Yahoo Groups closing?

[sackatatties]

Not before time. I've had a Yahoo account since the year dot and since BT got involved I've had horrendous problems accessing yahoo groups, which is no more than a gloryfied email distribution group. Good riddance.

Storing File data is a minefield as it can often contain personally identifiable information, so you need to consider DPA and GDPR, that's why it's better not to host it yourself but link to a dedicated storage company like Dropbox, Box or an equivalent. I also run a few forums like this one (on PHP-BB) and they're not designed to store and manipulate file data (this one struggles with photos) so you're unlikely to see anything on this forum for storing files.

Archiving the existing file content on Yahoo groups elsewhere shouldnt be that troublesome though (Vis's offer is an excellent one). File uploads to the yahoo group are quite rare in any case.

[SteveBurt]

The problem with forums is that you have to go to them.
Email comes to you - so if you are a member of many groups, it is much easier to look through your inbox than visit a ton of fora.
Anyway, the lardy yahoo group is pretty moribund these days, so it will make little difference.

[sackatatties]

I mainly check forums and groups for rule clarifications and use the TFL blog for articles and downloads. FB is useful for uploading and browsing files but posts are fleeting, and not always distributed fully due to the way FB works. Managing FB can also be a dark art. Knowing what's been posted and uploaded since your last visit, being currently discussed and being able to search post history are key.

What I've done in the past was to create a portal bringing blog, forum, file-store and social media together in one place showing latest posts, file updates, calendar and shout-box in one place. That's takes a bit of work to setup and constant management (I'm not volunteering as I'm time starved!). There are commercial options available though.

[Contrarius]

Storing File data is a minefield as it can often contain personally identifiable information, so you need to consider DPA and GDPR, ...

I suspect GDPR and the forthcoming implementation of EU article 13 (which will pretty much destroy the internet as we know it) are what is prompting Yahoo to scrap their groups. (Well, that and being Philistines). This is a sad day for the internet, especially for researchers and historians, but also for more casual users.

[mugginns]

The Yahoo Group has been slowly dying for a while. My recommendation is to take all the files and host them wherever, then link up top of this forum. The best solution would be either a forum addon or a toofatlardies.co.uk area where files are hosted, as trying to go to Google Drive or Dropbox or whatever is dependent on that user to keep it updated etc.

[Emilio]

Many groups are migrating to:

https://groups.io/

I am a member of several groups, and groups.io works well, better than Yahoo.

Milo.

[DougM]

I agree with Steve. When you are a member of many groups, it's a lot easier to get the messages and new content delivered to your mail box (att. Muggins, in the new digital age.. you could describe email as a 'content aggregator').