Upper Valley town listservs to continue under new nonprofit

By Erin Scott

Staff Writer

Thirty-eight Upper Valley town listservs will change hands this month, but little else will change for residents who rely on the forum for everything from road closures and town notices to lost dogs and items for sale.

UVLists, a new volunteer-run nonprofit formed by people with longstanding ties to the lists, signed an agreement with Vital Communities on Oct. 1 to take over their administration. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of October.

The lists have become a popular public forum across the Upper Valley, connecting residents, towns, nonprofits and community groups through email rather than requiring users to log into a social media platform or other service.

The future of the listservs had been uncertain after Vital Communities decided recently to step away from hosting them.

Ellen Hender of Vital Communities said feedback from residents helped shape what evolved from the decision.

“Earlier feedback made it clear that it was time for us to step back from hosting the town-based listservs, and that there were other entities better equipped to provide this type of resource,” Hender said. “Recent feedback informed our decision to work towards a transfer agreement with UVLists.”

Vital Communities heard positive responses to Front Porch Forum as another option, she said.

“We also heard interest in the lists continuing as they are,” Hender said. “We appreciate that folks will be able to choose what works best for them.”

Hender said UVLists was well positioned to take over because its volunteers already know the system.

“UVLists is made up of dedicated volunteers who have been involved with the lists for a long time and want to see them succeed,” she said.

For subscribers, that familiarity is central to the transition.

See TOWN LISTSERVS - Page 8A

“Earlier feedback made it clear that it was time for us to step back from hosting the town-based listservs, and that there were other entities better equipped to provide this type of resource. Recent feedback informed our decision to work towards a transfer agreement with UVLists.”

— Ellen Hender, Vital Communities

From Page 1A UVLists President Kevin Perron said the organization will continue using Electric Embers, the same platform Vital Communities currently uses to host the lists.

“The choice to use EE was driven by the desire for consistency for subscribers,” Perron said.

Emails will begin coming from the uvlists.org domain, with updated headers, footers, links and instructions, but the overall look and feel of individual lists should remain largely the same.

UVLists is working with Electric Embers on the migration and plans to provide instructions for subscribers whose messages are directed into spam folders after the domain changes.

The moderation system will also remain largely unchanged.

Each town list, including Woodstock, is expected to continue being managed by local volunteer administrators. Posts generally go directly to the list without being reviewed first.

“The lists will remain open,” Perron said. “Like it is today, posts go out automatically without anyone reviewing them first.”

Administrators step in after a post is distributed when necessary. They can contact a subscriber privately, remind the list about its rules, remove a post from the public archive, require a subscriber’s future posts to be reviewed before distribution, or suspend or end a subscription.

Because an email has already been distributed by that point, however, removing it from the archive does not remove it from subscribers’ inboxes.

UVLists’ board will set the broader rules, while individual administrators will continue making day-to-day moderation decisions.

“The board’s role is to set the overall guidelines and support the administrators, not to make day-to-day moderation calls,” Perron said.

Existing rules involving residency, civility, town relevance and limits on commercial posts will carry over initially. Perron said the board could revise those guidelines later with notice to subscribers, and individual lists may also adopt guidelines suited to their communities.

One issue UVLists may eventually consider is how to handle people who participate in neighboring towns’ lists, since many subscribers currently belong to more than one.

No changes have been decided.

The transition will not immediately bring new technical features either.

Perron said the organization’s first priority is getting the existing system transferred successfully rather than redesigning it. UVLists does not plan to add new features at launch, although it could explore additional options later based on community interest.

The existing archives will also move to UVLists and remain available to subscribers.

That transfer includes more than old messages.

Hender said Vital Communities will transfer subscriber email addresses and list archives to the new system. Subscribers will receive multiple notices before the transition explaining how they can opt out.

Perron said the records being transferred include subscribers’ email addresses, the lists they belong to, list settings, administrator information, records of people who previously unsubscribed and the message archives.

Keeping the unsubscribe records is important, he said, because it prevents people who previously left a list from being inadvertently added back during the migration.

After the transition, UVLists will control the subscriber lists. Perron said the information will be used only to oper-ate them and will not be sold, rented, or provided to sponsors, donors, or other outside organizations, or used for marketing or political purposes.

Electric Embers is the exception because it hosts and delivers the lists and therefore receives the information needed to provide that service.

The archives themselves will remain public. Depending on the post, an author’s name, email address, and message may be visible.

Subscribers can opt out before the transition or unsubscribe at any point afterward. Unsubscribing stops future emails but does not automatically erase previous posts from the archive.

Perron said the new lists’ terms will allow people to request removal of their own archived posts. A message that has already reached subscribers’ inboxes, however, cannot be recalled.

The organization’s subscriber terms of use will be posted before the migration takes place.

Beyond the transition, UVLists is considering potential improvements, additional lists and other ways to help Upper Valley towns communicate, although Perron said none of those ideas is close to becoming a formal plan.

For now, the focus is on preserving what residents already use.

UVLists remains entirely volunteer-run, Perron said, making the time and commitment of those volunteers central to what the organization can eventually offer.

“We understand how important the listservs are to our towns, ourselves and our greater Upper Valley community,” Perron said. “That is why we are working to preserve them for everyone.”