Changes to Yahoo Groups coming, ie They're killing groups

[Dan C 2624R]

Saw this tonight when I went to Europa Groups on Lotus.  I am am a member there along with a few others here.  I started there but migrated easily to this forum.

Here's what Yahoo says:

Understand what's changing in Yahoo Groups
Yahoo has made the decision to no longer allow users to upload content to the Yahoo Groups site. Beginning October 21, you won't be able to upload any more content to the site, and as of December 14 all previously posted content on the site will be permanently removed. You'll have until that date to save anything you've uploaded.

What features will go away?
Files
Polls
Links
Photos
Folders
Calendar
Database
Attachments
Conversations
Email Updates
Message Digest
Message History

What will happen to the site?
The Yahoo Groups site will continue to exist, however, all public groups will be made private or restricted. Any new group members will need to request an invite or be invited by an admin. Admins will still be able to manage various group settings, though some functionality will be limited.

What will happen on October 21st?
On October 21st, you will no longer be able to upload any content to the site. To share info with members of your groups, you'll continue to be able to do so via email.

How can I keep my Yahoo Groups content?
Photos and files can be saved right from the Yahoo Groups site, or you can download your data from the Privacy Dashboard.

Will I be able to use Yahoo Groups going forward?
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.

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Personally, I am glad I found this forum and all the folks here.

Dan
73 TC  2624R

[BDA]

I much prefer the format of a forum to yahoo's email list. You can keep threads separate, inbed pictures and links, and you don't get a bunch of junk in the posts.

I suppose yahoo will get out of the email list business and that will be sad because there is a lot of information in old yahoo group posts.

[EuropaTC]

I think that action pretty much kills off the Yahoo Groups and personally I'm surprised it's not happened before now. I'm on the daily digest feed so I don't know how it works on single email feeds but there's no advertising that I can see, so unless they are scanning emails and using directed marketing then I don't see what they get out of it.  The other aspect is that I think it appeals more to older users and that's an ever-shrinking market; I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the overall Groups membership is dropping and it's sustained by a relatively few core members.

I realise that not everyone prefers a forum like this one but I reckon the change, either to this format or a facebook style alternative is the way the world is going.   But as we know, forums have changed a lot from the early BBS things. I've just read a post in the digest concerning the "it comes in my mailbox but I have to log into a forum to find things out". I think that's a misconception or at least not wholly accurate.   I get emails from this forum, in fact I had one saying "new topic" which is why I came here !

For me the big loss will be the files section so I'd hope that it can be incorporated into the knowledgebase and held on the same server.    Perhaps I shouldn't but I'll single out Tim Engel and say I'll really miss his technical posts.  Even before this announcement I'll admit to copying his latest ones on the transaxle topic and storing them in my "Europa Notes" folder just in case I don't find them through the knowledgebase when I need to !

On the positive side, if everyone did migrate to this forum just think how good the collective knowledge would be.....

Brian

[Rosco5000]

I agree with BDA that the forum format has so much more potential for proper organization and providing posterity for our beloved cars.  The Yahoo information is buried deep for me and I often get frustrated and stop looking there as it is either not intuitive or too wordy.  The forum format with pictures and descriptions provide a powerful how-to information center for us all.
I think a big shout out for Joe and all his work administrating this forum is due, I really love coming here daily to see what is happening in the group.
Cheers,
Ross

[dakazman]

I agree with BDA that the forum format has so much more...
I think a big shout out for Joe and all his work administrating this forum is due, I really love coming here daily to see what is happening in the group.
Cheers,
Ross

  I’ll Second that.    JOE!

[Dan C 2624R]

I agree.  Thank you Joe.

Dan

[surfguitar58]

[/quote]

  I’ll Second that. 
[/quote]

So moved! Thanks Joe!

[BDA]

Since we all seem to agree that the files would be worth saving, I see two options. We could download all the files and put them in a new forum (i.e. Yahoo files). Or we could post them in the Technical Articles forum.

[BDA]

On the positive side, if everyone did migrate to this forum just think how good the collective knowledge would be.....

I've been watching the membership number (kind of a hobby!  ) and so far we've been stuck at 971 for a little while so there's no evidence of a migration yet but I'm with you, Brian. I hope it happens. In fact, I think there has been a slow migration over the last couple of years but I'm waiting for the final wave.

[EuropaTC]

I suspect most of the Yahoo group are already registered here but probably don't post so often because they prefer the email format of Yahoo where it's easier to respond directly to an email that lands in your inbox. Whether that will change or not I don't know, maybe Facebook will take over the role for "instant messages" if that's what's wanted.  What is clear is that if there's a need for a repository of practical knowledge about running these 50yr old cars in the modern world, then Joe's forum is now the biggest game in town.

Personally I would like to see the Yahoo files going over to Lotus Europa Central because I think that's a more logical place for that sort of data and given they would be alongside the knowledgebase then perhaps they could be incorporated into the search engine, if only on main titles. 

I've just re-read the list of what's going and see my subscription format, the message digest, is one of the casualties. That's a bit of a downer and probably signals the end of my membership there because I never liked the individual emails format.

Brian

[BDA]

You may be right about any migration, Brian. As for the files, I suppose the context of the Documentation page could be expanded but Dan, who deserves our appreciation for taking over the site, hasn't been very active with it. I sent him a plan I found for gas struts for the boot. He said he would post it and when he didn't I reminded him. He said he'd get it soon but soon never came. I also get the feeling that with the lack of updates, that site has gotten quite stagnant. Obviously, it is still a good reference, and I use it frequently, but I wish our Lotus Joe had taken over. It's a bit sad because there are a lot of great features that if kept up to date would be very interesting and valuable. I'm a member of the Lotus Europa page on Facebook but I don't like Facebook and from what I can tell, they don't keep a very long history of posts (since I don't like it, I don't spend a lot of time on it so I could be wrong here). It also doesn't seem to lend itself to long detailed posts.

I think you're right that this forum, Joe's brainchild, is the biggest game in town. For that reason, I think the Yahoo files would make a nice addition here. I looked at a couple dozen files and many have no description other than the filename and some are just pictures. It was my thought that if we do store them here, we might store pretty much all of them because even a picture of somebody's car that was being sold in 2006 might give someone an idea for their car. But that's just a thought.

[EuropaTC]

   we have similar thoughts on Facebook....   

Despite lots of our friends being on there and constantly going on about it, it's a method that I struggle with. For instant communication it's great but like you I don't see it as a long term storage for detailed info, either a forum, dedicated website or wiki is the logical place for me. I also don't like typing stuff on a phone or tablet when I have a proper keyboard on a desk !

Having said that, I just logged into the Yahoo site to see what I might be able to contribute to the pot.

Looking at the photograph section, I think that's toast should Yahoo ever decide to delete the data. Too many photos to categorise or download unless there's an option to download a complete album at one click. (haven't seen it, need to look deeper).

The Files section I reckon is saveable.  158mb scattered over 2 or 3 pages of files and as they're in folders it would be easy to replicate that structure on a hard disk if only as a temporary store. I'll make a start on that and see how it goes.  I'm not sure how it would translate to a forum format but if we have the data to hand then at least there's options to discuss.

watch this space....

Brian

Update. I've just timed and downloaded the first 10 folders and it's taken under 5 minutes so it's do-able.

Looking through other folders, one thing that does come across is the variety of formats with lots of images just "thrown in a bin" without labelling - ie "IMGxxxx.jpg".  It strikes me that if we are to retain the value and be able to find them in future it might be easier to transfer them, along with any accompanying text, into a single PDF file representing that folder.

Anyway I'll download the raw data later today and then we'll have options to discuss.

[BDA]

I think you're right that the pictures are lost (not only because of  the number but also the lack of context) but the files and the pictures in the fils section are salvageable. Usually, the filename gives enough information for you to know what the idea is and we can provide some text in the subject and maybe the post to explain it. Discussions could follow of course.

[Rosco5000]

There were lots of word documents and PDFs even if Joe thought we could start a new section for old Yahoo documents and get the more formally written documents hosted here it would be great.  Each document could be a new thread and any updates on the how-to information could be added afterwards easily.  It is just a though and don't know if that will come with a big bill for bandwidth and storage or if this is all running for free right now with Joe managing it.  Maybe Joe could help us understand if that would work and not put extra cost on things or if we need to open up to donations or advertising to pay for the bandwidth to keep this information accessible and current.
R

[EuropaTC]

Update folks.....

I've gone through the files section and downloaded probably 90-95% of them, there isn't as much as you might think but if the plug gets pulled early, the data is secure. The folders missed out are when someone has been selling parts or cars and it's basically an advert.

There's what I'd call a "bin full" of data in various formats dating back to 1999 and some of it (eg UK tyre data) is time limited and probably doesn't apply because if you wanted tyres you'd scan for what's available rather than looking at old data.

On the plus side there's some good stuff and some things would go right into a technical article thread because it's presented as such.   Over the next few days I'll look at what's there and try to get it into categories based on the workshop manual sections, then sub-divide it into S2/TC variants. (not much S1 stuff there guys). For example, there's a few gearshift mods, NG3 conversions & data, cable shifts, etc. which would fall into "F-Transmission" and easy to find.   

If I can get it into that format it should be usable and if anyone wants a .zip file it wouldn't be a massive download. 150mb or thereabouts un-compressed so we're not talking about massive downloads or storage.

Brian