How can Yahoo Group list owners identify which of their members use grouply.com and should owners ban them?

Question

Grouply.com is under scrutiny for requiring the user names and passwords to Yahoo and Google groups in order for their members to use their service which streamlines all group messages into one digest. Some Grouply members are reporting significant increase in spam and other unwanted messages in using this service.

Because of this, many list owners are concerned about grouply.com compromising their lists' integrity, and list members are rightfully concerned about disclosing their sensitive information and ruining their e-mail addresses with spam.

Some list owners want to disallow grouply.com users from continuing to be part of their groups and I read some are actively doing it. Should they, and if so, short of asking each member if they use Grouply, how can they find out who does?

Answer 1

Carl is right to point you to the EL-M group where this has been discussed intensely.  Interestingly the most vocal people there have now elected to create a new forum to work with Grouply and thus any concerns are being fixed by either a better explanation or bug fix or new features.  I recommend you join the debate in this group which is run by some of the most experienced Y!G users on the planet.

Answer 2

This is from the FAQ on the Grouply website:

Grouply is not a blog. Messages in Grouply are not “published” for all the world to see. Like Gmail, Grouply controls access to messages and ensures you can see only what you are supposed to. When you log into Gmail, you cannot see your friend’s inbox. Similarly, when you log into Grouply, you cannot see messages for groups you do not belong to. Grouply is simply delivering messages to you that you already have permission to read.

http://blog.grouply.com/protect#messages

Answer 3

people who use grouply have a choice of displaying their use of it or not. you can search your group for addys with @grouply.com- doesn't mean you'll find em all

however- these are all rumors. you should check out the site before jumping to conclusions. grouply does not compromise any group. increase of spam could also be from any where

PS banning good members over this also is one way to end up a dead group. why not talk to your members or let them talk to you

Answer 4

If you wait to discuss this with Grouply members, the damage has already been done. They have already handed over their Yahoo I.D. and password to Grouply, they have already listed your group in Grouply and left it open to SPAM, virus' and public viewing

Yahoo needs to take a stand on this and do something to prevent groups from exposure which they didn't ask for and don't want.