| Hi All, I’m afraid we need to have a discussion about the future of the mailing lists. There are a number of issues, but the most immediate is that the list archiving software is basically not up to modern standards and is no longer maintained. It will need to be decommissioned, and is unlikely to be immediately replaced as there’s low usage for it. There is a broader question about the list software itself. That is likely to be replaced, and the replacement would offer an archiving facility, though there is no clear timescale, and at the moment it’s not a high priority. The existing archive can be easily converted to a static one, which should be able to provide a better search facility than currently (e.g. Google), so that should not be lost in any case. So I think the options are as follows: 1. Move the lists to another host. JISCmail may be a possibility. 2. Continue the lists and accept a gap in the archive, and hope that the new hosting solution here will come sooner rather than later. 3. Wind up the lists after a quarter of a century, move all discussion to other fora (e.g. scsynth.org), and finalise the archive. I have my own views on this, partly for personal reasons, but I would like to hear from others before I say anything. I know people have strong feelings about lists vs. web fora, etc., and any choice will definitely have plusses and minuses. Whatever happens, it’s been something of an honour looking after sc-users and sc-dev for the last 13 years since we migrated them in 2008. I’ve been really proud and happy that Birmingham has been able to support so much amazing activity, and such a great community! Let me know what you think, Scott - list admin |