List migration to Google Groups
Sean Sweda
Greetings everyone. In order to make sure that the Tigers list
continues to operate smoothly in the future I have to migrate it off
of the server that has been its home all these years. I've decided to
give Google Groups a try. The new address for the list will be:
and on the web at:
http://groups.google.com/group/detroit-tigers
Mail to the old address should forward to the new group for the time
being (this email is actually testing that process).
As a side bonus I imported all of the list mail I had saved up,
which went back to March of 2006. It was kind of fun scanning
through the old mail, as I got to re-live our rollercoaster ride
to the World Series and see names I hadn't thought about in a long
time (Chris Shelton!).
Anyway, please give me feedback if you discover any problems with
using Google Groups. If it turns out to be a disaster I can
investigate alternatives.
GO TIGERS
Sean
David Panian
It's interesting checking out the "about this group" link on the
website. It keeps track of the most frequent posters for the past
month and all time, which, as Sean said, goes back to March 2006. The
site can also act as a digest for folks who don't want to read e-mail
all day long.
David
Sean Sweda
On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:15:00 EDT you rearranged the electrons to say:
>Are there instructions on how to subscribe/unsubscribe?
When I added myself I received a message from google with instructions,
I assumed that everyone would get one of these as well. Did you get
a welcome message?
I'll see what I can do about posting helpful administrative info on
the group home page.
>It's interesting checking out the "about this group" link on the
>website. It keeps track of the most frequent posters for the past
>month and all time, which, as Sean said, goes back to March 2006. The
>site can also act as a digest for folks who don't want to read e-mail
>all day long.
In addition to the web archive there's also the capability to change
your email delivery options, though I suspect you may have to create
a google account in order to set this.
Sean
Rob Hawks
Paul Meloche
the Google Groups address.
I'm writing this from a Gmail account; Is that why I am already
subscribed? I have another address, non-Google, that receives list
messages but I haven't been getting the ones from this thread at that
address.
Paul M.
David Panian
clicked the "sign in" link in the upper right-hand corner and signed
in with my Gmail account - which is not the one I use for the list.
But it let me sign in, and I could edit my membership settings, like
Rob said.
I do have my Comcast address listed in my Google profile as a
secondary address, so that must be why it let me sign in.
Paul, if you sign in to your Google account, you can add your other e-
mail address, then in your list membership, you can tell it which
address to use.
David
Smith, Brad
address you've been using for the Tigers list.My google account was at
another email address, so I had to create a google account for this
address.
Sean Sweda
>Sean,
>
>When I visit the link you provided, it appears as though I am already
>subscribed. The page that displays shows a link on the right hand side to
>view my membership and the resulting page offers links to unsubscribe.
Yeah, I suspect this is because you're using a gmail address. I need
to do some investigation on how people w/o google accounts can interact
with the administrative functions (e.g. unsubscribe, digesting, etc.)
>I *think* the group is currently set to send replies *only* back to the list.
>There might be popular demand to change that setting to allow anyone to
>select reply, to reply only to the sender, and reply all, to reply to
>everyone.
The option for replies is with the group email delivery settings, so
I figured this was setting the Reply-To header. I assumed that everyone
would prefer the default to be mail going to the group, I didn't think
it might affect the gmail experience. I'll change it and see what it does
to this message.
Apologies to anyone annoyed by the uptick in administrative chatter,
I'm hoping to keep it to a minimum. I guess this obligates me to leave
semi-permanent lurker mode and start contributing to Tigers discussion
once again.
Sean
Sean Sweda
>>I *think* the group is currently set to send replies *only* back to the list.
>>There might be popular demand to change that setting to allow anyone to
>>select reply, to reply only to the sender, and reply all, to reply to
>>everyone.
>
>The option for replies is with the group email delivery settings, so
>I figured this was setting the Reply-To header. I assumed that everyone
>would prefer the default to be mail going to the group, I didn't think
>it might affect the gmail experience. I'll change it and see what it does
>to this message.
Yep, that option definitely controls the Reply-To header. I feel like
replies to the group by default would be the expected behavior, so that's
how I plan on setting it unless there are major objections.
Sean
Rob Hawks
Sean Sweda
>> >>I *think* the group is currently set to send replies *only* back to the
>> list.
>> >>There might be popular demand to change that setting to allow anyone to
>> >>select reply, to reply only to the sender, and reply all, to reply to
>> >>everyone.
>> >
>> >The option for replies is with the group email delivery settings, so
>> >I figured this was setting the Reply-To header. I assumed that everyone
>> >would prefer the default to be mail going to the group, I didn't think
>> >it might affect the gmail experience. I'll change it and see what it does
>> >to this message.
>>
>> Yep, that option definitely controls the Reply-To header. I feel like
>> replies to the group by default would be the expected behavior, so that's
>> how I plan on setting it unless there are major objections.
>>
>
>Sean,
>
>Leaving the setting that way will require anyone trying to send an off list
>reply to do a copy and paste. For all the other lists to which I've
>belonged, this has been the less poplular setting. Personally, I'd prefer to
>have the setting be to allow users to reply to the sender or reply to all,
>not locked into reply to all. Others may disagree. Thanks.
I guess I'm unclear as to how the presence of a Reply-To header locks
you in... is this some kind of gmail interface issue? I set this
because I wanted to make it easier for people to send mail to the
correct address because the old list isn't going to be around much
longer.
I'll turn it off for now. I set up a silly online poll, so if
you care about whether there is a Reply-To header go here and vote:
http://www.snappoll.com/poll/341312.php
Sean
John Black
Tanvir Shaikh
the Google Groups and sender's addresses showed up. This the preferred
scenario; deleting a recipient is easier than cutting and pasting, and I
occasionally reply off-list. I'm using Pine though, which probably puts me in
the minority.
-Tapu
Rob Hawks
David Panian
David
Sean Sweda
On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:40:16 EDT,
David Panian rearranged the electrons to say:
>That's how the old list worked.
>
>David
Right, I've set things so that the behavior should be consistent
with the old list. Earlier today there was a short time where Reply-To
was set to the new address. I thought this would be more intuitive
and help get the mail to the new address, but in retrospect I think
preserving behavior from the old list was probably a better initial
choice.
I'll leave the poll up and running for a while in order to see if
there's a large majority who would prefer having replies by default
go to the list address:
http://www.snappoll.com/poll/341312.php
A couple of other things:
1) I tested doing subscribe/unsubscribe using email, and it works.
These are the addresses (I've also put them on the welcome page):
detroit-tige...@googlegroups.com
detroit-tiger...@googlegroups.com
2) If anyone happens to have saved up an archive of mail from the list
prior to March 2006 let me know, I might be able to figure out how to
import it like I did with my own archive.
Hopefully my next post will actually be about the Tigers.
Sean
Smith, Brad
From: detroit...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Sean Sweda
Sent: Mon 9/13/2010 10:33 PM
To: Tigers List
Subject: Re: List migration to Google Groups
John Black
John Black
yesterday, where if I just hit "reply" it would automatically throw in the
google (list) address. I would think (for the great majority of replies) one
would want the "list" address automatically showing up. I have now found
(twice this morning - and including this very post), that if I hit "reply",
the address that (automatically) pops up is the sender's personal address
(in this case - Sean's). In my case, this means I either (by default)
operate "off list" or I have to go in and wipe out the personal header and
then replace it with the list header from the address book. While this is
not a huge labor, I would think the "default" (simple) system should be the
other way around. I realize this (now) is the way the system "used to work",
but I thought Sean's new system was both simpler (for the great majority of
replies) and intuitively correct.
JtE
Tony Matt
> 2) If anyone happens to have saved up an archive of mail from the list
> prior to March 2006 let me know, I might be able to figure out how to
> import it like I did with my own archive.
I have substantial, but by no means complete, archives going back
to 2001. Would include virtually all game reports, matchups, HoF
threads, burning issues (strikeouts, never enough pitching,
RANDSTOPs), and the occasional political kerfuffle. There is
also a smaller batch of messages from 1996-1999, from various
current- and ex-listers.
Now we could put this stuff on Google, but should we? I'm inclined
to say yes, but I'm not entirely convinced. Posters may have no
expectation of privacy, but as a matter of courtesy to our
(figuratively and literally) departed members, I think we should
pause to consider the question. This has always been a limited
audience, albeit with some unknown lurkers; having it openly
searchable on Google is a horse of a different color.
TM
Sean Sweda
On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:08:11 EDT,
Tony Matt rearranged the electrons to say:
FWIW, there's always the option of making the group archive only
available to members of the list. It's not clear to me whether the
search function will work if you do this though, because I think
Google indexes the group archive via the standard web crawl. I'm
making this assumption because while I was importing I kept the group
private and search couldn't find anything, but now that it is public
search works (somewhat).
Does anyone have a strong feeling about this? David Panian told me
he's also got an archive of mail and he's a Mac user like myself,
so I was going to start working on a strategy to import his archive.
Sean