Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Seeking recommendations to alternative for YahooGroups.com

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

John Carver wrote:

>Our host for pacificgardens.ca provides the service using Mailman
>software, the same as runs the cohousing-l list. We've set up two
>lists for our members. One is only for announcements and notices, goes
>to everyone and only accepts postings from certain members. The other
>is for discussions of interest, which anyone can join and participate
>in. This arrangement has served us quite well. Easy to set up and
>configure.
>
>
>John Carver
>Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community <http://pacificgardens.ca/>
>Nanaimo, BC

Cohousing-L uses the open source Mailman software running at the ISP
tigertech.net which I highly recommend. Their $120/year package
includes all services you're likely to want and more (but not net
access).  Note that their Mailman install has much better than
standard Mailman archive system.  They have provided the best support
of any service (Internet or otherwise) that I have ever experienced.

See my review at http://justcomm.org/#tigertech  (It includes
a link to Tigertech that if you use thir service gives Cohousing-L
a kickback.


John mentioned that Pacificgardens has two lists:
1) announcements and notices to everyone
2) discussions of interest , anyone can participate

Two lists (at least) seems useful. How have other communities -
particularly forming communites set up lists / communications?
I can think of a number of possible dimensions.

Discussion vs announcements
members vs anyone
threshold for subscribing
public vs private
volume of messages expected
types of discussion considered appropriate (some are not appropriate
   for public discussion)

Currently Bassett Creek Cohousing (still in early stages of formation
but we have a proposed site) has one discussion list that anyone
expressing interest can subscribe to.  But the active households have
drifted to direct email amongst themselves tho recently resolved to
use the list more.

Fred


--
Bassett Creek Cohousing, Minneapolis  http://mn.cohousing.org/bcrk/
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org