"discoveret.org" off line

Ooh, here's a surprising answer to the Archive question. I just found a website that seems to have been quietly archiving Levnet posts for quite some time.

http://answerpot.com/forumdisplay.php?5-L209632-Levnet/Page1

(posts prior to April 9 2010 - page 37 - appear to exist as title only)

Considering that levnet has always operated on the premise that emails were private to the list, I am not happy about this.

I think this will be our first topic for discussion once we have a new levnet up and running. 

This appears to be one of the many "information vampire" web sites on the internet. There are a lot of them. But it is surprising -- and perturbing -- that, as you noted, Levnet was a private enclave where postings were restricted only to registered members (in terms both of viewing and posting). Hopefully there will be a way to compel the owners of this archive to delete it. Maybe some mumbling about lawyers and intellectual property might do the trick.

I'm inclined to try asking politely first, so have done so. But let's focus here on getting levnet restarted, that's my current priority. 

I think by now most regular internet users realize that once you write something and post it to the internet, or send it as an email, IT'S PUBLIC. I have no problem with anything I have written to the levnet being made available to casual browsers & surfers - not that they're liable to be particularly interested in the theremin or in anything that I, or anyone else, has to say about it.

As for getting the Levnet started up again, it seems to me that FACEBOOK is a possible and relatively simple option. 

Facebook groups are very different to a mailing list, and would not be liked by those members who have expressed a strong preference for the email format in the past, not to mention those members who do not wish to be on Facebook, again of which there are several.

Pierce is currently looking at google groups as the first option. They can be used purely as an email based mailing list for those members that prefer that, or online for the rest of us.

(Also I am surprised daily by the number of my Facebook friends who seem to think that privacy is possible on the Internet.)

Right, of course "internet privacy" is an utter oxymoron. However, there are ways to "bolt the door" on forums and mailing lists to keep their information secure to some extent.

I subscribe to several other music- and collector-oriented groups and no content from any of them has ever come up on google searches, "cyberspace sweepers" or on other web sites unless deliberately and willfully put there. For whatever reason, this security was apparently never put into place on the discover.net email lists.

I have very mixed feelings with Facebook, and I do know there are people who would absolutely refuse to sign up just for this purpose. And I can't really say I blame them. Facebook is just a hot mess of "trending glop" and potential security issues. Every time I turn around there's a new "feature designed to enhance my Facebook experience." So far, in every instance the complete opposite has been the result.

Just as a matter of natural paranoia, I'd be a bit suspicious of google groups, especially if users have to secure a gmail address to use them. There have been many privacy-related issues with google sites and apps.

I am wondering if anyone has the current Levnet email list. If so, could a "mass announcement" be sent out about what has happened? I only found out about this because Gordon posted about it to Facebook. I don't really check ThereminWorld all that often but guess I will start doing so. I am probably not the only one, though.

bla bla bla............//

I spent a while yesterday scraping email addresses from postings to levnet, and now have a list of everyone who posted to levnet in the least 12 months, which approximates the core membership. I have passed this list on to Pierce so that he can contact everyone on it when he is ready.

I believe that someone subscribed answerpot to levnet while it did not have an active administrator to monitor subscriptions. That postings from levnet first appear on answerpot during the big flame war of a couple of years ago is suggestive of who might have done this and why, but without hard evidence it is not possible to draw a firm conclusion.

So that archiving website is allowing you to recover years of valuable information that would otherwise have been lost, but you are asking for it to be closed so that that same service that has proven extremely useful will be unavailable in the future?

Yes. We know that theremin137 (Charles) has a more complete archive, and it would not surprise me if other levnetters do to. We will be working towards making these accessible to other levnetters in due course.

I just posted my first message to the new Google "LevNet" group! I have never subscribed to a Google group before but it all seems fairly user-friendly and easy to navigate.

What is the relationship between Google and YouTube? They're obviously in bed together.