Disklavier

I concur that Facebook is not an ideal solution.� Migrating to groups.io 
is a possibility, but one of us would need to pay USD $110 (upfront, and 
possibly annually) if we want that company to automatically migrate the 
Yahoo Groups membership roster, message database, file library, etc.� Or 
we could start a new group there on their free service tier, but we 
would need to bring over our files and get everyone to sign up again, 
and we would not have the message history available, and there would be 
only 1 GB of storage.� Many existing Yahoo groups are migrating to 
groups.io due to it being an easy solution, but personally, I'd be wary 
about doing that without knowing more about how it protects user data 
(such as not selling email lists to marketing firms).� Plus, there's no 
guarantee that this new provider won't go under too within a few years.

A while back, someone tried to get people to move to a Google-hosted 
Disklavier group.� There was also that original "DUG" mailing list run 
by Yamaha since the early 1990s.� My recollection is that DUG was 
officially shut down.� The Google group seems to have fizzled out about 
14 years ago but is still live at 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ydug

For a couple of years, I had parked the domain "playerpianoforum.com" 
thinking I might set up a vBulletin/UBB/XenForo-style web forum similar 
to Piano World with sections for Disklavier, PianoDisc, QRS Pianomation, 
Pianocorder, Pianoforce, Steinway Spirio, Live Performance LX, etc. and 
a couple of "common" areas for discussion applicable to all systems, 
such as sources of MIDI files, editing tools, etc.� I never got around 
to setting it up, out of concern for stealing thunder from the existing 
groups, liability for user-provided content, dealing with spammers 
posting links to illegal sites, etc.� But maybe a forum like that is 
still worth considering.� Some consider web forums to be obsolete, but 
the nice thing about them is that you're not dependent on some corporate 
entity who can claim ownership of the content, change or discontinue the 
service at any time, etc.

I received a couple of emails in response to my posting in which people 
assumed I have some kind of administrative role in this group.� I 
actually don't.� It should probably be Todd Muncy (or the individual to 
whom he's planning to hand off the group) who decides what to do about 
the demise of Yahoo Groups.� I just wanted to raise the issue, since 
other groups have been sounding the alarm this week and it hadn't been 
mentioned here yet.

I'm willing to participate in a migration effort, but as I am more of a 
general player piano enthusiast (I don't personally own a Disklavier), 
any solution I'd devise would be more along the lines of a forum with 
sections for each of the player systems rather than something 
Disklavier-centric.� The way I see it, the users of the various systems 
tend to have some things in common and could benefit from a platform 
that facilitates mingling.

Mark Fontana


On 10/18/19 7:08 PM, bill@...-a-geek.com [disklavier] wrote:
> Facebook requires registering on Facebook. To many, including myself, 
> it is a dealbreaker. I run a small IT company and I am plenty aware of 
> the pitfalls of joining Facebook.
>
> However, to address your issues. What is so 'last decade' about this 
> mailing list that you think Facebook can do better?
>
> You mention sharing media is a 'near impossibility'. What type of 
> filesharing you would want? All I have seen are uploads of pdf files 
> and photographs.
>
> Most of the important information I have seen pass through here is 
> messages/text.
>
> Do you want something else? something like Pianoworld?
>
> There are plenty of 'off-the-shelf' programs that can easily replace 
> this Yahoo group without going to Facebook.
>
> IMHO,
>
> Bill
>