Ã Gãthèriñg iñ thè Pãlãcé Gárdéñ

Important Announcement

The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More

As you may have noticed from the message at the top of msn groups pages, they are closing groups for good. I have checked out several sites to see what they are like, there will be things you like and don't like, depending on where you decide to settle. Here is the list I have so far.

Google Groups

You get 100mb of storage, can create pages in html format, can have chat, forums, blogs, messenger and email. There may be other things you can get for google. Can be made private or public

ning.com

You get 10mb of storage unless you pay for more which will also remove ads (no popups there and it's a small section of ads), you get a forum, music, video and other stuff depending on what you want in your group, you can have blogs. You can change your main page, which is what all your pages will look like and is in CSS format, not html. It also has rss feed ability, can be private or public, has a basic template you can use and manipulate

yuku.com

It's possibly the closes to msn groups you can get that I have located so far. You get forums, image uploads, format is in CSS but has design tools to help you, best check this page for more info on it... http://www.yuku.com/home/yukucustomize/ it has chat, private messaging, video and rss feed ability, can be private or public

multiply.com

This site is currently updating their services due to the transfer of msn groups and help ease the situation. They have blogs and groups, are free, can upload images, have forums, CSS format not html, comes with templates that can be manipulated, though there are hundreds of free one's you can use.

Thats pretty much it for the moment and will let you know if there are others as I come across them.

Thank you so much for your kindness and consideration. Like you, some of us here have been investigating the most promising possibilities for an alternative host site. As I look over your list I know that I have looked into all of them as others have. Each of them has features that make them appealing as well as drawbacks. If you follow this link you will see that for a variety of reasons I have chosen another site, Aimoo, over those listed to transfer my Comms to:

In this thread you will find links to view two tests sites that have already been constructed in Aimoo. If you plan to or have already constructed one in any of the sites you have listed I would appreciate it if you could provide the link to your MSN Comm so I might be able to see how it sets up in your alternative Comm and be able to compare and contrast it with Aimoo. Then again, you might find you like Aimoo too.

Thanks again for sharing your information with us. I have always appreciated your efforts and contributions and hope we can continue to help each other.

I am closing my MSN group, I am staying mostly with graphics now. However, I did set up one group at Google for the alternative aspects on one's life, here is the link, you will need a gmail account to access it. This is where I keep my writings about the lifestyle. http://groups.google.com/group/Calies-Collegiate?hl=en If you want to know how such a site can be set up, then I would suggest you check this one. google does use html, which is a bonus, you can set up pages, as well as have the posts and discussions. It is different then MSN and might get confusing. You can check this one to see what it's like and I believe you need to aign up with gmail for that as well. http://groups.google.com/group/calies-creative-corner?hl=en Now on Yuku, it's forum based, yet you can set up the forums in a manner that seperates things much like you do with message boards and posts in MSN, this one I actually like and decided to keep. Drawback is the fact it's a CCS format, which I don't know, though you can get some wonderful skins from many people who make them. This one is not closed so I believe you can check out much of it without signing up for an account, not 100% positive on that one though...lol http://caliescreativecorner.yuku.com/ Ning is also a forum based CCS format site and I find you can't seperat things like you can at the others. Still, if you want to check it out here is the link. http://caliescorner.ning.com/ The added bonus for Ning is the ability to add video and music if that interests you. The last site, Multiply, is not really completed, it's mostly just the base set up you would be seeing. I find it's not much different then Ning and might be confusing. You can check it out here. http://calievee.multiply.com/ Out of all of them I prefer the Google and Yuku sites simply because of the way they can be set up so you can categorize things to your liking, something that is limited in the other two. I will check out your site though, it's possible I may like it better. I have heard of them before, though never really checked them out, so thank you for the link. Hope my information so far has been helpful and the site links give you an idea about them.

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
Ã Gãthèriñg iñ thè Pãlãcé Gárdéñ	[email protected]