Hi All,
Here is some information about the move of tictech to Yahoo! Groups.

First, the drawbacks - well, the worst thing I can see is the addition of
the ads at the end of every message. The other drawback is that turnaround
time is a little slower. We're dealing with a bigger machine here. But the
price is right :)

On the brighter side, the message archive is only accessible to list
members. Members can upload pictures, links, or documents to the list home
at Yahoo (you have to get a Yahoo ID to do so, but that's no big deal). This
may be a nice way for members to share a revised AUP, ask for feedback about
new lab rules, show pictures of a classroom computer layout, etc, etc.

Many things remain the same. Messages need the approval of the moderator.
Membership is open. Membership is confidential, i.e., nobody can see who's
on the list. No attachments. Post only in plain text.

One reason for moving from the Learning Space server was that the list was
being run by majordomo software which was very tedious and time consuming.
Each message distributed to the list had to be copied, pasted into a new
message, stripped of header info (but not all of it), and sent on with
administrator password information. It was a slow job, no web interface -
felt like doing email in 1994. I also wanted to moderate from a non-district
account, which was not possible with the Learning Space (long story). I've
done a few stints as guest moderator of a larger list on Yahoo (wwwedu), so
I'm familiar with procedures and options there. I've been very impressed
with Yahoo's tech support and dependability.

Some may well be concerned about getting additional junk email, being with a
commercial service like Yahoo. Yahoo's policy is not to release list
memberships to anyone for any reason. My experience has been that I have
seen no increase in junk/spam as the result of my Yahoo group memberships -
which I have signed off and on with multiple email accounts for some time.

Enough for now. I welcome your suggestions or thoughts. Here's to a great
school year! - Mark

PS - if you're on tictech from an attbi.com (now comcast.net) account, I'll
be in touch with you shortly to get your subscription switched over.

Mark Ahlness
mahlness@...
http://www.earthdaybags.org/mahlness.htm