online group setup?

[Bob]

Has anyone ever setup one of those online groups, like what Yahoo has? 

Are there any other major areas others than Yahoo, like MSN or Google?  I'm on the lists for a few music teacher groups on Yahoo and was thinking of creating one myself.

Has anyone done this?  Do you know how secure they are in terms of protecting information and controlling who has access?

[leahcim]

Has anyone ever setup one of those online groups, like what Yahoo has? 

Are there any other major areas others than Yahoo, like MSN or Google?  I'm on the lists for a few music teacher groups on Yahoo and was thinking of creating one myself.

Has anyone done this?  Do you know how secure they are in terms of protecting information and controlling who has access?

MSN have groups, but if you're used to yahoo you probably wouldn't miss much sticking with them.

Security...you can pick and choose who is a member and force things so only members can see the group.  They have bugs from time to time, but accounts are usually stolen from the members and/or manager [i.e from an email or messenger hoax / virus etc]- so the security for seeing the group will probably be as good as the security of whoever you let join - and for the manager /admin stuff yourself and anyone else you get to moderate / help.

[Bob]

Someone can steal a group?

[leahcim]

Someone can steal a group?

When they do, it's usually because they got the user/password from the manager in some way. Usually by fairly basic subterfuge rather than sophisticated "hacking"

If you're not the type to answer emails like "Hi, I'm from Yahoo, we need to know your password because we're doing an audit" or you don't have a password of "bob" then the chances are it'll be fine.

But, to be complete.....you can never completely dismiss the possibility that a bug in their software could lose it. But it's pedantic, hypothetical and applies to every piece of computer software and every site. There's also a kind of safety in numbers thing I guess...if you knew how to steal a group because of a bug, which of the few million would you pick before the bug was discovered and fixed? It would probably be one they are already in, or one that they fell out with the manager of, or a huge popular one etc rather than a random group with piano teachers in it.