--- title: "Daily Buzz: Peace Out, Yahoo Groups" id: "48358" type: "post" slug: "daily-buzz-peace-out-yahoo-groups" published_at: "2019-10-17T22:11:04+00:00" modified_at: "2026-03-17T02:21:35+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/10/17/daily-buzz-peace-out-yahoo-groups/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2019/10/17/daily-buzz-peace-out-yahoo-groups.md" excerpt: "The legacy community platform, active for nearly two decades and an inspiration to many platforms that came since, is going offline soon. Also: Should you call or text members?" taxonomy_category: - "Membership" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "Membership" - "online communities" - "Social Media" - "Technology" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Association CEO / Executive Director" - "Director" - "Manager" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Daily Buzz: Peace Out, Yahoo Groups Ten to one, if you run a private community, you probably don’t run that community on Yahoo Groups, the old-school internet giant’s early attempt at social media. Like Yahoo itself, the service hasn’t always done a great job of keeping up with the times, but for many people, it was their first experience with a private online community before they became much more commonplace. Now, the company—which has changed hands in recent years and is currently owned by Verizon—is [closing up this early piece of internet culture (opens in a new tab)](https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN31010.html?impressions=true) . The service will shut down for new comments after October 28 and will turn off entirely on December 14. To give you an idea of the scale of the loss, Yahoo reported that more than 115 million people used the service as recently as 2010, [according to eWeek (opens in a new tab)](https://www.eweek.com/news/yahoo-refreshes-upgrades-some-products) . But with a lack of updates and a growing push toward more modern social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, the private community innovator wasn’t long for this world. Have an old group there? Better get to archiving—the service is offering an export functionality, [according to Ars Technica (opens in a new tab)](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/yahoo-is-deleting-all-content-ever-posted-to-yahoo-groups/) , but it’s likely going to take as long as a month to get your data off the service. You may not be using it these days, but it likely inspired the more-modern online community your association uses now. ### Which Members to Call vs. Text > Should you call or text new members? [@ewengel (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/ewengel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > has an answer for you! [https://t.co/drlbM3Ueb1 (opens in a new tab)](https://t.co/drlbM3Ueb1) > [#ASAE (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/ASAE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > > — Amanda Lea Kaiser (@AmandaLeaKaiser) [October 17, 2019 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/AmandaLeaKaiser/status/1184839127440732166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) **Who you gonna call**—baby boomers or millennials? “Millennials and GenZ genuinely do prefer text to voice calls, by pretty significant majorities (in the US, nearly 3 out of 4 prefer text),” [explains Elizabeth Weaver Engel on the Spark Consulting blog (opens in a new tab)](https://www.getmespark.com/membership-qa-call-or-text/) . “If your members skew younger, texting is going to feel far less intrusive than calling.” For older generations, including baby boomers, the reverse is true. “They are less comfortable in that medium and may find texting from people who aren’t intimates (family and close friends) inappropriate. And if your membership base includes both? Try segmentation, so that you can reach both audiences in the way that’s easiest for them to connect to your association. ### Other Links of Note **In need of volunteers?** Nonprofit Hub shares [strategies to increase sign-ups (opens in a new tab)](https://nonprofithub.org/featured/4-strategies-to-increase-volunteer-sign-up/) . **LinkedIn is a great way** to boost your professional network—but make [these seven etiquette mistakes (opens in a new tab)](https://blog.hootsuite.com/linkedin-etiquette-fails/) , and you might come off as the opposite, says the Hootsuite blog. **Agile branding means** adopting a member-focused mindset and marketing that messaging on all channels. [Inc. explains how to do it (opens in a new tab)](https://www.inc.com/peter-thomson/the-complete-guide-to-agile-branding.html?cid=landermore) . (franz12/iStock/Getty Images Plus) [Jeff Hsin](https://associationsnow.com/author/jeff-hsin/) [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/jeff-hsin/) Tags: [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/) [#online communities](https://associationsnow.com/tag/online-communities/) [#Social Media](https://associationsnow.com/tag/social-media/) [#Technology](https://associationsnow.com/tag/technology/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Tech Stack: How AI Is Changing the Association PlaybookOctober 29, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/10/29/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-tech-stack-how-ai-is-changing-the-association-playbook/) - [TemplateMembers onlyMember Onboarding ToolkitNovember 5, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/11/05/member-onboarding-toolkit/) - [VideoThe Career Moves Every Association Leader Needs Right NowSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/the-career-moves-every-association-leader-needs-right-now/) - [VideoNCRA: Safeguarding Cancer Surveillance: An Advocacy Response to FY26 Budget ThreatsSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/ncra-safeguarding-cancer-surveillance-an-advocacy-response-to-fy26-budget-threats/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2019%2F10%2F17%2Fdaily-buzz-peace-out-yahoo-groups%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !