How to escape a Yahoo group

September 25, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Q. Several months ago I joined a specific Yahoo group. At first the information I obtained was useful but now I want to unsubscribe from the group and no longer receive the dozens of emails I get each day from it. I have tried every “unsubscribe” link at the site as well as every other link I can find when that didn’t work. I have had no success in “unjoining” the group. Any advice as to how I can get the email to stop and leave this group would be greatly appreciated.

K.B., Holly Springs, N.C.

A. Yahoo groups are handy resources for information sharing (kind of a pre-Facebook Facebook group), but depending on how active they are, they certainly can be more hindrance than help.

First, you have options if you still like the information put out by the group, but just don’t want to receive dozens of email messages per day.

Start by logging into Yahoo and going to your group. At the top of the page, over the name of the group, should be a link to “Edit Membership.” Click it.

On the next page, scroll down to “Step 2. Message Delivery.” Right now, you must have the button clicked for “Individual Email.” Instead, pick “Daily Digest.” This will compile up to 25 messages into a single daily email.

However, if you still want to unsubscribe, there are a couple of ways to try, in case you haven’t already. On the same “Edit Membership” screen, at the bottom of the page, is a button to “Leave Group.”

Also on the home page for the group at the bottom should be an email address to unsubscribe.

Finally, if all else fails, click on “Members” on the menu on the left. From there, select the tab for “Moderators.” Try emailing a moderator with your request to be removed from the group.

Q. When I set up my Facebook account, I took advantage of the option to automatically invite all my contacts in my Yahoo account. I now regret accepting that option and can find no way to unlink my Yahoo mail from my Facebook account. Can you help me, please?

S.H., Durham, N.C.

A. Unlink an email address in Facebook by first clicking on “Account” on the top right and then “Account Settings.”

The sixth option is “Linked Accounts.” If you have set up the accounts to be formally linked, click on “Remove” beside Yahoo to unlink them.

If you want to remove your Yahoo email address from Facebook altogether, the third option under “Account Settings” should be “Email.” Click “Edit.” From here, you can add another email address and remove your Yahoo account.

Finally, you also can change when Facebook sends email notifications to your Yahoo account. Still in the account settings, look for “Notifications” in the menu on the left.

Click on the little envelopes to tell Facebook whether you want to receive email notifying you about changes in each of those categories.

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2011 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

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