UPDATE (March 5, 2009): Despite our best efforts, the message search problem affecting some groups will not be fixed this week.  We’re hopeful, however, that we will have a solution for these groups by the end of next week.

We just wanted to give you all an update on the Bounce Management and Search bugs we posted about last week.

The Groups team has been hard at work and is happy to report that the bounce management page is back up and running , so you should be able to accurately manage your member bounces now.

We also continue to make progress on the Message Search issue, but there is still work to be done there. If all goes well, a fix might come as early as late next week (week beginning March 2nd), but unfortunately it’s too soon to know for sure whether that will be possible. Until then, we appreciate your continued patience.

However, we are happy to announce that the Advanced Search feature has been restored , so feel free to search with improved accuracy! ☺

Thanks again for your patience while we continue to work on the Message Search issue, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date once we know more.

If you’re experiencing an issue that’s not listed above, please contact Customer Care . Thanks!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

I wanted to keep you all up to date on a few issues that might be impacting your experience on Yahoo! Groups.

Message Search: Some of you may be experiencing issues with the message search feature within your group. This bug may present itself by either returning no search results or only partial search results when using the message archive search feature. In the past we have been able to solve this problem on a group-by-group basis by manually re-indexing affected groups when we become aware of the issue. The bad news is that this fix isn’t currently working. The good news is, is that we’re working on a permanent solution that will prevent the issue from happening in the future. We know that this issue can be frustrating for those of you looking for particular messages, but we assure you that the team is working hard to restore this feature for the affected groups.

Moderator Logs: Some of you may have noticed a lapse in your moderator log records.  Our team has resolved the issue, and all of the logs should be up to date (but you might notice a few of the logs are now out of order or are displaying the wrong date or time).

Bounce Management: As many of you have noticed, the bounce status on the member page is no longer working correctly. This is manifesting itself in three ways: bounce history numbers are showing as “0” instead of the correct amount; the “Send Reactivation Request” button is not actually sending reactivation requests; and members are being listed on the bounce page even when they are no longer bouncing. We understand what is causing this problem and are working on a fix, and will update you as soon as the problem has been resolved.  In the interim, if you or a member of your group is in bounce status they can “unbounce” yourself by going here : http://groups.yahoo.com/member/preferences/email/view and clicking on the “unbounce” link under the bouncing email address.

If you are experiencing an issue with Groups that is not listed above please be sure to contact Customer Care . Please note that anytime you report an issue to Customer Care, you are creating a “ticket” for our teams and is the first step in resolving the issue.

Thanks for your patience as we work together to make Yahoo! Groups better!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We’re happy to announce that over the next few weeks, Yahoo! Groups will be releasing a beta version of an attachment tool that gives moderators the ability to archive/store email attachments in Groups (removed 2003). This will allow your group members to retrieve attachments along with the original message at any time and not have to store them on their computers.

This feature will be released over the coming weeks, and will include features like:

* Adds valuable content to the group archive accessible by current/future users
* Enables users to upload content (photos, files etc.) with an email vs. having to upload each file
* Reduces the size of emails, optimal for low bandwidth, dial-up users
* Enables digest and web only members to have access to attachments

Please keep in mind that this new feature is 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 the feature (if it turns out there are unforeseen technical problems)

Not sure if your Group has been migrated over? Check the left-hand navigation for an "Attachments" link (it should be a sub-category of "Messages"). If it’s there, your Group has already been migrated over. If it’s not there, don’t worry, it will be soon!

If your Group has been migrated over and you’d like to share your thoughts, please feel free to send a message to: EmailAttachmentsBeta [at] yahoogroups [dot] com

We look forward to hearing about how you like this feature and what we can do to make it even better.

If you decide you do not want to archive your messages, and you’re the Moderator of your Group, you can disable this feature by clicking on “Management” in the left column, and then clicking on “Messages” under the Group Settings section. From here, under the “Posting and Archives” section you’ll be able to set your attachment options back to your previously configured settings.

Please note: for those of you who haven’t been migrated over, when you send a message with an attachment you might be seeing a message reading: “Attachments: (To view, click Attachments under left navigation bar),” but no link exists.

Please feel free to disregard this message as this is a bug which will be resolved in the coming week and is a result of the roll-out. Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager