REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
unmoderated group rec.sport.freediving
This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of the
group rec.sport.freediving. This is not a Call For Votes (CFV). You
cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below.
CHANGES from previous RFD:
* The rationale has been re-written to more aptly state the reasons why
the group is needed by the freediving user community, thus focusing on
the reasons why freediving issues are not covered in existing scuba
groups. One paragraph in the rationale was deleted because the
information in it was covered in the charter. A reference to search
engine results on freediving was also deleted.
* The charter has been re-written to be more specific, less vague and
overall better defines what this group is for. Included was a note on
use of language (English or other) and a note on the use of binaries was
altered to further downtone the use of these.
* In the distribution paragraph the lists of mailing lists was added more
detail on each mailing list.
Newsgroups line:
rec.sport.freediving The sport of Freediving and Apnea and related topics.
RATIONALE: rec.sport.freediving
Freediving is expanding worldwide in numbers of practitioners. The sport
of freediving is related to scuba diving, but is deemed as old as
humankind. The freediver dives without the use of compressed air
supply. Freediving is also called apnea, which relates to the Greek phrase
for holding one's breath. Freediving is also called snorkelling, skin
diving and breathhold diving.
Freedivers conducts a number of activities under water, such as deep dives
with flippers or assisted by weights and inflatable balloons, they shoot
fish with harpunes, they dive long distances in pools, they hold their
breath for time or they play underwater team sports in pool such as UW
hockey and UW rugby. Using weights and inflatable balloons, it is possible
to freedive to more than 500 feet depth.
Deep freediving derived as an organized competition sport in the early
1990's after having been a series of deep diving record attempts since the
early 1950's. The modern day deep diving competitions only allows the use
of flippers. Pool competitions are frequent, particularly across Europe
and the Americas. The first freediving world championship was held in 1996
and returns every 2 years with participants from all 5 continents.
Harpuning fish, or Spearfishing, as well as the team sports have their own
international events, UW rugby across Europe, UW hockey across the
Americas. There is estimated to be some 10000 freedivers around the world
practising the above mentioned activities.
Currently there is no specific group to discuss freediving issues. Though
an obvious choice of forum, posting freediving topics in scuba groups is
most often considered inappropriate by the additional users of these
groups, due to the activity differences between scuba and freediving
(breathing compressed air under water vs. holding one's breath under
water). This discourages some people from using Usenet as a medium for
discussion of this area, causes others to cross/multi-post throughout
various groups meant for scuba diving, and means that newcomers have no
obvious place to search for relevant answers or discussions. Also, because
the elements of freediving is a cross mix between swimming and scuba
elements, the discussion topics of freediving are most often not related
to traditional scuba topics, nor traditional swimming topics.
In addition, much current discussion of freediving and apnea is driven off
of Usenet to fragmented mailing lists and web-based forums. For example,
the Freedivelist and Apneadiver mailing lists as well as the
DeeperBlue.net forums are frequently recommended to newcomers within the
web community asking about freediving topics, due to the lack of relevant
forums within Usenet.
CHARTER: rec.sport.freediving
Rec.sport.freediving is an unmoderated newsgroup for discussing the sport
of freediving and apnea and various related topics herein. Freediving and
apnea is the sport of underwater diving without the use of breathing
gear. Apnea is a Greek word for 'no breath' that is generally used about
freediving. Freediving and apnea is also called snorkelling, skin diving
and breathhold diving.
Examples of welcome topics include:
o Recommended techniques
o Discussions on equipment
o Training tips
o Diet experiences
o Discussions on safety procedures
o Discussions on education of freedivers
o Discussions on environment issues
o Discussions on sports governing and other political issues
o News and stories from competitions, including announcing competitions to
the competitors
o Stories from dives, folk tales in general
Examples of inappropriate topics include:
o Cross posting about scuba diving, unless it is related to freediving
safety issues. (Use the specific group.)
o Cross posting and spam of any other kind
o Personal attacks or accusations aimed at individuals
Standard language for the group is English. However, one can post messages
in other languages for specific groups of people if the topic line is
clearly labeled with the language, f.i. [Francais], [Espanol], etc.
Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are not
allowed. Such material belongs on a web or FTP site to which a pointer may
be posted. Cryptographic signatures (e.g. PGP) may be used where
authentication is important and should be as short as possible.
It is asked to keep posts somewhat short and to the point, and to be civil
and constructive in the wording of the posts. Particularly in political
discussions one is asked to be polite in his/her criticism towards the
relevant parties.
Relevant commercial posts are acceptable, but should be limited to one per
month per product.
END CHARTER.
PROCEDURE:
This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase of
the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be
raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a minimum of
21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to
news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted
by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not
attempt to vote until this happens.
All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.
This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to
Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these documents
(available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the
process.
DISTRIBUTION:
This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
rec.scuba
uk.rec.scuba
dk.fritid.dykning
Pointers to this RFD will be posted to the following mailing lists:
Apneadiver <apneadiver@yahoogroups.com>,
<
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apneadiver/>
Freedivelist <freedivelist@freediver.net>,
<
http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/mb_letter.html>
Chat_AIDA <chat_AIDA@yahoogroups.com>,
<
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chat_AIDA/>
Proponent: Chris Engelbrecht <chrisengeldk@dkik.dk>