[Please note, followups set to news.groups]
The newsgroup comp.arch.hobbyist was created some years ago for the discussion of recreational hardware design. The activity when it was created was (for example) people wirewrapping their own microprocessor boards at home, but the scope in the charter (below) is a bit broader than that.
It was created as a moderated group because the community previously inhabited alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt which was filled with off-topic posts like 'How do I plug in SIMMs to my PC?'. That was probably a mistake, as I'm not sure moderation was needed in comp.arch.*
Anyway, for some years the moderator has been AWOL and as a result the group was been dead. So the Big 8 Management Board are currently seeing if there's any interest in replacing the moderator, or whether the group should be deleted.
Is there any interest in a newsgroup for non-commercial electronics/hardware design? That might have a slightly different feel from, say, comp.arch.embedded where the emphasis is on commercial development. Hardware, software, FPGAs (and more) would be covered. It might not be a particularly high-traffic group, as long as there are some people interested in reading and posting.
If there's interest, the group is already carried by many news servers so moderation just needs to be arranged - either on a simple automatic approval system or, if manpower is available, with human moderators. I'm willing to set this up if people think it's worthwhile. But I'm also happy for the group to be deleted if no-one is interested.
So please followup to this posting (followup will go to news.groups not comp.arch.* or sci.electronics.*) if you have an opinion.
Theo (original proponent of comp.arch.hobbyist 1997-8)
Here's the official Moderator Vacancy > MODERATOR VACANCY INVESTIGATION (MVI)
moderated group comp.arch.hobbyist
>
> This is a formal Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI), begun because
> moderated newsgroup comp.arch.hobbyist is not functioning, and may have
> been abandoned by its moderator(s).
>
> This investigation will attempt to verify the reasons for non-function,
> and may result in the removal of the group or the selection and instal-
> lation of a new moderator. In practice, the Big-8 Management Board
> considers the third alternative--changing the status of the group from
> moderated to unmoderated--as likely to cause more harm than good.
>
> NEWSGROUPS LINE:
>
> comp.arch.hobbyist Homebrew digital electronics design. (Moderated)
>
> DISTRIBUTION:
>
> news.announce.newgroups
> news.groups.proposals
> comp.arch.hobbyist
>
> PROPONENT:
>
> Alexander Bartolich
>
> CHARTER OF COMP.ARCH.HOBBYIST
>
> A moderated forum to exchange ideas, techniques, problems, solutions,
> and other information concerning the hobby of electronics design and
> construction, specifically related to digital machines and their
> peripherals.
>
> Commercial advertisements (except when non-repetitive and directly
> relevant to the topic of the group) are expressly forbidden; it is up
> to the moderation group to make individual exceptions.
>
> Binary postings in this group are unwelcome. No postings containing
> 10K or more of binary content will be accepted. Postings containing
> less than 10K of binary content should only be used where no other
> reasonable method is available to convey the information they contain.
> All postings containing binary content of more than 10 lines or 300
> bytes, whichever is the smaller, shall be forwarded to the daily
> moderators for inspection in the same manner as articles from unknown
> authors.
>
> Posters wishing to post binaries that do not fit the above criteria
> should upload this data to an FTP or WWW site and instead post a
> pointer to that site. The binary regulations do not apply to the
> posting of ASCII schematics.
>
> A 'bot moderator will be used, which will reject articles by authors
> who have not read the posting guidelines. Articles rejected by the
> 'bot will be forwarded to a group of three daily moderators for
> review. These daily moderators will be appointed by a moderation group
> of at least eight and at most twelve members who will decide on
> moderation policy in general and the workings of the 'bot in
> particular. Moderation will follow the scheme outlined below:
>
> The 'bot:
>
> - auto-approves articles that match all of these:
> - known author
> OR keyword/phrase in article
> OR reply to approved article to the same set of newsgroups
> - article with less than 300 bytes or 10 lines of binary
> content, whichever is the smaller
> - plain text, without markup encoding
> - mails notification of non-approval to original authors,
> without an attempt to circumvent spamblocks
> - notification message explains moderation system,
> and points poster to relevant posting guidelines
> - sends non-approved articles to the daily moderators
> - uploads non-approved articles to a WWW site, and
> regularly posts a pointer to them
> - scans for forged approvals and cancels
>
>
> The daily moderators:
> - individually check articles the 'bot rejected;
> - if at least one of the daily moderators think the
> article is on-topic, it gets posted
> - if it is reposted, the original author is notified
>
> The moderation group:
> - appoints the daily moderators
> - deals with group abuse that's not caught by the 'bot
> - it has the power to bar persistent abusers by
> unanimous decision for a period of up to
> 30 days at a time
> - deals with long-term moderation policy
> - is obliged to post details of all moderation group
> decisions to the newsgroup
> - if a moderation group member does not express an opinion
> on a matter, then their silence shall not be taken as
> supporting either side of a decision
>
> Moderators of news.announce.newgroups and successor groups are
> allowed blanket crossposting at their discretion.
>
> RATIONALE:
>
> Probe posts to this group resulted in bounces.
>
> : host
> moderators.switch.ch[130.59.10.10] said: 550 Unrouteable address
> (in reply to RCPT TO command)
>
> HISTORY OF THE GROUP:
>
> comp.arch.hobbyist is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation
> by 199:15 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 30 Jun 1998.
>
> PROCEDURE:
>
> Those who wish to comment on this moderator vacancy investigation should
> subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant
> threads in that newsgroup.
>
> To this end, the followup header of this RFD has been set to
> news.groups.proposals.
>
> For more information on the MVI process, please see
>
>
formatting link
>
> CHANGE HISTORY:
>
> 2009-10-29 Probe post bounced
> 2009-11-01 Moderator Vacancy Investigation
>