism and who
cannot be said to be partial to any side.

7) What about the claim that this is an attempt to control the
   content of SRH?

This is totally without merit. Ajay Shah, the current moderator of
soc.religion.hindu, was contacted about being a moderator for the
proposed groups. He declined. Had this been an attempt to control SRH
in some manner, does it make sense that Ajay would have been asked to
be moderator? This offer was made through several channels, including
publicly on news.groups, directly to Ajay, and also indirectly through
Vijay Pallod. There was no attempt to oust Ajay.

8) Does this have any relation to soc.religion.vaishnava?

There is no direct link between this reorganization proposal and
soc.religion.vaishnava. There have been people claiming this is a
"revenge" move or "retaliation", but these claims don't hold up to
close examination. First of all, why would the proponents for this RFD
have contacted Ajay Shah if they wanted revenge against him? The
position of moderator is arguably the most important position in a
newsgroup, and were this some sort of vendetta, it doesn't make sense
that Ajay would have been asked to be moderator.

9) Who are the proponents, and what do they do?

As listed in the RFD, the proponents are:
            Mani Varadarajan <mani@srirangam.esd.sgi.com>
            Henry Groover <HGroover@Qualitas.com>
            Vijay Sadananda Pai <vijaypai@ece.rice.edu>
            Vivek Sadananda Pai <vivek@cs.rice.edu>
            Shrisha Rao <shrao@nyx.cs.du.edu>

The proponents are the ones responsible for the administrative details
concerning the RFD _only_. They are the ones responsible for writing
the RFD, contacting moderators, etc., but they will have no say in the
newsgroup once it is created. In some sense, the proponents are like
the "sponsors" of the RFD - they handle administrative issues _only_
regarding the RFD. Once the newsgroup is created, the role of the
proponents is over.

10) Where is discussion taking place?

This discussion is taking place on news.groups, where discussions of
this nature generally take place. Furthermore, some discussion is
taking place on soc.religion.hindu, but it should be cross-posted to
news.groups.

11) Did Ajay Shah know about this RFD?

As mentioned earlier, Ajay knew about the pre-RFD discussions on
news.groups, and he was given a copy of the RFD well before it was
posted to the newsgroups. He was also asked to be a moderator of the
newsgroups, so he was well aware of this RFD.

12) Was Ajay Shah involved with this RFD?

Ajay declined the offer to be a moderator for the newsgroups, but that
was his decision. He also had the opportunity to provide feedback
regarding the RFD before it was posted.
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