<div dir="ltr">I certainly agree that the listserve should absolutely NOT be hosted at PTG home office, unless all the proper security and integrity precautions are taken. And to do so for one server offers precisely zero economy of scale relative to a real hosting service's facility. <div>
<br></div><div style>As for porting the existing archives to such an off-site host, they do exist, as do all the attachments to the best of my knowledge. The older (pre-HL days) attachments are linked to in the message archives as being located at www dot ptg dot org slash etc., etc., whereas in fact those are located, along with all the HL-era attachments, at mail dot ptg dot org slash etc., etc.. </div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">I have always (now, as well as during a 25-year IT career) seen the strong argument in favor of roll-your-own software rather than buying off-the-shelf. For PTG to continue having its own mailman listserve server isn't quite roll-your-own, but it's "safer" than going off to google groups. No one, likely not even <span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px">Larry Page and Sergey Brin will tell you with certainty the status of the service known as Google Groups five years hence. Nor can anyone can offer with any certainty the status of support for mailman, or Linux OS, or any other component of this proposed environment five years hence, but it's quite certain that any particular installation will still be functional... outdated and unsupported perhaps, but still there. If Google Groups goes away, what happens to "our stuff"? Presumably it would be available for export at some point prior to shutdown, but then to go where, exactly? </span></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:16px"><br></span></font></div><div class="gmail_extra"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:16px">All that said... if it were my call, I think I'd still vote for migrating formerly-PTG pianotech communication functionality to Google Groups. It's simple. It's free. It's secure (as in not lost.) And it's available for the foreseeable future.</span></font></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:16px"><br></span></font></div><div class="gmail_extra"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:16px">Paul Bruesch</span></font></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:16px">Stillwater, MN<br></span></font><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Susan Kline <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:skline@peak.org" target="_blank">skline@peak.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
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<font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace">Hi, Paul, everyone ...
Horace answered you yesterday evening, but accidentally sent to me <br>
instead of to the list. He can't get to a computer till mid-morning, so
late (too late) last night he <br>
asked me to forward his reply to pianotech. -- Susan <br>
<br>
-------------------------<br>
</font>Hi, Paul,<br>
<br>
Yes...I'm semi-sorry to say that I could/can do that myself. What makes
more sense to me is to have some ISP set up and manage the server, and
then have some TBD person(s) act as administrators to setup mailman and
then to populate it with the archives from the existing instance. <br>
<br>
Missing, unless they were to be made available by the guild, would be
the attachments. I'm sure that many of us collectively have most of
that stuff available...just not necessarily connected to the correct
original post.<br>
<br>
While for many things I really like Amazon Web Services, I think the
best location for something of this nature is a real-time ISP. There
are thousands around the country, many with very competitive rates. The
advantage of this route is that all of the support of the physical
server and its OS and related software is managed by the ISP, leaving
someone else largely only having to worry about the mailman application
and things related to it. If you're wondering where $30K has been
going, it's for too few people to manage too few boxes...there's no
economy of scale and it looks like pianotech has been taking a hit for
about 50% of someone's salary...from a business perspective, that's
clearly unsustainable. What's inexplicable/illogical is why this wasn't
contracted out years ago...but, that's another topic for another time.<br>
<br>
I'm happy to check with the ISP I use; or, someone else can...doesn't
matter. I've used <a href="http://Sonic.net" target="_blank">Sonic.net</a> for over 15
years and always been pleased with their services costs. There may be
other places that are cheaper and/or better.<br>
<br>
Anyway, thanks for your kind words, Paul. I'm speaking up because I
hate to see what appears to be so many people effectively cut off or
opting out when there is no real need and the options proferred really
don't provide the same service for the same amount of end-user effort.<br>
<br>
Kind regards<br>
<br>
Horace<br>
<br>
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