Very interesting.  Thank you, Attacking Toad!

 

 

 

 

    I agree, which is why we chose Aimoo.com :>) We are busy building our board and site over there and will do the transfer sometime in the first part of december. Will have a big post with what to do and where to go and how to join and such. Looking forward to our new home. Already have a new chat room hooked up there too. :>)

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Maya:

 

Once  you migrate the group to Aimoo it becomes an archive which is unjoinable because it is not actually a group.  However the group you migrate it to is fully functional.  Migrating a group there is simply a way of maintaining our history.  OP at Aimoo will continue on, and when people want they can browse through our history which is archived right there on the forum. 

 

Come February, MSN will simply delete these groups here and without an archive it will be simply pixel dust.

This is an example of a migrated msn group.  It won't be perfect but it is something.

  how quickly we lose our writing skills...

 

Hi Maya:  If you open a group at Aimoo then you can migrate your msn group to the Aimoo group.  Once you create the Aimoo board you will find options to move the MSN group in several places.  However, once Aimoo gets it, it is an archive file.  Aimoo has it stored for you.  Your site was copied during the migration and the original should be as you left it at MSN.  I imagine you can have it migrated to multiply also (though not at the same time).  There are some things you have to do first.  Your group cannot be private so if it is you have to make it public during the move.  Hidden pages will be missed, so you have to unhide them.

 

They have done more than multiply did in trying to move the site and have it look as it was when it was at MSN.  However there are some limitations.  It seems that their bots cannot read older messages in a thread, so you will only find the last 15 messages in any topic.  And I don't know how far into a groups history they can go.  I know that Multiply had increasing amounts of trouble the longer time the migration took.  A group that is very large, or is very old,  is bound to experience some loss.  Still, it is an attempt to capture our history and preserve it for us. 

 

I understand that there are programs that can download an entire site to your computer.  I imagine if you wanted to preserve your entire site you might try one of those.  I can't even guess how much space on your pc that would require.

 

I reckon it boils down to making the best of the offers that are out there.  Aimoo and Multiply were the only two forum type sites that offered to migrate a group, and if they can only do so much... at least it is something.  Hopefully, it is possible to regroup, rebuild and move on.  In some ways, MSN has spoiled us.  I think no place will be as free as it was here.

 

This is the help forum at Aimoo.

 

This is a special section on that forum that deals with moving MSN groups.

 

Aimoo seems to be a work in progress.  They seem to be friendly, open to suggestion, and responsive to people who require help.  They are different than here though and it will take some time to feel completely at home.

 

They do have some things that are rather nice.  While the group itself does offer a certain amount of storage for uploads, it is limited and you have to have a paid forum for that kind of access.  However, they do cooperate with photobucket (a free image storage place) so you can store images there to insert into the messages and access them as easily as you can here through the insert image icon.  You can also embed YouTube bits and other media (though I have not tried that).  There is a cute little chat room attached to the forum.  And I think that once  you register you have your own private area where you can send and receive private messages to other members, check what you have uploaded at the site, keep a list of the groups you are attached to, and even make a simple blog.

 

 

I forgot to add that Aimoo is still trying to find ways to migrate the entire group.  So some things that they have had trouble with initially they have been able to improve.  And some things, like the messages, that they still have trouble with they are working to master.  So all hope is not lost with them.

 

 

 

 

 

I am glad it could help, Maya.  I went ahead and migrated Tribble's site last.  It took less than three days and while they are doing better with some things, like the image problems, they still cannot do it all.  I notice only the first album has fully accessible images.  And the message boards are all there but still you cannot access more than the last fifteen messages.  I don't think Tribble  had any message board longer than one page so I cannot check how far back it goes.

 

Even if it is not perfect it is still a nice memory.  If you have more valuable photo albums and if they can be moved (I didn't check), you might want to bump them to the top so they are first.  Same goes for favorite threads.

 

This is Tribble's site on Aimoo  if you want to take a look.  Tribble's site was created as an April Fool's prank several years ago.  It was never intended for active participation and still is not. 

 

Odd People is getting very, very close to it's own migration so people might want to be prepared.

 

 

Maya:  Today I learned that Yuku has now created a migration tool.  It sounds promising.  You might want to check it out.  Yuku 

 

I have requested one group to be migrated as a test.