Possible Threat to the HPFGU Family of Lists

[frantyck]

What awful news.

I don't know if this is possible or even legal (does Yahoo have 
rights to the messages that users post on Yahoo groups?), but would 
it be possible to periodically backup all the messages and files 
from each Hpfgu group offsite? This way it would be harder for some 
bored and resentful computer whiz to cause major damage.

And Yahoo really ought to do better by our lists. There are 
thousands of us, and we are consumers of Yahoo's advertising, after 
all. No members, no money. Is it possible to use the 'the customer 
is always right' card with Yahoo? It likely would be noticed by the 
news media if Hpfgu were no longer able to function on Yahoo.

Are there any other options in terms of websites capable of hosting 
groups like ours? I'd like to point out that Yahoo groups were 
blocked for several months this year by the government in India 
(where I live) because a small insurgent group in the northeast 
occasionally used a Yahoo group to communicate. Yahoo refused to 
block this group and thus the government in a fit of illiterate 
petulance blocked off all of Yahoo groups. Yahoo may not have caved 
that time, but in the past (with China, for instance) they have 
shown themselves willing to yield. What I mean is -- Yahoo is 
probably the biggest provider of egroup facilities anywhere on the 
Internet, so it is among the most political and visible. Can we 
think of somewhere safer?

Rrishi