Richard,
Please accept my apology. I did make a horrible mistake. I had
interpreted the archives as the place where files, links and datebase
were stored. But now I see that archives simply refer to the group
posts. Certainly hope that the moderator is the only one with access
to the files.

About "open" vs "restricted" membership -- again I'm guessing but I
would expect that restricted membership means that only members who
join have access to the group vs. anyone from outside can post (open
membership). Could be wrong though.

Not only was there spamming on the old group, but someone had
attached the link in the group description to a girlie site.

I have now made the appropriate change and the archives are open to
the general public.

Let me know if there are additional problems.

Gerry

--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham
<richard.wordingham@...>" <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "Gerry <waluk@...>"

<waluk@...>

> wrote:
> > Times are different now Richard. In the "liberal past" the group
> > archives would have been open to everyone. But within the past

few

> > years there has developed such hostility within yahoogroups that

in

> > several of the groups I have moderated, files have disappeared.
>
> Are you confusing the archive of past messages with the 'files'.
> They are different entities!
>
> > If
> > someone wishes to review the files, they simply sign in and I
> approve
> > them.
>
> Incidentally, what is the difference between 'open membership' (as

at

> PhoNet) and 'restricted membership' (as here and at Cybalist).
>
> >Look at what happened with the old Nostratic group without a
> > moderator.
>
> The only problem I remember was a bit of spamming. (Admittedly, it
> could only have got worse.) We probably generated more

uninteresting

> e-mail when setting up the new group! The biggest problem at
> Nostratic was probably that new members could not join, though I
> would like to know how I joined. Did I simply get in through my
> application timing out? Incidentally, we don't yet have a back-up
> moderator!
>
> > This archive remains "for members only". Besides, why
> > would the general public be interested in Nostratic files?
>
> Are you suggesting I should leave? My degrees are in mathematics,

I

> did no formal study of languages after the age of 16, I work as an
> engineer, and linguistics is only a hobby. I suspect that makes me

a

> member of the 'general public'. It's strange that I should consult
> Starostin's databases (especially Pokorny) from time to time.
>
> Richard.