Various changes are being evaluated for CPCUG.org email services. The future of free email for paid up CPCUG.org members may lapse for those who have not been using their free accounts that CPCUG.org provides. Proposals are under development to transition our services to a new membership model, that requires an active email account to contact members but which needs not be one provided by CPCUG.

We are going to provide alternatives like an online discussion "forum" to supplement the tried and true LISTSERV email lists, but will not end that service. We know LISTSERV is less attractive to smartphone users, and because our new website will be "responsive" to smartphone visitors, a website forum may be a quality enhancement for such members.

CPCUG also wants our own email system to be self-maintaining in the same way as LISTSERV subscriptions: each user will manage their own account, increasing privacy and reducing the administrative complexity. We hope to offer more agressive anti-spam measures, for those who wish it, and other added value services. We also have raised our security procedures, following a series of problems with members' email in late.

For example, we're going to end shell account access to email accounts, as the risk of compromise and hijaacking are much increased since the day of Linux experimentation. With this goes new and necessary limits on the amount of online storage, since this too is a source of actual email service harms already experienced at CPCUG. We're looking into a fee-for-service option for those who wish to store more than 200 megabytes online with CPCUG.org rather than another similar services. Existing members with large online email "warehouses" have already been cautioned about this coming change.

Other larger changes are likely to parallel revisions in the CPCUG.org membership model perhaps away from pay-to-participate to free to join with paid enhancements. We invite other suggestions, and will open an early CPCUG.org Forum thread to consider email issues like this.