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

However, in recent weeks 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 favourite
fast food restaurant?" "What is your least favourite 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.