Warning about Grouply.Com

I have recently become aware of a new site which advertises they can
make accessing your groups `faster and easier'. A monitor of another
group shared this information with me:

"Over the past few days I've researched the Grouply service from both
the pro and con perspectives, poured through numerous posts on the
various Yahoo Groups technical and management lists, and examined
comments from Grouply advisory board members as well as the CEO and
co-founder and all have helped me to the conclusion I hold regarding
the service. While Grouply is the only service mentioned by name, as
other services are developed that offer similar services the policy
explained below will be expanded to encompass the new companies. When
you join Grouply.com, several things will occur which you may not be
aware will happen:

First, when a member joins, it automatically changes their primary
email address for the groups, giving them a @grouply.com extension.
This is being done to those who are joining and is changed on the
Yahoo ID so all mail received from the lists will now be sent to the
grouply.com address. The only place this is mentioned is deep in one
of the FAQs and not up front and in plain view of the new subscriber.

Second, members who join the Grouply website have to give their
member
ID and password. This opens up a security issue for those members as
now a third party has complete access to their Yahoo account. This
includes not just the Yahoo Groups, but also personal mail and any
other services accessed via the Yahoo ID.

Third, once a member joins Grouply, it opens access to the files and
posts of each group to the Grouply website. Grouply staff can then
access these files. If they get hacked, then it opens the doors to
the
groups getting hacked as well. Additionally, Grouply will pull the
list's archives onto their servers, generally a violation of Yahoo's
TOS.

Fourth, it opens the risk of spam. Not only is there an enticement to
send a message to all the new grouply.com subscriber's groups
announcing the Grouply service, but any other advertising or
announcements as well. This is spam and few lists tolerate such
solicitations. In other words, information from a group can be made
accessible to everyone, and massive amounts of spam with your email
address may be generated."

In short, I am leery of Grouply. I am concerned about members of the
list who join because you are exposing fellow group members,
moderators, and owners to unauthorized use of their emails and group
information by Grouply. I may implement a policy very soon that will
disallow Grouply email addresses on this list.

If you have joined Grouply and are using them to read this list, you
should reconsider
Grouply or cease having Grouply collect your mail for this group. If
you choose to leave Grouply, please go into your Yahoo Groups
account at: http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and change your
password.

I hope you understand the measures I feel I must take and will take
precautions to protect your Yahoo ID.