This article is written from a personal viewpoint and all statements made are either correct at the time of publication or an expression of opinion.

I was a big fan of Yahoo when I first started on the Internet. I liked everything it offered, like Yahoo Clubs/Groups and the games. The search engine at the time was the best in my book.

But as time went on I began to work out that they were not upholders of their Terms of Service – at least not consistently.

I made a number of reports against a few Yahoo Clubs and later Groups that had formed to promote the Autistic Spectrum as terrible and giving poor medical advice. Nothing happened. Dead Groups that were being infested by pornographic spam were also being allowed to remain. This made Yahoo a dangerous place to be. It contributed to my departure from Yahoo at the end of 2003 and moved to forums for my interests.

The consistency issue came up when there was one club that did get deleted. That was Asperger’s World 2, which had been created simply to attack the original Asperger’s World Club – which was of course my first “forum” for those on the Spectrum.

Yahoo Messenger was also an issue, where there were clear security issues that allowed people to decipher what your IP was, and use it to shut down your Messenger screen. I’m not sure if that was possible later, but it was something else that disturbs an Autistic’s routine in a very important social area. Something that I saw no evidence of Yahoo doing anything about.

As a result, I don’t have anything to do with Yahoo anymore. They do not provide a safe environment for us, and are therefore enemies of Autistics. Yahoo Messenger closed for good in 2019 and Yahoo Groups disappeared in 2020. It is now just a news site with it’s email and search engine still available.

PHIL GLUYAS