Evidently there's a new "service" called "Grouply". It offers to put all your Yahoo-Groups onto one page and somehow merge all the messages in a way that makes it easier to navigate. Most think Yahoo's method is fine just as it is, so many don't bother accepting the invite.
However - some hams are, in fact, signing up for "Grouply". Grouply accesses Yahoo groups in two ways. You can tell Grouply which groups you belong to, in which case Grouply attempts, automatically, to join all those groups. Or, what most folks do, is they simply tell Grouply their Yahoo name and password, and Grouply "retrieves" all the new messages for whatever method of presention. But here's where it gets ugly - Grouply then accesses the member database of groups who have not kept it hidden, and sells those email addresses to spammers...and, if they have someone's Yahoo account name and password, they have access potentially to a LOT of other personal info. Not sure how to prevent this from happening on repeater-builder.... some group moderators are making public announcements, asking group members to not use Grouply to view their Yahoo group. But in fact, if "method B" is chosen by the Grouply participant, moderators will never know if "Gary K6XYZ" accessed the group himself, or if Grouply posed as Gary to do it. Anyway, if the question comes up, "Just say no" to Grouply. Reference article: http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=1146
