Coming soon, Group Recommendations
Over the years we’ve received a great deal of feedback from Yahoo! Group members, that while they love the groups they are currently members of, it’s often very difficult for them to discover other relevant groups that they might also be interested in joining. In response to this feedback, the Yahoo! Groups team is testing a new feature that will make this process easier and surface recommended groups based on common members between groups. These recommendations will appear in the right hand column of Groups emails.
Here’s an example of what the new group emails will look like:
For example, if there are many common members between Minions of Evil Leonard and Feline_tamer, then the Feline_tamer group will be recommended to members of Minions of Evil Leonard. The goal is to help you connect with other people you share common interests with, so recommendations will only be made between groups that have members in common. All members within a group will see the same recommendations.
***UPDATE***
Jami Heldt
Groups Community Manager
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why are you recommending groups to me that I am already a member of?
The recommendations are based at the group level, not at the individual member level. That is, we are only looking at groups that share members. Future enhancements of this feature will exclude your existing memberships.
Recommendations are made by looking at your group and finding other groups that share common members. If there is enough overlap between members, we will recommend the group. Future enhancements of this feature will include more relevant recommendations to you.
You can remove your group from the Yahoo Group directory to make it unlisted if you do not want it to appear in recommendations. However, we highly encourage you to stay listed as this will help interested members find you.
Mohammed said,
March 13, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
really good service it will make our groups more popular !
but i wonder from this question
I don’t want my group to be recommended. Do I have a choice?
who don’t want his group get more members ?
thanks
http://www.smasra.com
Denise said,
March 13, 2008 @ 7:53 pm
so we may have other groups being “spammed” on our group that we may actually oppose. will there be a means to turn this feature off?
Sandy said,
March 13, 2008 @ 7:54 pm
is this group thing on the side of the e-mails an option or not for the group owner? I don’t want other groups advertising to my members via my groups post/ e-mail. all those huge thing also have always messed up the text format of the e-mail and makes posts via e-mail harder to read. is that only going to be on New and Improved mail settings, or traditioal as well?
Vijay Barve said,
March 13, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Interesting feature. I really look forward to it. How soon will it come [:)]
All the best.
Vijay
Jan said,
March 13, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
I also want to know if this feature can be turned off.
Jack said,
March 13, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
This sounds like a great idea! I am glad that you haven’t given up on Yahoo Groups. There is real potential there.
Aseem Kaistha said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
Sounds very interesting and no doubt very good… Lets see how it outcome finally!!!
Gloria said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
This _must_ be an option that a listowner can turn off. To prevent advertising, I do not permit the posting of URLs for other Y-Groups lists in messages sent to my lists.
So now Y-Groups intends to spam my lists’ messages with other Y-Groups that _they feel_ would be of interest.
If you want to help Y-Groups individual members find better and more interesting groups then improve your SEARCH feature at Y-Groups…. Leave it up to List Owners as to what is and is not permitted in their list messages… aside from your normal advertising..
Connie said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
I think this idea is terrible. Many groups I run or are a member of do not want to be lumped with other related type lists. If they want to join another list they can do like the rest of us do and search the group listings.
I certainly hope there is a way to turn this off as I can only imagine all the bitching and complaining I am going to hear from my list members about it
klk said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
I agree with the need to have this feature turned off. I have some private groups (currently not in the directory) and would not want them recommended to others.
Chrissy said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Hmm I like the idea of recommending groups.But I would like it better if you had in on the group.(Like you do for Yahoo Answers).But it will be fun to see how this goes.
Kathie M. Thomas said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
What if I don’t want a group promoted in my forum emails? Do we get a choice of who is and isn’t? At this stage all I see is that if there are similar members amongst groups they are more likely to be groups that meet the same needs and could ideally be seen as competitors.
Lynn said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
Don’t like it being included on emails; looks just like spam and ads, and I can’t imagine who would actually pay attention to it.
More to the point, when most of us say we want to be able to find groups more easily, we do NOT, repeat NOT, mean that we want some program attempting to read our minds or worse yet, deciding that common membership in groups means that the program can figure out what we want to do next.
What “find groups more easily ” means is “make it easier to search for groups and get relevant hits when searching”.
It does not mean : make email unreadable with all the ads and sidebars cluttering up the limited screen real estate.
Lisa Jeffris said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
I would not want my members to have to be spammed by other members advertising the other lists. They joined my group for a reason and one of them is because I don’t allow others to advertise their lists.
Roger said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
I don’t like the idea. There should be a way to opt out without removing group from the directory.
Flyingfree45 said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
The way I read it, we as group owners will only be able to ‘turn it off’ if we de-list from the directory.
This will be a fatal error to the groups as we know them.
Instead of groups having their own identity, soon we will have such overlapping memberships, that the smaller groups will do one of two things, get bigger and less personal or get less posting because people may not have time for multiple groups.
The bigger groups will reach critical mass, become too busy and unmanagable and eventually fall apart.
Believe it or not, some groups start because the members think differently and want to start their own. You’re just homogenizing groups by listing the very group they left to start a new one. Let groups have their own Identity.
What you’re doing is destroying the Groups by doing this.
My suggestion? Make a better way to search the current directory, delete headless groups if there’s no activity (or contact the active members to name a new head) and categorize better.
Please don’t do this! I’d hate to de-list from the directory but I can take 10 groups with memberships from 200-5000 members out of the directory.
Dee said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
It’s not a good idea. Yahoo could have done a better job by redefining the search options. This is going to be trouble. I certainly hope this can be turned off!
Chrissy said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
me again.Reading comments I didn’t think of spam and yes I can see group members griping about it.And Group owners getting mad about having to compete with competitors.I to have a strict rule in my group about spam.The more I think about it the more I’m not liking this.
Marenda said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
I do not like this new feature at all as I only allow limited approved advertising to my groups. As a group owner I hope I will have the option of turning off this feature. Bad idea!
Peter said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
I have to echo what Sandy said March 13, 2008 @ 7:54pm. Will group owners be able to turn this off. Already for the last year we have had to put up with the Sidebar to the right of all messages passed through the group that about 20% of the time ends up covering the right hand side of wide messages. I think Yahoo should spend more time making sure its existing features are working properly all the time before adding something new. I also think that when something goes wrong, the best engineers to fix the problem are the ones who created the feature and therefore are intimately familiar with the software code they wrote. Yahoo rarely seems to get things fixed up 100%.
HOWARD A. STAFFORD said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
Hey Jami, this is a brilliant idea, and now that I realize, it should have been thought of before. Yahoo! has been my fav service since day 1 and always pleased to see you keeping it fresh and constant evolving improvements. I am really looking forward to the new idea.
Wishing all the staff and members the very best.
Have fun, be well,
Howard
Betty said,
March 13, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
I am totally opposed to this feature. As a list member, I don’t want to be “spammed” with other groups. As an owner, I don’t want my lists to be spammed either. I have very specific lists — one of which is a replacement for a very similar one that became nothing but an adult-oriented spam list when the owner disappeared. I certainly don’t want that one included as spam on my list. What if a list owner has set their list to approve new members. If there is a general posting that goes to hundreds of lists, then the owner may be overwhelmed by the number of people trying to join their list at one time.
I really hope this is not implemented. Even if owners are given the option to opt-out, I still don’t want to be “spammed” as a member of lists that I have sought out.
Thanks
Betty
Joy Jacob said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
The proposed feature should have a provision to be switched off by the group owner.
Fuchsia East said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:02 pm
It seems to me that Yahoo would be providing a much better service if it took the time to refine its search features. I’ve searched for groups that I know exist, as I’ve checked them first to be certain, only to discover the Yahoo search engine thinks it no longer exists.
I’m very strict about spam in my group, and my members appreciate that. More than one person has been banned for spamming, and I was finally forced to change my settings to new members’ posts having to be approved in advance by me, which I did with great loathing.
If someone wants to list their group or website in my Links section, I have no objection to that, as long as they’re relevant to the subject of my group. I check every single link periodically, and remove non-relevant and dead ones.
I sincerely hope you’ll reconsider this decision, and at least give group owners the option of turning off this new feature if they wish to do so. I’ve seen far too many groups that have simply been let go, then overrun by spam. I’d close my group before I’d allow that to happen.
Thank you for the opportunity to have our say in this matter.~Bountifully, Fuchsia
Kim said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:06 pm
Oh no! Please, please have an option that this can be blocked on a group. We do not permit our members to promote other groups in our group and certainly don’t want this option to leave our control.
Please make it go away as an option.
Peter said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:07 pm
Referencing back to the comment I left at March 13, 2008 @ 8:29 pm (times shown are PDT) referring to the sidebar covering wide messages, how about adding a “print view” button so messages can be printed from the group site without the sidebar, bottom bar and message navigation tools appearing in the “print” view. Similarly, when printing group messages back at an e-mailer’s in-box, the “print” button should exclude the sidebar (especially when it’s covering wide messages) and the bottom bar.
Jeanne said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
I share the same concerns as many others have written here - I don’t want to be spammed with the information about other groups. Improve your search system for people who are searching for a new group of interest to join. I’ve had lists for years, and list owners use to always share the courtesy of not advertising or promoting other groups on the list without at least asking the list owner if she/he minded. Some people are mainly concerned with numbers only - they want quantity, not quality in their memberships so they can brag that they have more members than any other group in their category. So what? Is this a competition? Do we want to keep groups as something we enjoy or is it going to become a contest of who has the most members, etc.?
It’s bad enough dealing with the spammers we have now. They join lists with new Yahoo ID’s and profiles and then advertise their junk - from singles groups to porn and so forth. Those pornsters - they will do anything to get their message across and if we are interested in that sort of junk, anyone can find it in seconds on the internet anywhere.
I prefer the traditional format, because I too, do not like the print running over posts as it often does. Especially for groups that are for graphics, digital art, digital photography, etc. If you decide to go along with this, please give owners the option of opted out of this plan and don’t force us to go private because we won’t go along with the program. I don’t think that’s fair.
Also, for years, on Yahoo groups, there have always been groups of people who like to stir the pot, as we say, and will join groups to cause trouble and problems. It’s not as bad as it once was - but it still happens. I belonged to a wonderful group and because of the petty jealousy of others they harassed the group so much, the list owner moved her group to google. I like Yahoo groups, I’ve been a list owner since 1999 and I have no plans on leaving - but if we keep getting things like this forced down our throats, more and more people will be leaving and heading for Google groups and other groups that are not as intrusive as these suggestions can sometimes be.
If it works, leave it alone, as they say.
Thank you!
Donna said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:13 pm
I certainly hope this will be optional. If I want to look for similar groups, I just go to Yahoo Groups home, then enter the topic in the search window and that will usually generate many similar type groups. Maybe the description isn’t clear, but I really see no reason for it.
Richard B said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
The idea is great, but the actual page looks very cluttered with a lot of stuff presented in a lot of different styles. Could it be tidied up a bit.
Emmy said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
I would consider this spam. I do not permit other groups to be advertised on my group. Its actually considered rude or even spamming by many group owners to try to solicite members from one group to another. I do NOT want this to appear in my group emails, and I do not want to delist my group either.
Why not just improve the group search features so that members can find groups they are interested in with more ease, rather than making changes that the owners do not all want?
Diane said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:47 pm
I hate this new idea !!!! I don’t want more ads going to My Group!
Why doesn’t Yahoo Groups just improve it’s Search capabilities for compatible Groups?
Annie said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
Oh no! There are already inappropriate Yahoo! Answers/Questions appearing on a couple groups I moderate just because there is the word “leather” in the group’s name! Trust me, it has nothing to do with what some of those people are talking about. Yes, I have set that option to “Don’t Show This” to avoid embarrassment.
If you feel you must do this, then please provide the option to turn it off! Some groups simply do not fit the same same sensibilities as others. By being listed in the Directory, we are already setting ourselves up for spam. That is why our groups’ settings are “Membership requires approval” and “Messages from new members require approval.”
Please do reconsider. There is enough “noise” in this world.
Bill Sardone said,
March 13, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
A SEMI good idea.
I think there are a lot of other issues that are much more important and pleasing to group members. Such as searchable photo albums. Increased size of photo albums. IN fact…photo albums that have “gallery” type functions.
Having “other groups that are similar” is nice..but unless I have the option of choosing what those groups are…it just be leave a negative slant on my group messages.
Example. I run a certain type of tractor group. There were others out there (and still are) that did the same thing, owner disappeared, opened membership to all. And unmoderated. It has all the web cam spammers, etc. Yahoo will not do anything to change ownership Yahoo will not help us out with trying to add a moderator. Yahoo does nothing on those sites to suppress the spam.
Since that is still an “active” site, it would probably be associated with mine as “another group”.
So…if I can pick and choose what groups are in that association box..it is a good idea. If not….you are wasting your marketing energy…and making it more difficult for owner/moderators…and in reality the group members.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
Bill
Cher said,
March 13, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
I do not want my private groups posted like this, featuer neded to turn it off…also, how fairly will representavie groups be protrayed if everyone wants to be advertised, eg out of 500 avian groups whose will get put up and by wht methods are they chosen??? We need to insure fairness here and it seems it will be dificut to achieve.
I ned to advertise my non private groups, however so how do I know they will be shown? To who and where, how, etc?
Would not want to increase spam, you know?
I used to be on over a dozen avian groups so had tons of members on my lists bbut now am handicapped and on only a fwe groups wehre advertisig is not allowed eg species specific list…so we have the same folks for about 10 years and we aer few in number…we really need a better way to advertises our own groups at our own discretion it seems to me. That would be more helpful to me andn for my group members. G
Cher BIRDWISE
Vicki Meldrum said,
March 13, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
Why would we want to advertise groups Yahoo thinks our members would like to join? As a list owner, I work hard in building my group and making it successful and this will only serve to pull my membership away from my group to other groups and make my group less successful. I don’t want my group advertised in that way becasue I have strict criteria on who can join my group for the protection of my members. I have no problem with spammers now and I would have to remove my group from the directory if this is the only way to keep this feature off my group.
oklatom said,
March 13, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
I don’t have a bit of trouble using the search feature to find groups that I might be interested in. I don’t need you telling me I might be interested in something because someone in my group is in another group too, in fact I can see where it might embarrass someone if others knew all the groups they were in. Leave things alone that work, and concentrate of fixing the things that are broken.
Barb said,
March 13, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
I am not in favor of this at all! You can be assured that if there is a turn off switch I’ll hit it. We have enough junk already without some impersonal computer recommendation.
I say trash this idea before you ever get it going! It would have been nice to have been consulted about this before you set it in motion!!
I vote NO on this one! >:{
Brad Majors said,
March 13, 2008 @ 10:49 pm
I would rather see this list on the ‘My Groups’ page than with EVERY EMAIL that is sent through the group.
I belong to a couple of groups that are VERY high volume, sometime 50+messages each day in 5 groups. It would totally drive me away from Y! Groups to HAVE to see the same listing 200 times a day…
Debbie said,
March 13, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
And you are doing this because it was highly suggested? I find that hard to believe. I don’t mind ads in emails because ads are what keeps this service free, for which I am truly grateful. However, advertising of other groups in emails is a ridiculous idea.
As long as I, as group owner, can turn off these ads for other groups, then I’m ok with this.
Personally, I wouldn’t even want these ads on my groups’ home pages either.
The suggestion to improve the search feature for groups was the best idea.
big b said,
March 13, 2008 @ 11:45 pm
i dont know what is this but i jes time pass
RS said,
March 13, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
DOH! So close. Good idea, HORRIBLE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.
You DON’T DO this in EVERY MAIL!? (a) Eats message room (b) clutters every message up (c) will it be part of the reply, hogging size when being re-delivered? (d) no control over the groups (suddenly my membership in Doll Collecting shows up for my Group on Harley Riding? NOT GOOD!!
(1) it sounds like you are opting us in by default with the only out option to be by removal from the directory. This is a terrible idea. Just as every terrible idea you have had has been. STOP doing this stuff! It drives us up the wall! Suddenly my group takes a hit, and I get the flak? No thanks!
(2) Leave this on the home page NOT EACH MESSAGE!! No offense, but are you high? We said on the beta we hated the banner at the top of the mails, what do you think us getting the same ads along side our message each time is worth to us? What possible logic could you have for doing this in such a poor manner?
(3) THE MODERATOR MUST HAVE CONTROL OVER THIS FEATURE. Simple: Use: Yes/No; Add group: Mod picks by url. End of story. Random = Bad. In messages is bad too. I’m glad you are at least asking us about these things before dropping them in. Please keep it up. But don’t be surprised when we tell you they were bad moves.
Remember what I have said before:
*Yahoo does not “get” us. For whatever reason you don’t understand how/why we use your groups, or what our desires are. This is a classic example of what NOT to do. The basic idea is even one I brought up a few times, but if I’d known this is what you’d heard I would have corrected myself ASAP. DO NOT DO THIS. PLEASE!!! Back to the drawing board. Hurry! Before you add another black eye to this product.
Last question: It looks like this is being added to the ‘Fully Featured’ format? If we stay traditional will we be safe from this terrible feature?
Once again, applying a one-size fits all feature where preference needs to be present for positive response. Ball: On floor. Hands: Covered in butter.
“Hear you nothing that I say?”
-Yoda
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:04 am
OK, Here’s your new plan if you have to do this.
(1) Moderator has full control over this module.
MOD can:
(o) Leave the feature off, and KEEP HIS GROUP REGISTERED!
(o) Apply as a module to the home page
(o) Apply as a teaser link at the BOTTOM of an e-mail, which gens a random group name.
(o) Let the MOD choose specific groups known to the members to be interesting. (This group recommends)
(o) Let the MOD choose to let Yahoo make recommendations at random, per your system. (Yahoo also recommends)
Please show us some respect by offering us options and functions and letting us do with it what you want. I’ve said before Yahoo is out of touch with us, and only offering optional features and tools will you succeed in reaching a varied market like ours. One size will never fit all and will get you this backlash and more as the eGroups functionality we all loved for years is drilled away at, piece by piece….the insult to the injury is you’ll be crowing over it and we’ll be effectively spit on…again..
Your process and assumptions are wrong about what we want. Start there.
Hazelton said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:06 am
Yes. I agree with this completely. As people as they get frustrated with a group will then decide to leave the group and then decide to come back later. Then get frustrated with the group again and then decide to leave the group for good this time. Only to sometimes have secound thoughts later on and want to return back again.
Heather said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:28 am
I think that advertising other groups to the members of my groups is a terrible idea. Why would you even do this? Whomever came up with this obviously does not use your groups! Just because a feature CAN be added doesn’t mean that folks need it to be added. I agree with one of the comments above about refining the search criteria. Spend the programming hours on that instead.
Lea said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:32 am
I applaud the new format having direct links to the group’s Messages/Files/Photos/Links/Database/Polls/members/Calendar. Very handy especially for moderators!
I really wish the “Recent Activity” block could be moved to the top immediately over the “Group Recommendations” module. It seems “lost” down on the bottom right.
It appears that “Reply to Group” link is missing. If it is not included, our email only members who receive daily digest will be forced to reply using their email program Reply button. In turn, many will not realize they should trim the digest contents before sending their message to group. This will cause moderators extra work moderating/editing such and/or time “teaching” them how to trim their replies..
Most importantly - the two groups that I moderate have a strict rule against members posting messages containing links to their own or other groups. The “Recommended Groups” feature will defeat that purpose. I sincerely hope you will add an option for moderators to turn off this module similar to that of the Y! Answers module.
Meg said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:45 am
Bad idea. I don’t want my group being advertised like that. Even though it’s “at group level” based on your tagging of groups held in common by members, it opens the door to my group members getting promotions of groups I don’t like, don’t respect, don’t want to be involved with, etc., and opens my group to invasions by undesirable members. If you don’t provide the means for a group owner to completely turn this off, I’ll pull all my groups out of YG. Period. To me, this is just another step in the direction of Grouplyfication. Why don’t you just refer all your users to Grouply? They do the same thing, and more.
ReduceReuseRecycle said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:55 am
Why do you feel the need to mess around with something like this when the answer to your perceived problem is staring you in the face? FIX THE SEARCH PROBLEMS!
I agree with many of the previous posters, especially “RS said, March 13, 2008 @ 11:56 pm”, “Vicki Meldrum said, March 13, 2008 @ 10:25 pm”, and “Emmy said, March 13, 2008 @ 9:43 pm”.
Take this off the table– we don’t need or want it.
Plattenfuzzi said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:09 am
I agree with many of the previous posters that the group owners should be able to turn this “feature” off. There are many good reasons why certain groups are not listed in the public accessible directory. I really don’t want to see these groups promoted in groups where everybody - search engines included - has access to the message archive.
Cheryl said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:47 am
I hope there is a way to turn it off. I don’t like this at all.
Hal said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:54 am
I have private groups, and this is the last thing I need. I’m glad to see the majority is against it, and I hope it simply goes away very quickly. Don’t need it, don’t want it, and my members might leave if this happens.
Paw Paw said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:24 am
Reasons have been covered….
NO, this is unwanted….
Only troubles to existing groups can come of this.
It has taken years for many of the group owners, to build their groups as they have them now. Why, would they want to promote other groups, within their group??
Build a better main search engine, for all Yahoo groups…
Not force individual groups, to do what the Yahoo Search Engine, is suppose to be doing now.
Crystal said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:26 am
Amazine, thats good service it will make our groups more popular !
but i wonder from this question
I don’t want my group to be recommended. Do I have a choice?
Can I get my blog listed in this group?
http://crystalart-in.blogspot.com
thanks
Crystal said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:29 am
Really Interesting feature. I really look forward to it. How soon will it come [:)]
How can i get add my blog?/?
All the best.
jessi said,
March 14, 2008 @ 3:41 am
Hi,
In the group I’m co-owner of I created a file in the links section just for this purpose and to show other groups.
jessi
Gloria said,
March 14, 2008 @ 4:05 am
One more comment…. I hope (and am pretty sure) that YahooGroups knows that what they are proposing is exactly what Grouply.com created with their “socialization” aspect of their email “make it easy for you” program.
You do know, I’m sure, that Y-Groups listowners who were outraged by Grouply.com’s tactics influenced they to implement an “Opt-OUT” feature so that our list messages’ would not be harvested/ collected/ transferred to the Grouply.com website.
Please have the same foresight and courtesy only please make what you are proposing an OPT-IN feature, so that it is not defaulted as the “norm: method on our lists. IOW, a listowner would have to select the feature to have the “other lists ads” appear in his/her group list messages.
Dave said,
March 14, 2008 @ 4:52 am
If this new feature were coming from a member of my list instead of Yahoo itself, I would ban the member for featuring other groups on my list. I think it would be much better for Yahoo to allow anyone (members or moderators) to find every group using the Yahoo search feature. This is a very poor feature right now and does not find adult groups at all. I think improving that single feature would make Yahoogroups far more open and available to the masses — and would increase membership by a galactic amount.
Also, I think a lot of members would complain that their Yahoogroups mail was being snagged by ISPs as spam because of the ads. Just dump this idea and move on to something else.
Dave
Diane said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:02 am
Looks to me like Yahoo needs to spend its time having listowners / moderators register or check in periodically. That would take care of some of the problems I’ve read above.
Seems much more productive than this goofy feature. I would definitely Opt Out as well. We’re a very small group that uses this as an informational site to remind each other of weekly meetings & who will & will not be attending those meetings. We definitely do not need or want this feature.
Diana said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:09 am
All this new “other relevant groups” will do is make it easier for
The Pirate Advertizers who are too cheap to pay YahooGroups for time
and space on YG servers and pages.
YahooGroups advertizing space is too valuable for The Pirate Advertizers to afford.
YahooGroups can’t afford to give them the free space in your ‘right now’ well respected groups; they are allowed in with their spam and the groups will migrate taking your advertizing base numbers with.
Apparently the new group owners don’t fill their groups the way we do
They don’t have friends telling three friends how great they are — I wonder why? Why do you want to turn YG into Grouply?
The Pirate Advertizers want to fill our on-topic lists
with Mortgage scams and Adult Content links and
Pills/Pharmacy Ads and Cocks and Cock enlargers and
do you want to be my best sexy friend offers.
We work hard ‘right now’ with scrrening new members and moderating messages to keep The Pirate Advertizers away from our members.
Why is YahooGroups trying to make it easier for them to find us?
I want to say right now that my members want to opt-out of your idea
that will leave them open to the above style of pirate advertizers.
Terri said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:13 am
While for some this feature might be great, but it really needs an option out of the listing without the group being forced to go on the unlisted group. I am the owner of several egroups, some of them have similar members and others have only a select few. I limit my membership by questioning the new prospective member as to their desire to join the group.
I’d rather see the groups put together better as you create the group. There are too many variables when selecting where and how to place your group. An example is…Entertainment…then breaks down to TV or Movie…then breaks down even more. Like in any file system, the more levels you put out there the more frequently the person can get lost. If it stopped at say 3 levels it would make it easier to locate a group.
Denise said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:15 am
i think removal from the directory does NOT keep them from showing up on YOUR own group…just keeps yours from showing up on others…right?
I think is totally horrid. For example…in my area there was one group who has many of the same members who recently was has been accused of fraud and so on. Yahoo never removed her group so despite the horrid time she caused she still remains. I in no way back or support this other group…
but it appears I maybe “spamming” her on my group since we have many of the same members. this is so not right.
That is just one example.
I agree that you should list something like this to people on their own mygroups page, or improve your search engines…but you should leave the groups posts alone.
Mike Livsey said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:28 am
I love the comments so far. If anyone played Space Quest VI, the game would say “That’s an idea, not a good idea, but an idea nonetheless”. Feel free to implement it so that I can turn the feature off.
Katherine Harms said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:31 am
If you want to help me, you will find a way to show me groups that are talking about the same thing as my group. Related topics are important to me when I search for a group. I don’t ever join a group just because I know someone. I only join if the group is talking about a topic that interests me.
Bill H said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:32 am
The idea is OK but there may be better approaches. I don’t understand why Yahoo Search itself doesn’t do a better job of helping find phrases in the public groups to help people searching for their interests. Both Yahoo and Google searches do pretty well if you form your keywords well. For example, if you are interested in synthesizers (musical instruments) then search with
yahoo group synthesizer
and both searches do fairly well, but Google finds some links with a deeper connection.
Maybe in addition to using membership-relatedness, you could evaluate search engine results in the reccomendations.
The problem I have with Yahoo group search is that I get results with a lot of dead groups and irrelevant chaff because of the way owners describe their groups. It’s hard to read linearly through the results. So sorting options would be very helpful idea there.
Bill H
Satori said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:33 am
I don’t like this idea at all. First of all I don’t run groups in order to win a popularity contest, so I really don’t care if this new feature means they are going to recommended all over the place. I also take a lot of care in who belongs to them, making sure we don’t end up with spammers, posers, people joining them with alternative agendas and worse. I advertise my groups myself and suggest them to those I “meet” if I think they might be interested. I absolutely do not think it’s at all fair to tell us if we don’t want our groups included in this new feature we then have to be “unlisted” in the Yahoo directory. There should be an opt-in and opt-out on this one, I’m sorry. Another comment here said it will look like we are supporting or recommending groups that we do not want to be associated with and I heartily agree with that. Another pointed out that we have a links section where we can recommend other groups that we know to be good ones, and that is very true as well. And I really, really don’t think people want this list of other groups stuffed into one side of every group email they get — that’s just ridiculous. I can tell you right now that many members of my groups are going to hate this idea for a myriad of reasons. Why is it that when some people decide they want to do something on their groups the rest of us apparently are forced to go along with it?
Diana said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:43 am
quoted from a YahooGroups page
“No spam please! When in doubt, please refer to our Community Guidelines.”
Do YahooGroups seriously believe that this weak notice makes any difference with the spammers and pirate advertizers?
Our groups have ‘requests to join’ every day with little messages like
” Hi, i’d like to find a sexy friend. ”
Ours is a serious learning group not a place for hookers and johns to meet.
Karen P said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:47 am
I am AGHAST at this idea. I beg of you to PLEASE make this an optional feature in each individual group. We want our group to be listed in the Yahoo groups, BUT I do NOT want these “recommendations” to be shown along the left-hand column. We are a group dealing with a specific dangerous eye disease. We have one particular competitor group that some of our members also belong to that is getting paid money to influence people to become “guinea pigs” for a new, untested, procedure. The reason OUR group was created was to give people the whole story, and let them make their OWN choice if they want to be used as a guinea pig, or not, instead of making it sound like that’s the only way to go, and not let them know that they will be used to test a product. We are our own group, and do not want to “advertise” that group to our members.
Also, we kicked a member out of our group who deliberately dangerously misinformed members about doing some very dangerous things with their eyes. That member went and created his own group, even using our group’s name in their own name without our permission! I DO NOT want to advertise that group’s name on our board!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE allow this to be an option in the “management” secton of the groups, and don’t force us to “advertise” our competitors- one of which is especially dangerous to our members!
I just hate to make our group “unlisted” because we need to be available for those looking for help with this potentially debilitating disease. However, if you do this and don’t make it optional, my only choice will be to take away the availability of this information to newly diagnosed people who are going blind in order to protect the existing members we have.
Our group is called FuchsSupport.
Heike said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:54 am
I must say I am very dissapointed in this feature. While I am not opposed to it as a community group I am definitely opposed to it as a Newsletter group of my business. Now I am being pushed to take my newsletter of the directory, because the last thing I want is my customers chosen other businesses over mine.
That’s a very bad deal for me.
I would have rather liked Yahoo to take our concerns of how to run our groups more efficiently and install some of the items that would help us to do so, like adding attachments to the calendar feature, for example.
If this ‘advertising’ feature could be turned of by the group owner without having to leave the directory, would have been a much better solution.
JMHO
Wendy said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:54 am
Every time I turn around, Yahoo has changed something that requires me to take steps to protect my members’ privacy and to prevent them from being spammed, this being the latest one.
Yahoo should take note of the number of group owners opposed to this idea. I agree with other posters that this will increase competition between similar groups and that competition will be unwanted. I also find the proposed email sidebar is distracting (I loathe the non-traditional format you imposed a while back). I also agree that this measure, if implemented, gives group owners who wish to protect their group members’ privacy little choice but to delist their group. These “recommendations” do little more than spam everyone in the group with every single message sent out.
I see an even more privacy important issue, however. I am assuming that the group recommendations will be based on OVERALL group membership, not the individual email poster themselves. If they are not, then it will reveal information about the poster they may not wish known to other group members (i.e., their interests) which is a huge invasion of their privacy. Regardless of the source, if those interests generate group recommendations which are upsetting to other group members who receive those emails and the associated advertising, we risk having very upset members! Can you imagine how someone who was a committed Christian receiving group recommendations to atheist or sexually explicit groups? You violate our privacy to begin with by even suggesting these to begin with but you risk upsetting a much wider group of people.
This is a terrible idea! I hope that Yahoo Groups listens and dumps it altogether.
hendri said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:57 am
I sincerely hope you do NOT implement this. Just fix the group search engine. Emails already have enough junk on them they’re hard to read. We don’t need anything more added to the message body than what’s already there. This is a privacy issue as well.
Grouply didn’t do it the right way in making us opt out. If you are determined to go through with this despite what I’ve read above as the overwhelming majority NOT in favor of, then make it an opt in. We shouldn’t have to opt out on all our groups. If we want it, and I’m seeing most don’t we can opt in on our own and it’s our choice as owners. I think you’ll find a majority won’t opt in and will quickly drop it as an option.
C said,
March 14, 2008 @ 5:57 am
What an AWFUL idea! There are *many* very good reasons for not doing this already listed above, so I won’t rehash them all here. I want to especially point out Jeanne @9:08pm’s and RS @ 11:56pm’s comments listing excellent reasons for NOT doing this.
People seem to find my groups just fine without this “feature”.
If you must do this, put it on the home page with Yahoo Answers (which needs a lot of work, IMO), not in the posts. I also want the ability to opt-out (opt-in would be better) COMPLETELY, without going private. My biggest group is registered, but there are many groups covering the same topic that put out inaccurate or misleading information and I don’t want my group to be associated with them. I’m not in a competition for how many new members I can get in a week/month/year; I want to have a quality group.
In the best of all worlds, you’d drop this horrible idea entirely. Fix the search engine instead.
Susan said,
March 14, 2008 @ 6:25 am
Group owners should be able to turn this feature off WITHOUT being removed from the directory. I think many owners want the public to be able to search and find their listservs but do not want to, in essence, advertise similar listservs in their messages.
Mike Graf said,
March 14, 2008 @ 6:38 am
This might be a good idea for some new groups.
I do not see it benefiting older established groups.
I belong to quite a few yahoo groups and manage or own several of them.
I fulfill the moderator function on three blacksmithing /metalworking lists.
Even with the same subject and, moderator and some overlapping of membership each group is different in character.
I believe this idea will homogenize the unique character that each group possesses.
I also would like to see this cross listing as an option that the moderator could set at any time.
Joe said,
March 14, 2008 @ 6:38 am
Very bad idea..please listen to the feedback and drop it now..
John said,
March 14, 2008 @ 6:42 am
It seems pretty obvious that this is not a feature that is desired by most of the list owners. Please do not force this feature on us!
Elizabeth said,
March 14, 2008 @ 6:51 am
Bad idea. I hope this does not happen. Search for groups is fine like it is. I vote NO.
Cherri said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:07 am
I think it is obvious from the fact that this post went up yesterday and as of this morning you have 75 moderators telling you this is not a good idea, that this needs to be an optional feature, and not one that can’t be turned off. While it might serve a purpose for some, I also think there are much better things that Yahoo Groups could be spending their time upgrading. Thanks.
Sue said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:15 am
I”m glad we can opt out of this. I don’t allow URL’s to other groups
in my groups, but you want to spam them on us. No thanks.
MaryLee said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:18 am
Count me in as another owner that thinks this is a terrible idea without giving the group owner the ability to 1) exclude his/her group without removing it from the directory and 2) prevent the display within his/her own group.
Fun-X Group said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:27 am
instead of this, if yahoo intorduce sothing like adsense which will give opportunity to earn money from group that will be more helpful
Fun-X Group said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:27 am
instead of this, if yahoo introduce sothing like adsense which will give opportunity to earn money from group that will be more helpful
Robert Schechter said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:29 am
I don’t want my other interests (or the fact I belong to another group) advertised. They may NOT have anything tying the two groups together, other than my join membership.
Mark McGee said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:45 am
I believe the list owners should make the decision about whether to turn this feature on or off. That way we could give it a try and receive feedback from our members about whether they want it available to them. It ultimately needs to serve the members. Thanks for the opportunity to share our thoughts about this new feature.
A. H. Shaikh said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:50 am
Excellent. Ths feature would certainley help members to know there are more such groups which they may be interested. I am looking forward for such an initiative from Yahoo.
But Yahoo should consider that group owners should be able to turn this feature off without being removed from the directory. I think many owners want the public to be able to search and find their groups.
prince mark adigbo {west african} said,
March 14, 2008 @ 7:55 am
well its a nice idea to share common interest like this, its most welcoming and especially to my waffirian community where you have much more to talk about most likely in the oil and gas industry which my poeple are naturally blessed with in nigeria, west africa where i am a prince in my kingdom under the royal household of chief adigbo oghojafor of ovu inland.
Barbara Crawford said,
March 14, 2008 @ 8:02 am
NO, NO, NO!!!!!!! Why do you persist in adding more garbage in the email messages? It’s already too busy and needs to be “cleaned up.” The groups I am in are based on topics, NOT for who the members are in a group. It’s easy enough to do a search for a group topic, so we don’t need this. If you must add it, put it on the groups home page. I agree that an opt-in feature should be available if you implement this new & unimproved feature.
Polly said,
March 14, 2008 @ 8:10 am
Either forget this or make it an optional feature. While a few groups might benefit and even welcome this change, I personally feel that for most, it will only create more problems. On a couple of my lists, this could even put the personal, spiritual, and emotional safety of my members at risk.
Bad idea! If it is implemented without an opt-out feature, I will be forced to seriously consider removing my lists (one of which is the largest and most active list with its area of focus on Yahoo), and taking them to another service where the privacy of my members are more valued.
Thomas Rohde said,
March 14, 2008 @ 8:29 am
Dear Yahoo,
As I understand this you are telling me that I have to de-list my group in order to avoid what you call *recommendations* for related groups. I think this idea is inappropriate and a detriment to my being able to keep my group safe. In addition, I am afraid that my members will be spammed and contacted by people that they would rather not be in contact with.
Please give us moderators the option to participate in this *idea*.
Marge said,
March 14, 2008 @ 9:12 am
There is too much extra stuff already, and to “advertise” a group that doesn’t want to be advertised isn’t nice. If you are taking votes, mine is no.
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 9:59 am
Me again. This is more of an advice to Yahoo Groups about their product to help them understand it and many of us, and why this move has generated such negative reaction. I am speaking in the plural here, because of my many years of seeing how YG is used in practice, and making the leap that my experience is similar to those of most others. Feel free to disagree, fellow users.
Dear Yahoo Groups team,
Yahoo Groups was, is, and should stay a *topic-centered* product. People join a group because they are interested in a topic, not necessarily because of the people who are in the group. Your proposal is a people-centered option, trying to surface content based solely on membership crossover(people). The irrelvance of topics to the equation rubs against the grain of the topic-centric nature of YG. Also, removing any ability for the moderator to control this feature continues the ‘foisting’ of features the users do not ask for on to the users, which many users are quite tired of. The chain of negative feedback above should serve to illustrate the ill will out there towards your process. It generates the impression you don’t understand us, or seek to meet our needs. YG is a superior product, but that’s because it started out that way. Every change in the last 5 years has been poorly designed, poorly implemented and/or reduced the very simple functionality users have always loved from egroups/onelist/YG. I feel it is imperative you understand this. We love the product, but I see an increasing amount of users that feel like you continue to ‘fix what isn’t broken’ to sing an old song around here. So here’s what we do with it:
People use YG to distribute e-mail about the topic(s) WITHIN that group. That’s its primary function and purpose. Anything that reduces the facilitation of that is a hinderance. Only the owner should decide what content and features come to the group. NOT Yahoo. We’re not here for your ideas, we are here for our own. Yahoo doesn’t know us. Yahoo can’t read our minds or find our interests for us. Help *us* find find intersting topics by improving and refining the YG search features, not by randomly vomiting guesses on us that we can’t escape, and that detract from the primary usage of each group. Let owners/mods find related, active groups and choose to share that content on their main page of the group, if that. Don’t clutter our inbox with irrelevancies. We don’t use our e-mails for that. Do you? I’d wager not. Serendipity *can* be attained, but not this way. It has to be logical to the use of the product by the user. This is not a product-logical solution.
The point of e-mail is its content (ie the topic). Anything unrelated is an aggrevation because it is off-topic. Off topic items are a source of aggrevation in *any* topic-centric application. Many mods struggle to keep their groups centered on the topic at hand, and keep membership and participation up. These side distractions in *every e-mail* represent an incredible encouragement towards interest going elsewhere.
YG is topic-centric, not people-centric. It is not a social networking site, and you should resist the urge to try to add much of that aspect into it. Its an information distribution and discussion service. We don’t come to share our entire life here, just the parts of our lives that relate to the *topics* of the group. This is why we use it, generally speaking, and a bit about how. I hope this helps you understand us better.
If you want to add serendipity, I think that’s quite possible, but you need to involve us users in the process of getting there because your actions are so contrary to the logical use of your product, that it suggests to many of us that you don’t understand us or your own product’s use. What you are after can be attained, but under no circumstances should it be done at the message level, where it intereferes actively with the group with every post. Call us, we’ll talk. Bring us in on these developments, and avoid the embarrassment and bad feelings caused of these types of attempts. We don’t know what you are doing or why, or what your priorities are. Open up, get the feedback, and let us guide you. That’s all we ask. You’ll get a superior product when the users tell you what they want, and you do it. Until that’s truly your model, expect this kind of response. You’ll be earning every word of it. Want happy users? Ask them what they want and give it to them. How simple is that?
Good luck.
Administrator said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:09 am
***UPDATE***
I see that many of you have questions and concerns over this new feature that we’re testing and I wanted to assure you that we’re reading through all of your comments. We can’t respond to each comment individually but instead will be reviewing the comments over the next few days and address them in a post next week. Your feedback is very valuable to us and we appreciate your effort to share your thoughts with us.
Thank you for your patience,
Jami
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:10 am
One last item. I have started the equivalent of a petition to NOT implement this feature by using the suggestion boards for YG. If you *do not* want this feature, please go to this suggestion:
http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?prop=groups&fid=79637
And add your vote. Lets make sure they hear us loud and clear from every angle.
Cheers!
Anna said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:16 am
We have not allowed the advertising of other groups in our group for years and now you are going to do it. This really makes no sense except to spam us with info about other groups. With over 3000 members and a high volume of mail I think this is going to wind up as more of a detriment than a benefit. I really hope we as Owners/Moderators can shut this off. I personally do NOT want anything to do with it. I’m sure my members are smart enough to look up the kinds of groups they are interested in without a continuous prompt from yahoo.
June said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:16 am
This is a TERRIBLE idea, for all the reasons mentioned, PLUS maybe a group doesn’t want to ‘recommend’ their competition. If your members want to go out and look for other groups on their own, then so be it but, why should you help them find them easily? Does Macy’s advertise for Sears? I don’t think so.
Why not do something constructive like eliminate all the groups where no one has posted for a year or more to make searches more constructive? Is someone going to be screening what gets ‘recommended’ or are people going to be directed to some of these obviously defunct groups as well?
Also, simply having members in common does not mean that a group has any relevance to my group members at large. Who knows what some of my members might be into. For instance, are adult related groups going to be advertised on a PG type group? I don’t know who came up with this idea but, it’s a real dud!
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Thanks Jami. Good to know you are at least still out there and reading. Please consider my emphasis a sign of my passion for the groups product. There’s tons of goodwill out here, but it gets strained when these issues rear up. FWIW, YG has improved its communications with users greatly and does appear to be listeneing in many respects, but then these type things happen, and I start to worry and wonder again.. I look forward to helping Yahoo develop this concept in a useful way.
Jazzy said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:20 am
I am totally against this, the members in my groups know that they can post in the group without being bothered by other members posting about their groups within the group, isn’t that what the link section is for, let them use the link section to advertise their groups, if any member is interested they will follow the link to the groups that they want to join. Inaddition it takes away from the discussion that the members are having. Also, any new member that joins my groups are on moderation it will take time to read & reject their post, infact in my groups we have a guideline for members to follow. Like I said I think this is a very bad idea.
Jazzy
loo loo said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:31 am
I think this is an absolutely horrible idea.
Group owners are very protective of their groups. and not all groups appove of eachother, Some actually are rivals. That being said, I do not want to help out a group starting out, that has made ill reference to me and my group by letting them advertise on my group. No thank you.
and if you can’t turn this feature off??? are you kidding me? I say No, No, NO!
Kathy said,
March 14, 2008 @ 10:33 am
I think from what I’m reading that almost everyone feels the same as I do. This is not wanted or needed. Anyone needing to search for a group can just do it from the search. It’s not needed for you to suggest other groups to us. I’m totally against this idea, I think it’s an invasion of privacy. I also think it’s just going to add more junk to an email than is already there from group mail and I don’t want that. The messages are already messy enough and over crowded making them difficult to read.
Please take a vote from all members before going forward with this idea. I think you’re going to find most won’t want it.
Margot Milner said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:05 am
ONLY if I can opt out. a) It’s spam; b) There is enough stuff in the messages now that it’s almost impossible to trim; c) this is not a substitute for doingsomething about the search feature. Basically, no, thank you.
Lou B said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:09 am
This means that subject related groups will be promoted?
So if I understand this correctly then this does not please me. I will not allow my members of my group to promote another group when posting.
Can this feature be turned off?
PK said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:21 am
This seems like spam to me. We are required to have enough (stuff) on the right side of our emails now. If I am interested in another group I will look for it.
Please reconsider this idea.
Respectfully,
PK
Nora Jean Gatine said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:35 am
No No NO… I’ve been working for nearly 10 years building a group with a team of volunteers and the last thing we want is to have similar groups be advertised in our group space. If a member advertised a competing Yahoo Group it is in direct violation of our SPAM policy they would be banned. Since our group has been around for almost a decade and has nearly 2K list members, it’s an attractive target for “johnny come lately’s” to join just to advertise their group. Like we’re a captive audience for someone who doesn’t want to have to do the work to build a group up from scratch and keep it going for as long as my volunteers and I have done.
Shall we take our members else where? Because believe me, our members aren’t with us because we’re a part of Yahoo Groups, they are with us in spite of the fact that they have to get a Yahoo ID to participate. We have the content that these members want. Not Yahoo. As opposed to thinking that you’re doing us a favor by providing this service for free, realize that we’re doing you the favor for driving traffic to your portal, from which you make money off of Ads. Yahoo Ads are enough, ok? We don’t want to advertise other groups no matter how many of our group members are in those other groups.
Get OVER the notion that Yahoo Groups has to be a “SOCIAL NETWORK” like MySpace or FaceBook. Doesn’t it occur to the powers that be at Yahoo that maybe some people don’t want that sort of interface? That the reason why Yahoo Groups members are part of an email group is because it’s a self enclosed environment? There’s a sense of intimacy that is built over time with members who know each other and have developed a bond of trust in order to share what they have to share.
Who ever signed off on this idea must never been a Yahoo Group owner/moderator/member. The decision makers at Yahoo Groups must never had years of their time and effort to build a group be jeopardized by some half baked idea. Do you at Yahoo want to have your personal group subscriptions scrutinized? That’s what you’re suggesting. Someone wrote a program that checks the subscriptions of all Yahoo Group members and tallies them. NO No No. Aren’t we already loosing our privacy enough?
Have anyone at Yahoo Groups even addressed the “Grouply” problem? Do you care that our group’s posts are being stored on someone else’s servers? Posts that can be seen by anyone connected to another person’s social network? Some Yahoo Groups are discussing some sensitive issues of physical and mental health, sexuality, religion, etc. We’re being violated. Why should Yahoo Group owners have to jump through a handful of hoops to get their group’s posts off of Grouply’s servers when Yahoo Groups could PROTECT us in one felled swoop and put a stop to Grouply storing our posts. By ignoring this glaring oversight and by suggesting another privacy violating idea you’re going to loose Yahoo Groups, taking hits and eyeballs from your portal. That effects your bottom line. It’s ultimately a money loosing proposition for Yahoo. If our privacy means nothing to you then your earning should.
I’m part of a Yahoo Groups “family”. We have many Yahoo Groups under one umbrella. If this sort of idea takes hold it’s easy enough to move our members to a PHP-Nuke environment on one of our many websites. Then we can insure that our members have a better chance of privacy.
Hbro said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:39 am
do this for just public groups and leave the private groups out of this
Nancy P said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:57 am
I do not care to have our group used as a means to further another group that may say they have similar topics or concerns.
Not all groups are equal.
I know that there are other groups that come under listings similar to ours but only use it as a means to talk about things that have nothing to do with the disease they are suppose to represent.
When it comes to health topics especially, it is the wrong place to be dropping group names like they know what they are doing.
We have over 1,000 members. We do not need more things added to our group. The members come to hear about a disease and they do not care to see your advertising. That is what I consider some of the things that it seems you would be putting on our site.
I am a big NO and if you are going to try it anyway, then I would suggest that the owners have a say in whether they want it or not on their group. Otherwise, give us a shut off button.
If it is forced on us, then we may have to seek other means to do our work.
Nancy P
Health group
Carina said,
March 14, 2008 @ 11:59 am
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
For all the reasons stated. I own/co own four yahoogroups. We have built our groups for years and are proud of an active and helpful community. While we are not threatened by losing members to other groups and in fact have no rule against recommending other groups, no way do we want to see similar groups advertised on the same page.
It is actually quite easy to search for other yahoogroups. Now if yahoo wants to do something really useful, why not delete all the abandoned and inactive lists that sit there gathering spam? THAT would make it easier for people to search for groups.
I really hope you don’t consider this. Thank you.
Alex said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
hi
how r ya
Susan said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
It is my understanding that there will be an option to opt out. HOWEVER, I have also heard *if you opt out* your group will be removed from the Yahoo listserv directory. Is this true? It makes no sense that because a list owner does not want to have other groups recommended on their messages, further cluttering up the message which are already cluttered with ads, that their listserv will be removed from the directory. In addition, I would not want certain groups included in my list messages not to mention groups I do not even know about. If this is true I find it to be an unreasonable and unfair way to essentially force list owners to go along with this feature or be taken out of the directory. The directory is easily searchable for all available lists.
W. Marie Werth said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
This doesn’t really make sense. Some groups are competitors for the attention of the participants in whatever interest they discuss. Would putting Ford ads in a Chevy newletter make sense? If you spread out memberships too thin, then the groups will suffer. Yahoo should concentrate on NOT being bought by microsoft and leave the group structure alone.
Pat said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
I do not want this either as my group is for personal use of the members in it. We do not need or want to be forced to unsub from something we never wanted in the first place. To show other groups to each other is like making yahoo groups into a Wal-mart groups out of us. We group owners started our groups for our own reasons and we feel we should be the one to let others know we are out there.
Lou B said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
I just saw the new format come thru on an individual post … I DO NOT WANT THESE OTHER GROUPS ADVERTISED IN MY GROUP. IF I MUST, I WILL LEAVE YAHOO AND MOVE TO MSN OR GOOGLE. PLEASE REMOVE THIS FORMATING FROM MY GROUP…!!!!!
CHEAP_CAMPING IS MY GROUP.
Deb said,
March 14, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Please reconsider this option. Definitely make it optional and let owners opt out. You will find that only the owner-less lists will keep it!
I agree with many others here that spending time dealing with ownerless lists would be much better than whatever time was spent on this project. Making the search engine better would be a help–but not this way.
Mo said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
I do not like this new feature of listing other groups on the sidebar of my group’s emails. I also do not like the idea of my groups being mentioned on groups I do not approve of or like, just because we may have common members. The groups that are being listed on my groups sidebar may have members common to mine but the groups themselves are not similar! Sharing recipes or collecting appliances is not the same as collecting cookbooks!
Please remove this feature or at least give us the option to turn it off.
Thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion.
Mo said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
I do not like this new feature of listing other groups on the sidebar of my group’s emails. I also do not like the idea of my groups being mentioned on groups I do not approve of or like, just because we may have common members. The groups that are being listed on my groups sidebar may have members common to mine but the groups themselves are not similar! Sharing recipes or collecting appliances is not the same as collecting cookbooks!
Please remove this feature or at least give us the option to turn it off.
Also, having the largest membership does not appeal to all of us. Quality of member is much more important than quantity.
Thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion.
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
A response to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
“Why are you recommending groups to me that I am already a member of?
The recommendations are based at the group level, not at the individual member level. That is, we are only looking at groups that share members. Future enhancements of this feature will exclude your existing memberships. ”
So we get a halfway complete feature? Not even a complete one? That’s a GREAT idea. Always makes members happy to have a semi-functional product. And it only examines one angle? This isn’t even a real feature, it’s a pretend feature. It only sounds useful, and that’s if you aren’t paying closer attention. It isn’t actually telling you anything besides “oh by the way I noticed a coincidence”. Data we didn’t ask for, data we don’t want or need, and in our e-mail, in EVERY e-mail we get from every group. Can you see why we users would look at this and scratch our heads?
“These groups don’t have anything to do with my group. Why are you showing them to me?
Recommendations are made by looking at your group and finding other groups that share common members. If there is enough overlap between members, we will recommend the group. Future enhancements of this feature will include more relevant recommendations to you.”
Again, how do you know what is relevant to me? Without me even telling you?
Who asked for this feature? It wasn’t us users, I can tell ya that. Check the suggestion boards if you need proof. See above re: the “by the way” factor. Again, and admission that this is an incomplete “feature”.
“I don’t want my group to be recommended. Do I have a choice?
You can remove your group from the Yahoo Group directory to make it unlisted if you do not want it to appear in recommendations. However, we highly encourage you to stay listed as this will help interested members find you. Visit Groups Help for instructions on how to remove your group from the directory: ”
So I don’t HAVE to be listed but I *do* have to suffer the listings in every e-mail, KNOWING (per above) that the feature (a) won’t be relevant to me (b) isn’t even done yet. Couldn’t ya, I dunno, do a beta on that FIRST, and roll us
out a completed, functional product, as altered by user feedback already? Would that not be, ya know, logical? And either I am all the way in and get listed how and wherever you see fit, or I don’t get listed at all? Wow! That seems pretty harsh. You get ALL (done our way) or nothing! Mneh! Comes across kinda authoritarian to me. So much for friendly? What about my poor members who don’t want their membership in another group posted for the psychostalker types to find? Suggesting this group also creates a suggestion that a particular member that muight be bing stalked can also be found in other groups, run by less protective mods. Security issues created too! Wowzers. Is there anything GOOD here? I can’t see it.
And, hello…. Its not about us not getting *our* groups cross-listed, its about NOT WANTING LISTINGS TO APPEAR AT ALL.
I hope you see how flawed this announcement was, and also re-examine your entire development process. We shouldn’t have to suffer through Yahoo’s development process. That should be done elsewhere with real users to get a good product *before* “tesing it out” on all of us. Thanks for at least warning us this one was coming, and giving us a forum to say NO WAY, SAN JOSE! It at least beats the last round of so-called ‘improvements’…
Sorry for the umpteenth post here, but this really sticks in my craw how much you all missed the mark on even the concept of this feature. I’ll be more helpful later. I do have ideas for how this could be done, but I really want to know the brakes have been applied to this project first.
Carina said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Yahoo is taking all our feedback very seriously. In fact, they really want to hear our opinions and will consider them carefully.
BS!!!! Whatever has been posted here has been completely IGNORED. There are now a string of listings under messages coming into my lists, with all the common list names and addresses.
This really, really sucks.
Thanks for NOTHING, Yahoo.
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
“Thanks for at least warning us this one was coming, ”
Or not as the case may be. Per Lou B’s post above it sounds like this has already been inflicted on some of us? *shakes head* I feel sorry for you Jami. I can only imagine what tragic company process guides these (revoltin’) developments,, and how your task of trying to onboard users to these things will likely be a stressful one.
Dangit Yahoo! Be nice to Jami! What did she ever do to you?
Margot Milner said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
Are you people crazy! You’ve had nothing but negative feedback on this and now it appears on our list! I think our group is moving to googlegroups.
Rae Creedle said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
PLEASE do not implement this. If you implement something similar, please put it on the user’s My Groups page. If you MUST implement it, please make it opt-in feature..
Like Yahoo Answers, this is another ill-conceived idea. Not only will this look like spam to members, it will open up groups to more spam.
Why don’t you just improve the search feature?
If you really want to do something which is needed, why not do something about the identical spam emails from different yahoo email addresses. I delete several of these and ban members posting them from the 4 groups I moderate EVERY DAY.
Rae
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
I think I found the problem:
YOUR GOAL:
“The goal is to help you connect with other people you share common interests with…”
Key problem, as I outlined above, this is a people-centric approach to a topic-centered service. People use YG by TOPIC not by common membership. Your solution is flawed because it is not oriented towards the primary usage of YG by YG members. It feels like at a corporate level you truly don’t understand the culture within the YG user community.
Your goal can be accomplished, as other users have said to no end above to by refining your search feature within YG. Stop the madness. Stop the rollout now, save what’s left of your image on this matter.
SandyO said,
March 14, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
I, too, am not in favor of the ‘common member’ feature. I agree with Mo; I don’t want my groups ‘advertised’ on other groups’ emails as they may not be groups I would recommend. And vice versa: other groups may not be ones I would suggest to my members so I don’t want them listed in my group emails. This is NOT a good idea. An improved search feature would be a better way for Yahoo! R&D staff to spend their time. Then it would be simple for people to find groups that mirror their interests.
Please take this away!
Lynn H said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
Count me as another who hates this idea. I own or moderate 14 Groups, from tiny sets of friends to a 2000-member education philosophy list, plus I am on about 26 more groups. I don’t allow other lists to advertise on my Groups. Many of my members are overseas, where they pay by the byte. Our big list can get very busy, so we moderate to keep it on topic, so the information does not get lost in the noise. We don’t need more ads of any sort. Make this an option the owner can turn off without going Private. Maybe make it an option individuals can turn on for themselves, but don’t spam everyone!
RS said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
I FOUND A FIX!
Set all your members to Traditional Message Delivery! This removes the spam links! It will take work on your part, and nothing prevents a member from switching back, but this eliminates the links. At least its a short term solution. Cheers.
northbaj said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
You must be kidding. Why on earth would we want more stuff filling the space where our posts should be. I do not want this, the members of my groups do not want this. Do not fix what is not broken.
sharon said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
Just because you can add more things to a screen does not mean that you should so so. The computer momitors are so crowded with add ons that it is difficult to scan and read messages. Communication is best done in a clear manner. All these additional features just clutter up the communication board and contribute to eye strain, fatigue, frustration, and anger. There is no need for this type of feature. Anyone who wants to search for another group can do so through the search function. Membership in a group should not be used as the basis of advertising other groups. Please stop meddling with what is a very functional format. You can “improve” something to the point that it no longer serves its original purpose and thereby loose your client base in the process. Leave the format alone.
Eva said,
March 14, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
Really, really BAD idea. Do you not get the fact that people here aren’t looking for MySpace? I detest the chaos, counterintuitive setup, and in-your-face advertising that is MySpace.Why would you want to try to make YG more like that? The current email layout is cluttered enough and now you want to add MORE to it?! Seriously, people don’t LIKE having advertising forced on them…we just tolerate because it’s pays for a service that we do like. Now you’re going to start advertising more and expect us to do a happy dance about it? The people making your decisions obviously don’t use the service themselves.
Oh, wait…you’re going to troll through my groups’ membership lists and look at other groups they’re on to find other “recommended” groups for my members? Gee, that’s so thoughtful of you. Because you (or the program you design to do this) have a real connection with and understanding of our members’ needs and will therefore know exactly which groups will be most appropriate for our members. I mean, you do so well with the random ads on our group pages (like an ad for sandals for a dollhouse miniaturist group).
All sarcasm aside, the group owners need control over this if you decide to waste your time actually implementing it. We should have the option to not participate without being removed from the pulic listings; the option to not have our emails include ads from other groups; and, for those who actually like the idea, the group ow