Yahoo Groups to Eliminate Web Features and Delete All Content; Email Continues
Yahoo has announced that, as of 28 October 2019, it will no longer allow users to upload content to the Yahoo Groups Web site. And, on 14 December 2019, the company will permanently remove all previously posted content. With that change, many Yahoo Groups features will disappear, including files, polls, links, photos, and more. Also, all groups will be made private and new members will require an invitation.
However, the core email list functionality will still work. Yahoo offers ways to download files and photos from groups, but user “csaftoui” on GitHub has created a Python script that can download the entire contents of a group.
If you maintain a Yahoo Group, we recommend that you consider switching to a better-supported alternative like Groups.io.
Some groups have reported having difficultly getting to their photos even now. I’m pulling what I can using PG Offline (Windows only )
Diane
What chance is there the Yahoo! mail service will shut down? Is that more of a viable service than Groups?
The explanation on the Yahoo site that Josh linked to has a very interesting suggestion for group members:
“You’ll still be able to communicate with your groups via email and search for private groups on the site. In addition, admins will continue to have limited access to group settings and administration tools.”
Just over a year ago Yahoo got called out for claiming it always anonymized email data when in fact they were not. They also made it rather complicated to opt out:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/28/17792522/yahoo-mail-email-scan-data-advertisers-opt-out
Yahoo and AOL are owned by Oath, which is owned by Verizon, which is In the media and communications businesses. Email gathers a lot more data from a vastly larger audience than groups do, and offers tremendously more targeting opportunities to advertisers. And there’s also this recent mobile communications development that makes Yahoo email targeting even more attractive to advertisers:
“Verizon uses mobile to get Oath apps on Samsung phones”
https://adage.com/article/special-report-newfronts/verizon-mobile-oath-apps-samsung-phones/313354
Yahoo Mail is too valuable for Verizon/Oath to shut down, at least in the near future.
NO. Yahoo is not closing down Yahoo Groups. This incorrect pronouncement has unnecessarily put non-administrator Yahoo Group members in a tizzy. I’d like the article to be taken down and replaced with a full reflection of what’s actually going on.
Verizon / Yahoo is stripping back all its elaborations upon the original eGroups purchased back in 2000. It’s all going to back to bare bones email text discussions and sharing. Allowing attachments will end. All collected group files will be purged. All groups will be made Private. There will no longer be any Public groups, which IMHO is a good thing considering the subject of SPAM.
Allow me to post the (buggy) link to Yahoo’s current explanation along with its text:
Understand what’s changing in Yahoo Groups
Derek:
I’m an administrator of a Yahoo Group. I thought we could still send attachments - they just wouldn’t be archived on the website.
Did I understand correctly that I can’t attach files with the emails (posts) that are sent out?
Thank you
How does not allowing uploads and removing “all previously posted content” and reverting to allowing only email communications not count as “Yahoo Closing Down Yahoo Groups Web Site,” as the title states? Perhaps there could have been a different headline, but I think everything we say in this ExtraBIT (which points directly at the same Yahoo site you’re copying from) is accurate.
We’ve also heard privately from a group that’s tremendously concerned about the data that will be lost to Yahoo’s move.
https://modsandmembersblog.wordpress.com/for-the-press-2/
I’m sorry Adam, but I have no idea why you accept that syntax. The ‘website’ for all groups will remain. Your article title suggests the end of Yahoo Groups. I have been contacted directly by my group members thinking this title and article are saying Yahoo Groups is ending, period. This title is quite wrong. I cannot capitulate on this point. I’ve been running groups via eGroups and then Yahoo Groups since 1998.
So propose an alternative title that makes it clear how Yahoo is stopping all uploads and deleting all archived Web content. If there’s nothing on the Web site, how is that business as usual or positive in any way? This will have to be done in a very short time because we’re about to distribute the issue and once that’s done, we don’t change articles in any substantive way.
Let’s see. How about “Yahoo Groups to Eliminate Web Features and Delete All Content; Email Continues.” I’ll go with that unless a better alternative is suggested in the next 15 minutes or so.
Frankly, if I did anything with Yahoo Groups, I would be looking for an alternative option right away. Any company that treats its users and their data like this clearly has no qualms about eliminating the remaining services in the future.
I think the original header is 100% accurate, and more catchy and concise. It’s what a good headline should be.
I changed my mind! I just thought of a more accurate headline:
“Yahoo groups is shutting down its website and punting member participation to Yahoo Mail so it can more effectively track user data and sell more targeted ads on all Yahoo/AOL and Verizon properties”
I can’t find anything wrong with the article itself and wasn’t really bothered by the title, but since that has now been changed, I’m of the opinion that we’re all good now.
The admins of the Yahoo Groups that I’m a member of have made the decision to move group due to the constraints imposed by the new rules. Many of the members have donated sufficient funds to pay for a premium move of past content to the new home.
My suggestion would be to poll your membership to see if they are OK going forward under the new rules or feel they are to oppressive to suit the needs of the group.
No where is anything said about the Yahoo Groups ‘website’ going away. That’s an invention. Please read what Yahoo wrote and express exactly what they wrote. That’s clear enough, I hope. Otherwise, I’d have to walk you through how Yahoo Groups works and will continue to work in the future, with the individual group websites as ever, but without the majority of content users have become used to. It really is as simple as reading what Yahoo wrote and not adding to what your title mistakenly assumes without merit will also occur.
This is too strange a conversation for me, clearly off on some tangent not making sense to someone who’s been a eGroups / Yahoo Groups administrator for 21 years and has read through Yahoo’s statements and understood them. I know exactly what Yahoo is stripping out and what will remain on each group’s web page.
As for rewriting your article title, that request is too surreal for me.
Thank you Al, as ever. What group sites has your group considered (apart from Facebook)?
Of the groups I administer, one of them has collected a lot of media over time that includes audio files, member polls as well as images. Our immediate solution, as suggested from our membership is to collect all the media for future use. In response, I will be posting everything into cloud space I have available and allow open access to it as a sort of museum of the past. As this particular group is 19 years old and not very active, despite continued relevance, there is no urgent need for a recovery to full functionality.
Thank you Adam! I also entirely agree with your assessment of this situation. Dysfunctionalizing (my word) Yahoo Groups is an example, among many, of Verizon’s general attitude toward its users. Judge and respond accordingly.
So far, all have gone with Groups.io. One raised $110 for a premium move of content.
-Al-
Has anyone tried the Python script mentioned in the article on a Mac? It does say it needs Mongo database, but the description says it can just produce a mirror of the Yahoo site. It also says it needs a GUI because it uses Selenium (a browser automation system).
I am in the situation of having moved my groups to groups.io a couple of years ago, and left the Yahoo groups around as archives. But I would like to keep the discussions and the files, as much as anything for the timeline all the messages provide.
I’ve been recommending people move to Groups.io. They have the same functionality and then some. I use it to interface with Facebook and my Squarespace webpage. When I create a new article on my webpage, it gets mailed to my group.
If you’re using your Yahoo Group to just announce, you should look at MailChimp. Both of these have free services and a paid level.
I’ve been moving off of Yahoo Groups for a couple of years. It was obvious it was being less maintained and the direction it was heading.
Typical Yahoo/Verizon! I went through the rigamarole to get access to my stuff. (I have a bunch of photos posted to model train groups.) After a week or more, they came back with a link. I clicked on that link, and was told “nothing found.”
NO COMPANY has ever been more appropriately named than Yahoo!
I’m offering a service that will extract all the yahoo group data from both private/public yahoo groups data for a fee.
My service:
Includes
Not Included in the backup
Total cost:
Payment details:
After the first payment I will start work.
Once I have completed the data backup, I will send a excel file with 10% of the final backup file as verification of my work.
I will send the file once the final $250 payment is complete.
If your interested, please contact me at [email protected]
I decided to allow this post through, even though it’s explicitly commercial, because it’s offering a service that might be valuable to people affected by Yahoo’s actions. The fact that I’ve done so in no way implies that I’m endorsing the service. It could be a complete scam, for all I know, and anyone taking advantage of it does so completely at their own risk.
understood. no endorsement.
And honestly, the fact that you posted again here (and are obviously thus a person, and not some random spammer) makes me more comfortable with your post. If you have any advice for Yahoo Groups owners dealing with this situation, it would be nice to share that too.
awesome. thanks ill see if i can help. my company i work for is going though the same thing everyone else is, and i want to help.
-oran
I’ve moved to Groups.io. It has lots of the same features of Yahoo Groups and they will import your group and contents over.
Groups.io has a free level and a $100 per year service level.
Here’s a selfless effort to archive a lot of the public information that’s otherwise being lost:
One of the biggest problems has been the lack of images in the emails. I have a group with near 52,000 members and was given 2 months basically to do something about it. I also have the same list over at Google Groups and can only add 100 members a day to Google Groups. As you can imagine, that’s a whole lot less than 52,000.
Now my members are unsubbing right and left because they are just getting texts and links instead of the images.
This could very well be the end of my business. I managed to export all of my Yahoo members, but still can only add 100 a day to Google.
If anyone has ANY ideas, please let me know, and thanks!
Look at groups.io , I think they can even import your Yahoo group so it would be a booth transition. And much better than Google Groups!
I moved my group to groups.io a few months ago. Much more better!
As I understand it, it is too late to move a group now. The deadline has passed. What you can still do is get a copy of the text of the messages in the group as the deadline for that function has been extended.
Groups.io is a good substitute for Yahoo Groups, and it did have a paid option to import a Yahoo group. However, Yahoo did not offer many of the message attachments so they could not be imported. You did not end up with everything that Yahoo had.