Backstory:

I am spearheading a movement to save Yahoo's Classic Group Format. I know most of you don't use or care about Yahoo, but I think most of you can understand how important archives and such are, and would understand that Yahoo violating privacy issues, causing the loss of years and years of archives, and losing members and groups faster than it can think, is serious business.

We're trying to get the word out to everyone who is in a Yahoo group or knows anyone else in a Yahoo group, that this mess is coming. It was only done to a few groups over Labor Day Weekend first, and the outcry has been overwhelming.

Essentially, I posted it here so that you could warn anyone you might know in a group or any group you might be part of, to back up their messages and save their archives, photos, etc. etc. now before it's too late to recover them.

And I thought I would also ask if you at IWE might know of a better place to move a group somewhere else off of Yahoo. There are also thousands upon thousands of messages to be archived, for some groups to leave, and I know how technical and informative you all can be, so I thought I'd ask if there is some better piece of software out there to archive Yahoo groups with.

Once a Yahoo group is converted, archiving the files is iffy and tedious, can only be done 1 post at a time, and even if they are accessible, many are often lost.

Anyway, I hope that explains the post. Please warn anyone you might know that this is coming, and it is not a joke, I've already been through it some.

Thanks

Brenda

Folkert wrote:>>to see that we won't probably care about Yahoo Groups and what they change. Not saying SOME of us probably care, but to be honest it is Yahoo Groups... and Yahoo owns it lock stock and barrel.<<

I understand that. Like I said, I just don't want anyone else blindsided and losing their archives, so we are trying to warn everyone everywhere we can. I'm just the messenger.

I understand it is free and you get what you paid for. I also understand that there are serious privacy violations, and at least one person threatening a class action lawsuit for same.

Folkert wrote:>>You are going up a very steep hill and its proven not to work in the past<<

We managed to at least get them to flip the "new" groups back to classic for now, albeit temporarily, but it's enough to try and rescue the archives and other data.

And I get that it's a steep hill and may not work like we hope, but there is a two-sided goal here. One is to get them to stop the remodel and leave Groups as a Classic option. The other is to save and back-up everything successfully, take our files, messages, photos, members and leave.

So either way, one goal will be successful, hopefully.

If anyone has any suggestions for backing up messages in a Yahoo group, please let us know. There are some people trying desperately to archive up to 150,000 messages before they flip the switch on us again.

Thanks

Brenda