fwsweet
Administrator
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
{Posts: 5368 }
Location: Palm Coast, FL
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 Posted: Mon 29 Nov 2004 04:07 Post subject: OneDropRule is Moving to a New Site Next Week |
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Saturday, November 27, 2004 2:15 PM
Unless someone has serious objections, I am planning to move the OneDropRule discussion group away from Yahoo Groups and to a private server in about one week. The major features of the new site are:
1. Fast scrolling of entire messages. --- Currently, you can read only one message at a time, whether in your web browser or in Outlook Express, and so it takes a lot of slow clicking to read an entire thread of 10-15 messages. The new site displays message contents on a scrolling page, so you can easily scroll an entire conversation after one-click retrieval.
2. Messages arranged by subject. --- Currently, you must skip around the list of messages if you want to follow the discussion of one subject, since the messages are displayed in the order received. The new site displays the entire conversation on the subject when you click on a message.
3. No ads. --- I hate banner ads. I hate pop-ups and pop-unders even worse. But most of all I hate the ads that interrupt message retrieval (whining that the host is ad-supported). The new site is fast and free of advertising.
4. No email address needed. --- Currently, you must provide a valid email address in order to join OneDropRule. The new site does not require an email address. (You may still provide one, if you wish, in order to get email notification of new messages, but it is optional and you may hide it in any case.) Offline private discussions are handled without emails. Indeed, the new site requires none of the personal data that Yahoo demands-just a userid by which you are known in the group. Also, because the new site does not use email, but is based entirely on the web, it cannot be compromised by emailed viruses.
5. Multiple discussion categories. --- Currently, all messages are lumped together. Those who want to discuss historical events, must skim through political or current events discussions, and vice-versa. The new site enables us to have (for instance) one section of topics for current events, one for historical discussion, one for political activism, one for ladies' issues, and one section just for youth issues. (As Javier has pointed out, we want to avoid defining groups by political leaning, since one of the strengths of OneDropRule is its enabling people with radically different goals to interact.)
6. Our server, our software. --- Currently, OneDropRule runs on Yahoo computers using Yahoo software. The new site is on a privately owned computer using privately owned software that we can modify. Hence, the new site can guarantee security. It can guarantee confidentiality, thus enabling closed discussion groups invisible to the public for private issues. It can react immediately both to problems and to opportunities for new features.
Next steps. I have begun setting up the new site's overall structure. Unless, someone can think of any reason to delay, I expect to switch to the new site in about one week. Everyone who is currently a OneDropRule member will be pre-loaded into the new site.
Frank W. Sweet
Moderator, OneDropRule
http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame12.html |
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