Current status: As of right now, if you visit the East Nashville listserv, Google has deleted it: http://groups.google.com/group/East-Nashville.
I am working to find out if there’s actually anyone at Google I can ASK about this [they are notorious for not actually having customer service], or if it’s a moot point.
By 7/5, I will decide if it’s time to cut bait and make a new start for the list. Watch my blog and Facebook page for updates! And please, spread the word.
I do NOT have a list of group members. I would love to collect one, so if you were on the East Nashville list and would like to remain on it, please email me at lcreekmo@gmail.com with “East Nashville list” in the subject line. I will not reply to all immediately, but I will collect your address and let you know the minute I’ve figured out a solution.
History: Ten years ago, there was one email list in East Nashville, the Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association announcement list. It existed then as it does now — an announcement list to share word of your garage sale, your church picnic, your car for sale. The problem was [as many of you who weren't there then would still likely assume], East Nashvillians are a pretty opinionated bunch. And even on an announcement list, we found a lot of things we wanted to discuss.
After getting called out by the list administrator any number of times [no names to protect the guilty], some of us decided it would be nice to have another list, one for debate, discussion and general carrying on. Because as a neighborhood, we just didn’t get to do that enough at the local restaurant [we weren't the coffee-shop-haven that we are now] and the neighborhood association meetings. So I started one.
For years, it sat quite contentedly at around 300 members. Well, “content” is not the right concept. It was vibrant and lively. We were solving the problems of the world. Then a few years ago, it had edged up to around 750 members, and the Tennessean did a feature story on neighborhood lists. Within two months, we reached 1500 members. This year, we hit 3000.
We’ve been on the Google Groups platform for a number of years. It’s a nice, easy platform to use, and it allows me to moderate the first post of any group member — thus catching untold amounts of spam and letting me ban spammers before they can bother the group. Google did NOT, however, allow me to moderate pages and files — it only allowed me to either post pages and files myself, or allow anyone in the group to do so. Thus, I spent a lot of time deleting porn spam from both areas, until I finally turned them both off this week.
I have no idea if that’s related to what happened to our group or not. This week, Google reset its spam filters, and for some reason, the East Nashville group triggered the filters. They gave me the option to re-submit the site for review, so I did. Then this morning, they deleted the group. No warning. No communication. Nada.
Now, first of all, it says quite clearly in their Terms of Service that they can delete your group anytime. So I’m not arguing they did anything they didn’t warn me about in advance. But as a marketing tactic, Google’s approach fails on every level. They are the 800-lb. gorilla, but there are other options out there for a lot of their services, and I can’t imagine why they think it’s a good idea to anger people who work on web strategy for a living. I get it, I’m a tiny peon compared to the mighty Google. But seriously? This is how you treat the world?
I’m looking for a better solution for my neighborhood list, and spreading the word to re-compile my group. Still waiting to hear from Google. Not holding my breath.
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Curious if you’re considering switching over to a phpBB or similar BBS in place of the Google groups given this experience. As we talked about a long while back, that would give you a number of other advantages as well, and many BBS systems still support an email-based interface for reading & posting for those users that still prefer that method. Just a thought. Really sucks that it went nuclear on you.
Perhaps it was deleted because some inappropriate spam-type images were uploaded to the images portion of the group? I had noticed some odd stuff beginning to pop up on the listserv as of a month ago.
Laura, thanks for all your work on this. You were really hoping to add one more thing to your To Do list, right? :)
Lindsay, I wish it were that simple but I don’t think so. For one, I’ve now heard of a number of other lists suffering the same fate, many of them things like a 12-person PTO list.
As I said above, the only way to prevent porn spam in the files area was to turn off the files area. SO STUPID to me, since Google DID let me moderate posts. But this week, I finally turned the files area off, just tired of dealing with it.
The porn spam issue in files isn’t new….I’ve kept a watch on that for months. So, I suspect it’s more likely that Google just changed its filters and let them run without any actual person reviewing the consequences.
It’s a shame this has become such a mess. Compared to a lot of forum/bulletin board sites I’ve seen, this is actually a clean, simple interface, so it would be a pity to have to lose it. What a headache.
Wonder if this will make all that history of info and bickering inaccessable.
Thank you Laura please keep us posted. I love your Blog.