Yahoo is shutting down their Groups site. New uploads and content will be locked starting on the 28th of this month, and all data will be erased on December 14th. The email system will remain functional for an unspecified amount of time, but knowing Yahoo (i.e. GeoCities), I wouldn’t count on much.

The Yahoo Groups platform has a TON of synth and music stuff, some dating back to the mid 1990s. All of this will be lost when the platform is erased. Some moderators are migrating to groups-dot-io but that company now raised the fee for transferring groups to $220 (USD). Many groups have been dead for years, but still have patches, tech and repair info, and a lot more; sadly there is no one to migrate them as the admins are gone.

I am working on archiving as many groups as I can (also have some “life events” this weekend and the next so I’m not able to do as much as I’d like to). I’m using PG Offline, which seems to work. You can download an entire group’s messages, or just the files, photos, or links too (to folders on your PC). Messages are stored in SQLite but can be exported to HTML and more, meaning it can be added to a new forum or an existing one. Free 30-day trial or about $25 for it; Windows only. The developer is actively working on adding groups.io export too. I can’t do all of the thousands of music groups, not by a long shot. I would encourage anyone here who wants a certain group’s information to use that program and quickly before the lockdown on the 28th - I don’t know how that is going to affect the system. The only wrinkle is that you must be a member of any group you want to save. Sadly with some of the dead “restricted"/closed groups that means you would have had to have been a member prior to it fading out; there’s no one to approve you now.

Hope this can be of use. If anyone archives a group, please comment with which one(s) you’ve done below. Thanks.

-Max

Realized I haven’t updated this thread. Below are the groups I’ve archived so far.

dp4 (Ensoniq DP4)
Roland_D-70
Roland_Equipment
asrx
emu_command
ROLAND_D70
DTXpress
yamahaex5ownersclub
FIZMO - messages only
jv80
Roland_JD-990
jv1080
rolandd50synthusers
v-synth
xp-30
Roland_Jupiters
KurzSounds
alphajuno-mks50
sq80
Ensoniqsampler
KurzList
AN1x-list
MPC60
EVERYTHING_CONN
MIDI_SYNTHS_SYSEX_PATCH_EXCHANGE
rolandjunod
Kurzweil250
Roland-Controllers
JD-800_Tech
kiwitechnics
DSS-1

Mighty Motif Max - 30 October 2019 03:20 AM

Realized I haven’t updated this thread. Below are the groups I’ve archived so far.

Thanks for your valiant efforts. I’d help, but I don’t have good enough internet access to do so. Could you add another to your archive?

groups.yahoo.com/group/YamahaA5000

its not i think

5pinDIN - 30 October 2019 06:05 AM

Mighty Motif Max - 30 October 2019 03:20 AM

Realized I haven’t updated this thread. Below are the groups I’ve archived so far.

Thanks for your valiant efforts. I’d help, but I don’t have good enough internet access to do so. Could you add another to your archive?

groups.yahoo.com/group/YamahaA5000

Was wondering if you would want that one when I was looking through all the Groups to join them. I just finished archiving it in the latest batch actually!

Next day’s worth is done:

rhodes
Roland_FR18_Diatonic
RolandSamplers
K1000-K1200
MidiSPD
YamahaA5000
KORGM50USERSGROUP
SonicCell
nordstage
KnobTweak
Allen-Organ-Owners

Twenty-three more are done:

DR-5
RolandVSDocsII
TRITON_EXTREME
MojoMusicians
korg-wavestation
KorgM1M1Rex
korgms2000
vk_corral
roland_fp
oasys-pci
Korg_Wavestation_moderated
RolandVSDocs
K3Resurrection
yamaha-psr-styles
PODxtLivePODxt
finale
JohannusOrgansSchool
connartistes
KorgProphecy
prophet_vs
macbethsynths
Midi-Reedless-Accordion
k5synth