Apologies for not posting to the blog about this issue earlier, but we do want to let folks know that we’re aware of the problem with Yahoo! Mail mistakenly diverting some messages from Yahoo! Groups to the Yahoo! Mail spam or bulk folder.

The Mail team has just tonight pushed a fix to the problem, but they’re not yet sure if the fix will address the problem completely or only partially. So if you’re still finding messages from Groups sent Wednesday (10/24) or later being wrongly diverted to your Spam or Bulk Mail folder, please let our Customer Care team know:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/yahoogroups/general.html

It will help us solve the problem more quickly. Thank you,

- Yahoo! Groups Team

In a poll that we’ve been running on Moderator Central for the past several months we asked moderators what was most problematic:

- Getting members more engaged
- Finding the time to make the group successful
- Combating spam and unnecessary posts
- Educating new members about the group

We heard from over 17,000 moderators and just over half of them told us that getting members more engaged is by far the most problematic.

I’d like to put a call out to all of you seasoned moderators to ask you to share tips on what you do to engage your members – share the wealth of your knowledge with the rest of us!

Thanks!
Jami Heldt
Community Manager

On October 9^th over 135 group moderators from the Bay Area joined the Yahoo! Groups team for its first ever Groups Moderator Town Hall at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale. Our goal with this type of event is to provide moderators with an opportunity to engage with the Yahoo! Groups team as well as one other.

Open to all Group Moderators in the Bay Area, our attendees came from all walks of life with groups ranging in size from 50 to 437,000 (we do actually have a group with that many members, check out FlyLadyMentors). Almost every type of group you can imagine was represented, from mothers’ groups, to historical aviation from aquatic life to alumni groups.

We kicked off the Town Hall with an opportunity to “meet and greet” one another allowing Yahoo! staff to mingle with moderators over appetizers and beverages. This period was followed by a presentation given by the director of Yahoo! Groups which included a preview of the Groups Beta. Next up was the highly anticipated question and answer panel discussion where moderators had the opportunity to share their concerns and ask direct questions of the Groups team.

I believe that it is offline events like these that will enable Yahoo! to continue to power its online communities. Attendees were enthusiastic for the opportunity to interact with the Groups team and that enthusiasm was matched, if not exceeded, by the Groups team for the chance to meet with moderators in person and gain an even better understanding of what is top of mind for them.

One moderator summed up their experience by sharing the following sentiment, “the event was a wonderful mix of technology, business, and human interaction. Your highlighting the human side of the product was unusual and welcome. Also, your Yahoo! team rocks.”

Stay tuned for a video clip from this event to be posted in the coming weeks…

Our next Groups Moderator Town Hall event is scheduled on November 6^th in downtown Los Angeles.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and moderate an active group with at least 50 members and want to voice your opinions on how we can make Yahoo! Groups better, please send an email with a link to the group you moderate to: communityevents@yahoo-inc.com.

To all the moderators who joined us in Sunnyvale for this event, I’d love it if you shared your experience with us by commenting below!

Best,
Jami Heldt
Groups Community Manager

It’s my pleasure to re-introduce Moderator Central. This site was created for new and experienced moderators to stay looped in on the latest and greatest Yahoo! Groups news and provide a channel for moderators to connect with one another to ask questions, share advice, collaborate, and find resources.

Some of the tools Moderator Central offers to help you share and collaborate with other moderators include:

Message Boards the place for new moderators to ask for advice about setting up their group, for more experienced moderators to discuss tips on member recruitment and managing group dynamics, or to stay up to speed on technical issues, common challenges, and workarounds. These public forums are in a threaded message format, so they are easy to follow and search. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed or Alert so you don’t miss a thing.

Getting Started makes it easy to start your group off on the right foot. Take our tours and learn more about creating your group and building your membership.

Yahoo! Groups Suggestion Board allows users to submit product suggestions to the Yahoo! Groups team and vote and comment on the contributions they feel are most valuable and relevant.

Yahoo! Answers about Yahoo! Groups are displayed on the Moderator Central home page, making it easy to share your expertise and recognize the contributions of others by voting and rating their contributions.

Some new things you’ll find on Moderator Central are the Best of Yahoo! Groups, where we shine the spotlight on some of Yahoo! Group’s finest. You can also find the Groups Podcast, where we’ll highlight a fun Groups related topic to share with you on a monthly basis. In addition to these new features, we will have the ability to refresh content regularly to make it more relevant & timely for you. So take some time to look around and let us know what you think and let us know what you’d like to see by commenting below.

Thanks!
Jami Heldt
Community Manager

Email delivery times are a bit like the tires on your car. You usually only think about them when something goes wrong.

I say this because I’m guessing most folks may not have noticed anything about a change in the delivery speed of email sent through Yahoo! Groups. But thanks to the hard work of the back-end engineers and the Operations team, there has indeed been a change — a positive one! The chart below, which tracks the delivery time of a sample email we send every minute to test the system, tells the story:

As it shows, over the most recent week, the delivery time of mail sent through the Groups system has dropped dramatically, with more than 95 percent of messages being routed in under 20 seconds and with most messages being delivered in under 10 seconds. Given that Yahoo! Groups delivers more than 500 million messages each day, this is no small feat!

Yahoo! Groups Emails and ISPs

Now I’m guessing that some of you might be skeptical because you might still be experiencing delays on emails sent through Groups. On a high level, assuming the problem isn’t simply a moderator taking his or her time before approving messages, there are two possible explanations:

1. There might be a problem on our side

Though the system has been dramatically improved, it’s still not perfect. Servers go down (we maintain hundreds), new systems can be improperly configured, spam and virus attacks can cause dramatic spikes in the number of messages coming through the system. No matter how hard we try or how many safeguards we build into the system, there will be times when messages will be delayed on our end. We don’t want to pretend that this will never be the case, though we are working hard to minimize those occasions.

2. There might be a problem with your ISP or email program

Unfortunately, there are also limits to what the Yahoo! Groups team can do. When you send an email it goes from

SENDER EMAIL PROGRAM >> YOUR ISP >> YAHOO! GROUPS >> RECIPIENT ISP >> RECIPIENT EMAIL PROGRAM

As a team, Yahoo! Groups controls only the experience in the middle. Ultimately, we rely on your ISP and email program to deliver the email in a timely fashion.

What to Do When You’re Experiencing Delays

So a question is probably running through your minds: Which do I contact when I’m experiencing delays — my ISP/mail provider or Yahoo! Groups?

The Good News: There is a way to tell. By looking at the full email headers of a message that has been delayed, you can frequently tell whether the delay was caused by your ISP or Yahoo! Groups. If the problem lies with us, let us know. Please send a copy of the headers with your complaint.

If the problem lies with your ISP, please contact that company. You’ll definitely get them to take you more seriously if you include the full headers of your delayed message. And you can also refer them to this group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ygmailadmin/), which is specifically for ISP administrators who want to work better with Yahoo! Groups.

A Contest

The Bad News: As you’ll see when you check out the links for how to read a message header, it’s not that easy for someone who is not technically inclined. In fact, none of the pages I’ve seen are so simple and clear that I feel comfortable referring most Groups users to them. But it would be really helpful if such a page existed.

So an idea occurred to us. We know there are tons of users on the message boards and in the group about Groups, who have the technical expertise, the knowledge about how Groups users think, and the willingness to help others make a great page.

So we want to challenge you to create the best possible “How to Read a Groups Email Header” page. If you accept this challenge, post a link to your page in the comments below. Then we’ll choose the best one, feature you and the page in a blog entry (and in Help), and send you a package of Yahoo! schwag as a thank-you.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with. And in the mean time, thanks again to the Yahoo! Groups Back End and Operations team for their work on improving delivery times!

- Gordon Strause
Product Manager

In an effort to test new mediums to communicate with all of you and stay current with the latest technology, I am proud to present (drum roll, please) — the very first Groups Podcast!

I thought it would be fun to launch the Groups Podcast series by asking Lee Clancy, director of Yahoo! Groups, to share a little about his role on the Groups team, give us his insight into the main benefits of Yahoo! Groups, and tell us about the Yahoo! Groups Beta. (This podcast is 8 minutes in length).

I’d also like to know what topics you’d like to hear about in future podcasts as I’d like this to become a monthly feature.

Thanks!
Jami Heldt
Community Manager

 

 Yahoo! Groups Podcast [8:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (707)

Questions about advancing your career? Enriching your life? Perhaps acid indigestion? Just ask Liz Ryan. Well, ask–away in her lively online community that’s focused on networking.

Ask Liz Ryan is a popular Yahoo! Group (26,269 members, at last count) based on the workplace, work/life, and networking advice of expert and author Liz Ryan. Members use the group to gather advice from Liz (and each another) on careers, business, networking, and work/life issues. Topics range from making connections in the dog-eat-dog business world to diaper changing services.

Ask Liz Ryan began eight years back as a meeting of minds, when Liz found herself buried in a mountain of contact’s business cards from her Chicago-based consulting service. While the stack had names and numbers, it was cold, impersonal (and ultimately useless) information. So she started the email list to get together with like-minded folks and to share information and bring networking to life.

Ultimately, Liz moved up to Yahoo! Groups as the vessel for Ask Liz Ryan. She chose Groups because unlike other networking websites, it emphasizes the “community” aspect. According to Liz, her group now offers a true “knowledge transfer” of ideas. “Today one piece of information can save a business thousands of dollars,” she noted, “but companies miss the boat if that knowledge never gets passed on.”

Ask Liz Ryan has now branched out to include nearly eighty local versions of Yahoo! Groups (like Ask! In Boston and Ask! On Earth) where people can connect with others nearby. What about you? How do you use Yahoo! Groups for networking? Tell us your experiences by commenting to this posting.

Darrell Jones

Yahoo! Writer