h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't pay for most of mine, but that's because a lot of it is Free Software. I do pay for some other software though - games most especially, given that they're almost the only things I can't substitute with Free stuff running on Linux (which is free).

However, there's no reason in the world why Internet services should all be free. I pay for my webspace and my domain name and e-mail forwarding - when I leave Uni, I shall have to pay for my e-mail as well. But it's only fair, because someone has to maintain the machines and the Internet links which let them work.

I used to be a volunteer and found the system fine, and never seemed to be bothered with ads much. To pick up a point further up, if a dna-based message board or whatever was used, maybe the Italics would have the power and the wherewithal to move conversations out on to the H2G2 site if they did tend to get more general.

This would solve the problems of the communities developing a life of their own.

because some software devlopers don't want to charge
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

that wuz a reply to post 120

Here's a suggestion I sent to the Scouts group yesterday, and thanks Happy for pointing out this conversation... I'm subscribed to this forum so either I missed this one when it started, or I subscribed literally a day or two afterwards. Anyhoo...

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I don't know if this has been discussed at some point (being a fairly recent addition to the Scouts list), so excuse me if I'm repeating a previous suggestion.

I've been wondering for some time why a BBC website like h2g2 uses such an advertising-heavy service as Yahoo!. Yeah, I know it's free, but all those ads go against the spirit of the BBC. Some time ago I unsubscribed from all the Yahoo! lists I belonged to when it became clear that they were as hell bent on world domination as Bill Gates. Furthermore, if this is true F19585?thread=206523

My introduction to h2g2 came from a suggestion by someone on another discussion list I belong to - a free one with no ads run on Listserv software. Now, the cheapest of all their software starts at $500, and I doubt that the BBC would stump up that dough, but they also do a freeware 'Listserv lite' - http://www.lsoft.com/products/default.asp?item=featurecomp which doesn't have too many features, but allows up to 10 lists of up to 500 members each, surely enough for h2g2 Aces, Scouts, Sub-Eds, etc.
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Having read all the posts in this conversation, the Listserv idea prolly wouldn't work as it doesn't have most of the features that Yahboo! does, like calendar, files, pictures, etc, and I'd figure that Scout reminders would have to be sent out manually. Right now I assume that they are done automatically.

Get Jim to write one in his lunch breaks...

(Ducks and runs...! )

But when would I eat lunch?

Wednesday.

Wibble

Aaah, but there are several good Free Software list servers, so that's not really an issue. As far as I'm aware though, none of them provide the extra stuff beyond a simple mailing list that Yahoo! Groups does...

maybe the BBC could buy Yahoo

Ah, but then wouldn't the BBC just supplant Yahoo! in its plans for domination of the WWW? I guess I could live with a BBC-based internet, especially if someone like Hugh Carlton-Greene was DG

Then we could all say of it what we said of the Beeb a while back - the internet has *always* been 75 years old

This has nothing to do with groups (I'm unaware if they handle groups at all), but someone mentioned looking for a new provider (alternative to Yahoo) for free email. I recommend myrealbox.com ... You can get your mail any way you want (POP3, IMAP, web) and you don't have to fool with the account to do it. It's all dependent on what client you're using at the time.