What happens to ownerless groups?

Question

Hi,

What happens to groups that does not have a owner/moderator/coowner etc.,

For example if an email id of a group gets deactivated and deleted, what would happen to those groups?

Does not yahoo have a policy that every group needs to have a owner?

Answer 1

[Edit]  Am adding the following to my original answer to reference the added Details of original question:  In this case, you can use the Yahoo Groups Help Form to get assistance from Yahoo Staff. Here's the link:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/...

___________

The group would remain as is if the owner's email address is not valid.  The group would be deleted if the owner's Yahoo account is deleted.  Yes, Yahoo requires that groups have owners.  If an owner abandons the group, the owner is still the owner regardless.  Only the owner can assign another owner or a moderator with full privileges to take over the group.  Then the original owner can make him/herself to member and then leave the group.  One owner cannot remove another owner.

Answer 2

there are many groups out there where the owners forgot their passwords and their accounts were deleted due to inactivity, they still appear to be a member of that group and the owner. many owners out there are trying to regain access but cant remember their acount info and Yahoo cant help without it- many groups have owners bouncing for over 5 years- those groups are not deleted. there are thousands of groups experiencing this.

Team Blog has talked about this issue as well

*if the owner themselves deleted their own account, it would then also delete their group.

there was an asker recently who was the owner of a group- account was deactivated and some years later they were able to re-use the same ID and create an account- one problem, their owner ID is still in the group and they're not recognized as owner even though the two ID's are exactly the same.

Yahoo! Groups Suggestion Board

Adopt a group

http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?pro...

go add a vote to help solve this issue

*it is not accurate yahoo deletes groups for inactivity after 90 days or so. I belong to quite a few that have this status for much longer than that and the groups are still there. Yahoo deletes groups for TOS violations.

Answer 3

Yes, every group on Yahoo Groups must have an owner but for different reasons sometimes they abandon the group or as one of the other posters said they may have forgotten how to get back in.  In some cases the owners have died.

When there is no kind of activity at all the group gets deleted after about 90 days and if the owner comes back to run the group they have to start all over again.

Answer 4

I put the suggestion of adopting a group on the suggestion board 7 months ago, it is  the most commented suggestion on it and has the most votes, but still yahoo does nothing.

  You can try to get your groups back by using this form, just send them a copy of your letter.

  I got my email account back and all my groups  after they  were deleted by yahoo answers team. So there is hope.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/...

Answer 5

If a group gets deleted it and everything in it vanishes forever into the outermost reaches of deep cyberspace.  Yes, every group should have an owner, but that doesn't always happen.  I don't know what Yahoo! does in that case.