Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: R Philip Dowds (rpdowdscomcast.net) | |
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2016 05:08:56 -0700 (PDT) |
I do know that some or many people are hugely disturbed when unrequested e-mail appears in their mail reader. I personally have no difficulty rapidly skimming among the messages, and focusing on the ones I care about; I don’t need a robot to screen and suppress for me. But then again, I get only 100± a day, not thousands. Thanks, Philip Dowds Cornerstone Village Cohousing Cambridge, MA PS: I sometimes wonder if the complaint about “too many messages” is really a proxy for “I feel guilty when I try to ignore community business, so I wish I didn’t get so many messages that imply I should be taking an action or participating in a decision." > On Sep 19, 2016, at 10:44 AM, John Sechrest <sechrest [at] gmail.com> wrote: > > > For those of you with a gmail service, you might want to know about the > <MORE> button on the top right, which has a "mute" function for email > conversations. Which gives you a poor-man's version of mute thread in > groups.io > > > > On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 11:12 PM, Beverly Jones Redekop < > beverly.jones.redekop [at] gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> #7 sounds amazing!!!! That would solve most of the "too many messages" >> issues. >> >> "7. Each subscriber can mute a message thread. Like the recent gardening >> dispute or the nanny requests, one can select mute and not see any other >> messages in that thread. Your own groups page shows what threads you have >> muted." >> >> On Sun, Sep 18, 2016, 12:46 PM Sharon Villines <sharon [at] >> sharonvillines.com> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>>> On Sep 18, 2016, at 2:39 PM, Beverly Jones Redekop < >>> beverly.jones.redekop [at] gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> An hour away, at Groundswell Cohousing at Yarrow Ecovillage, we use a >>>> Google group email too. In the footer of each message is a link to the >>>> "cheat sheet" with links to everything (calendar, community dinner >>>> schedules, guidelines for using our wastewater system, members of >>>> committees, minutes, etc...). A lot of this will move to a new website >> or >>>> strata software "soon," but we've been using the Google group for seven >>>> years. >>> >>> A new platform for group communications is Groups.io. They just >>> transferred my ~3000 member neighborhood list from Yahoo without a hitch. >>> All settings remained the same. They also transferred the 12 years of >>> archives — the list now receives ~900 emails a month. They can’t transfer >>> files. We had watched YahooGroups decline in services and reliability for >>> years but exploration of Google resulted in the conclusion that it was >> not >>> much better and we couldn’t transfer easily. >>> >>> Groups.io also sent a message to each subscriber explaining the change >> and >>> only one person has asked me what the address of the new group was. 1 of >>> 3,000. I assume I will get more questions later from people who don’t >> read >>> or post often, but that was amazing. People love the new list. (I’m still >>> looking into transferring our cohousing lists.) >>> >>> I pasted in two messages below that I sent to my list about why >> Groups.IO >>> was better >>> >>> ONE — THOUGHTS ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF CHANGING >>> >>> Groups.io was recommended by a list member. I’ve been exploring it and am >>> considering moving the list there. It has many advantages: >>> >>> 1. They will transfer the whole list and our archives. I have assurances >>> from other groups that this has been done for their much larger lists >>> without a hitch. There are no storage limits except for files and >>> attachments. We don’t allow attachments and don’t use the files often. >> But >>> the limit on those is 1 GB. >>> >>> 2. The list works very much like YahooGroups with many more features. >>> >>> 3. People can sign up using only their name and email address — no >> account >>> set up. No email account. No phone number. >>> >>> 4. People can be automatically be removed from moderated status after a >>> set number of approved messages. This will be a great service to >>> moderators. (We moderate new members to prevent spam.) >>> >>> 5. We escape from the Yahoo mistake of making us a restricted group so >> new >>> members are automatically approved. Removes the appearance of being a >>> elitist list. >>> >>> 6. The list can have unlimited subgroups. An example is a travel list >> that >>> sets up subgroups for those who take specific trips or have visited >>> specific countries. Then the list members can find people who went on >> that >>> trip or that country or ask questions. Anyone on the main list can also >>> subscribe to subgroups. >>> >>> On TakomaDC people frequently have set up separate lists for children’s >>> issues, sales, crime, Metro Development. That would not be necessary they >>> could be subgroups of the main list. >>> >>> 7. Each subscriber can mute a message thread. Like the recent gardening >>> dispute or the nanny requests, one can select mute and not see any other >>> messages in that thread. Your own groups page shows what threads you have >>> muted. >>> >>> 8. For those who use #hashtags, they can be used in messages to make >>> searches for those messages are easier. I once tried to search for Takoma >>> Station Tavern, but it was impossible. There were too many messages for >> the >>> Takoma Metro Station, Takoma gas station, etc. There were hundreds of >>> messages. #Takoma Station Tavern would have been possible to search. Of >>> course not everyone would use these, but … Hashtags that have been used >> are >>> available on the group’s webpage. >>> >>> 9. A Wiki. A wiki is an organized information resource like Maggie’s List >>> that all subscribers can update. If “all members” becomes a problem, a >> few >>> can be authorized to do this. >>> >>> 10. A calendar, where you can schedule events and send reminders. We >>> haven’t used this often but did use it one year when we had few trick or >>> treaters and wanted people to know where there would be treats. >>> >>> 11. A poll feature similar to what we have now. >>> >>> 12. A full featured database, where we can define tables with different >>> column types. >>> >>> 13. Photos and files sections. >>> >>> 14. A good business model. This ensures there will be no ads and that >>> features won’t be withdrawn because Yahoo has a new CEO The focus of >> Groups >>> IO is specifically making the best email list service available. For $10 >> a >>> month more features are available including 10 GB of storage. It is >>> unlikely that we would need this but I think we could easily get >>> contributions from subscribers equal to $120 a year. >>> >>> More information: >>> https://groups.io/static/about >>> >>> >>> TWO-- WHY I TRUST THE CHANGE >>> >>> I’ve received questions off-list about why Groups.io better than >>> YahooGroups.com. If groups can be so clear and simple, why can’t >>> YahooGroups? You would think they would improve themselves the same way. >>> >>> The answer is that Yahoo is not focused on groups. No one knows what they >>> are focused on, but it isn’t groups. They do the least they can, and even >>> eliminate features, to retain enough group members to raise the most >> money >>> possible. If a feature makes users happy, but doesn’t increase income >> over >>> costs, it is eliminated. Does that hurt anyone? The day they summarily >>> deleted all attachments to messages? To 10 years of the history of an >>> organization? >>> >>> Groups.io isn’t a charity or volunteer organization either. Instead it >> has >>> a good business model that is focused on its key product. It offers free >>> services to groups to attract and develop the possibilities of groups. As >>> businesses and social groups become more developed and need more >> services, >>> they pay an affordable fee for those services: $10 a month. In time, >> there >>> will be more services, I’m sure, as the Groups.io founder, the staff, the >>> moderators, and the users have more needs or see more uses for groups. >>> There is active interaction between the founder, other programmers, >>> moderators, and users. >>> >>> The founder of Groups.io, Mark Fletcher, is a programmer, not a CEO hired >>> for management skills, although he has lots of those and a history of >>> leadership in software companies: founder and CEO of the news aggregator >>> website, Bloglines, and the Vice President of Ask.com until June 2006. >> (Ask >>> Jeeves acquired Bloglines on 8 February 2005.) He won one of the annual >>> Rave Awards, presented by Wired magazine. He has been a software >> engineer >>> at Pixel, Inc. >>> >>> Fletcher started the free mailing list service ONElist. ONElist merged >>> with eGroups, which was later acquired by Yahoo! in June 2000. Fletcher >>> wanted better. He loves mailing lists and saw more uses for them. >>> >>> Announced in September of 2014, here is Mark Fletcher’s statement of >>> purpose: >>> >>> https://wingedpig.com/2014/09/23/introducing-groups-io/ >>> >>> >>> >>> _________________________________________________________________ >>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: >>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ >>> >>> >>> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: >> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ >> >> >> > > > -- > John Sechrest . Need to schedule a meeting : > http://sechrest.youcanbookme.com > . > . > . > > . > sechrest [at] gmail.com > . > @sechrest <http://www.twitter.com/sechrest> > > . > http://www.oomaat.com > . > _________________________________________________________________ > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ > >
- Re: How does your community handle internal communications?, (continued)
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Re: How does your community handle internal communications? Beverly Jones Redekop, September 18 2016
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Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Sharon Villines, September 18 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Beverly Jones Redekop, September 18 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? John Sechrest, September 19 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? R Philip Dowds, September 20 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Sharon Villines, September 22 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Jenny Guy, October 6 2016
- Re: Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Sharon Villines, October 7 2016
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Groups.io [was How does your community handle internal communications? Sharon Villines, September 18 2016
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Re: How does your community handle internal communications? Beverly Jones Redekop, September 18 2016
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