[epub] A Cautionary Tale- Back Up Your List!

[healthandwealth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Since the merger with OneList, eGroups have made a number 
of 'improvements'. These have seen one of my lists (Adzine- which is 
used to distribute WEB MARKETING EZINE) dwindle from over 3000 
subscribers to under 1500- due to some REAL 'bouncing' addresses, and 
a poor method of handling ones that bounce occasionally. In the past, 
I have also been frustrated with extremely slow responses to queries 
I've sent to eGroups. But, it IS a free service, and it had seemed 
the best of a less-than-perfect free bunch. Until the merger.

Finally, frustrated with the plumetting subsciber list, I set up a 
new list at Topica last weekend, setting Wednesday night (my time) as 
the time to move the list to Topica. On Wednesday afternoon, when I 
logged into my page at eGroups, I was greeted with a chilling 
message..

"Oops...There is no group called adzine."

That's right, the list that has taken two and a half years to build 
up has disappeared. Gone. Lost. Any publisher who's worked his guts 
out to build up a readership can imagine how I felt. I quickly sent 
of a request for help to eGroups. As is typical of past dealings, I'm 
still waiting to hear from them. Fortunately (as is also typical of 
past dealings), Topica were back to me within 24 hours with answers 
to some questions I had about adding bulk names to a list. And I was 
only asking the questions because I had started taking backups of the 
list three weeks ago. I may never get back the 2000+ 
supposedly 'bouncing' addresses, but I did have the 1600 '100% alive' 
ones.

The moral? Trust Nobody! And backup your list every week on disk!

John Payne

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