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

[shadowscast]

Here's how I did it:

I went to Tools->Export.

When it asks "What do you want to export?" I selected "A single table." Hit next.

Then I selected the correct database (the group I wanted to export, the .db3 file for which needed to have been previously opened in SQLiteStudio), and selected the table "group_message" from the drop-down box.

I kept all of the default ticky-boxes ticked under "options" in this window, and hit "next".

That brought me to the "Export File and Options" window.

Export format: HTML

Output: file (select your desired location to save it)

Export format options: I ticked all the boxes, including "Don't escape HTML characters" (which was not ticked by default).

Maximum number of characters per cell: change it to something ridiculously high so that long fic posts won't get cut off. I set it to 10000000.

Output format: Format document (new lines, indentation)

Click finish.

This resulted, as I said, in one giant and very readable giant HTML document with every single message ever sent to the group. (It's actually in a grid, with the date and subject line in cells next to the message contents.) The one with my group's 2500 messages is 14,781KB in size.

Whether there's a way to select only certain messages to output in the file is something I do not yet know. (But of course you could always open up the HTML file in an editor and start chopping bits out.)