Google Group for FTC

[johngevans]

Hello folks,

John Evans here, I've seized control of the FTC Google Group, and my
first command decision was to clean out the spam that had started to
creep in. I also changed the membership options so as to require new
users to actually send the new benevolent dictator (me) a request to
join, because it would seem the spammers were joining just long enough
to send their message and then apparently leaving.

I hope this can turn into a useful resource to the track club, one
that is complimentary to the web site. My, uhm, "other" running club
here in Boston uses YahooGroups pretty extensively for short mass
communication of upcoming events such as races or track workouts,
hosted weekend long runs, recaps of recent races, general
administrative stuff, or just shooting the breeze, and they have a
pretty good time with it.

If you have any questions, let me know, thanks!

[johngevans]

Minor update on this. It turns out that requiring new members to make
a request to join the google group also requires the new members to
get a gmail account. That's just annoying enough to make it a non-
starter, so here's plan B. Everyone and anyone can still join
(including spammers), but all messages from newcomers are held for
moderation. That gives me the chance to evict any scoflaws and
prevent their spam from reaching the masses. Existing members can
still post as they did previously, and new members can receive
messages immediately; they just can't see their own posts show up
immediately. I think it's a reasonable compromise.

Also, everyone who was a member before is still a member, so there's
no need to sign up again.