Good Tuesday morning, everybody Please read this message carefully, as it will impact on every single member of this group to varying degrees. In other words, if you’re reading this message and are, therefore, receiving Mac Access Dot Net traffic, you!
Firstly, we have been asked on several occasions how many members there are in this group. Because we choose to protect the E-Mail addresses of members and do not make listings available to outside persons, this is a question which can only be answered by us. To satisfy the curiosity of those who have asked this question, as of right now we have 336 members; not all of them actively posting, but there we are. OK, now down to the really important stuff. This message is to inform you that we have just begun the process of porting the entire contents of our logistical operations over to a new server array. This process needs to be completed by April and, although that probably sounds like a long way off to you, because of our very hectic schedules at the moment, professionally speaking, that actually is going to be quite a difficult target to meet, even if everything goes smoothly. There is much much more to Mac Access than meets the eye, and a total of 9 servers have to be re-deployed, re-built or replaced by the middle of April. Most of these hardware configurations are used for load balancing to accommodate both our public services and also those which we host for commercial clients. As I said, during those times when we’re working on professional commitments, we cannot also be working on this task. So we need to do it now, whilst we do have some time when I can use my sleepless nights to good effect. I don’t do all of the work myself, but the core migration tasks are down to me. You may well ask, what does this mean to me? Why should I care what is happening at Mac Access Dot Net. Well, the reason is basically this. On block, we are taking the liberty of porting all 336 members’ E-Mail addresses currently subscribed to the group over to the new front-end server. The problem we face here is that it would simply not be practical for us to trail through the list of every single account in order to find and duplicate any special options which may be set for that account. Therefore, if you require any specific settings to be associated with your E-Mail address which we have on file for you as a member of this group, you will need to contact the support address which I’ll give you in a moment in order to let us know, or to directly modify your settings, post-migration, yourself. By special options, I mean if you require digest mode, if you have any other special delivery options configured for your account, if you have your name associated with the account, that kind of thing. We will give you the opportunity to configure your own optional parameters once the new server comes on stream, of course. We're simply offering to do some of this work for you as a courtesy when we migrate the member list. But there is a limit to how much I’ll be either able or willing to do. This is a massive undertaking even as things stand, and we are hoping that we can delegate most of any custom work on your account to you. If, of course, you do not plan on remaining a member of this group, (and we are well aware that some members do come and go periodically), you will also need to let us know because we are using the current database as a template from which to work. That includes all addresses currently subscribed. Therefore, if you leave the group between now and migration time, you will find your address has been automatically re-subscribed unless you take the time to inform us that you do not wish this to happen. So, I hear you ask, what do I need to do? Simple. Sent a message to: [email protected] specifying which address your request pertains too, and what action you would like taken on that address. By default, we will just use the standard delivery options for everybody. We will, as I’ve already said, provide the group options to configure your own profile once the migration has happened. If possible, we will actually make the new interface available before we actually dump the old system, so that you can log into it and make any required changes to your account. Important, attention please! When this interface goes live, you will be sent a new welcome message. This welcome message will contain your new account password. You will be asked for this password automatically when you make any configuration changes to the account, either via the E-Mail transport mechanism itself, or via the web interface. So please please save this information until such time that you are satisfied with the configuration of your account. We will not be able to spare the time to keep modifying this information for you, or to keep configuring individual accounts one the migration is complete. Therefore, this task will be left to you. Also, if you do contact us requesting changes, please include the address of the account you wish to be changed within the body of your message. Do not merely assume that the originating address will be used. This is another security precaution which we’re taking in order to protect you, the account holder. Where possible, also include your current list address password for verification. We know that this final stipulation is not always possible, but it would definitely enhance your own security if you can provide this information. We cannot stress enough, as a final note, that we will honour our commitment to you whereby we totally respect your privacy. Your personal information, as much as we have on file, that is, will be treated with the utmost discretion. At no time during this migration will any third party be involved. Nor will any third party, aside from internal Mac Access support personnel, have access to any of your account information. If you are a direct client of Mac Access, as in if you hold an E-Mail account here, or if you have a hosting package here, we will contact you directly in order to discuss the options which will impact on your service. Again, we will honour our commitment to your privacy totally. Because there is no way to automatically cross-grade accounts under the circumstances which we are dealing with, we may need you to verify passwords with us. Please be assured that, if this is something which you need to do, we will treat your responses with the utmost discretion and your data will not be retained in any open format once it has been transcribed to the new database. We will do our very best to minimise any list disruption during this transitional phase. We will also make it our business to ensure that the public archives for the list are maintained. We probably won’t be continuing with the locally-stored archive because we feel that the public one is probably the most used and it is probably also more accessible. But that’s something we’ll let you know when we have a better idea of how things pan out. We would also like to take this opportunity to apologise in advance for any disruption to service which does occur. Please be assured that we will do everything possible to ensure that disruptions occur during those times of the day when the list receives the least traffic. Also, be assured that we will be taking steps to ensure that backup mail services are on line to receive mail during any such times as the main servers need to be taken down. This work is now absolutely essential. We’ve started it before, and it always got postponed for one reason or another. But this time, it’s crunch time. This time, the cut-off deadline for completion is mid-April. We want it done as quickly as possible so that it does not interfere with our professional obligations. As you may or may not be aware, I personally am now in employment as an information technology and accessibility consultant within the educational sector. My work also involves providing support services to staff and students, plus Braille and Moon transcription services and the creation of DAISY and multimedia material for those students who require it, plus liaising with students and parents regarding the specific requirements in each situation. So my working days are always full and always very very busy. It also means that I need to bring a great deal of work home with me and do it in my own time. This obviously impacts on how much time I have available for other projects, and it it must take priority. I tell you this to give you an idea of how busy I am during term times. Easter is a little late this year, and unfortunately the cut-off time for completion of this work falls before the Easter break. So the only time for this work to be don is now. Finally, and also quite importantly, the list server’s address will also change. We are planning to streamline this so that everything connected with the Mac Access Dot Net comes under that domain. In other words, instead of using a virtual host whose real home is under the tft-bbs.co.uk domain, we will move everything over to mac-access.net. The current server’s real address is being scrapped. Once again, if you require further information as to how this is going to impact on you personally, or indeed any other information regarding these significant changes, please do not hesitate to contact us at the address given above. We will do our utmost to help you, and to make the transition as smooth as possible for everybody concerned. Kind regards Gordon <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
