Thanks for the invite to this list. Can we do better than google groups?

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Ian Kelling

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Jun 15, 2020, 3:13:18 PM6/15/20
to SeaGL Organize
Google groups website won't display anything without running nonfree
javascript, it simply displays an error message. If you aren't familiar
with this issue, see
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.en.html. You can
subscribe to a google group by emailing a blank email to
seagl_organi...@googlegroups.com from the address you want to
subscribe with, but the main thing you can't do is view the messages
from before you subscribed.

I could easily setup seagl_o...@libreplanet.org with all the
archives if someone sends me mbox or maildir format of the archives. A
main benefit of FSF hosting is that we have a very good antispam system
for lists. I could also help with other options.

Other reasons to get off google groups: Beyond the software freedom
issue, google groups is explicitly used to profile users, ostensibly for
ads, which has problems on its own, but sometimes much worse purposes:
we have a president threatening to declare opposition political
activists to be terrorists, and google will tell the goverment all about
what terrorists have been reading even though it was collected for ad
purposes. The nonfree javascript program they require you to run is used
to more accurately track you. At libreplanet, John Sullivan talked
further about the need for software freedom in online communication, I
think in this talk:
https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/keynote-by-fsf-executive-director-john-sullivan/

- Ian

Wm Salt Hale

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Jun 26, 2020, 5:53:56 AM6/26/20
to SeaGL Organize
Thank you so much for bringing this up Ian and for offering to set something up!

I think that most of us would love to use free software alternatives.
However, it comes down to where our limited resources have to be
spent.

I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that we are absolutely up
for having this conversation!

~ Salt
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