I tend to agree with Don.? I've had a number of yahoogroups since probably 2002 or so and before NEO, I (as administrator/owner/moderator) was able to do a number of things administratively that NEO took away.? Over time, I've found that when you have a problem, you end up with an automated Q&A session that takes you to a FAQ entry that probably doesn't answer your problem.? Getting a human to talk to is pretty much a thing of the past.? They have made changes without advance notification, and many of my older members have a lot of trouble with the CAPTCHA process to change email or join the group, so they end up quitting in disgust.? I had two specific groups I was targeting for a move - the first one had about 150 members and it went like clockwork.? No hiccups whatsoever and it's been going for probably 6-8 months.? My other group was like nearly 1000 folks and I wanted to wait a bit.? What I found was that Yahoogroups access was getting flaky while groups.io wasn't, so I finally decided to migrate the larger group.? It took a little longer (probably because of the demand from former yahoogroup users to move) and some things didn't make it (files mostly, apparently because something is going on over at Yahoogroups - so I'll have to check and see what is happening before I shut down that group).
And, in any transfer like this, you will lose some people and you will gain others.? There are always growing pains, but those folks who are ranting and raving at you for recommending a move are stuck in a paradigm they don't really understand.? I made the migration to Yahoogroups from a LISTPROC server hosted at a university back in 2002.? My co-owner and I talked about the alternatives - we were looking at Majordomo, possibly hosting LISTPROC on a UNIX machine locally, Yahoogroups, Googlegroups, and for whatever reasons back then, we opted for Yahoogroups.? Every option has it's pros and cons, but so far (knock on wood), groups.io has been solid.
Bill Hickey
Boulder, CO
Bill Hickey - WA3H