Re: Yahoo Groups to be made useless.

On Wed, 16 Oct 2019, Dave McGuire [email protected] [hercules-390] wrote:

> On 10/15/19 6:46 PM, George Shedlock [email protected]
> [hercules-390] wrote:
>> Sounds like we need to have an active discussion on this. We have talked
>> about moving from Yahoo on a number of occasions. I would think that the
>> first point would be to ask how important it is to have the files
>> section on the same site as the discussion board. Personally I would
>> like to see them at the same place. 
>> Q1. Same place or different?
>> Q2. Use a publicly available site or one run by one of our members? I do
>> not know of any publicly available sites but I am sure they exist.
>> Q3. If run by one of our own, is there a preference on what software to use?
>
>  One overarching concern to which I'd like to draw attention:
>
>  If you use a resource on the network from which you derive value, and
> this resource is given to you free of charge by a corporation, then
> invariably, YOU are the product.
>
>  What's happening to Yahoo Groups now is illustrative of this.  We are
> only lucky that they've given us notice.  Many such services have
> disappeared without a trace from one day to the next without such
> generous notice, and indeed, without any notice at all...data, files,
> pictures, subscription lists, etc etc...just gone.
>
>  At this time, groups.io is the right place for this to go.  We are the
> product there as well, but in this case, the service subsists on the
> higher-tier offerings which are not free.  Smaller, low-volume mailing
> lists like this one are the "gravy" with which the corporation breeds
> goodwill, so mailing lists like this one are free to use these services
> with no real ill effects in the short term.
>
>  Several of us have real, provider-independent network presence of one
> type or another.  My own servers have been online on the Internet since
> 1993, at the same hostnames, under the same domains, spanning several
> different connectivity providers, in six different physical locations
> over the years.  I get a PIPE FOR BITS from my upstream provider,
> nothing else.  Anything more is a recipe for data loss.
>
>  I suggest that any non-mailing-list content be hosted on a site like
> that (mine or someone else's), or at groups.io, which is currently, to
> borrow a term from the US FDA, "GRAS"...Generally Regarded As Safe.
>
>  Of course groups.io will eventually be invaded and strip-mined by
> suits as well, at which time it too will go down the same crapper as
> Yahoo.  But that's many years down the road, and we'll move to its
> successor then.
>
>  I am willing to assist with parts of this process if the list owner
> needs/wants such assistance.
>
>             -Dave
>
>

I can't agree more with what you wrote, Dave.

Free services can be trusted as much as a free lunch.

Well, if I remember correctly, US people are used
to say "a free lunch doesn't exist".

We have to options here, pay for a commercial
service, hosting the groups on private server
managed from somewhone who can be trusted at
least for a decade.

Peppe.

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