Calling all moderators: New Features Available to Test!
As shared in recent posts, the Yahoo! Groups team has been busy working to strengthen and improve the Groups site by building a new technology platform that will allow us to release features and fix bugs much faster than ever before. This work made possible the recent updates to Photos and is a first step toward all of the changes described in the blog post, what’s in store for Yahoo! Groups . We also have members of the team focused on developing some entirely new features; including a new kind of application platform we call "grouplets".
Those of you who have experimented with the PeopleMap have already gotten a sneak peak at our first grouplet, and yesterday we pushed a new release that offers eight new kinds of grouplets (Address Book, Birthday List, Favorites, For Sale, Give Away, Group Profile, Jobs, and Places Map) and the ability to add as many different grouplets to your group as you like (though you always have to start from one of these templates).
As with the PeopleMap, the "secret sauce" of all these applications (which have essentially the same "back end", only with different fields pre-selected as defaults) is the ability for you as a moderator to customize the grouplets to fit the exact needs of your group. So, for example, a parents group might want to use the Places Map application to create a list of after school programs in a particular neighborhood, while a local dog owners group might use the same grouplet to create a map of parks with dog runs.
Keep in mind that grouplets are still in early beta, and we aren’t yet providing links to them from the group home page, but you can try them out and add new grouplets to your group by going to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YOUR_GROUP_NAME/grouplets/manager
Your group members can then access any grouplets you have added by going to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YOUR_GROUP_NAME/grouplets/subscriptions
(NOTE: Keep in mind that in both cases you’ll need to replace "YOUR_GROUP_NAME" with the actual name of your group.)
We look forward to hearing what you think, whether the feedback is about the idea as a whole, about specific grouplets, or about ideas for new grouplets and new features related to grouplets.
To provide feedback, send email to groupslabs@yahoogroup.com (or join the Groups Lab group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/groupslabs if you want to participate in an ongoing discussion).
Please keep in mind that grouplets are still in early beta, which means:
- You can expect to see bugs.
- You can expect to see missing features and usability problems.
- You can expect down time and even the removal of some grouplets (if it turns out there is no interest in them or unforeseen technical problems).
In short, hold off on introducing grouplets to your group if you are concerned about experiencing any of the inconveniences listed above that come along with trying out a beta feature. If these kinds of inconveniences don’t scare you, we’d love to hear what you think.
Meanwhile, here are a few of the new options and features that we already know we want to add to grouplets in the coming months:
- The ability to upload photos to grouplet entries.
- The ability for members to comment on entries.
- The ability to add new types of fields such as multiple choice questions, composite fields, and multiple instance fields.
- A notification system that can alert group members to new activity in grouplets.
- The ability to import data into grouplets from the database, offline spreadsheets, or other sources.
- The ability to move data from one grouplet to another.
We look forward to hearing what else you want!
Thanks!
Yahoo! Groups Team
RS said,
October 23, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
I played with some of these this morning. You are off to a great start with this one. Keep at it!
User-type Folks: Its pretty basic at present, but you should be able to see how it can have a lot of applications to your groups with a bit of easy tweaking. As a member of a few RP groups, this is something I’m really psyched to see. Adding character info to your group is here, so you no longer need to have an outside website to host biographical data on. Once they add images, I may actually migrate a group TO yahoo groups. This was a big deal for me. Can’t wait to see how it develops!
Keep at it, YG team. This former whiner approves!
Karen B said,
October 23, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
Some of good ideas, depending on need. I’ve been playing with them on my test group but I keep getting error after error trying to save something or whatever. Hope all the bugs get worked out.
cajunlou2u said,
October 23, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
tried it with one of my groups,tntsouthernrecipes group, and got an error message saying this feature is not available. ??????What gives??????
Gordon (Groups PM) said,
October 23, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
There was a hardware problem affecting one of the servers this afternoon (because we’re in such early testing, we’re only hosting the application on a few boxes, so if one of them malfunctions it will generate frequent errors). We’ve pulled that box out of rotation so things should be working better now.
Cajunlou: Not sure if your problem was caused by that issue (you should have gotten a “server error” message for the problem above) or because you were trying to add grouplets to a group where you’re not the owner or a moderator with the power to change group settings.
RanDallk said,
October 23, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
Love the big , new and improved, cool yahoo gifts you brought back for all the Yahoo-gang.
Thanks for all that you do.
RanDallk ( living in Yahoo-world and my new-music site too.)
http://www.reverbnation.com/randallk
BC Don said,
October 23, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
It would be nice if the Group Profile grouplet had 3 additional spaces for URL links. Members could add their homepage, blogs and favourite groups.
Carl said,
October 23, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
I added a Group Profile grouplet to one of my groups and it all seemed to go well. Hopefully some of the members will be inspired by my invitation for them to add their profiles.
Initially I did not set up a default location for the Map View so when I viewed my profile I saw a map showing my location. Then I entered a default location, expecting that this would be displayed if - and only if - the person had not entered the necessary location info to their profile. I was wrong in my expectation because even though my profile has location info and even though it had displayed a map showing my location, after entering the default location the map displayed that location instead of mine. My understanding of “default” is that it should automatically provide information if and only if the user has not entered his/her personal information. The current Yahoo implementation goes contrary to this standard practice and, I believe, should be changed to allow user entered location info to take precedence over the default info.
Shalf said,
October 23, 2008 @ 9:09 pm
You can add them yourself BC Don. Click on “Settings” then “Form Settings (Edit)”. Then click on “Profile Page” three times. Move over to the right column and edit each new field’s title and description, and use the up and down arrows to put them where you want in the list of entries. Don’t forget to click the “Save Form” button before going to try it out.
Carl said,
October 23, 2008 @ 10:30 pm
As the owner of a Freecycle group, I’m wondering what benefits/advantages the Give Away grouplet might have to offer users over posting messages to the whole group. I’m not seeing any but maybe I’m missing something…?
Edward Hibbert said,
October 24, 2008 @ 1:19 am
The Freecycle one is interesting, but not quite suitable as it currently stands - for example it would need to go out by email rather than (as it seems) be a nicer front-end to the database system.
For an example of what it could look like, see http://wiki.memberplugin.org/ which adds Freecycle function via browser plugins.
What this illustrates is that you’d get a richer and better set of grouplets if you exposed an interface to allow people to develop them, rather than develop them yourselves.
I’d be very interested in working on an improved Freecycle grouplet with you.
focaljob said,
October 24, 2008 @ 2:38 am
what is free cyle group ??
Mattylad said,
October 24, 2008 @ 5:33 am
focaljob, go to http://www.freecycle.org to find out, ignore the my freecycle stuff and you should be able to find a Freecycle Yahoo group in your area.
In essence, its is a worldwide recycling group.
Dawn said,
October 24, 2008 @ 8:12 am
Tells me I do not have access to page. What am I doing wrong?
Steve Brannon said,
October 24, 2008 @ 9:07 am
I host a group for typewriter collectors and users to exchange information and typewriters and parts. The addition of the buy/sell and giveaway features is excellent. I look forward to using them on my group: TypeSwap.
Thank you for the hard work!
Steve
Kunhawa said,
October 24, 2008 @ 9:16 am
How can add these new grouplets on the home page same as map?
Hobs31 said,
October 24, 2008 @ 9:50 am
I enjoy this new feature. Recently opened my own group page, and this will be handy. I’d like to have a “favorites” that will accept links as active htmls. Is that possible currently? If it type it into the description section, it becomes text and not a link. Thanks!
Anshul said,
October 24, 2008 @ 10:21 am
Much needed updates. These were some of the basic things missing from Yahoo! groups. Very refreshing.
Keep it up.
As a grouplet, I would love to have a calendar for group.
Mike Mandulak said,
October 24, 2008 @ 11:08 am
Fantastic! I own a private group that is focused on guitar theory and practice, most of our discussion are conducted on a different privately owned message board from the company who we are learning from and it doesn’t have a file sharing capability so we use it primarily for file sharing purposes.
The users have requested for a “For Sale” place for a couple of years now where we could buy used guitar equipment from other students where they would have a more comfortable feeling of buying from someone they “know” rather than ebay etc.
There will be other applets that I’ll be looking at. I.E. since the members are globally situated the “Location applet” will be nice as well.
Amy said,
October 24, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Will there be a way to approve or reject entries?
How about an option to email any new listings to the group, for those who don’t check the website regularly?
Denver said,
October 24, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Hi Gordon
Question for you… and I know you can’t really say much (I’m a beta tester, I know how it works) but could you give me any idea since we are beta testing features that a redesign of Yahoo! Groups is going to come as well, like we tested last time, or anything like that?
Thanks, and enjoy your weekend.
Denver
Kate said,
October 24, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
Categories for the “For Sale” and “Give Away” items would be very helpful. If I could create categories, it would be simpler for those looking for an item to more easily find what they need. I’d like to be able to separate things into “Books/Curriculum,” “Toys,” “Home & Garden,” etc.
Meanwhile, thanks for moving in this direction!
barvin sukesh said,
October 24, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
good
langer said,
October 25, 2008 @ 4:48 am
what is free cyle group ??
Joanna said,
October 26, 2008 @ 6:54 am
Also, here’s Freecycle itself: http://www.freecycle.org . It’s basically a way to recycle your stuff; offer it up for free, people arrange with you direcetly to come pick it up, and vice versa.
I’m liking the concepts behind these, especially for the NJNeedleworkers group. I hope the group wants to take a chance on them; I love the mapping concepts, so I hope we get to play with them.
Coleen said,
October 27, 2008 @ 7:43 am
Just played with it and love it. Not going to use it on my groups until it’s not Beta. Most of my users aren’t real computer savvy and I don’t want to have to explain why a feature went away or changed or doesn’t work right now.
The Jobs grouplet is perfect for my group. I like the suggestion that you expose an interface for developers. We know our groups so much better than Yahoo ever can. Not dissing Yahoo just pointing out a fact since no one can intimately know the requirements of thousands of different kinds of groups.
As I read through all of the feedback on the moderator forum and these kinds of forums I hear a constant message: give us more control. It seems like Yahoo is listening especially with these new grouplets. Just expect us to keep asking for more control
Thank you Yahoo for all of these new improvements. It does look like you’ve been listening!
Linda said,
October 27, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
Just a quick suggestion as you plan for more changes. I repeatedly see the same request in the forums that I am looking for—a return to “sub-folders/albums” under the Albums in Photos. For Groups like mine that are doing research it’s difficult to keep subject-focused photos together.
Great direction you’re moving in—can’t wait for the Map to be up and running! Been trying to find a way to do that for some time!
Thanks for the hard work!
Steve Sosensky said,
October 28, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
While the potential is huge for my groups (LACoBirds, CalBirds), the Places Map will need a lot of work to get it to a useful state. As with many birdwatching groups, most of our locations will be at parks, in wildlife sanctuaries, at intersections, and only rarely at an address with a street number. We will need more methods of specifying a location. These should include GPS coordinates, street or highway intersections, and the ability to navigate to the location on Yahoo Maps and then right click to set the location.
Twilight Fairy said,
October 29, 2008 @ 1:38 am
the features seem great!
Colette said,
October 29, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
One of my groups has a number of people from smaller towns who are actually a little spooked by close-up satellite views of what is basically their back yards. We’d like to see the ability to enter a location by County or State or Province for those who really don’t want people zooming in so closely. Thanks!
Aleks said,
October 29, 2008 @ 6:57 pm
Hi Jami,
Is it possible to have an option to display XX no. of members on a page in the members page? It would give me an edge to view them in one page, scrolling up and down rather than page by page. This is my first whine
Thanks so much for this service.
Aleks
mapuamie@yahoogroups.com
Annie said,
October 30, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Colette, to keep members’ locations more vague, you can edit the address field to be just by city:
1. go to your People Map or Places Map page
2. click on the “Settings” link at the top
3. click on Form Settings (Edit)
4. roll over the Address field until you see an up arrow, down arrow, and a pencil; click on the pencil to edit the Address field
5. under “Address Format” select “City only”
6. save!
Alternately, you can leave the whole address field up. Then if users enter just a city and state or a zip code instead of their street address, their listing will get a marker somewhere in that town/zip code and then on their entry it will say “Placement on map is approximate”.
Hope this helps!
Leon Roach said,
October 31, 2008 @ 11:52 pm
G’day all, Have read nearly all of this, seems to be a good one, will keep reading and may offer some further comments. I am in Australia, “Down under” as you lot call it. Regards, Leon.
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November 12, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
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Dianne Bartlett said,
November 15, 2008 @ 8:18 am
I am the owner of a Harley Davidson rider / enthusiest group. I added the for sale grouplet to our group 2 days ago and it took off like a wild fire in California. I like that they are pretty much user friendly. Several in my group ar not very computer savy and the grouplets are muce easier to use than the data base area for them.
One thing I’d love for yahoo to do is set up a groups teacher group. Where group owners / mods could send members to learn how to use the entire groups area. With clickable step by step how to instructions and a way for them to give it a real hands on try.
By the way cudos for the good work so far My group really likes the grouplets. Keep up the good work.
Safe Riding
Dianne
Mike said,
December 2, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
the groups of mine that have the new photo system all have a bug, the large and original size doesn’t all show up, only the left half is visible.No slider or anyway to expand it either. Sub folders would be a big help..
mrfixit82852 said,
December 5, 2008 @ 5:14 am
Can you put back the feature in photos that use to be a long time ago. If you had 10 pages of photo albums, you could have click on a page number and go directly to it. This would save a lot of time when search for a photo album. Also you could put a search feature in the photo section to search for a album by inputting the members yahoo id.
cantique said,
December 13, 2008 @ 6:01 am
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suleman said,
December 19, 2008 @ 8:50 am
pls.send me picture attach mail
novicop said,
March 22, 2009 @ 10:32 am
Tried the palces maps and it work great on one of my groups but shows the wrong map on another groups did a stare and compare of all setting and thay are the same ????? We also use borhtdays and RSVP, both are great additions