AIDS Africa welcomes your membership (2)
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Dear AFRO-NETS members,
The posting by Chifu titled "AIDS Africa welcomes your membership" on
February 20, 2003 created a very false impression about his new group
and the Nigeria-AIDS eForum, run by Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS)
Nigeria. According to Chifu�s e-mail, AIDS-Africa took over from the
Nigeria-AIDS eForum, which up till June 2001, used to be hosted on
Yahoo! Groups , an advertising-driven website that offers free host-
ing for myriads of discussion groups.
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria, owners of the Nigeria-AIDS
eForum, disclaims any relationship with the AIDS-Africa group. The
Nigeria-AIDS eForum is not associated with AIDS-Africa in any way.
Between January 17 2000 and June 2001, Nigeria-AIDS eForum was hosted
on the website of Yahoo! Groups
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nigeria-aids>\. In June 2001, the eFo-
rum moved to its own website <www.nigeria-aids.org>. However, mes-
sages on the eForum up till June 2001 continued to be archived on Ya-
hoo! Groups
It would seem that the persons behind the new group called AIDS-
Africa had surreptitiously approached the owners of Yahoo! Groups,
and convinced them to turn over the web pages of Nigeria-AIDS on that
site, complete with membership information, message archives and mod-
erator privileges.
While we are not in any way against the emergence of new discussion
groups on any aspects of HIV/AIDS in Africa (in fact, we believe more
are needed), we feel that it is highly unethical for the person(s)
behind AIDS-Africa to seek to take over a group they did not create,
and for Yahoo! Groups to transfer Nigeria-AIDS web pages to AIDS-
Africa without our knowledge and consent.
We think that these actions of Yahoo! Groups and AIDS-Africa are dis-
honest and unjustifiable. Most importantly, the actions violate the
right to privacy of Nigeria-AIDS subscribers up till June 2001, whose
personal information and e-mail addresses were turned over to AIDS-
Africa by Yahoo! Groups. We will take all steps to protect our integ-
rity and the integrity of Nigeria-AIDS subscribers in this matter.
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria has long established a
reputation for its innovative use of information technology in
HIV/AIDS prevention and control over the past three years. The Nige-
ria-AIDS eForum is one such innovative service, providing incredible
information networking opportunities for over 3100 subscribers across
Africa and the rest of the world.
Nigeria-AIDS subscribers should please note that actions by Yahoo!
Groups and AIDS-Africa only affect Nigeria-AIDS message archives up
till June 2001. All postings from June 2001 till date are fully ac-
cessible on <www.nigeria-aids.org>. Similarly, the privacy of our
subscribers will continue to be protected; the action by Yahoo!
Groups was limited only to the membership information of about 720
subscribers who were on the eForum as at June 2001.
The Nigeria-AIDS eForum continues to run unhindered.
Thank you.
Omololu Falobi
Project Director
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria
mailto:moderator1@nigeria-aids.org
http://www.nigeria-aids.org
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