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Yahoo! Groups! to! shut! down! completely! on! December! 15!... Tens! mourn!

After nearly 20 years, it's time to say goodbye to venerable messageboard

Yahoo! is finally killing off Groups at the end of this year, after having launched it almost two decades ago.

Once a bustling corner of the internet for netizens to advertise items, share information, or socialize with one another, Yahoo! Groups is now a husk of its former self, overtaken by the likes of Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter.

Yahoo!, now owned by Verizon, began winding down Yahoo! Groups this time last year when it stopped users from posting new content on the one-time internet super-forum, and then deleted all of its pages. People were invited to continue following their special interest groups via email. Essentially, Yahoo! Groups became just a glorified mailing-list provider.

As of Monday this week, no new lists, er, groups can be created on the site. The final nail in the coffin will come in mid-December, when the plug is pulled on groups.yahoo.com, and no more mail will be exchanged via the service.

“We’re shutting down the Yahoo! Groups website on December 15, 2020 and members will no longer be able to send or receive emails from Yahoo! Groups,” the site said in a statement.

It recommends groups start afresh on other platforms, such as Facebook Groups, Google Groups, or Groups.io. Admins can fetch a list of their users from the "Management | Manage members" page, opening the "Actions menu," and hitting "Export."

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“Yahoo! Groups has seen a steady decline in usage over the last several years," the biz observed.

"Over that same period, we’ve witnessed unprecedented levels of engagement across our properties as customers seek out premium, trustworthy content. While these decisions are never easy, we must sometimes make difficult decisions regarding products that no longer fit our long-term strategy as we hone our focus on other areas of the business.”

Launched in 2001, Yahoo! Groups was largely unmoderated. Some boards were public, while others were private and could only be accessed by members, who were invited to join. While this led to some ugly online scenes, the system largely worked, and some will miss the passing of such an iconic part of early internet history.

Then again, we're getting on fine without Alta Vista. ®

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