MF Upcoming changes to MOQ.ORG and mailing lists

From: Horse (horse@darkstar.uk.net)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 00:23:30 BST

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    Hi Rick

    Could you possibly send this out to the MF List so that those not on the MD
    list will know
    what's going on. If you could edit this bit out I'd be much obliged.

    Cheers

    Horse

    Hi Folks

    This is going out to both the moq_discuss and moq_focus mailing lists.

    We have a minor situation about to occur w.r.t moq.or and the mailing
    lists - a bit of
    background first.
    The company that was hosting moq.org and the lists was bought out a few
    weeks ago
    and as a result the status of moq.org was reviewed. As we were getting
    hosted for a
    very reasonable rate it was fairly obvious that this would change. I had a
    talk with the
    new owner and left the situation in his hands such that he would look into
    putting a
    package together to include hosting and lists. That was a few weeks back and
    I've yet to
    hear what's happening.
    One of the things discussed was that the server that runs the mailing lists
    was due to be
    decommissioned on or around 1st May - in about a weeks time or so.
    While all this has been going I've been doing some research into alternative
    means of
    hosting both the site and the lists and now have a reasonable idea of what's
    involved.
    Hosting the site isn't a big problem - although I do want to make sure that
    it remains
    independent and ad-free - but getting external hosting for the lists is more
    of a problem.
    The cost to run lists the way we currently do is somewhat prohibitive using
    a typical list
    hosting company so I'm planning to run the lists myself using a server which
    I'm
    currently in the middle of building.
    For the techies among you this will involve building a Linux server
    (probably Debian)
    and installing the necessary software(Apache, Sendmail, Mailman etc.),
    upgrading and
    expanding the firewall, integrating into my network and a host of other
    tasks.
    Anyway, what this all means is that I'm assuming the current server will be
    shut down on
    1st May (unless I hear otherwise and I'll inform you if this is the case) so
    I'll have to shut
    the list down on Friday 29th April. I'm shutting down a bit before as I want
    to ensure that
    I can retrieve the archives, get a list of the current membership etc. and
    generally make
    sure that I have everything I want before it goes south.
    Between now and then I will be making a start with the above mentioned
    server but I
    don't expect to have it running in time to immediately switch over.
    Hopefully the lists
    won't be down for too long and I will try and get info out as and when I can
    to let you
    know what's happening.
    Any conversations currenly ongoing should take the above into account and
    aim to
    finish up (or suspend for a time) by approximately Midnight (UK time) Friday
    29th April.

    That's all for now folks, I'll get some more info to you during the week but
    please don't
    innundate me with questions as I would prefer to spend what time I have
    working on the
    new system.

    The website isn't due to go anywhere for a bit but again I'm not sure what's
    happening
    yet so I'll let you know as and when I get new info.

    See ya

    Horse

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