I’ve read messages on here that are 2, 3 and more years old saying that Yahoo is working on a way for members to take over Yahoo email groups that are abandoned by their owners. It seems like it would be simple to do with these steps created by Yahoo:
1. Create a button for members to click to tell Yahoo’s computer system that the members think the owner has abandoned them.
2. When 2 group members have clicked on that “I’m abandoned” button, Yahoo would automatically send an email message to the owner asking them to reply to Yahoo with a special code or to a special website
3. If no reply is received from the owner, repeated email attempts to contact the owner would occur once per week for 2 months (in case they are on a long vacation with no email access).
4. If no reply is received from the owner during that 2 months time, the people who told Yahoo about the abandoned group would be made owners of the group.
A good option would be for the members to be able to vote for one of their own to take over the list of an abandoned group. This could be done by adding a “I vote for the following people to be in charge of this group” box, next to the button for members to click to tell Yahoo’s computer that the members think the owner has abandoned them.
1. Yahoo could have a pull-down menu of all members in that group, to be selected by the members reporting the abandoned group.
2. Yahoo should send an email (with a reminder a week or two later) to everyone in that group, telling them that 2 members reported that the group had been abandoned. These messages could give the name, ID and/or email address of the owners, asking all members to contact them, if they know them, urging them to assign someone else to be the owner, or become an active owner again.
3. The people with the three top number of votes from the group members would all become owners of the group. Hopefully with three owners, there would be very few abandoned groups in the future.
I ask again, is Yahoo really working on a way for members to take over an abandoned group?
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
Is Yahoo Really Working On A Way For Members To Take Over An Abandoned Group?
Posted on August 26, 2011.
I doubt it, but there is a way. If you are a longtime member of the list and if it allows you to create polls.
You need to contact customer care first, and they will tell you what to do.Th link is hidden on the help-pages, hidden under “more help links”.
You can visit the “yahoogroups suggestion board,and “rate” the proposals about “yahoo should find a way for abandoned/orphaned groups”.
Yahoo doesn’t seem to care. We had a situation where the sole owner died. Yahoo Support refused to transfer ownership to the original founder who had been an owner in the past and was still an active moderator throughout 10 years.
Instead they gave a weeks notice that they would close the large and very successful group down! No amount of argument would shift their position which they said was due to Yahoo policy!!!!
Eventually at the 11th hour literally, and after a mass lobbying direct to Yahoo Support by the membership, a Yahoo manager conceded that we would exceptionally be allowed to continue with the two moderators in control but no ownership transfer.
A few days later I was able to get the deceased owner’s son to log into Yahoo and give me ownership rights.
It was a dreadful experience, a massive waste of a weeks time and energy, and a total discredit to Yahoo Support, who were in fact exactly the opposite of support. The phrase “wanton vandalism” comes to mind to describe their proposed actions which were very nearly carried out against all the members’ expressed wishes.