Replacing listserv server with Google Groups
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Max McGrath
May 4, 2011, 12:09:07 PM5/4/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Hi All -
We currently utilize Mailman 2.1.12 for our listservs on campus. I'm
wondering if it would be a good idea to move our users to using Google
Groups. Our staff is slim and it'd be nice to have one less server to
manage and one less piece of software.
I think when we originally moved to Google Apps the groups option
didn't allow for moderation, but it looks like they do now.
Can people let me know of their experiences (good and bad) using
Google Groups?
Thanks!
We currently utilize Mailman 2.1.12 for our listservs on campus. I'm
wondering if it would be a good idea to move our users to using Google
Groups. Our staff is slim and it'd be nice to have one less server to
manage and one less piece of software.
I think when we originally moved to Google Apps the groups option
didn't allow for moderation, but it looks like they do now.
Can people let me know of their experiences (good and bad) using
Google Groups?
Thanks!
Seminary IT
May 4, 2011, 1:04:01 PM5/4/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
We were using Majordomo. Somewhere along the line after Google Groups
for Google Apps became available we hit on the idea of switching. Our
experience with it has been great. We moderate most all of our groups.
We can set specific people as managers (they can add people to the
group and approve messages) and set immediate post overrides for
trusted senders (they aren't moderated). Another nice part of Google
Groups for an education email list is the built-in discussion page.
With the discussion page people who weren't on the list when a message
was sent to it can still view the archived message. This is helpful
for student lists where a student joins a particular group.
We have only seen 1 spam message sent to one of our groups - and
Google automatically held it for spam moderation.
Way easier to add/drop people from groups with the GUI interface.
Can use the group for document and site sharing. We are working in the
direction of a group for each class/section with a site and set of
docs for each class/section. This configuration takes care of access
control to the class site and docs, but also serves as an easy way to
email all the students in the class.
Al
for Google Apps became available we hit on the idea of switching. Our
experience with it has been great. We moderate most all of our groups.
We can set specific people as managers (they can add people to the
group and approve messages) and set immediate post overrides for
trusted senders (they aren't moderated). Another nice part of Google
Groups for an education email list is the built-in discussion page.
With the discussion page people who weren't on the list when a message
was sent to it can still view the archived message. This is helpful
for student lists where a student joins a particular group.
We have only seen 1 spam message sent to one of our groups - and
Google automatically held it for spam moderation.
Way easier to add/drop people from groups with the GUI interface.
Can use the group for document and site sharing. We are working in the
direction of a group for each class/section with a site and set of
docs for each class/section. This configuration takes care of access
control to the class site and docs, but also serves as an easy way to
email all the students in the class.
Al
Sarah Alt
May 4, 2011, 2:34:37 PM5/4/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Our experience with Google Groups has been great as well. I agree on
all benefits you have listed.
We are especially pleased with any service that empowers the users to
take ownership and responsibility for tasks that we previously had to
administer. It is also nice people have the option to opt in and out
and choose how to receive the messages. This is especially beneficial
when someone is first launching a group and not certain of the
interest or participation. If you are confident people can easily opt
out and not create frustration, then you are more likely to "canvas"
your population and get higher adoption of what you are offering in
your group than if you try to be selective up front.
Sarah
all benefits you have listed.
We are especially pleased with any service that empowers the users to
take ownership and responsibility for tasks that we previously had to
administer. It is also nice people have the option to opt in and out
and choose how to receive the messages. This is especially beneficial
when someone is first launching a group and not certain of the
interest or participation. If you are confident people can easily opt
out and not create frustration, then you are more likely to "canvas"
your population and get higher adoption of what you are offering in
your group than if you try to be selective up front.
Sarah
Seminary IT
May 4, 2011, 2:41:53 PM5/4/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Sarah,
Good catch. I forgot about the benefit of user selection of delivery
type and opt out ease. The delivery type option is more valuable than
it might seem. With user based delivery type the user decides whether
they want the list to act as an immediate message or digest list -
instead of the old way of having to make the whole list one way or the
other. It lets the user balance the frequency versus finding messages
in a digest of multiple messages - or just going to the discussion
page and have the list be pull instead of push.
That feature alone solves some IT list issues.
Al
Good catch. I forgot about the benefit of user selection of delivery
type and opt out ease. The delivery type option is more valuable than
it might seem. With user based delivery type the user decides whether
they want the list to act as an immediate message or digest list -
instead of the old way of having to make the whole list one way or the
other. It lets the user balance the frequency versus finding messages
in a digest of multiple messages - or just going to the discussion
page and have the list be pull instead of push.
That feature alone solves some IT list issues.
Al
Adam Forsyth
May 4, 2011, 2:44:29 PM5/4/11
to Max McGrath, Northcentral Apps Users
We were previously users of sympa as our mailing list software.
Similar to others who have responded, I'd report that the switch has
been a good thing over all. We like and users like the feature that
allows them to create groups on their own without needing to ask us to
do it for them.
Similar to others who have responded, I'd report that the switch has
been a good thing over all. We like and users like the feature that
allows them to create groups on their own without needing to ask us to
do it for them.
We were using a feature of sympa that allowed it to choose members of
a mailing list based on querying our ldap server. So for example it'd
query for all students and that would be the mailing list that would
be used if a message needed to be sent to all students, and we've not
given students a choice about being on this mailing list. If they are
a current student they are on the list. At first I wasn't sure how
we'd be able to move this functionality into Google Groups. It turned
out to be easy enough to write a python script that does our ldap
query and then synchronizes the members of the group with the results
of the query using the api's. A student can unsubscribe from the
group, and we have no way to stop that, but we decided we didn't care
because our script runs daily and if a student unsubscribes they'll
get subscribed again the next day.
--
Adam Forsyth
Director of Network and Systems
Luther College
Library and Information Services
700 College Drive
Decorah, IA 52101
563-387-1402
Max McGrath
May 18, 2011, 10:19:24 PM5/18/11
to Seminary IT, Northcentral Apps Users
Bringing this back alive for a quick question.
When using Google Groups, if I send a message to a group, will I receive that message in my own inbox?
--
Max McGrath
Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
Carthage College
262-552-5512
mmcg...@carthage.edu
--
Max McGrath
Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
Carthage College
262-552-5512
mmcg...@carthage.edu
Seminary IT
May 19, 2011, 9:56:50 AM5/19/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
No. The sender does not receive the message even if they are a member
of the group. If I remember the reasoning correctly, Google figures
that the sender already has that message in their sent items so
receiving it from the list would be unwanted redundancy. Most of us
are used to using the copy as confirmation that the message went
through. With Google Groups we can do that by going to the group's
discussion page. If the message is on the group discussion page then
it went to the group. If not, it didn't.
Al
On May 18, 10:19 pm, Max McGrath <mmcgr...@carthage.edu> wrote:
> Bringing this back alive for a quick question.
>
> When using Google Groups, if I send a message to a group, will I receive
> that message in my own inbox?
> --
> Max McGrath
> Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
> Carthage College
> 262-552-5512
> mmcgr...@carthage.edu
of the group. If I remember the reasoning correctly, Google figures
that the sender already has that message in their sent items so
receiving it from the list would be unwanted redundancy. Most of us
are used to using the copy as confirmation that the message went
through. With Google Groups we can do that by going to the group's
discussion page. If the message is on the group discussion page then
it went to the group. If not, it didn't.
Al
On May 18, 10:19 pm, Max McGrath <mmcgr...@carthage.edu> wrote:
> Bringing this back alive for a quick question.
>
> When using Google Groups, if I send a message to a group, will I receive
> that message in my own inbox?
> --
> Max McGrath
> Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
> Carthage College
> 262-552-5512
Max McGrath
Oct 19, 2011, 11:59:47 AM10/19/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Another question. Hopefully my last -- but probably not! ;)
Who is the moderator of a group? Is it anybody that is an owner? Or is it the person who initially created the list?
In my testing, I have a list and have two people listed as owners. Yet only one person received the moderation notice...
Thanks!
Max
Max McGrath
Oct 19, 2011, 12:00:42 PM10/19/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Ignore. Immediately after I sent this out, it appears the other owner received the notification!
Seminary IT
Oct 19, 2011, 1:21:18 PM10/19/11
to Max McGrath, Northcentral Apps Users
In our experience Owners and Managers get moderation rights. Was one of the two owners the sender? I wonder if that would knock out the moderation notice to them. The only other thing I can think of is delivery type affecting the notice.
Al
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Max McGrath
Oct 20, 2011, 11:01:16 AM10/20/11
to Northcentral Apps Users
Thanks for the info!
Another question (seriously, I'm sorry!). Back in Mailman, we had a faculty-staff list where faculty and staff could post to unmoderated. However, students could post to this list and their messages would be moderated -- they also wouldn't be able to view the archived messages on the web. How can I accomplish this in Google Groups?
So far, I'm thinking to create both a faculty-staff list and a student list. All faculty and staff will be added to the faculty-staff list and unmoderated. I could then add the student list to the faculty-staff list and moderate them; I would also change their subscription type to No Email. But, this would still allow them to view the archives on the web, right? Anyway to stop this from happening?
Thanks again for all the help!
Seminary IT
Oct 20, 2011, 11:47:29 AM10/20/11
to Max McGrath, Northcentral Apps Users
In the Group settings you can set it so only group members can view group content. Under Who can post messages you can set it so anyone from your domain can post and you can hold the posts of non-members for moderation. That way the students can post and be moderated, but not have access to the content or members list.
Al
Max McGrath
Oct 20, 2011, 11:50:26 AM10/20/11
to Seminary IT, Northcentral Apps Users
Perfect! Just what I was looking for! If only I had clicked around a little more I think I could have found that!
--
Max McGrath
Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
Carthage College
262-552-5512
mmcg...@carthage.edu
--
Max McGrath
Asst. Network Admin/Systems Specialist
Carthage College
262-552-5512
mmcg...@carthage.edu
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