Yahoo Groups Shutting Down - Dec 14, 2019 (UPDATED)

[morgandawn]

(Updated Oct 25, 2019)

Starting Oct 28, 2019 no new files (photos, documents, etc) will be allowed to be uploaded. Starting Dec 14, 2019, Yahoo Groups will be limited to emails only - functions like digest will be eliminated and all files and photos will be deleted. Admins will have limited tools and all groups will be invite only. And archives of existing messages will not longer be accessible.

What To Do?

I have a step by step guide here. The short version

1. Admins - back up your Groups and decide whether and where to move
2. Members - back up your Groups - don't leave this to the admins.
3. Everyone - consider documenting Yahoo Groups on Fanlore, help spread the word

The OTW has made an announcement. Their Open Doors preservation program is open to  providing storage of Yahoo Groups backups that are assembled by moderators and non-moderators alike. Details here.

Fans are gathering on a Discord Channel to chat and ask for and give help:  https://discord.gg/ek2xFyJ (updated invite)

Please follow the Yahoo Group Rescue Tumblr for updates

 

Comments

[doranwen]

*nod* I've been adding groups to that as I archive them, but I do wonder how the ones got on there that say "Unassigned". The form I've found only lets you put "pending" or "complete" and if I can't work on them at all, I can't use those to put on there. What you almost need is a second tab that's called "Needs archiving!" and a different form for people to submit ones they think ought to be saved but that need members to archive them. But I don't know, I may be overthinking it. I just know I have four tabs open of groups that I want to be able to download but can't yet access the messages to see them. :/

(The trouble is that I never joined them back when they were active because I didn't get into the fandoms until years after their heyday - my perennial problem, lol.)

Edit: (upon re-reading) That is, to say, yeah, I would totally go for a spreadsheet of "these groups need saving! Check to see if you're a member of one of them!" and then ask people to share that link everywhere (and have it link to your guide so they can click on, say at the top of the sheet, something like "How do I save this group? Click here to read more")

I could already add about eight groups that haven't approved me yet, but that was just from today, it may be that someone will see their email tomorrow morning and approve me to access. I've backed up over two dozen groups at least now… Anything in my fandoms that had fic (and sometimes serious discussion if I think it might be worth it) that isn't on the list already.

I can get people to post a link on the Yuletide Discord about it, if they haven't already (I'm not on Discord because I can't stand the emojis and they won't make it possible for one to individually control one's ability to see them). If so, what link should I share - this post?

[duskpeterson]

Thanks!

[duskpeterson]

First of all, this should help a lot in tracking down fandom lists at Yahoo Groups:

Fan Email Lists.

It's a site put together by alice ttlg, listing all the known fandom e-mail lists in the early 00s. This Internet Archive cache shows the site as of December 11, 2003. (To find the lists of Yahoo Groups, skip down to Yahoogroups.) The site lists 1,080 fandom groups at Yahoo Groups. (Edited to add: The Yahoogroups listings appear to have left out the multifandom groups at Yahoo Groups - those are a few hundred more groups.) In each case, the site includes the list URL, associated website, fandom, genre/type, and description.

After that point in Internet Archive's cache record, the site switched to an "Advanced Search" system for the full list, which no longer works, but you can still see later e-mail lists by clicking on "Last 30 Days: Any Genre."

Not all of the lists still exist, of course.

I made intensive use of this site in the early 00s, and my recollection is that it rarely missed noting a fandom list. (Alice is still around, by the way. You can find her contact information here, under "Contact the Populli Webmaster.")

I just went through the list of twenty fandom groups that I still belong to. Of those twenty, only one (Master & Apprentice) has anyone posting about the shutdown. I sent posts to the other nineteen, but I'm deeply concerned that the archives of major lists will be lost. For example, nothing had been posted (till I posted) at two of the largest multifandom slash lists: Allslash (614 members) and RareSlash (1294 members). Heaven only knows what other major lists are out there, not to mention quirky little lists that should be preserved.

What I'm thinking is that we (by which I mean, a group of sizeable volunteers) could go about this in a systematic manner, contacting all of the moderators of fandom lists, since their Yahoo Groups emails are on the list pages. Then we could make an attempt to save any lists whose mods weren't responding, but whose lists seemed worth saving.

Is this idea worth pursuing, do you think? Or is OTW already doing this? :)

[duskpeterson]

Also: Some folks have been asking, "Where can we continue our lists?" I'm astonished to see that Squidge.org is still around. It has been hosting fandom since 1994; a lot of fandom lists moved over there from Yahoo Groups because Squidge.org had more fan-friendly policies. You can read about its history here:

https://www.squidge.org/Squidge.org/About_Squidge.org.html

You can see its lists here:

https://lists.squidge.org/wws
https://lists.squidge.org/wws/lists
https://fanlore.org/wiki/List_of_Squidge.org_Mailing_Lists

And they're at Dreamwidth:

https://squidgestatus.dreamwidth.org

I haven't used Squidge.org recently, but I did have a list there briefly in the 00s, and it worked fine then.

[morgandawn]

I need an active editor on a "where do we go from here" doc. got 3/4 of the rough draft done.

[morgandawn]

Great list. Where are the moderator emails? Are you talking about the subscribe emails?

[morgandawn]

wacky idea: pull the emails with a data scraper,fire off a generic email to all list owners.

[duskpeterson]

Grateful though I am to all the hard work you're doing, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass, because my hypomania gets triggered whenever I edit other people. You really don't want to be on the receiving end of my grandiosity symptom. :)

[duskpeterson]

No, there's also a Yahoo Groups email address that sends emails directly to whoever owns the list. Clickable versions are on each Group home page (near the subscribe email address), or you can just add the list name, like this: [listname]-owner@yahoogroups.com

Here's what it looks like on one of my lists:

hierarchicalfic-owner@yahoogroups.com

[duskpeterson]

You're wicked. :) But it might be justified in an emergency like this. I certainly didn't worry about spamming the lists when I sent out my warning notices.

[duskpeterson]

Though one thing to consider is that Yahoo Groups probably has measures to prevent mass mailings like that. I know that, back in the day, there was a limit to how many lists you could cc. So, for example, if you wanted to send a fic to eight lists, you had to do it in two emails, or you'd trigger the anti-spam catcher at Yahoo Groups.

[morgandawn]

where is the best place to look for the most complete list? I went to

SORTED BY LIST SERVICE
(sorted by fandom within each service)
Yahoogroups


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N

O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0-9

[morgandawn]

are you on slack? We're coordinating there

[duskpeterson]

That's the category I was looking at too, but it appears (at a quick glance) to have left out the multifandom lists at Yahoo Groups. The multifandom lists at all services are listed toward the top of the page. So together, those two categories should theoretically cover all the Yahoo Groups.

[duskpeterson]

I am indeed. Where do I go?

[morgandawn]

I agree - and it left off the RPS groups as well.

[duskpeterson]

Ah - thanks for catching that.

[morgandawn]

pm me your slack handle

[doranwen]

Btw - despite all the info everywhere online saying "14 days" - my program popped up with *28* days instead (it's now on 27). So everyone may have longer to back up groups before they have to register or find another method.

[doranwen]

Two quick questions, assuming you're the one who put together the Google Form for archiving documentation:

Some of the groups I have been backing up are marked restricted and requiring mod approval to join. However, as soon as I *apply* to join, I'm able to view the messages (though not files/photos), and that is still true even if I'm denied membership. Should I mark this group public or private? None of the options seem to properly fit…

For the question "Have Moderators Announced An Archive/Transfer Plan?" what do I do if they're talking about it and haven't decided yet? I've been putting "no" because it's not a "yes" yet, but that requires me going back to deal with it; it's definitely not the same "no" as in "there's been no activity for five years and who knows if the mods are even alive anymore". I almost want a "It's Under Discussion" button to select, lol.

[morgandawn]

In that case, mark them Semi-public: Who the heck knows how Yahoo is managing group access and whether what we're seeing on the Group info page is accurate (or if the moderator changed the Group access). I am going to add a Notes field to the form to capture stuff like that.

And adding a Under Discussion button is a great suggestion

[doranwen]

Well, there definitely is a difference between public and "you can see the messages but you haven't properly joined" because with the latter it won't let me get files or anything. It's kind of like a public group without joining, I guess - where you can see the messages but you can't access anything else.

:thumbs-up: I'll be sure to edit my responses appropriate for the groups where that's happening, then, once you've got that implemented. At least that'll indicate that those groups are aware of the situation and may want the archives to go somewhere. (I'm going to be storing my backups in a private Mega.nz folder and giving direct links to whichever moderators request them. Though if they want the db3s I'll have to figure out how to remove my password from the file first.)

Re: The Great Purge

[morgandawn]

which program are you using to grab the files? I did not see where Autoit's Inetget is listed on the Archive Team's page. They are json files - how can the average user view them?

A helpful tool

[sakura_no_miko]

So, I've been having some fun, since my Yahoo ID goes back to 2005, and inactive accounts have been purged. Originally, I signed up for a Yahoo account but I linked my hotmail up to receive messages. So I had the hotmail account, but not the Yahoo ID.

What I had to do was set up a new Yahoo account, link that same ID, and then run this tool to make it all sync up:
https://joshuatj.com/2018/07/18/your-email-address-is-not-linked-to-a-yahoo-id-yahoo-groups/

And it let me back to the old mailing lists I was subbed to 15 years ago.

Re: A helpful tool

[(Anonymous)]

Also, some of the groups I'm in have been overrun with spambots. One is unfortunately filled to the brim with p*rn ads and pictures, with the actual fandom stuff buried several years back. Ugh. Anyone else run into this issue?