Please Read: Regarding Ambleside Online's Copyright Policy

[Lani]

We thank you for your contributions to the AO community. However we do prefer that, and our copyright does require, that our program not be posted in other places. It is one thing to give a sample of the AO year you are using and link back to our site for full details and quite another to have all the details on another site. Sonlight or My Father's World would never allow that and we can't either, even offering the program for free. I hope that makes sense.

[robeliken]

That makes plenty of sense. I do wish the forum had a better central repository for files like the old yahoo group did. (Schedules, art, etc). It makes things hard to find when they are buried in threads. I know that's probably in a far future plan when you all find some elusive spare time!

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[MelisaH]

That makes plenty of sense. I do wish the forum had a better central repository for files like the old yahoo group did. (Schedules, art, etc). It makes things hard to find when they are buried in threads. I know that's probably in a far future plan when you all find some elusive spare time!

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We and the mods try really hard to catch and add the links to various things when you all have files hosted elsewhere and share the link to them. Sometimes, they are in the appropriate Form area or in the appropriate topic area (Art or Music for example). Then, we have one or 2 mods who try to glean all of that and get those links all into the Resources section.

One thing to know, is that in the beginning of the forum we tried to allow storing files here that various people like yourself have created. Now, we prefer for our members to host their own files and simply share the link to where they are housing them (Google Drive, Drop Box, etc.). Files can eat up a lot of space very quickly!

Thank you again for your contribution to the AO Community!!

[Mrs. Mandy]

See this why the Yahoo groups were so great. Now housing files in a variety of places makes more sense for others to put them in a website or blog post simply because they are easier to find. But that is what is being against copyright. This is what is so frustrating! Needing something and either you can not find it because it is obscure and thus lost or you create something out of need but cant share your own work. A lot of us just are not knowledgeable in creating these documents. Maybe we could take that $10 someone suggested from each member to create on online document repository.

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[robeliken]

Yes, Mrs Mandy nailed it! This is my confusion. So maybe we could store our files on our own Google docs, and put the link on AO. But NOT post the entire file on a blog? I sense gray area here, which I think is what the advisory is trying to clear up. By the way, if you simply need a volunteer to research and manage a file repository, let me know...

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[Lani]

As Melisa described though, the links will be here and managed and saved.

Ultimately for both expense and time we really don't want to store tons of documents. We now offer chart schedules on the website that you can alter to personalize, for example. These are, and will continue to be, up-to-date. We cannot alter others' documents nor do we have time to do so.

You have probably noted the many updates to the website already to make it more user friendly, providing program overviews, scope and sequence, the schedules, etc. we are trying to meet the most frequent requests.

Ultimately, I don't believe there is a gray area in not providing a copy of any of AO's written programs elsewhere publicly.

[lklivingston]

The Yahoo group files often ended up being out-of-date, no longer matching the current schedule. That's what would happen to any collection of users' files we might try to create here. We simply can't keep all those files current.

We love that our users share helpful resources with each other. We don't want to discourage that, but sometimes we have to. In the past we've been much more lax, and that has created some serious problems for us.

[MelisaH]

See this why the Yahoo groups were so great.
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Something to keep in mind it that with Yahoo Groups, we had absolutely no control of things if Yahoo Group were to change up their TOS, reduce storage limits (which they did many years ago - they put them back, but I remember MANY groups scrambling to figure out what to do with their files at the time), change the format (they have done that and it can be a real pain at times), or they could get rid of the groups altogether (they could do that at any time they wanted). I knew that some kind of change was going to happen with YG's because there had been a CEO change. And it did. The chatter I had read elsewhere was not wrong to that end.

This is another reason that the forum is MUCH better. It won't just disappear on a moments notice, etc. The forum was created at the perfect time to avoid all the hassle that went on when YG's went to Neo.

[COMama]

Ultimately, there are benefits and problems with any style of group. I started to subscribe to threads that have interesting charts, schedules, printables, and links. That gives me only a few pages to shift through to find what I need. It's not a perfect solution, but it is helpful.

[robeliken]

The gray area for me is what MelisaH mentioned: having files stored elsewhere that are linked to from the AO forum. Is my schedule on my Google docs -- linked to from the forum -- copyright violation? It is "public," so it can be accessed by AO members. But it isn't "published," like on a blog. If I link to the exact same docs from somewhere else, is that a violation? I appreciate your time on this question. I was about to go through and update 8 years of AO schedules to reflect changes, but if I can't share them then I probably won't bother! (My Google doc schedules are on my above post, if you would like to see what I'm asking).

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