[LINK] RFI: groups.io

[Carl Makin]

Hi Roger,

> On 27 Nov 2020, at 11:30 am, Roger Clarke <Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au> wrote:
> 
> This is a follow-on to my earlier enquiry about comms tools, e.g. for:
> -   prof'l associations like ACS
> -   NGOs like APF
> -   archives like apf-media-archive
> -   clubs like my wife's large, many-committee'd Dog Agility Club
> -   communities like link
> 
> This presents as a less-basic, email-based (or email-compatible?) group
> communication tool:  https://groups.io
> 
> Can anyone offer comments based on experience of it as an alternative to
> mailman and its ilk?

I have a number of Ham Radio related groups that I migrated from my own mailman instance over to groups.io <http://groups.io/> and am quite happy with it.  I’m using the free tier.

> Freemium    Basic capabilies and 1GB of storage
>            Messages themselves are not counted towards the storage
>            limits, only any attachments.
> You can configure your group to either bounce messages when you've
> reached your storage limit, or to automatically delete old attachments
> to keep you under the storage limit. Photos and files are never
> automatically deleted.
> 
> Premium
> USD 20 pmo  +20GB, unlimited subgroups, collaboration suite, donations
> (AUD 325 p.a.)
> 
>            Worrisome:  Direct add members
>                        You have complete control over your member list.
>                        [So what facility is there in the Freemium??]

In freemium you can send invitations to one or many but you can’t directly add someone to the group without their permission.  In Premium you can.  When I migrated my lists I used the invite option as I wanted people to opt in but with premium you can just whack them in.  BTW, you can get a 30 day trial of premium then drop back to freemium so you can directly migrate people over.

>            And this:   Premium [only?] groups support this integration:
>                        Email - Create a receive-only email address
>                        that posts to your group.  [Means what?]

It’s an obfuscated email address at groups.io <http://groups.io/> where you can send postings which will be sent to the group without authentication or the from address being subscribed to the group.  Useful for automated integrations.

Overall I’ve been quite happy with it.  The web interface is nice, the topics (message threads really based on subject) and hashtag support is good and as a list manager it’s rare I have to do anything to support it.

You can also raise a support call and get them to migrate mailman archives.


Carl.