An update on aspd - sort of....

Sorry to relate that aspd staff has no new info regarding the continuing outage at aspd since the site went down Monday afternoon. If we get any info we can share, we will.

About HOME2:

Lots of chatter elsewhere about what HOME2 and what it might be.

This place has been in the making for several months. Initially that had zero to do with the access difficulties at aspd. In fact, the genesis of HOME2 rests in the Yahoo group that was formed in San Antonio during the 2005 crash recovery. That group provided some community communications continuity for those who were left adrift by the crash and primarily they were on the social invite lists for Austin and San Antonio.

Unfortunate to state, but there are some people "out there" who seem to have made it their mission in life to target, harass and threaten members (male and female) and some of the them have particularly threatened those who attend innocent gatherings, socials, meet and greets.

Late last year, SA social organizers decided a space away from aspd would offer more privacy and possibly additional security for those who attend events.

To say the least, access to aspd has been shaky for months. Time-outs, etc. And ancillary issues, no RTMs, no password retrievals, no emails for PMs, new threads, etc. have seriously put a crimp into operations.

When staff in SA and Austin discussed the external site possibility with staff in Dallas and Houston, and the discussion was done in an aspd staff forum, the immediate conclusion was to make sure that if necessary we could expand HOME2 quickly and maybe even accommodate temporarily the communications needs of the entire aspd community at large, or at least those who could be verified or vouched as legitimate aspd members.

What was done was not done in a vacuum. Considerable discussion in the aspd staff areas was totally accessible to Amber and to her mom and her step dad, who was informed in person on the phone about HOME2 before the announcement email broadcast. They also got links to the posts and copies of some of the staff and member mails as well.

About "harvesting member data:"

Yes, ck1942 and the support staff routinely receives (and stores very securely) lots of data about member registrations, about member profiles -- who has or doesn't have paid bcd, earned bcd, provider status, advertising status, etc.

Well, that's what Support must do to make sure the site runs properly and IN CASE OF LOSS OF DATA, provide an off-line data base (or four or five of them) so we are prepared for what we had to at Crash 2005.... when entire member profiles were wiped out.

In August 2005, Support had the data to quickly restore accesses for members with handles, to create replacement new handles for staff and members who had lost it entirely, to ... well, too much to relate, but yes, we also had backup data on the banned members, too, many of whom were temporarily "unbanned" as a result of the Crash.

Lest anyone forget, much of that data lost in 2005 was also wiped out when the official backed up site files were found to be corrupted and unusable as well.

Since 2005, the Support process has merely continued and, for those with a bit of forethought, an appreciation for a contingency communications vehicle -- HOME2.

The keepers of the social lists need no permissions from anyone to use those data for legitimate purposes. Permission is implied if not explicit when someone requests an invite.

As for permission to use aspd data to "publicize" HOME2 -- well, none of the staff felt any direct aspd board owner permission was needed in order to communicate with members about the aspd issues, not, as some have posted elsewhere, to offer, promote and solicit participation here.

HOME2 is what it is.

The only intent here is to preserve the aspd community and facilitate members ' returning to aspd when it is back on line. Yes, there are plenty of other boards out there that aspd-ers can use in the interim. And they should, especially when doing research and marketing.

Some mention has been made elsewhere about member data being leaked because an email contained CCs addresses instead of BCCs. to my knowledge, that was not any of my email, but appears to have happened (hey, stuff happens) with the mailout to the Dallas social list.

If it happened, it's unfortunate, but, considering that all of the people on that list already see each other in person at socials, I see no great potential harm in that. I do see a malicious person on that list having a major agenda and an outright hatred of aspd and aspd staff and since he posted directly from the mail when asked not to do so... what else can a rational person conclude?

HOME2 is not a replacement for aspd.

None of us here -- staff or member -- wants that.

HOME2 is here to provide some glue to keeping the members of the aspd community informed and offer a place and a space for aspd-ers to cyber-gather while awaiting the return of the mother ship.

Anyone who says anything different is full of you know what.

And, since any who can figure out this site can see the public data.... more than 700 aspd-ers have signed up to try to keep in touch. We must be doing something right.

To those who question any staff members' motive. Please grab your dictionary and see the definition of "altruism" and "give-back."