[Blindapple] The future of this Email discussion list

[Tiny Puppy-butchb]

if you still want images, I have 30 or so I need to zip up as 
image file number 3 and put in my drop box for you.  I have lots 
more after that.  Biggest problem I'm having is keeping drives 
going.  I have to working 2 e computers, but only two working 
drives
Butch Bussen
WA0VJR
butchb at fairpoint.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jayson Smith via BlindApple" 
<blindapple at bluegrasspals.com>
To: "Apple Discussions" <blindapple at bluegrasspals.com>
Cc: "Jayson Smith" <jaybird at bluegrasspals.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2025 9:32 PM
Subject: [Blindapple] The future of this Email discussion list


Hello,

For the past several months, I've been putting off writing this 
Email,
but tonight I decided it was finally time.

I run two relatively low-traffic Email discussion lists on this 
server,
Blind Apple, for discussion of Apple II computers as used by the 
blind,
and DECtalk, for discussion of the DECtalk speech synthesis 
system, in
all its various hardware and software forms. If you're receiving 
this
message, you're on one or both of these lists.

I've been running these lists for around twenty years now. When I 
first
started running mailing lists on my server, it seems the Internet 
was
more forgiving in some ways. Running your own Email server was a 
cool
thing to do. I was on top of the world, running mailing list 
management
software (Mailman) on my own server, so I had complete control 
over how
everything was handled, etc. Now, not so much. Running your own 
Email
server is definitely not the cool thing to do any more, and 
Mailman
version 2, which I'm still using, has been end of life for a few 
years
now, as far as its development and maintenance status is 
concerned. And
yet, as little traffic as these lists get, it hardly seems worth
upgrading to Mailman version 3, especially considering that I'd 
also
need to find and pay for a reliable outgoing Email server which 
is okay
with handling mailing list traffic.

Okay, I know what you're saying. "Just move to Groups.io!" That's
actually an excellent suggestion, and I have several other lists 
hosted
there. The problem is that they want a year's subscription to 
their
Premium plan up front in order for me to import all the existing 
group
members and message archives. That's $220, so since there are two 
lists,
that's $440. I'm not sure I want to put that much money into 
these lists
out-of-pocket. Another option would be to create the groups at
Groups.io, invite all existing members (that's all you can do for 
free,
as direct adding requires a subscription), and whoever joins, 
joins, and
people can talk. But then, the archives from before the move to
Groups.io stay at bluegrasspals.com, and it kind of seems clunky 
to have
two sets of list archives.

Something will need to definitely happen within a year or two. At 
some
point I'll have to upgrade my server to a Linux distribution that
doesn't have Python 2, and without going through all sorts of 
hoops to
install this outdated software, Mailman 2 won't run. So I need to 
decide
what to do before that happens.

I'm sorry this Email seems a bit disorganized. If anyone has any
thoughts, or can think of any other options for keeping these 
lists
moving forward, feel free to let me know. I just want to know 
your
thoughts as to whether you think I should move the lists to 
Groups.io
without archives, shut them down, or something else.

Thanks,

Jayson

_______________________________________________
BlindApple mailing list
BlindApple at bluegrasspals.com
https://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/blindapple