Problems managing membership data on the Consortium for Language Policy and Planning

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

*	Please let me know if you personally wish this database to be
somehow available, somewhere, i.e. I need to know the following: 

*	Have you ever consulted it? 
*	Do you find it useful? 
*	Do you think it has ever been compromised? 

Yes, yes, and no.
 
This is a valuable service which I also recommend to advanced students
(especially on Masters Programs). And a bit of personality problems
would not constitute compromise, I feel. 
 
Anthea
 
*      *      *      *      *

Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)

School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg
<file:///R:/Documents%20and%20Settings/engafg/Application%20Data/Microso
ft/Signatures/www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg> >

NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk

*      *      *      *      *

 

________________________________

From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Harold
Schiffman
Sent: 08 February 2008 19:42
To: lp
Subject: Problems managing membership data on the Consortium for
Language Policy and Planning


Dear Members, 
 
If you have tried in recent weeks to log on to our website, or to make a
request to become a member, or to have your membership cancelled, you
will have noticed some problems.  The reason for these problems is that
the server that we have been using for the last 6 or 7 years, "ccat"
(webadress http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp) has been having problems
that have led the tech support people here to make the decision to move
as many applications away from it and eventually replace it with other
servers.  Some time ago, because of the inability of ccat to handle
spam, I began sending messages via gmail, and all messages that come
through ccat are forwarded to me at gmail (hfsclpp at gmail.com) which can
manage spam much more efficiently.  (Otherwise I was getting 250 or more
spam messages per day.) 
 
I met with the tech support person yesterday and we have agreed to the
following: 

*	From now on, all requests to add or remove memberships should be
directed to me personally at either haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu or
hfsclpp at gmail.com   You will no longer be able to access the on-line
forms to do this. 
*	The database we have had on-line, which listed the personal
information people filled out when they became members, and which was
visible to anyone in the world who wanted to see it, is deemed too
vulnerable and too sensitive to leave in that state. 
*	That membership database, with over 400 entries, will be
disabled, and we will try to find a new "home" for it.  I do not at this
point know where it could be hosted that would guarantee privacy for the
information, so I will have to continue to explore ways to keep it
viable. 
*	Please let me know if you personally wish this database to be
somehow available, somewhere, i.e. I need to know the following: 

	*	Have you ever consulted it? 
	*	Do you find it useful? 
	*	Do you think it has ever been compromised? 

*	Only once in our history has one user become unpleasant and
uncivil in messages to others, and I had to ban him from membership.
Since then, there have been no problems that I know of. 
*	The general webpage with information about the Consortium for
Language Policy and Planning, at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp but
not  the membership page accessible by clicking on "Members" will
continue to be available. 

Sincerely,
 
Hal Schiffman
************************************** 
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members 
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of 
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a 
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator) 
******************************************* 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20080210/b66c8deb/attachment.htm>