Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: listserve management

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

Email communications on lists has become a major mess. I have a list of 2300 
members with an average of 900 messages a month. The number of combinations of 
email providers (yahoo, google, AOL, Earthlink, RCN, ATT, etc.) combined with 
all the ways of reading -- on the web, on an email reader, on a phone, on a 
public computer, etc. 

Access and processing has become so complex it is impossible for me to help 
people with all their email problems. The addition of spam protection has 
increased the complexities of everything. I also publish two email newsletters 
and cringe when I send new issues because I will be invariably blacklisted by 
one ISP or another because they are treated as spam.

On top of all that YahooGroups is going through upheavals in an effort to adapt 
to the smartphone market. Settings and menus are changed without notice. If I 
thought Google would be any better, I would move the whole list, but I don't 
think it is. 

If I add people to Yahoo, they don't have to have a Yahoo account unless they 
want to read on the web. To access the YahooGroups website, they have to have a 
user name and sign in. They don't have ot have a Yahoo email account. New 
subscribers don't have to give all the contact information Yahoo will ask for 
and can go the privacy settings and opt out of marketing newsletters.

The programs for handling your own lists require programming knowledge. Even if 
the software is totally easy to use, you have to speak geek to understand the 
directions.

Forums do not replace email lists. A totally different animal.

I don't know a solution. For us, it's a wait and hope it settles down. Like a 
volcano that erupts every few decades.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org