While I disagree that the bee list does not meet the needs of a hobby
beekeeper (I find the various beekeeping newsletters from around the
country to be fascinating), I think it would be great to also have a
beekeeping newsgroup.
 
HOWEVER, be aware that the reader-base might not be there.  I suspect this
will, by default, limit it to a group along the lines of alt.beekeeping,
which is limiting in itself, being in the alt. net, which is not carried
by many sites.  Why might it be limited to an alt. group?  Because of the
voting majority needed to create a group in the "main" Usenet news groups.
Be aware that for a group to be created, the proposal must pass with a
100 vote margin of "yes" over "no" votes.  Can we manage to drum up that
kind of support, and more, to balance any "no" votes that we might get?
(And don't ask "But why would anyone vote *against* it?"  I've seen folks
vote against groups for no other reason than they think there are too many
groups on the net, already.)  Be prepared to hustle votes anywhere you can
get them.  Be aware that this is a lot of work.  And that you might put in
a lot of work, and not have a newsgroup to show for it. (Yes, I've worked
on trying to get votes for a new group, in the past---can you tell?)
 
Didn't we have this discussion about this time, last year?
 
--Jane Beckman  [[log in to unmask]]