Call for Votes: comp.benchmarks

[SILL D E]

[Eliot Lear refused to post this on news.announce.newgroups on the
grounds that the Guidelines require the Call for Votes to be posted
within 30 days of the Call for Discussion.  Since the Guidelines make
no such requirement, and I don't want to wait another week to start
the vote, I'm posting this directly.]

NAME: comp.benchmarks

CHARTER: Discussion of benchmarks and benchmarking including reporting
    benchmark results and publishing benchmark source code and bug
    fixes.

MODERATION STATUS: unmoderated

HOW TO VOTE: Mail votes to de5 at ornl.gov.  Include "comp.benchmarks" in
    the subject and a clear indication of your vote, such as "yes" or
    "for" to indicate approval, or "no" or "against" to indicate
    disapproval, in either the subject or body of your message.

VOTE CONFIRMATION: I may post one mass acknowledgment.  I won't
    respond individually to all voters.

VOTING PERIOD: 21 days from posting of this Call for Votes.

COMMENTARY: It's been over a month since I posted the Call for
    Discussion for this group.  Response has been favorable enough to
    warrant a Call for Votes.  The only issue discussed in news.groups
    on this topic was moderation status.  Since there were only a
    couple of people who really wanted moderation, and nobody
    countered my objections to moderation, I feel moderation is
    unwarranted at this time. 

Here's some information from the original Call for Discussion:

"There are lies, damned lies, and benchmarks," to paraphrase someone
whose name escapes me at the moment [Mark Twain] .  Like it or not,
though, benchmarks are a fact of life in the computing world.  So in
the spirit of `knowing thy enemy', I'd like to propose the formation
of an unmoderated newsgroup for:

    -  Discussions about benchmarks including:
        . hardware benchmarks
        . numeric benchmarks
        . operating system benchmarks
        . compiler benchmarks
        . graphics benchmarks
        . window system benchmarks
        . multiple interactive user load simulations
        . validity of benchmarks/benchmarking
        . benchmarking as a procurement tool
        . benchmarking anecdotes

    -  Publishing benchmark results
        . especially user-run rather than vendor-run

    -  Publishing benchmark source code and availability info
        . including bug fixes/reports

--
Dave Sill (de5 at ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems
Workstation Support