Well, on the bright side: in my opinion this forum still is a huge step forward from the google groups that required google (!) account (!) and both looked and worked worse. This forum is way better even with current situation with users. And I think that a lot of users appreciate your work with HCL reports and forum.
Thank you for the kind words, @Sven!
This is a common misconception. The mailing lists have never required a Google account. It has always been possible to use them purely via email. This is documented in the mailing lists section (and has been for a long time).
I think a lot of people just see that they’re Google Groups and assume that a Google account must be required, but it’s not true. Google Groups is simply used for the infrastructure. Of course, you can use the web interface with a Google account, but there are many people in the Qubes community who participate on the mailing lists without one.
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Hum. Not sure. Around the time when the forum was launched Google switched to requiring users to login to view older posts. They would still be in the archives, but that’s not so easy to find. They later reversed that decision.
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That’s not mailing list functionality. It’s a Google hosted archive that also allows logged in users to post. No one is forced to use that archive and there is more than one.
Here is how a mailing lists work:
- subscribe by sending an email to the mailing list manager, that’s usually listname+subscribe @server.com (e.g. qubes-users+subscribe@googlegroups.com)
- the server sends you a verification to check if it was you who asked to be subscribed (email addresses are trivial to fake)
- confirm by replying to the verification with an empty mail
- from that point forward you get all new posts the moment they happen
- you can post by sending an email to the lists address (e.g. qubes-users@googlegroups.com)
- your first post migh get delayed until the admin whitelists your address (this is to prevent spam)
- when you don’t want to participate or receive the posts anymore you unsubscribe by sending to the +unsubscribe address (e.g. qubes-users+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com)
- same verification dance as when you subscribed and then: silence
At no point is a web browser even involved. Because it’s a MAILING LIST !!! Not a notification function of some website or Google property.
This will work with any email address and all the mailing lists I ever participated in worked this way. It’s a beautiful thing! The most popular server software is Majordomo.
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Yes, I get it Sven. I’m not criticizing the way mailing lists work.
I was simply stating that at the time, when google blocked access to googlegroups without a google account it effectively removed solutions from public anonymous access. Most people looking into troubleshooting their issues don’t have their own archives of years of mailinglists. They simply use a search engine and click on whatever results they find. Even if there are mirrors, it doesn’t change the fact that it ranked high on google searches so people were driven to it.
My point being… it was quite a good timing for the forum as it provided solutions that weren’t “login guarded”.
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