Google Groups no longer a viable alternative for large communities?
Note, this is based on the experience and report of a single¹ Google Groups community, so don't take it at face value, but rather use it as a consideration, especially since another Group² reports not experiencing this issue.
From the original topic¹ on Google Groups:
«After speaking with Google support, it appears that Google has changed the rules on large groups (500-1000 users) to implement a deliberate decision (that has apparently not yet been announced) to not support large groups. The change is to simply block messages based on some unspecified criteria, and the rejection message cites spam but is not actually spam related (and the messages do not appear in a spam folder where we could try to recover them, they are just deleted), and the rejection message suggests making the group moderated (but the group is already moderated). Google support wasn't entirely clear on the details, but said that Google will be posting these changes at some point in the future on their site.
Google's suggestion was either:
- remove enough users to bring the group under 500-750 users (it's unclear how we'd do that)
- move the list to a new platform»¹
See https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ for further details.
Addendum 1: Note that I haven't yet found other examples of people running into this issue, nor an official statement. It could very well be that this group's issues are limited to just the group in question, though the support member's reported response seems to indicate otherwise. Then again, without a verbatim support log, that'll be hard to tell. So, while I don't see this exactly as a rumour, don't treat it as absolute truth either. Just keep this in the back of your mind if you were considering Google Groups as an alternative to Google+ Communities.
Addendum 2: counter-reference:
In the comments on this post, user Dima Pasechnik reports not to have experienced any issues yet with their 2000+ subscribers Google Groups forum², though their fairly low amount of regulars might not trigger a required criterium for the aforementioned issues:
«One of our groups, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sage-devel, has over 2000 subscribers. Although probably just 50 regular posters. We haven't heard about posting problems - perhaps it's all just spreading FUD?»²
#Plexodus #GooglePlus #GoogleGroups #GooglePlusExodus #GooglePlusAlternatives #GPlus
Footnotes:
¹ Original group reporting the issue: https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ
² Alternative group, sage-devel, reporting not experiencing this issue: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sage-devel
https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ
Note, this is based on the experience and report of a single¹ Google Groups community, so don't take it at face value, but rather use it as a consideration, especially since another Group² reports not experiencing this issue.
From the original topic¹ on Google Groups:
«After speaking with Google support, it appears that Google has changed the rules on large groups (500-1000 users) to implement a deliberate decision (that has apparently not yet been announced) to not support large groups. The change is to simply block messages based on some unspecified criteria, and the rejection message cites spam but is not actually spam related (and the messages do not appear in a spam folder where we could try to recover them, they are just deleted), and the rejection message suggests making the group moderated (but the group is already moderated). Google support wasn't entirely clear on the details, but said that Google will be posting these changes at some point in the future on their site.
Google's suggestion was either:
- remove enough users to bring the group under 500-750 users (it's unclear how we'd do that)
- move the list to a new platform»¹
See https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ for further details.
Addendum 1: Note that I haven't yet found other examples of people running into this issue, nor an official statement. It could very well be that this group's issues are limited to just the group in question, though the support member's reported response seems to indicate otherwise. Then again, without a verbatim support log, that'll be hard to tell. So, while I don't see this exactly as a rumour, don't treat it as absolute truth either. Just keep this in the back of your mind if you were considering Google Groups as an alternative to Google+ Communities.
Addendum 2: counter-reference:
In the comments on this post, user Dima Pasechnik reports not to have experienced any issues yet with their 2000+ subscribers Google Groups forum², though their fairly low amount of regulars might not trigger a required criterium for the aforementioned issues:
«One of our groups, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sage-devel, has over 2000 subscribers. Although probably just 50 regular posters. We haven't heard about posting problems - perhaps it's all just spreading FUD?»²
#Plexodus #GooglePlus #GoogleGroups #GooglePlusExodus #GooglePlusAlternatives #GPlus
Footnotes:
¹ Original group reporting the issue: https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ
² Alternative group, sage-devel, reporting not experiencing this issue: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sage-devel
https://groups.google.com/a/isocpp.org/forum/m/#!msg/sg14/FZEWCOSyFlk/MFUXyq1YDAAJ
1. FFS!
ReplyDelete2. YahooGroups
3. What about their own productforums?
4. Googlegroups is also a gateway to usenet. So, how does this policy affect this?
Julian Bond No idea :) Just spreading this post after seeing it on Mastodon:) I guess we'll have to await an official announcement.
ReplyDeleteJust hope it'll come quicker than Google's G+ announcements ;)
Oh FFS!
ReplyDeleteAdded the following clarification to my post:
ReplyDelete«Note that I haven't yet found other examples of people running into this issue, nor an official statement. It could very well be that this group's issues are limited to just the group in question, though the support member's reported response seems to indicate otherwise. Then again, without a verbatim support log, that'll be hard to tell. So, while I don't see this exactly as a rumour, don't treat it as absolute truth either. Just keep this in the back of your mind if you were considering Google Groups as an alternative to Google+ Communities.»
One of our groups, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sage-devel, has over 2000 subscribers. Although probably just 50 regular posters. We haven't heard about posting problems - perhaps it's all just spreading FUD?
ReplyDeletegroups.google.com - sage-devel
Dima Pasechnik as the OP's message mentions 'unspecified criteria', the level of activity could play a factor, but I am starting to think there's indeed something specific to that group going on instead of something general. I'll add in your reply as counter-reference, and will leave it up to the community's team (ping Edward Morbius Cindy Brown John Lewis ) whether or not they consider this relevant or not to remain in the community. (i.e., Edward, Cindy, John, feel free to remove it from the community if you think it's too much rumour/FUD or otherwise not relevant enough.)
ReplyDeleteFilip H.F. Slagter Relevant, though as you note, unconfirmed.
ReplyDeleteI've added an additional clarification at the top of the post so it's also mentioned clearly (I hope) above the fold in future reshares, that this is based on the report of a single Group.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they could move to Google+ ...
ReplyDeleteOh, wait... how do you fit “hidden rules” and “misleading messages” in “ Don’t be evil” ?