fandomhistoryproject

Weekly Summary 02/03/2020, by The Mad Programer at Data Horde. "The 'Save Yahoo Groups' team (aka Yahoo Groups Fandom Rescue Project, aka Yahoo Gedden) hasn't fully tallied up their data yet, but have counted the number of groups they've downloaded so far to be about 84,655 and the number of groups they are still retrieving from to be about 38,000 for a total of 123K groups!" [Dusk's note: We still don't have final figures, but the total estimate has gone up since then.]

Saving Private Groups: This Time the Mission is the Fan, by The Mad Programer at Data Horde. "On October 22nd 2019 Tumblr user zhie started a Discord Server 'Save Yahoo Groups' (link above), the same day Morgandawn started a Tumblr blog: https://yahoo-geddon.tumblr.com/. These two outlets combined together to form Fandom's Sortie against Verizon's Yahoo Groups Siege." (Commentary on the above article at Hacker News.)

The Early Internet, Explained by One Weird Celine Dion Fan Site, by Kaitlyn Tiffany at The Atlantic. "Preservationists at the Internet Archive and the Organization for Transformative Works, which runs the fan-owned fan-fiction platform Archive of Our Own, have been coordinating to save what they can. They're aided by a Tumblr-based group called the Yahoo Groups Fandom Rescue Project, which has been sharing tips on how to use Verizon’s buggy download tools and coordinating in a 200-person Discord channel. Despite these preservation efforts, things will be lost."

Verizon blocks archivers from Yahoo Groups, almost two decades of history at risk of being lost forever, by Government Slaves, quoting our moderator morgandawn. "A blog that is monitoring the [Yahoo Groups] archival efforts, and their subsequent blocking, has said that the attempts to block archiving now mean that, 'Verizon has lost all benefit of the doubt, and is likely at least aware of what Yahoo is doing to groups, or is at worst, complicit.'"

Yahoo Groups Archives, Including Many SF/F Fanzines, To Be Deleted, by Locus Magazine. "Writer Dusk Peterson is part of the Yahoo Groups Fandom Rescue Project, 'an informal group of fans who are working to preserve the archives of fandom mailing lists.' The project has identified almost 30,000 lists at risk of deletion — 'comparable to 30,000 multi-issue fanzines being burned' — and need more volunteers to archive material. They're also urging Yahoo to delay the deletion."

These crusaders want to preserve ‘human culture’ online. Their latest target: Yahoo Groups, by The Washington Post. Excerpt:

Margaret Farrelly is part of the majority that uses Yahoo Groups through email these days. She says she has scaled down from hundreds of group memberships to just a few.

But she was still alarmed when Scott's tweet about Yahoo Groups made it into her feed. The Wisconsin resident knows the site was an early home for something she loves: fan fiction. She belongs to a collective that has identified about 35,000 fandom-related Yahoo groups to save.

Farrelly also knows someone trying to capture more than 100 beekeeping groups, and someone passionate about genealogy and adoption support circles. Another person is focusing on astronomy groups filled with photos they say may not exist anywhere else.

"It's just depressing to think how much is going to be lost," Farrelly said.

Her fandom group turned to the Archive Team for help.