I’ve been thinking for a while about our Cascadia Commons mailing list which is, by today’s standards of social media and online group networking tools, truly archaic. Even for a mailing list platform Google Groups is bare bones basic. It hasn’t changed much since its inception.

Groups.io has a take on dealing with some of the limitations in traditional mailing list platforms. At its basic level it works just like every other mailing list. Messages posted to the list show up in your inbox. What’s cool is that you decide which messages are sent to your inbox by filtering messages with hashtags you designate. So, if you don’t want email on topics such as #pandemic, #dirtyjoke, #dumptrump; you can mute them and manage the inflow from the list to your inbox as you wish. Handy links appear in the footer of each message letting you mute further messages on the thread or all messages with that hashtag in the future.

There’s lots more great stuff on the server side too. You can create an album of vacation pix and post a link to it, or use a single album to store all photos that you share in messages on the site. And, like Google Groups, you can also have a web only account. Unlike Google Groups, the web features are so good that you will actually want to use it.

Requests for help can be mildly problematic as people often respond privately and we don’t know if the issue was resolved or not. The chat feature handles these scenarios beautifully. I send out my chat message to the list: “Need a ride to the airport Sunday AM.” In the footer of the message is a link to the online chat. Anyone can check the chat to see the status of the issue. No need for any more messages to the list on the topic.

There’s an integrated calendar that will send notices of upcoming birthdays and events to the list. Yes, you can mute those too if you don’t wish to receive calendar reminders. And, it has a simple poll feature for questions like: “What night would you like to watch my “Best of Ernest Borginine” film marathon:

• Monday
• Wednesday
• Friday
• Not in a million years

While it might not fully replace Google Drive because of the 1GB file limit on free accounts, the essential files can be stored on Groups.io and even links to Google Drive files and folders as well. Oh, and a feature that I appreciate, the list can subscribe to The Cascadian blog feed, sending notices of new articles as they are posted.

Finally, as the storehouse of Cascadia Commons tribal knowledge, there’s a wiki. Who knew we needed a wiki? Want to reference the Pet Policy and read comments on outstanding issues? It’s in the wiki. Confused for the umpteenth time about which plastic lids go where in the recycling, just check the wiki page. As a repository for communal knowledge, wikis are the jam.

You’re probably asking yourself now “How can I behold this eighth wonder of the world and see the great pyramids of email for myself?” You can subscribe to the list on it’s Groups.io home page and you’ll be all set for when and if we migrate from Google Groups. I think it’s a no-brainer 🤓.

Look for an official proposal and demo at the next HOA meeting.