morgandawn | Yahoo Groups Shutting Down

(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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Awesome! I'll be eager to hear when it's completed. :)

I assumed that they got an email at that address already when I applied, but it can't hurt. I've written up a nice template to use in emailing, and hope it will help with some. I've had at least two or three groups approve my membership (and one denied, but I could read the messages just by applying, so was able to back it up anyway), but the majority have been silent. Fingers crossed that this will elicit a few positive responses!

feel free to share the template

I think I am getting around 20-30% response rate for the 'requires mod approval to join'

Well, this is what I've been sending (replacing the ***** with the group's name):

Hi, I'm Doranwen, and I'm one of the many volunteers who are attempting to make backups of Yahoo Groups before all of the data disappears thanks to Yahoo's recent decision to scale back Yahoo Groups to mailing lists only. I have applied to join your group ****** in an effort to preserve this data. Let me explain what I will do, if you'll approve my membership:

- I will use a software program to download all of the files and photos for safekeeping.

- I will use the same software program to crawl all of the messages and save them to a database format (db3).

- I will export the messages to a single HTML file. (Future export possibilities include a nicer formatted HTML, as well as a couple SQL types.)

- I will upload these to a *private* Mega.nz folder, and provide you with the link to your group's messages and other files. I will also send a copy to the Open Doors project for preservation. They are committed to preserving the data, but will not share it publicly unless given permission by group moderators (indeed, at this time they have no framework in place for sharing it at all, but simply wish to preserve while we still have the opportunity to do so). You can see more information about these efforts here: https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/14117

Thank you for considering this request.

Doranwen

I've tweaked a few things along the way (just edited now to improve - I'm terrible at email, I always say more than I need to and have to keep paring down to the essentials), and I'm sure a few more things could be tweaked to improve it (for instance, maybe I don't need to mention the possibility of the nicer-formatted HTML files as I don't know if I can scrounge up $25 anyway - I literally don't even have that much extra this month, period, and it's hard to justify for that one simple purpose, as useful as it will be). But that's the gist of it.

I linked them to the post on AO3 because it's the most thorough explanation of the situation (and it links here anyway). And others may have a different method of sharing the files, but I think a Mega folder is probably the best option, at least for me. It's secure (I can provide only the link to their data and not the entire folder - and no one else can access anyone else's with it), permanent (no 30-day expiration after the last download or something similar), and will hold a whole lot of data.

Edited 2019-10-22 07:21 (UTC)

If you tweak your e-mail a little to address it to general readers/any mod who happens to see it, I can post it at tumblr to see if it gets some traction and catches any former mods' attention.

Here is a Discord invite to the Save Yahoo Groups Server:

https://discord.gg/qbMJJp

Here is a link that explains my way of saving:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AttWx8rXBtV-gsATN7wocVi4UG1d4g?e=ulpaWt

I'm not sure what you mean by "address to general readers"? Like, do you want more of an open letter of the "are you a moderator/owner of a Yahoo group? consider letting one of the following volunteers back up your group's data for you" kind of thing? Or what? Sorry, just need a little more clarification there.

I can't handle Discord, because the emojis bother me a LOT. I find them extremely irritating to the eye and sometimes even confusing. (There's one on Slack, for instance, that's supposed to be "confused" - it doesn't look remotely confused to me. If I went off the visual, I'd use it for "sympathy"!) So I turn off emojis on Slack and I loved using IRC when the Yuletide channel was active there. Discord, sadly, refuses to even consider allowing users to individually control their viewing of emojis whatsoever, and when I tried suggesting it on their forum I had dozens of people downvoting it (apparently people get very angry when you want to NOT see their emojis :P so frustrating). Discord is clearly not neurodivergent-friendly (as I'm pretty sure my Asperger's has something to do with my strong dislike of emojis), and I wish there was a way to change that, but no one's listened to me there! So I don't use it at all.

I run Linux on my usual system and fired up a Windows 7 box I rarely use just for this purpose. Perhaps ironically, I actually don't know scripting; I can do some cli stuff but prefer a gui whenever possible, hence using PG Offline. (I do know a little SQL though, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to figure out how to export stuff using SQLiteStudio even if I can't afford the cost of the registration for PG Offline).

Yes. What you said is what I meant. I want to send something around tumblr that will perhaps alert any mods who see it.

I understand about Discord. I like emojis. Though not so much that I want to see them EVERYWHERE. I've liked them less since they've become commercialized.

I've got something like that started, but realized I had a lot of questions about what it should contain.

For instance, do we just link them to the OTW post? Or should we have something like this:

- If you want to preserve the data yourself, go here: *link to instructions on software to do that*

- If you'd like someone else to preserve the data for you, go here: *link to... something?* (don't currently have anywhere to say "go here and ask for someone to join your group so they can back things up, but it's more likely that they've got multiple people asking for membership to do just that - and if they're touchy about the data getting all over the 'net, how do they know that the individual person is going to be honest about it? I mean, if I tell them "I will not post it publicly", I mean it - I never lie about what I will or won't do - but others may not be as honest)

Also, I'd think they ought to be linked to the list of "we need these groups backed up" - and if that is the case, should the message go out to all members of locked groups instead? Because as long as someone's a member, they can do the backup, even if they can't get mod permission to share it.

And should they be linked to the list of already-archived groups? So many questions I have. If I get some answers to those, I can work on crafting a simple, straightforward message. (Which I can do if I work at it, lol, I just have to fight my temptation to over-explain and over-share.)

It's all right. I was going to share your questions with the Discord but someone already wrote a public tumblr post:

https://yahoo-geddon.tumblr.com/post/188528746979/yahoo-groups-will-be-shutting-down-what-each-of

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

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