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

[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.

[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. :)

[graycardinal]

Many, many thanks for this pointer; that may just solve the problem for the one good-sized and still active list I'm on. (Someone else has already grabbed an archive of the content, but we have been dithering about where to migrate, and the group in question is one where there is both fanfic and author-event content.)

[duskpeterson]

I hope it works out well for you. :)

[doranwen]

*waves hi as the "someone else"* I didn't greet you directly on there but I do recognize your name from Yuletide and other places, and glad we can work together to preserve the LOM data. :) I'm waiting till the last posts have gone on the site and been frozen (next Monday) and then will start emailing owners with links to where they can download their data.