Updates and Yahoo! Groups
Since the launch of profiles in October 2008, we’ve been gradually introducing new properties to the world of Updates. Last night, this feature was introduced into the Yahoo! Groups family, enabling you to share Photo updates into your Updates feed on http://profiles.yahoo.com. (In the future, Groups Updates will also include Group Messages, but this feature is not available at this time).
Just like other Yahoo! properties, you’re able to manage your settings right from your profile by visiting the http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/updates/ page. Here, you’ll be able to select whether or not you want to share your updates with “Anyone” “My Connections” or “No One”.
(It is important to note that the first time you try to adjust your “Share Settings” for Yahoo! Groups, you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the “Manage My Updates” page, and then select “Show All Yahoo! Sources” to expand a larger list of Yahoo! properties, including several Yahoo! Groups properties).
Once you’ve configured your settings, you can adjust your opt-in and opt-out preferences. These can be managed on a group-by-group basis, and are done from Yahoo! Groups, not your profile on Yahoo!.
Here’s how:
To get started, first visit your My Groups page (http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups ). Then, click on the “Edit My Groups” tab where you’ll see a column titled “Yahoo! Updates.” From here, you’ll be able to adjust your updates settings for each group you’re a member of.
You can opt to “Share my Updates” and “Prompt me before sending updates” or, “Never prompt me before sending updates.”
Once you’ve configured your privacy settings accordingly, return to your favorite group and test it out by uploading a photo. When you’re through uploading a photo, we’ll prompt you with a pop-up window, asking you whether or not you want to share this update with your connections.
You can opt to keep this pop-up on (so that it appears each time you upload a photo), or, you can switch it off, by checking the box that reads “Don’t ask me for this group again.” Please note that by checking this box you’re granting Yahoo! permission to share all of your photo updates for THIS GROUP ONLY with your connections. You may change this setting at any time by visiting the My Groups page.
After you click “Yes” your new photo will appear on your profile page on Yahoo!, under the “Updates” section.
Please note, the update does take some time before it shows up on your profile. We have designed to system to send data to your profile in series of buckets rather than every single request.
It’s important to note that what YOU see on your Updates page is a bit different than what your connections will see.
Here’s an example of what you’ll see (if you were to upload 5 LOL cat images to your group):
As the “updater” (or “uploader”) you’ll see each image broken down into individual updates, giving you the option of deleting updates, one-by-one, should you change your mind. (To delete an update, just click on the grey “x” next to the update).
However, your connections would see a more condensed view (like what you see below):
And that’s it! If you want to completely opt out of Yahoo! Groups Updates, be sure that all of your Group settings are set to “Never” share my updates (this setting is found on the “My Groups” page) and, that on your profiles page, you have set your Yahoo! Groups settings to be viewable by “No One.”
For more details on privacy, profiles, and more, please check out this particular post that was initially written for Answers users, but covers major questions and concerns regarding profiles and privacy.
Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager
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- 78 Comments
May 20th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
First post
Nice work Melissa…if only you reply to everyone’s questions in here.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Hi Mike,
)– unfortunately, I’m not able to reply to every single post/comment, but do get to a good portion of them. If there’s an issue you need addressed/problem you’re having please be sure to report the issue to Customer Care (http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/profiles/general.html) otherwise I’ll respond as soon as I can, as best as I possibly can, to as many comments as I can.
Not sure what you mean (especially considering your comment didn’t contain a question
-Melissa
August 28th, 2009 at 10:52 am
ok
May 20th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I noticed, alternate user profiles are not supported for sharing updates, and sharing updates is not available for closed groups. Now you did say you are working on getting group messages into updates. But, you must allow aliases to be used for updates. Not necessarily for me, but thinking about some members of groups I am apart of.
as for closed groups, i think you have to have a special integration of groups and profiles. Where people who are part of closed groups get updates. It will require a special stream obviously , but has to be on the table if we are serious about outreach and making yahoo profiles the notary for online social activities
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
Sorry, but they refuse to bring back alias profiles. They would rather have you jump through the hoops of creating separate accounts and having to manage those accounts than handling it programmatically for you. The running theory at the moment is that by forcing users to create separate accounts it artificially inflates the size of their userbase, and they can then use these juked stats when dealing with advertisers.
I mean, come on, there’s no other reason not to re-implement aliases. It’s not like it’s impossible to do.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Well, Bruiser,
the internet is changing. All the firms are making social changes and to be blunt, as the internet gets larger, having aliases will be an extra complication, that very few companies and certainly not yahoo can afford.
I just wish they gave aliases more ability. My profile has aliases, its just that their functions are limited. If yahoo would allow some things, which are technically more dangerous with the guids though, it would help.
maybe for yahoo groups they can allow groups to use internal profiles, which is an application in groups, to access update properties.
but, technically, it is difficult bruiser. The key to the open platform is a layer of security across the internet. Allowing aliases, breaks that layer which can compromise the entire internet
May 25th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Nice try MK, but unless you actually work for Yahoo and work on their code, you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Allowing profile aliases has nothing to do with the security layer of their api.
And no, it is not difficult, it just takes some work to do. It’s this statement which says to me that you’re talking out of your anal orifice. It would not be difficult, it just may take some time to do, based on how they link accounts and profiles.
Anyway, there’s no real reason for them not to bring back profile aliases except to juke their user base stats. They’re already wasting resources on other changes which aren’t needed, or wanted.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Bruiser,
lets backtrack, from name calling and assuming either of us [which both of us do not] know yahoo’s situation explicitly or their concerns for any situation in total enough to conjeture.
My suggestion is for yahoo to allow aliases to have the profile functionality at some point, especially concerning yahoo groups.
As it is, yahoo has chosen to have aliases disallow certain functionality, which is unfortunate, but I can understand they may need to do this for economic and technical reasons.
your problem is aliases in general.
You want aliases back as they were. Whether yahoo is or isn’t planning to give aliases prior powers, aliases don’t have the power now.
The only option you have is to make another profile. And, I don’t see what is so wrong with that.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
First, I wasn’t doing any name calling, so I don’t know where you’re coming from with that, but in your post you tried to imply as if you knew the reasons for Yahoo not re-implementing Alias Profiles. I called you out on it. At least you now admit that you don’t have a clue. In the future, don’t act as if you do.
My problem is with Profiles in general. They have made fundamental changes to something which didn’t need it, or could have been implemented in a way which retained existing functionality while adding new, all the while allowing users to decided between the two. Therein lies my problem with Yahoo as a whole. It’s that lack of understanding their customers which has totally ruined the company in general.
May 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Bruiser,
first, you take this too seriously.
second,you did not name call, your right, you alluded to insult , which is unnecessary here
“It’s this statement which says to me that you’re talking out of your anal orifice”
I do have a clue, i don’t know for certain. but it must be technical. It is not laziness or lack of caring. yahoo is a firm, that makes money by people wanting to use their services, be certain they care who wants to drop by and do care how well you are satisfied.
I agree about profiles having a “classic and new”, but i said that from the beginning. I am surprised yahoo didn’t do that, but once again, it must be technical or costly.
yahoo mail is their biggest service and it has two types. Everyone working for yahoo knows that. so, when they make any service, they must consider having a classic and new for that service when they make changes.
I think you should give yahoo time. Yahoo is not totally ruined. they have top products. maybe you don’t use them but they have well regarded products.
May 25th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Personally, I do not see the need for aliases… unless you are a stalker or a pedophile… Why be 100 other people instead of the one you started out to be? Hiding something?
May 25th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
that is a good point. as we all are individuals, you don’t have to share your name and etc. on your profile so the need for aliases is likee having two masks on so if you get caught with the first you have the second which hides you again.
when all we do online is blog and comment?
if it is that serious i don’t understand why people can’t just many another profile?
June 11th, 2009 at 1:16 am
this is a vary good point. as we all are individuals, you don’t have to share your name and your profile . on your profile so the need for aliases is likely having two makes on so if you get caught with the frist you have the second which hides you again . when all we do online is blog and comment? if it is that serious i don’t understand why people can’t just many another profile
May 29th, 2009 at 8:11 am
The desire and need for Alias Profiles has been explained several times. One for ones’ family. Another for the boss or work/business associates. Another for chatroom buddies. And another for joining Groups. Each can (make that *could*) be tailored for the particular relationship and one need only sign on to Messenger with one ID to potentially be in contact with all of the above simultaneously at any time — instead of having to continually switch accounts, as Yahoo now *forces* us to do.
I resent the insinuation that wanting Alias Profiles suggests some criminality. Furthermore, in the event of any criminality, Yahoo aliases aren’t much obstacle to law enforcement. Haven’t you ever watched CSI or Law and Order?
May 20th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I tested it out, I liked the yahoo groups interface.specific and clean and individual to each group. Good going.Once messages sets in, i think it will be an improvement into the vitality of yahoo groups.
People do check emails but by having group updates on the profile page, group activities get the kind of exposure they have been lacking.
good job,
May 21st, 2009 at 2:02 pm
[...] Updates and Yahoo! Groups, http://www.yprofileblog.com [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
This is all the Profiles team could come up with in a month? More than half the work was done by the Groups team.
Or did both of those teams get merged into one team, and the “Open and Social” experiment allowed to begin withering on the vine?
I’d still love to see the percentage of users who have created a profile out of total users, then the percentage of users with a profile that aren’t set to private. Come on Melissa, I’d like to know how many people really care about these changes…besides, I still need a good laugh too.
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Hi Bruiser,
At Yahoo!, we work together on all projects, processes, and teams– this means that Yahoo! Groups works with profiles, Mail, etc.
As for the numbers you’ve requested, unfortunately, this is not information we reveal externally (we do not ever reveal these numbers publicly– not to advertisers, to bloggers, etc.).
-Melissa
May 25th, 2009 at 7:02 am
Oh, I know you wouldn’t give out the numbers I’ve requested. It would show the real folly of the changes you’re making.
But it certainly isn’t true that you don’t release numbers, you only release them when they are beneficial to a point you’re trying to make.
I was just throwing the request out there to make a point of my own. I think anyone reading this blog realizes how low the percentages are related to profiles and total users, and they can hopefully see how futile all of this work will have been in the long run.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
an addendum to my msg above…
I only ask these questions because I see this entire effort as a total waste of resources which could be better focused on bug fixes, and shoring up the most widely used features, mail and search.
I also see this as a symptom of why Yahoo as a whole is in its current sorry shape.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
they are working on search. yahoo already has something in test phase, for search, that works on better returns and yahoo mail is being integrated with profiles well, it has glitches but profiles is in beta.
Yahoo also has great development tools. Yahoo is not number 1 on the web but it is a strong 2.
facebook, twitter, when you look at what the companies do are much smaller. They are lean entities which are very simple.
yahoo news is number 1 online, yahoo answers.
yahoo is not in sorry shape. They have made mistakes, organizational errors, fair enough. i agree, but it is not the fall of rome.
We just have to be patient. they are working on some nice things and making their house more efficient for the future.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Hah!!! You want to bring up profiles and Yahoo Mail? How about how they had to create a special blog message explaining how to disable the feature because most everone hated it.
You also want to bring up how it’s only number two, then use Facebook and Twitter as examples of agile companies which are beating it? How about their main competition and the number one company Google? Not quite the “lean entity” nor “very simple”.
No, Yahoo is in very bad shape. Their stock price was tanking even before resession kicked in. I agree they are trying to get their organization in shape, but they certainly aren’t getting their software into shape. You certainly don’t begin by alienating your userbase with unwanted changes, or refusing to implement wanted changes like IMAP for Yahoo Mail. If they continue on their current path, they will continue to be the has-beens, and johnny-come-lately’s to the current trends. They will not increase their user base (except through false numbers by forcing things such as discontinuing profile aliases) and will thus not be able to pull their stock value back up out of the toilet.
You, MK, are quite the Yahoo apologist. I would almost think that you were a part of their marketing department. (the “M” in “MK” wouldn’t happen to stand for “Melissa” would it? Melissa, you wouldn’t happen to be trying to use an “alias” on here? That would be a quite ironic, since you guys don’t seem to want to support aliases any longer.)
May 25th, 2009 at 9:48 am
yeah, but bruiser that is the problem with all of these boards concerning free online services. The people who complain , comment the loudest and firms get pushed into thinking everyone is like that.
I didn’t hate it.I actually like profiles in my mail and my mail has it.
yeah, and google is number one economically because of the profits from search.
the internet is not the money machine some thought it would be. Outside of porn, search, online auction/markets, the internet doesn’t make money. twitter and facebook don’t make money. yahoo is not into porn, they are not a market, they do searching. And, are trying to economize social profiling, i think.
so, it is still number 2.
yes, they have done things users do not want, but every firm online does that.
I think the real error of yahoo is not implementing the concept of classic and new ,as with yahoo mail.
people need to be able to have the prior template they are accustomed to , and be able to go toward the new template designed.
I think with profiles, if they could have did it the same way then the people who like profiles or are content with it, will be and people like yourself, who do not like it would still have the old profiles to exists in, though a technical problem arose in their discussions of that.
At this point a negative name call and energetic statement would be acceptable by some from me towards you , but i digress. I am not an apologists. But, yahoo is providing free services for me. I question their actions and petition for changes, but since I am not paying for the service, it seems better to me to offer suggestions or evaluations than name call and berate yahoo, as if I do pay.
Give yahoo time and they will provide all the services you desire. Since they are free, the only thing they can want is for their users to be happy.
I am willing to wait, why aren’t you?
May 26th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
That’s a difference between you and I then, I WAS a paying customer.
I don’t know why you think you should resort to calling me names, as I don’t feel calling you a Yahoo apologist is an insult (maybe you feel it is), but rather an observation on the theme of all of your messages on this blog.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Hi all,
I just want to take a moment to remind you all of the initial post (and rules of this blog) — if you need a refresher, you can read the first post here: http://www.yprofileblog.com/blog/2008/10/16/welcome-to-the-new-profiles-blog/
Bruiser,
To address your concerns about MK being an alias for me– no. I assure you that I’m honest and forthright in my postings– I will always use my real name when I post here, and anytime a Yahoo! employee posts here, they’ll identify themselves as such (and their posts will also be highlighted as staff).
I’m a firm believer in being as honest with you all as I possibly can, and while that does mean that sometimes there are some questions you all may ask that go unanswered, it does not mean that they are going unread, or unacknowledged. Instead, it means that the answer will either reveal itself at a later time (when I’m able to discuss it), or I’ll address the fact that I cannot answer/address the issue. While I know that this isn’t the answer you all are always looking for, I’m afraid that sometimes it is how things are. My apologies.
-Melissa
BTW, Bruiser– Yahoo! Mail is actually the #1 mail property on the net (according to comscore– a third party assessor that tracks all properties, including gmail, hotmail, AOL, etc.) Yes, gmail’s market share is growing, but if you get your hands on the numbers (comscore reports are subscription based so this time I can’t provide you with a link, as much as I’d like to, though I’m sure if you did a little searching you could likely find a few posted in articles/reports on the web) you’ll see that as it stands, it’s a fairly substantial gap between the #1 spot and the #2 spot when it comes to email.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Will you update 360 news or was that the last post PLEASE REPLY
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:24 pm
360 is being worked on. Yahoo keeps their activities secret until they are ready to be used by users.
I don’t know what yahoo has explicitly planned, nor will i know and if i did i imagine i would be held by contract not to tell anyone.
more than likely, the blog page of groups, or at least its elements will be transferred. The front page is already replaced by the profile.
and 360 is working better daily than it has in a long while, I think 360 is good enough to wait for them to do whatever.
May 25th, 2009 at 7:32 am
“Yahoo keeps their activities secret until they are ready to be used by users”
What a laugh. They weren’t very secretive about the “Open and Social” changes that were coming. They were talking them up quite a bit.
Well, that was until most of the feedback was negative. Now you don’t hear a peep about “Open and Social”
No, you don’t hear anything about 360 because the plan was to kill it off. It was all going to be merged into Profiles and Mash. Things may have changed though, since the majority of Yahoo users could care less about social networking.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Bruiser,
how do you know the nature of mosts of yahoo’s users when mosts reports say that facebook and twitter are the most popular entities online.
are not they social networkers?
May 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Yahoo themselves pointed out how low the number of users of 360 were. If any Yahoo users were interested in using Yahoo as a Social Networking site, they would have done it. They won’t be leaving to come to Yahoo for it.
Those ARE social networking sites. Yahoo is NOT, and never will be. That ship has sailed.
May 27th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Thats just it Bruiser,
Yahoo really is. the difference is that the social networking is of the original kind. if you consider, yahoo answers, yahoo sports, yahoo news, yahoo video, yahoo groups, they are all social networking sites. Aren’t they. What defines a social networking site? Yahoo has a social net, it is just not connected as well, thus the new profile system.
I have to admit, through the new profiles, my connections are sharing with me, the places they like to go and stories they think are important through their updates. And, it is not everywhere we go , or I go, but where we choose to.
as a suggestion for yahoo.
I realize adding comments may not be easy in the update stream, by you have to improve the linking capability. When someone goes to a sports page, when i click the link i am not taken to where their comment resides, you have to work on that. Same thing with buzzes.
Since we can’t see the entire comment by a connection, usually, and we can’t comment to them or to that article or page in the update stream, the link must be advanced where a user can go directly to that comment on that particular service: buzz, sports, answers, etc.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
what news rand
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
>.> Hmmm.. profile needs more updates too. D:
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:45 am
So these group updates can only be managed individually by users and not by a group owner to make sure group messages are not displayed? I’m moderator of a few groups for which confidentiality is important and we’re worried about this “enhancement.”
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Anne,
No– the only way to prevent your updates from being shared is to change your group from an open group to a closed group. Closed groups do not currently have the option of sharing updates.
-Melissa
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
well I’ll like it better if you put more to your profile but it’s just me giving a comment to your page love the cat
May 24th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Keep the features coming!
May 25th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Melissa,
You have created a major problem for owners within Yahoo Groups and your developers need to address it quickly! The profile information that you create, edit and update within the NEW profiles DOES NOT update within Yahoo Groups. I have intentional updated information within the NEW profile page with incorrect location city and when I view my profile within Yahoo Groups, MOB-Montana it is not reflected in what I see. In otehr words I still see my correct information. For a period of about 4 months after the new profile implementation your tech folks allowed us to use a direct back door url in order to edit our individual profiles but that has since been shut down. I have filled out numerous software reports with your tech support people asking that they forward my input to you but still after months nothing has been done. I think that you should STOP adding enhancements to the profile functionality until you restore aspects of it to its former base functionality.
Patrick Toomey
Charlottesville, Virginia
MOB-Montana Owner
May 25th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Patrick,
This is a known issue and has been this way for months– it’s actually up on the Yahoo! Groups “Known Issues” page– (http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/index.html) but here’s a specific link to the issue you’re talking about: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/oldprofile.html
Currently, the best work around you can use for this situation is to switch to another alias within your group (one that never had a completed profile– ever). Doing this will instead display no information beneath your name on the Groups Member Directory within your Group, instead of the incorrect information.
-Melissa
May 25th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Melissa, if you guys are truly listening to your users, and care about their input, then why are comments for YMail shut down? How can those guys be getting any input from the users, and how can they be directing their development in a direction users will be happy with if they don’t know what those users want?
Also, if any of these changes you guys have been making over the last couple of years are so good, then why does such a large percentage of the YMail userbase continue to use Classic Mail? Also to that effect, if you were willing to keep that segment of your userbase happy, why wouldn’t you have considered that moving forward with Profiles, and allowing users the option of choosing a format of new profiles or old profiles?
It could have (and can still) been done.
Well, let’s just hope that Carol Bartz sees the ridiculous waste of time and resources being spent on something for such a small percentage of your users, and reallocates company effort in a much more meaningful way.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Bruiser,
The Community Manager who used to run the Yahoo! Mail blog (Ryan Knight) is unfortunately, no longer with the team. Since the Mail blog has been passed on, they don’t have a sufficient amount of resources to appropriately respond to all of the comments on the blog, and instead, opted to shut the comments section down all together. I’ll forward your comment on to the team and implore them to turn the commenting section back on as I’m a firm advocate for comments (both good and bad– as long as they’re constructive and not derogatory in any way towards another user, staff member, etc. and are not riddled with profanity. That’s the only time you’ll see me taking down a comment).
Honestly, it’s not a matter of not wanting to hear your feedback– it’s a matter of not having enough resources on deck to respond to everyone’s comments and ensure that you all don’t feel “neglected” or like we’ve posted the blog and have the comments section open and never read the comments/respond.
Also, not sure if you (or anyone else is familiar with it) but Yahoo! also has a series of Suggestion Boards up– http://suggestions.yahoo.com/ — no, there’s not one for profiles, because we handle suggestions through the blog instead, BUT, a lot of other properties have suggestion boards and do read/respond to them, so you might want to check that out as well.
To provide feedback directly to the mail team, next time you’re logged into your Yahoo! Mail inbox, check out the “Help” carrot in the left hand side. If you hover over it, you’ll see you have the option of “Sending Feedback”– this goes straight back to the product teams, and is another way you can provide your thoughts/opinions on the product straight to the teams.
Lastly, to address your question about “then why does such a large percentage of the YMail userbase continue to use Classic Mail?” — a lot of it (and we’ve tested this) has to do with habit. People don’t like change– whether it’s good or bad, if you change something, someone somewhere is going to say something. A good percentage of our userbase sticks with classic because they aren’t familiar with All-New Mail and don’t know where things are. However, once people spend time with it (and we’ve seen this in studies) they’re more likely to stick with it. It’s about change, convenience, and knowing just where they “left their keys.”
-Melissa
May 25th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
It’s true, people for the most part don’t care much for change… I’ll give ya that much Melissa. And granted, sometimes change is needed. But something the Yahoo! staff has to keep in mind is that at times change for the sake of change isn’t necessarily a good thing. Not to beat a dead horse here, but the profile fiasco is a perfect example of this. The old profile system was working just fine for us. It was simple and easy to work with. As for the new profile system… It is unneseccarily complex and more difficult to adjust and manage than it needs to be. And while yes, I will acknowledge that some people like the new lay-out, and many more like myself have adapted to use the new system, it goes without saying that this was a case where change for the sake of change did not work in Yahoo!’s favor, nor was it needed. So keep that bit of constructive commentary in mind Melissa and pass it on to your co-workers responsible for the profiles.
In all honesty you could say that pretty much sums up why so many of us expressed our displeasure with the new profile system… Aside from the lack of forewarning and what not… It wasn’t just about a change, but a change for the sake of change that was unneseccary… It wasn’t a good change, but a bad one. At least that’s my own opinion on the matter, and based on what I’ve heard over the months since the implication of the new system, that’s likely an accurate opinion.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Excellent post Janus. Very well said.
May 28th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I stick with classic because I do NOT trust a preview pane used in a web browser. I can control what is allowed in a Preview Panes in mail clients like Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Pegasus, Outlook, Eudora, but the New Y!Mail Preview Pane lacks that control. So I am left to “trusting” the mail team at Y!Mail to stop exploitations and other nasty tricks.
I am advised by the Mail Team to use an up-to-date AV/Security and make sure it’s running. While I DO have such software, I refuse to run it in real-time, full-time scanning mode. I know what I;m doing and I don’t need to hamstring my PC to protect me from things I am fully capable of protecting without the aid and bloat of good-bot AV holding my virtual hand.
Short answer: Don’t trust Email Preview Panes in a BROWSER. Stay with Classic and stay safe.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Just a quick note to add….the 360 page is down at the moment. Just wanted to throw that out there for the joker who said that 360 is working better than ever.
Come on man, you put waaaayy to much faith into Yahoo.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Again, Bruiser– if you’re seeing an outage, or have an issue (especially with another product)– this isn’t the place to report it. Customer Care is the place to go, as they’ll be able to open up a ticket and investigate the issue further in a much more timely fashion. (Esp. considering you left this comment at 8am today, Memorial Day, and it’s 10:30pm and I’m only just seeing your comment/responding).
Here’s the link to customer care for 360: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/general.html
-Melissa
May 26th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Sorry, was only pointing out to MK that all this sunshine and rainbows he keeps spouting about you guys isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I wasn’t actually trying to report that the 360 site was down, just showing MK that 360 is not working better than ever.
May 27th, 2009 at 7:12 am
well Bruiser, the site does have hiccups, but at least for me and some other folk on 360, it has been much better than a few months ago. you have to admit that.
at least for me, i enjoy the ability to go to peoples blogs and posts, even though a good online buddy had issues recently.
But, i said i would stick it out when the problems first began. And, i am doing so.
yes, hiccups and glitches occur, fair enough. but, it is working better and that is good enough until yahoo displays its plan for 360.
which they will do regardless of what that plan is.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Yahoo,
one thing is clear, in the future, whenever you want to change a service make it something people can use but return to the previous setup on.
90% of the people who complain about your services, want to go back to a previous setup.
I know it may be difficult, it will be time consuming, and you may not have the money or people to do it, but a suggestion once you get the social framework really working is to allow for users to go back and forth upon their liking of a service
May 25th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I will pose my questions once again. What is the point of this new profile system? Why should we even bother using it?
First, Yahoo botched the transition of our friends list. We were told our 360 friends list would remain in tact. That didn’t happen and I lost more than 75 percent of my friends.
Second, Yahoo started duplicating services it already offered. MyBlogLog does everything the profile system does, except better.
Third, you are trying yet again to make another social network and it isn’t working. In baseball, it is 3 strikes and you’re out. Strike 1 was slow death of 360. Strike 2 was Mash. The profile system failure is strike 3. If you are going to imitate your competitors, at least do a better job.
Where is the vision? Where is the innovation? Where is the compelling reason to use the profile system or any other Yahoo product. What are the reasons that I should continue to be a paying customer of Yahoo?
May 25th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Carl, I don’t think yahoo has done it yet. I remember when they said they would transfer the friends list. our 360 friends list is still intact in 360, at least mine is. They have not given us an opportunity to transfer the friends list yet.
as a non paying customer, i can understand your frustration as a paying customer
May 26th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I think the reason why Carl’s expressing his fustration on this is because Since this whole fiasco started, Yahoo! has appeared to be more concerns with adding new bells and whistles rather than fixing existing problems or rectifying previous errors made. While I’m not a paying customer nor a 360 user, I can’t sympathize with him 100%, but I certainly do understand his fustration.
Keep in mind MK, since if memory serves right you’ve been leaping to Yahoo!’s defense many recent issues(My apologies if I’m mistaking you for someone else), the over-all reason for many people jumping down Yahoo!’s throat and/or demanding fixes is because Yahoo! has seemed to be focusing more on making their services more shiny and with all these new, relatively useless features rather than fix the existing problems and flaws. If Yahoo! wants to stop the stream of angry comments from angry customers, paying or not, then they’d do well to fix said existing problems rather than adding more to their services when more often than not it isn’t needed.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
When I say that I am a paying customer, I have a Flickr Pro account and I use Yahoo for its web hosting services. I also moderate or participate in several Yahoo groups and use may other of Yahoo’s services.
I used to be a really big fan of Yahoo. If you look at the 360 Team blog from when they first announced the closure of 360, you’ll see that I was one of 3 people who spoke directly with Matt Warburton. There was even a link to my own 360 page when I wrote about what was going on with 360.
I tried to keep a positive attitude. I conduct surveys and gave tons of feedback to Yahoo at their request. The timeline for the new profile kept getting pushed back. Then came Mash. Then Mash disappeared. Then the new profile system arrived with a resounded thud.
I’m concerned that while Yahoo is circling the drain, I need to move my pictures and website to other hosting services. If Yahoo can screw up 360 and the new profile system this badly, I cannot afford the risk of continuing to do business with Yahoo.
May 27th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Janus,
My only defense for yahoo is that we as its customers, have patience.
Every argument we have is valid: communication issues, technical issues, functional issues, interface issues. I agree. But, we must have patience, and they will fix them all, and work on the ones in the future.
Looking at the image for the new frontpage, they are understanding the necessity to keep things similar to the old if you do not allow a new classic pairing like in yahoo mail.
And, i like profiles. I have grown my 360 and my groups through it. The connecting with folks has worked for me. I can not deny , it has been a plus. Does it have errors and issues, yes, and to be fair, i didn’t post those here but posted them directly to customer service.
Which i think we all should.
any real issues , take the time to speak directly to customer service, it is a few more clicks, but that is what i do. I comment here my views and issues but never the most serious complaignts.
And, yahoo fixes some of my issues or tells me they are working on it and i have to believe for a company that makes money off of advertising , it is in their best interest too
May 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
That is true MK, more often than not patience is needed… However, many of users have come to lack patience because of the way Yahoo! has been handling things. 6 months ago we had a working profile system, working group system, and then, almost out of no where, Yahoo! deemed it necessary to upheeve all of it, if not destroy it to make way for this odd “Open and Social” plan of their’s, which hasn’t seemed to work out quite as well as they intended. They pretty much said when they released the new profiles that they were incomplete. 6 months later and no really credable or note-worthy changes have made.
So in all honesty MK, can you really blame people here for being less than patcient? And it’s not just that… Many of the people who use the profiles also make use of the messenger/chat room services offered by Yahoo!, both of which have been all but broken and in dire need of fixing for years now. So again, can you really blame us for not having the patience to just wait and see what “fixes” Yahoo! has in mind?
May 28th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
No Janus, I can not blame. Nor do I not communicate. Though, I have to admit, when any of us have issues more of us need to communicate through direct feedback, not the product blogs.
I continually send my most earnest concerns through direct feedbacks. They do respond back to those with clear answers.
Well, how do you like the new blog on profiles?
May 26th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Another excellent post. I agree with you completely. Again, this is a symptom of why Yahoo is slowly sinking. They don’t have a clear understanding of what their customers want, and instead of trying to find out, they force unwanted and uneeded changes on their users to chase some marketshare that they will never be able to capture, when they should be focusing on the things which they are the leader in, and shoring up that base to make sure they don’t continue to lose that marketshare (which they are).
May 27th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Is there a way to make the “Manage Updates” page less unrulely?
I don’t like how all the updates default to going to “Anyone” so I went in and changes all the updates to “No One”. This includes the ones in the “Show all Yahoo! Sources” section.
Now all 100+ Yahoo Sources are shown on the update manager page all the time, over half are for foreign language Yahoo pages. This makes it difficult to find what is actually being used and what isn’t. Also it makes it hard to find what’s being shared and what’s not.
Could the “never used” sources remain hidden until used, even if they are updated?
Also could stuff that’s shared show up at the top of the list to make it easier to find? You could make this an option to sort alphabetically or by status.
Finally could you remove sources that no longer exist, like Yahoo Briefcase and Geocities?
May 27th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Hi Morac,
The areas tucked away under the “Show All Yahoo! Sources” are down there until you activate them (by changing their settings as you’ve done).
I’ll see if there’s a way to tuck them back down, but if you wanted to turn off sharing you could have just deselected the top box that says “Share my Updates” — this would have basically set all of your update settings to “No One” without you having to manually go through and adjust all of the drop downs.
I think briefcase and geocities are slated to be removed from this section but I’ll check to see if I can’t get a date/timeline for you.
-Melissa
May 28th, 2009 at 9:32 am
After reading all of this… aliases should at least inherit our name and/or nickname in Yahoo groups, *especially* when we make our info public to *anyone*. It is very annoying that I can use an alias to better manage the groups I am in, but that when I send that group a message it does not show my name, just the silly alias. It makes the user look *not* computer savy, as one of those newbies who do not know how to sey up their profile. My two cents.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Well yahoo,
I tested the new blog. I like it, I submitted my serious concerns with a direct feedback.
I like what you guys did. you did listen. 360 is still here and the new profile has a blog. good going.the old and new exists side by side and now for the question of 360. considering yahoo’s new management and focus.
I am not certain whether you will transfer 360 into the new blog or keep 360 as a standalone.
The easiest solution is to keep both, maybe even don’t allow new 360 members.Thus the overhead for 360 lessens tremendously, but it allows people who are not on profiles yet have a 360 to remain.
good going.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
We got blogs on profiles now!!
Now THAT is a pleasant surprise! Talk about rolling out something with zero fanfare…!
Thank you. Thank you VERY much.
May 29th, 2009 at 11:14 am
All I need to know now is how to embed .jpg images in Profile blog posts. Other than that I’m a happy camper.
Well, customizeable Profile backgrounds would be nice too, but one day at a time
May 29th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Well, I’m sure the blogs will be useful to some… But to me, absolutely useless. My question is this… Isn’t this essentually what 360 was meant for? Blogging and stuff like that? If so, why are you putting this feature on the profiles rather than repairing 360 like I’ve heard so many people beg for?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Same question as Cassandra. Hope we’ll get an answer soon!
May 30th, 2009 at 5:08 am
Just a question, I keep getting emails that say I need to “upgrate” my yahoo, that they are verifying that I still want my account, but they are asking for my password, and date of birth. Is this for real??
May 30th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
My biggest 2 gripes are, :
!) I cannot post my own art work as a background, that 2 headed snake thing that is at my 360, was also on myspace, then adspace stopped original art, there is no place left on the net that allows it.
2)The “Mature Content” button is gone. Actually this is my biggest issue. I write crude stuff, and I do not want children reading it, nor the religious right having the power to delete all of my work because they are not mature enough to handle it. And that little button kept me safe. Now I can no longer blog about whatever I wish….the same restrictions that are on all the other sites are now here…goodbye freedom of speech, they cut off my head so their moral ethic can sleep better at night thinking that if I cannot see my darkness, then it must not exist, and they can feel safe. Screw them(I only say that because you cannot say f**k here)
May 30th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
You wrote: >>Once you’ve configured your privacy settings accordingly, return to your favorite group and test it out by uploading a photo. When you’re through uploading a photo, we’ll prompt you with a pop-up window, asking you whether or not you want to share this update with your connections.<<
Does this mean that photos uploaded to a group – and later group messages – can be”shared” with “connections” that are NOT members of the group?
May 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
sare forsat baraton tarif mikonam
May 30th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I am really annoyed that the new profiles have a permanent personal picture that follows my ID. When I signed on to the new profiles the picture from my 360 profile at the time was transferred to my profile and cannot be deleted…I Where ever I post (such as in Buzz) the permanent picture (the first picture I posted) shows up and Yahoo does not allow it to be deleted…
Why would Yahoo put a permanent photo to follow your ID….????
June 9th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Hi a_cup,
Ironically enough this was done because enough users complained when we launched profiles that their images were missing.
You’re welcome to replace the image– profiles stores 5 images in its database so you can switch between your favorites easily (but only displays one image at a time).
Once you’ve uploaded more than 5 images to your profile, this first image should disappear.
-Melissa
May 31st, 2009 at 11:34 am
The uploading feature is not working for the blogs.
Any suggestion as to when this will be fixed – if ever?
June 5th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
why can i get into my “new profiles” page… ?
July 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Did you know you can import your Y360 blog over to Multiply for free:
http://multiply.com/y360-splash?utm_source=y360&utm_medium=Y360_Group&utm_campaign=ImportY360
August 18th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I was born in 1980 and yahoo is displaying my age as 22 years old.
I was not asking how to hide my profile or how to change my date of birth, but I was instructed to comment on this blog.
Does anybody actually read anything online anymore?
Is anybody reading this or is it automated?????
August 18th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Heather,
This is likely because at some point while having your Yahoo! account you entered your birth year as 1987– we didn’t generate this age/date for you, you at one point entered this information.
-Melissa
August 27th, 2009 at 12:49 am
why can i get into my “new profiles” page
October 4th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
open my emial