Yahoo Instant Messenger ID Lists

Your Yahoo ID lists must follow the format specified in this document. Usually, deviations from the specified format will result in some or all of your IDs being skipped by the file importer. Caution! Although the importer does screen for improperly formatted IDs, you are ultimately responsible for making sure that the lists you submit are correct. If you submit incorrectly formatted lists in such a way as to bypass the importer, they will not be scrubbed correctly and such numbers may remain on your list.

Text Files

Each list must be saved as a Microsoft Windows Text File (extension ".txt"), in ASCII format (not Unicode). The application will only allow you to open files with extension ".txt". Most list-generation programs provide a way to export data in this format. Do not use other text formats such as Comma-Spaced Format (CSV), ASCII Format (ASC) or Tab-Delimeted Format (TAB). These files include extra characters that may cause the importer to be unable to read the file properly. There is no hard limit on the size of the file, but the application is limited by the number of IDs contained therein. The application cannot scrub more IDs than authorized for your account, usually 125 million IDs per scrub. If you need to scrub more IDs, it is permissible to split your list into two or more text files and scrub each separately.

Formatting Rules

The following formatting rules must be followed to ensure that your file will be read properly:

• Each line should contain only one ID.
• The file should not contain any blank lines.
• Lines should be separated by a carriage-return and line-feed pair ("\r\n" in developer jargon). Most programs will do this by default.
• The file should not contain any tabs, extra spaces or any other "whitespace" before or after each ID
• IDs must conform to the Yahoo registration format. Specifically:
  • IDs may only contain alphanumeric characters, underscores and a single dot.
  • IDs must begin with a letter.
  • For more information about Yahoo registration format, please visit the Yahoo registration site

Example File

The following text shows a properly formatted Yahoo ID list that adheres to the formatting rules:

example1
e1xample
ex_ample
ExAMple
Exa
ExampleLongOne11