Big changes coming!

[mosslack]

After careful consideration and talks with Peter, we have decided to switch the group over to Yahoo groups. The reasons are many, but the confusion resulting from Google's decision to update it's groups' website functions and basically no clear way to join a group, I feel this is necessary for the survival of HQ-A. Its' my personal opinion that Google is planning to do away with it's groups in favor of Google+, but even though it may be far off, I think it best to get this done now.

So the current membership (350) of HQ-A is frozen (joining status set to invitation only) and the new group has been established <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hq-a/>. The Join HQ-A link on the HQ-A website has been changed as you can see here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tj2TjwbNwQqHw-4XeWpvrpQ6cdQfxlWS0fr8JPqBDn0/edit

Over the next week or so, invites will be sent out to all current HQ-A members. It will require you to click a link to join the new HQ-A Yahoo group as well as a verification on the website. Once you click the verification link to join the group, you will be taken to the page to set your preferences. That's pretty much it.

Also during this time, messages received on HQ-A (Google groups) will be automatically forwarded to HQ-A (Yahoo groups) so no one will miss a thing. The HQ-A Google group will not be completely abandoned until such time as I feel everyone has had a chance to make the change. FYI, Yahoo invites are good for 30 days, so that is the time period I am looking at.

You are also perfectly welcome to join the new group on your own. I will make every effort not to send invites out to those who have already joined, but in case you do receive one, just ignore it. Thanks!

More changes are planned over the next few weeks, mainly in how new members are informed of the resources available from the HQ-A website and how to get involved in HQ-A. 

My sincere apologies if this causes any problems for you, our loyal members, but I simply cannot deal with the mess that is Google groups any longer. Not having a clear procedure to join a group was the last straw. Yahoo groups have been around much longer and they obviously care about their members. I realize this may result in a loss in the number of HQ-A members, but I believe it will make the group stronger in the long run.

From the main system of mosslack...

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[faithie999]

doug--this makes lots of sense.  thanks for taking the initiative to do it.  i assume there are google groups "partisans" that may be upset, but i for one have never been a big fan of google groups.

ken