CATUG history: 2010-11 Transition Announcements

This page shows the full text of the transition announcements made by the interim technical team, and the latest advice from CMUG officers.

As of January 12, 2011 the mailing list transition is currently on hold for a few days while CMUG officers work out and pray over some of the matters at hand regarding the desired changes to the mailing list – see below.

First announcement

December 30, 2010

Dear Mac-Minners,

We hope you all had a Merry/Happy Christmas. The Mac-Min Admin team would like to announce a Christmas present to the entire Mac-Min community! We're delivering a shiny new email list… well, not quite in time for Christmas, but just in time to bring in the New Year.

As many of you are all too aware, the number of list software failures has increased over the past few months, meaning that more and more of you are missing out on important discussions. Compounding this problem, list maintenance has been chronically hobbled by Mac-Min's lack of admin access to the software (LetterRip).

In order to ensure that the Mac-Min email community continues to operate smoothly, we have made an executive decision to move the mailing list to a more modern, more appropriate list software (Mailman).

Besides being more reliable, the new software will allow you to set a number of preferences about the messages you receive, such as whether you want to receive plain text or MIME emails, switch between individual and digest modes, suspend your list mail temporarily, and other options.

The new software will allow the admin team to fix technical issues and list emergencies when they occur. Because we will be able to solve these issues before they become a big problem, discussions will be less distracted by administrative issues and will stay more focused on the content that matters to you.

In order to move to the new software, we will need to switch servers. Here's the part that involves you: you will need to subscribe to receive messages from the new Mac-Min address.

What you need to do:

1) Subscribe by visiting http://lists.mac-min.org/mailman/listinfo/mac-ministry_lists.mac-min.org and filling out the fields under the heading "Subscribing to Mac-ministry". The process is simple and only takes about two minutes. You will also need to respond to a confirmation email.

2) Change your email filtering/spam rules, if necessary, to receive messages from mac-ministry@lists.mac-min.org.

3) Beginning Saturday, January 8, send ALL your posts to the new list at mac-ministry@lists.mac-min.org.

4) By January 10, all messages from the old list should have stopped. You can then safely unsubscribe from the old list. To do this, send a blank email from your subscribed address to mac-ministry-off@list.macministry.org with the subject "Unsubscribe from Mac Ministry".

Please let us know ASAP if you have any difficulty subscribing or receiving messages from the new list. Contact the Admin team by sending an email to admins@lists.mac-min.org.

Again, if you want to continue to be a part of Mac-Min, you MUST subscribe to the new list. We recommend that you subscribe before the New Year. To prevent missing any Mac-Min messages, subscribe by January 8. We understand that some are traveling this time of year, and if that's you, just subscribe as soon as you can get back online. For the sake of privacy, the new list (like the old) will NOT have an archive, but if there is a need, we may temporarily add pages for relevant parts of the first few days' digests for the sake of members who are not able to subscribe promptly to the new list. The Wiki at http://mac-min.org/ will still be used to capture info of lasting value.

Please subscribe to the new list straight away, and be ready to move all discussions to the new list on January 8. This old list should continue to function past that date, but only as a signpost redirecting stragglers to our new address.

We are excited about having a more reliable and user-friendly list, and we hope that Mac-Min will be amazingly helpful to all of us in 2011.

In Christ's Service,
The Mac-Min Admin team

Brian Braunschweiger
Vincent Danen
Jon Gardner
Rory Gillespie
Aaron Hunyady
Scotte Meredith
Clive Read
Neville Reid
Faithe Thomas

Second statement

January 1, 2011

A Public Statement from the mac-min.org Tech Team

or, Explaining Our Actions

As David Burke said of CMUG, "We are, at our core, a family, with all the faults and blessings that come with that association."

For years, Jesse Sng, David Lang and others have been managing the technical and administrative side of CMUG -- maintaining the website, keeping the listserve software running, etc. -- but, over the past couple of years, and for good and understandable reasons, they have not been able to keep up with these administrative tasks. Over the past couple of years, Jesse has been largely unavailable for technical assistance, and in August 2010, he requested the formation of a team of volunteers to take over these duties. Since then, he has been silent on the list, his time and attentions having been diverted to more pressing issues that our Lord has laid on his capable shoulders. David Lang has also been extremely busy with other endeavors, not the least of which involves the production of Accordance, the premier Bible study software for Mac OS (and now iOS).

The members who volunteered in August are listed in the wiki. Note that although the page is headed Elections, there was no change in leadership, but many offers of service. Over the course of the months following Jesse's request, those who had stepped forward on tasks related to the website and list migration, i.e. the undersigned "tech team," put together a proposal for upgrading the online communication capabilities of CMUG, with the assistance of some of the existing CMUG moderators. Over those months, input was solicited from Jesse, David and other CMUG officers on the technical aspects of the proposal; however, as they had indicated in August, they simply did not have time to devote to the technical and administrative side of CMUG. Faced with the option of either moving forward and implementing the proposal, or waiting for an indeterminate time for Jesse and/or David to respond, we opted to treat Jesse's last statement on the matter (as he is still the President of CMUG) as our marching orders.

With that in mind, we proceeded to implement the proposal, which includes the following:

• A new email list running on Mailman (http://list.org) to address multiple problems with the LetterRip-based listserve
• An updated and expanded website, including blog and wiki features to provide a forum for contributing authors, FAQ, public awareness of CMUG, etc.
• Multiple contact points for technical issues, reducing the CMUG-related workload that might be placed on any single individual (we're all volunteers, with many other duties)
• An additional domain, mac-min.org to guard against CMUG becoming homeless (Jesse is the only individual with the ability to renew the macministry.org domain, so if he does not have time to renew it, we will lose that domain just as we lost cmug.org)

Our position regarding Jesse, David, and the current CMUG officers is that they are just that -- the CMUG officers -- and we have no right or desire to remove them from their positions. We implemented these technical changes at their implied request, and, if and when they are able to provide their input or direction regarding these changes, we are absolutely at their service. We have no desire to form a second organization, a splinter group, a "fork" of the CMUG list, or any such thing. Our desire is to use technology, and our God-given gifts in that area, to assist the CMUG officers in furthering the mission of CMUG. To reiterate, we are neither displacing nor replacing the current CMUG officers. Upon reflection, we realize that referring to ourselves as an "admin team" may have added confusion; therefore, we want to be very clear that this team does not seek to provide organizational administration, as that is the responsibility of the CMUG officers. Rather, we seek to provide technical administration in service of the CMUG officers and the entire CMUG family.

We intend to operate with the following provisions and plans:

Jesse Sng is currently the President of CMUG, aided by David Lang, and this team intends to continue to serve under their direction. We believe that holding public CMUG officer elections sometime during the first half of 2011 would be good for the organization, but this is for CMUG's officers rather than the tech team to decide. If new officers and/or tech people are elected, this team will serve under their direction, and will provide appropriate information (passwords, administrative information, etc.) to those elected. There are no reservations here. We agree to follow any lead the current or future President of CMUG dictates.

In His service,

The mac-min.org tech team
for Christian Macintosh User Group

Brian Braunschweiger
Vincent Danen
Jon Gardner
Rory Gillespie
Aaron Hunyady
Scotte Meredith
Clive Read
Neville Reid
Faithe Thomas

Current status

As of January 12, 2011 the mailing list transition is on hold for a few days while CMUG officers work out and pray over some of the matters at hand regarding the desired changes to the mailing list.

January 6, 2011

Hello my brothers and sisters,

Thank you for your time of devotion and prayer. I am writing to make you all aware that I have been speaking with CMUG's president, Jesse Sng, for the past couple days on Facebook when our time and schedules allow us to rendezvous. Jesse is asking us to give him a few more days while he and I work out and pray over some of the matters at hand regarding the desired changes to the mailing list. Hopefully we will be able to improve the technology behind the scenes with a level of transparency that will allow all current members to continue simply to enjoy their membership without worrying about where they need to be subscribed. I will try to post again later today. In the meantime, please continue to hold one another in prayer over this issue.

in His service,
David Burke
CMUG Ambassador
Christian Macintosh Users Group
http://macministry.org

January 7, 2011

I just wanted to let everyone know that we're not going to leave you hanging. Jesse has analyzed the situation and we are investigating and praying. We'll be making some announcements soon. As soon as I can be more specific, I will. No worries, my friends. More updates as they develop.

in His service,
David Burke
CMUG Ambassador
Christian Macintosh Users Group
http://macministry.org

January 11, 2011

Things are moving now. The best thing you all can be doing is praying for the welfare of the group.

Jesse will be writing to you soon.

David A. Burke
CMUG Ambassador
Sent from my iPhone

January 13, 2011

Thanks for the information [about our old domain cmug.org]. I'll pass this on to Jesse. We're working on something related at the moment ;-)

in His service,
David Burke
CMUG Ambassador
Christian Macintosh Users Group
http://macministry.org

January 24, 2011

Hello my brothers and sisters in Christ,

I know that none of you want to hear from me and are eager to hear directly from Jesse. Unfortunately, for the next week, he lacks direct access to the list and has asked me to post the following message sent to me on Facebook.

in His service,
David Burke
CMUG Ambassador
Christian Macintosh Users Group
http://macministry.org

Begin forwarded message:

From: Facebook <notification+m5111d-d@facebookmail.com>
Date: January 24, 2011 12:14:28 AM EST
To: David Burke
Subject: Jesse Sng sent you a message on Facebook...

Please help me relay this to the list for everyone. My computer is packed up and I can't post to the list at the moment. Leaving town and I haven't had anything to eat yet.

---

Hi,

I'm keeping this brief because I'm rushing out the door and will be out of town for the rest of this week. This is the first real break that I've had in months.

We've been busily communicating and working on both new solutions and fixing some of the existing things on the mailing list. This has kept us very occupied as we've been going back and forth.

I can understand that members on the list want something done and to hear some news, but it's not been possible to go back and forth dealing with issues while having to give a minute by minute report.

I've been trying to stay focused on getting necessary work done instead of communicating. I apologize if that has tested everybody's patience.

Here's what we have right now:

1. Current issues on the mailing list have been addressed. There's a combination of things that led to the problems, including stuff that fell in BETWEEN David Lang's and my responsibilities. The iWeb pages that were put up on the site inadvertently nuked whatever other stuff was there to help with list subscription. The subscribe/unsubscribe links on the website (http://macministry.org/Site/Mac_Ministry.html) have been repaired, and the webmaster email now funnels to a group of list admins, enabling us to respond to communications and requests in a timely manner.

We rewrote the headers and footers on the list mailings just before the weekend so that they now contain the proper links and direct to the correct webpage.

Be aware that Apple Mail and other email clients do hide some of the email header info and the list subscribe/unsubscribe email addresses were there all along. The list server software does suppress the sending of footers for styled text email.

These things have been patched pending a total overhaul of the web site. I will NEED people to work with me on this in the coming weeks.

2. We have created an internal forum for moderators and admins which will be comprised of many of those who have previously volunteered. This will not use the list server software but a separate service.

We will be adding these volunteers to the admin group today to get the ball rolling.

3. My long-term plan is to move us to where we can more easily focus on dealing with content and people - both on the web, mailing list, and on places like Facebook.

The goal is to keep the amount of high-level tech admin work and plumbing maintenance to the minimum; in short, to have a group which can be run by those possessing the heart to serve, regardless of individual technical proficiency.

4. I appreciate all the folks who have chosen to step up. The problem that I faced was that the more discussion there was, the more information there was to wade through - there was simply too much noise and that's why I asked David to help filter that for me.

There are 3 key areas to push ahead: (I) a total revamp of the web site (II) keeping the mailing list running and growing and (III) driving CMUG's growth through Facebook and beyond (iPad access?).

There's no reason why we should not be keeping pace in our growth with Apple's tremendous growth in the user base (Macs, iPhone, iPad) etc.

For that to happen, we need members to deal with information, content, and most importantly - People.

This is ultimately a social group of people, the internet is increasingly more about people than technology. I am glad that we have members who can deal with both, but I do see that the major thrust will be on the social interaction side of things.

There's been good input from many and there are some ideas that have been implemented, including the Wiki, which, pending discussion on the admin list, will remain useful adjuncts to CMUG's mission on the web.

---

Please convey this message to the list members and my regards to one and all.

God bless you,

Jesse