Replacement for Yahoo Groups?

December 3, 2017 10:56 AM

I help manage a group of about 500 people on Yahoo Groups. We want off and are looking for an alternative. I tried Mailman (which is available through Dreamhost) but my beta group said the interface was too ugly and I need to find something less clunky. Google Groups may not be an option because I believe it requires a Google account. Any other ideas?
posted by rednikki to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

Does it have to be via email? What about Slack?
posted by bleep at 11:00 AM on December 3, 2017

I’m not sure from your question exactly what you need. My family had a forum on yahoo groups, which we moved to proboards, but I don’t know if you want a forum.
posted by FencingGal at 11:10 AM on December 3, 2017

Googlegroups requires an account in exactly the same way that Yahoogroups requires an account- it's just for login to the web interface if you want to manage your preferences and settings. This is definitely something you want your users to do, but I'm almost 100% sure that they can sign up with a non-gmail account to actually receive email.
posted by twoplussix at 11:14 AM on December 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Or, if a Gmail account is required, you could have the members make up new, throwaway gmail accounts just for logging in.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:19 AM on December 3, 2017

I can confirm 100% that twoplussix says. You can create a Google Account with any e-mail address, it doesn't need to be a gmail address.
posted by borsboom at 12:18 PM on December 3, 2017

Also, have you looked at Facebook groups? I'm no fan of Facebook but you can make a private group that works like a forum. It's less e-mail oriented than Yahoo Groups or Google Groups though.
posted by borsboom at 12:21 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: My astronomy club and an amateur radio forum I'm a member of migrated their Yahoo groups to groups.io. Even for a bunch of grumpy old men, the changeover was relatively painless.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 12:23 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: Seconding groups.io. The guy who runs it, Mark Fletcher, is an excellent person and perfect for running a service like this.
posted by Nelson at 12:44 PM on December 3, 2017

Also, have you looked at Facebook groups? I'm no fan of Facebook but you can make a private group that works like a forum. It's less e-mail oriented than Yahoo Groups or Google Groups though.

The problem with Facebook groups is that, although you can now attach files, they no longer support threaded discussions, which are much easier for finding specific topics. Groups would be much more useful if they had left that, because questions and topics are brought up randomly over and over again.
posted by jgirl at 1:14 PM on December 3, 2017

No answer (sorry), but piggybacking because I am in several Yahoo groups and some of them also want out, but also want to preserve their archives. If any of the above services allow that, I'd be all ears - groups.io looks particularly interesting.
posted by altolinguistic at 2:38 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: altolinguistic: "No answer (sorry), but piggybacking because I am in several Yahoo groups and some of them also want out, but also want to preserve their archives. If any of the above services allow that, I'd be all ears - groups.io looks particularly interesting."

Here's the docs for the groups.io Yahoo Groups transfer process. Seeing as they seem comfortable with the idea, I would be surprised if it didn't transfer the whole group.
posted by Samizdata at 2:42 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: In fact, those docs say, and I quote...

In addition to your member list, we will download your existing group messages and add them to your Groups.io grouprocessp. Unfortunately, we are not able to include any attachments from the messages.
posted by Samizdata at 2:44 PM on December 3, 2017

Samizdata: "In fact, those docs say, and I quote...

In addition to your member list, we will download your existing group messages and add them to your Groups.io group. Unfortunately, we are not able to include any attachments from the messages."
posted by Samizdata at 2:44 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: Discourse? Costs money, but you can also install it on your own server for free.
posted by slater at 2:55 PM on December 3, 2017

slater: "Discourse? Costs money, but you can also install it on your own server for free."

I have used Discourse from the user perspective in some FOSS communities and it does seem pretty easy to learn.
posted by Samizdata at 4:10 PM on December 3, 2017

Everything is going to require an account of some sort, right? It's unclear what features you want, but Facebook groups, Yammer is a non-Facebook that works just like Facebook, a private Reddit "subreddit" (group) would serve your needs as a message board, for more of a chatroom style you could use Slack or HipChat.
posted by AppleTurnover at 4:40 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: If I were looking to host my own forum, I'd choose Simple Machines Forum over Discourse in a heartbeat.
posted by flabdablet at 4:53 PM on December 3, 2017

Best answer: You could ask Dreamhost whether you could get on Mailman 3, rather than Mailman 2 -- Mailman 3 has a UI refresh (example list, example discussion). Mailman 3 basically acts like a mailing list for people who want to use it like that, but is like a group web forum for people who want to use it like that.

Zulip is like a cross between a mailing list and a chatroom and has a free tier for hobby groups, noncommercial groups, etc. -- with unlimited message history.
posted by brainwane at 9:27 AM on December 4, 2017