ModTools History

History

In mid-2013, Yahoo changed the way Groups worked (Neo), which broke Edward's Mod Plug-in, the tool volunteers had used until then to moderate Yahoo Groups.

Edward suggested on Central that he could write a new tool offering the same range of facilities. This was unanimously welcomed, with confidence that Edward would do it, and do it well.

The new ModTools was funded by a crowdfunding appeal: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/yahoo-groups-moderation-tools?

Edward's message on the Indiegogo site:

In the early hours of this morning we reached the $10K target which will allow me to develop and support the replacement for the modplugin, to work with the Neo interface changes.

This is excellent news and I am very grateful to all of you who have supported this, financially and otherwise. I will try to build something that reflects the trust and generosity you've shown.

Edward

A new version was released in February 2016. Freegle now provides a free licence to all Freegle communities.

In December 2016, the ability for Freegle Direct to host communities on the national website, without needing Yahoo as background infrastructure, made ModTools a completely standalone moderation tool for communities that chose to leave Yahoo altogether.

Over the following years, as Yahoo became less viable as a platform for Freegle communities, Edward refined and expanded ModTools. In early 2020, a revised version was released, removing references and connections to Yahoo and making the code easier to maintain going forward.

Link: ModTools