I recently read this in rpg_player_sanctuary and thought it
interesting enough to check out and pass along. I am reposting the
entire message here for the benefit of the group. As you can see I
have instigated a rule in my own groups banning grouply.com email
extensions.

Missiledine


To my players:

I am reposting a message that has recently appeared in
some of the game support forums. Having done a bit of
follow up research myself I have decided that I will
not permit grouply.com email extensions in my groups
and games.
I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may
cause.

Missiledine


Warning about Grouply.Com
Posted by: "rpg_player_sanctuary"
rpg_player_sanctuary@... rpg_player_sanctuary
Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:09 am (PST)
Warning about Grouply.Com

I have recently become aware of a new site which
advertises they can
make accessing your groups `faster and easier'. A
monitor of another
group shared this information with me:

"Over the past few days I've researched the Grouply
service from both
the pro and con perspectives, poured through numerous
posts on the
various Yahoo Groups technical and management lists,
and examined
comments from Grouply advisory board members as well
as the CEO and
co-founder and all have helped me to the conclusion I
hold regarding
the service. While Grouply is the only service
mentioned by name, as
other services are developed that offer similar
services the policy
explained below will be expanded to encompass the new
companies. When
you join Grouply.com, several things will occur which
you may not be
aware will happen:

First, when a member joins, it automatically changes
their primary
email address for the groups, giving them a
@grouply.com extension.
This is being done to those who are joining and is
changed on the
Yahoo ID so all mail received from the lists will now
be sent to the
grouply.com address. The only place this is mentioned
is deep in one
of the FAQs and not up front and in plain view of the
new subscriber.

Second, members who join the Grouply website have to
give their
member
ID and password. This opens up a security issue for
those members as
now a third party has complete access to their Yahoo
account. This
includes not just the Yahoo Groups, but also personal
mail and any
other services accessed via the Yahoo ID.

Third, once a member joins Grouply, it opens access to
the files and
posts of each group to the Grouply website. Grouply
staff can then
access these files. If they get hacked, then it opens
the doors to
the
groups getting hacked as well. Additionally, Grouply
will pull the
list's archives onto their servers, generally a
violation of Yahoo's
TOS.

Fourth, it opens the risk of spam. Not only is there
an enticement to
send a message to all the new grouply.com subscriber's
groups
announcing the Grouply service, but any other
advertising or
announcements as well. This is spam and few lists
tolerate such
solicitations. In other words, information from a
group can be made
accessible to everyone, and massive amounts of spam
with your email
address may be generated."

In short, I am leery of Grouply. I am concerned about
members of the
list who join because you are exposing fellow group
members,
moderators, and owners to unauthorized use of their
emails and group
information by Grouply. I may implement a policy very
soon that will
disallow Grouply email addresses on this list.

If you have joined Grouply and are using them to read
this list, you
should reconsider
Grouply or cease having Grouply collect your mail for
this group. If
you choose to leave Grouply, please go into your Yahoo
Groups
account at: http://groups. yahoo.com/ mygroups and
change your
password.

I hope you understand the measures I feel I must take
and will take
precautions to protect your Yahoo ID.