lmemsm

I've used Yahoo Groups since they were Egroups. A free mailing list is a wonderful service. Unfortunately, every new improvement by Yahoo made the mailing lists harder to use. The latest in their "improvements" which will take place December 2019 is to delete all uploaded files and historical data. They want to go back to just doing mailing lists. The bad part about this improvement is that I know of no decent mailing list that doesn't supply archives of e-mails in some form even if you have to access them strictly by e-mail commands. Yahoo Groups will no longer offer any kind of archival information on e-mails sent over their mailing lists. I'm guessing this is to save money on storage.

This puts all Yahoo Groups list owners in the position of scrambling to back up historical data before it's wiped and deciding if and where mailing lists should be migrated. If you're a Yahoo Groups user of any kind, the first thing you should do if you want to keep any historical information is to request it from Yahoo Groups. They do have an interface to do so, but you have to jump through hoops to find it. It also takes several weeks to get the downloads. So, if you intend to use this feature, do it ASAP.

There are automated tools to download archives and files from Yahoo Groups. Due to a combination of operating system, software available (Python, browsers, etc.) and firewall issues, I've had no luck using any of these tools. I'll share links to them in case someone has better circumstances and can get them to work.

Yahoo Messages Application is available from:
http://yahoogroupedia.pbworks.com/w/page/93006447/Chrome%20Application%20To%20Download%20Messages
It requires a version of Chrome that can run extensions in Developer Mode.

Yahoo Group Archiver is available from:
https://github.com/IgnoredAmbience/yahoo-group-archiver
It requires python and some python packages. You also need a browser that can get you information about cookies.

There are other utilities. I did a search of GitHub for Yahoo Groups and found several. However, many needed more requirements than the ones I mentioned. I personally didn't have much luck getting them working. Someone else with a different Internet connection or different operating system/software probably won't have the same issues I did.

I did finally get Yahoo Messages Application to run and back up messages from my groups. Download the zip file and unzip it. I used a portable version of Chrome ( Version 65.0.3322.3 (Official Build) (32-bit) ). If you do install a portable version of Chrome on your system, save the entire folder where you installed the portable app someplace safe. The installer doesn't include the software and older versions of Chrome may no longer be available. In the portable Chrome browser, enter chrome://extensions/ as the URL. Check Developer Mode. Press Load unpacked extension. Point it to wherever you unzipped the Yahoo Messages Application. Once it's loaded successfully, make sure Enabled is checked. He's the tricky part. You can't just bring up the HTML file in the browser. Enter chrome://apps/ as a URL. You should see Yahoo Messages Export as an available app. Run it. In another browser tab in the same browser, make sure you're logged into Yahoo Groups. Go back to the tab where Yahoo Messages Export is. You can enter the name of the group you want to work with and the number of messages (typically staring with 1 and ending with the number of messages the group has shared). Need a quick way to tell how many messages might be available for a group. Enter the following URL in other tab of the browser: https://groups.yahoo.com/api/v1/groups/MYGROUP/history
Be sure to substitute the group you're interested in for MYGROUP. The last number in the browser window should give you a good estimate of how many messages there are for the group. The app will download the files and you can have it save the results to your download directory. I found many messages were in text format, but some were in base64 format. There are several tools to convert base64 back to a readable message. I have some at my web site. If you check the source of the message in the Yahoo Groups interface, you'll see whether the message is stored as text or in base64.

If you need help backing up your archives, there are efforts underway to try to save historical data. They need volunteers as well if you want to help in the effort. More information is available for these projects at:
https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Yahoo!_Groups
https://tinyurl.com/y49furdj

You can ask for help to save a group here:
https://tinyurl.com/savegroups

While you can still use Yahoo Groups mailing lists to communicate, many are switching to better systems. If you're looking for another mailing list here are some options:
http://groups.google.com
https://www.freelists.org/
https://framalistes.org/sympa/
https://groups.io/
https://www.squidge.org/

I've personally never liked Google Groups. While they have moderation features, it never seemed as effective as Yahoo Groups. One needs moderating features to avoid spam on a mailing list. Also, since they recently got rid of Google+, there's no telling how long Google Groups will be around. Freelists looks very interested, but seems to be limited to public groups only. This doesn't work well for mailing lists with authors who don't want works in progress to be made public yet. Most Yahoo Groups list owners who are migrating are going to Groups.io. Not sure how it compares, but it seems to have more relevant features than the other choices. If you have other alternatives you'd recommend, please let me know ( http://www.distasis.com/connect.htm ) and I'll add them to the list. In the meantime, Yahoo Groups will continue to work for very, very basic mailing list features.

If you know of other resources or efforts related to this situation, please share the information. Thanks.