I saw this post on QRZ today by Paul K3FU – thought it was worth re-posting here:
(first part of the message (delimited by the > pointy things) is from http://www.big-8.org/
> RESULT
> rec.radio.amateur.moderated will be created
>
>The Last Call for Comments on 12 Feb 2007 initiated a five-day period for
>final comments. Following this comment period, the Big-8 Management Board
>has decided by consensus to create the newsgroup rec.radio.amateur.moderated.
>
>This group will be created on 22 Feb 2007.
>
>
>NEWSGROUPS LINE: rec.radio.amateur.moderated
>
>rec.radio.amateur.moderated Amateur radio practices, rules, etc.(Moderated)(Read more at: RESULT: rec.radio.amateur.moderated will be created)
I’d like to thank our Usenet Groups Mentor, Tim Skirvin, and the rest of the Big-8 Board. I’d especially like to thank the readership of rec.radio.amateur.*, who followed up with many positive comments in support of this proposal. I certainly would not have been able to bring this proposal to Usenet without the assistance of the rest of our moderation team. The Request for Discussion (RFD) process has also yielded two additional, highly-qualified, volunteers to serve as moderators, and we look forward to working with them as well.
The administrators at Panix assure us that the newgroup control message will be honored immediately, and automatically, so we should be ready to take submissions for the new newsgroup very shortly after that.
We will work with the readers to assist them in getting the newsgroup created at sites that do not automatically honor newgroup control messages.
If you do not have local access to news, this new newsgroup should also be available shortly at Google:
We will also seek to submit our Posting Guidelines for cross-posting to the rec.radio.info, rec.answers, and news.answers newsgroups to help further publicize this new newsgroup.
I have relayed a pointer to this message to the other rec.radio.amateur.* newsgroups not cross-posted to in the original announcement. I have also passed pointers to the QRZ.com and eHam.net blogs. I am grateful for the support and responsiveness of the QRZ team in getting the RFD announcements promptly posted as news items on the front page of QRZ. Our contacts at the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) have also expressed tentative interest in adding an announcement for the new newsgroup as a “Stray” item in a future issue of QST Magazine.
We hope to earn your trust, and obtain your participation, in our new newsgroup.
While I don’t frequent rec.radio.* very often, It should be interesting to see what happens. Unless you’re into reading spam or downloading kiddie porn, Usenet isn’t really very useful for much these days (Those of you who frequented usenet in the ‘good ole days’ know what I’m talking about). Anything moderated on Usenet is a step in the right direction…. the amount of spam and stupidity that lurks on newsgroups these days saddens me beyond all possible limit (well, not really… but it’s concerning).
I wish those involved with this venture the best of luck!
Hamsexy’s resident sports guru Escomm has organized a Hamsexy Fantasy Baseball pool. If you are interested in joining, click on 
It was a good net as always.
Happy Lunar New Year to all of our Asian readers and friends. I was in Taiwan for Chinese New Year last year – and it was a blast…. 8 days off right after Christmas… No wonder the Chinese were inventing paper and food while the rest of the world was…. well…. not inventing paper and food, I guess.
Those of you in or near the west Michigan area might be interested in knowing that the 