--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "daniel_dragnea
<daniel_dragnea@...>" <daniel_dragnea@...> wrote:
> Richard, if you think it would be helpful, I can write a tool to
> extract the messages by their index range and dump them to a file.
1. Dangers of Emigration from Cybalist:
Yahoo's terms and condition (
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ )
contain the following clause (my emphasis) under 'Termination':
You agree that Yahoo, in its sole discretion, may terminate your
password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the Service, and
remove and discard any Content within the Service, for any reason,
including, without limitation, for *lack of use* or if Yahoo believes
that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or
spirit of the TOS.
2. Principle of Independent Archival:
There is a possible issue with the maintenance of an independent
archive - advertising. Yahoo has provided storage space in return
for our tolerating advertisements. The adverts run for a time and
our then replaced by new adverts. An archive would defeat this
principle. However, it may be OK if the thread structure is
preserved, for then following it would take us back to the versions
with the latest Yahoo adverts.
On the other hand, Yahoo wouldn't be losing anything it wouldn't lose
if someone had simple kept all the e-mails from the beginning.
3. Practicalities of Downloading the Archive:
I can see two immediate technical problems:
a. Capturing attachments. Fortunately, we don't have many, so a
manual fallback would work.
b. Instead of a message, we sometimes get an advertisement plus a
link to the message itself.
Having said that, a capture tool would be useful. It would also be
very useful for backing up the defunct Nostratic group (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nostratic/ ). I fear for the
preservation of its content.
Richard.