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| Photo by Bill Adler |
by Peggy Robin
It was 20 years ago today
The Cleveland Park Listserv came to stay
It’s been keeping up with all the styles
And sometimes it will make you smile
So may I (re)introduce to you
The List you’ve known for all these years…..
The Cleveland Park Listserv now at Groups.io!
(with apologies to Lennon/McCartney)
Twenty years….and I almost let it slip by unremarked. We’ve
been consumed (understandably, I hope) with the move from our 19-years+11-months host,
Yahoogroups, over to our new web/email host, Groups,io, and have barely had
time to catch a breath! We did call attention to the one-month anniversary at Groups.io – which was just last Saturday -- and you can find that column here: http://bit.ly/2q2BBkm.
If you’ve ever wondered what was in that first message on that
first day, November 30, 1999, here it is:
(I have added a few footnotes, numbered in parentheses.)
11/30/1999
Message #2 (1)
Welcome to Cleveland Park
Hi,
Welcome to the Cleveland Park email list. Here's a place where you can exchange news
about the neighborhood including -- new stores, street construction, city
services, traffic, parking, stuff for sale, places for rent, where to eat,
schools, and more. (2)
Need a recommendation for a roofer? A place to take out of
town relatives to eat? Want to let everyone know about your yard sale? Do you want to get the message out about a
street that's blocked off because of construction? Or do you want to let your neighbors
know about a nearby magnolia tree that's in full bloom? That's what the
Cleveland Park list is all about.
Cleveland-park@egroups.com (3) is for Cleveland Parkers who want to know
what's happening in their neighborhood.
Cheers,
Bill Adler
--------
Footnotes:
(1) Message #2. Why isn’t this labeled Message #1? My best
guess is that there was a typo or a mistake in the first message, which was sent
out to just the the two members of the group at the time -- Bill and me -- and so Bill deleted
it and re-sent it, making it message #2
(2) One striking thing: Twenty years on, the subject matter listed in that first paragraph is still spot-on. The listserv was and remains the place to discuss new stores, street
constructions, city services, etc., etc. Now more than ever!
(3) Egroups.com was the original host. Then it turned into
OneList, and then it was taken over by Yahoogroups. The Egroups/OneList period
was short, maybe less than two years. It was Yahoogroups up until October 23,
2019.
Now here we are at the two-decade mark, and we’re at Message
#152,278. If you like to look at the
numbers and statistics, go to the Cleveland Park home page at http://groups.io/g/clevelandpark and
scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the 20-year posting record of the
group, with monthly message totals from now today back to Day One.
Gratitude
on this Thanksgiving weekend is due to Groups.io and its founder and
show-runner, Mark Fletcher, for making it possible for so many neighborhood listservs to depart
the sinking Yahoogroups ship, with all our archives, files, history, and statistics
intact.
And now let us just sing you out with another part of our (badly
adapted Sgt. Pepper) Cleveland Park Listserv Anniversary Song:
It's wonderful to be here,
It's certainly a thrill
You're such a lovely audience,
We're glad you’re on the list with us, we love to have you
here!
I don't really want to stop the show....but this is where I end this column.
---------------
Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland ParkListserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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