Groups Updates: CAPTCHA, Posting from the Owner Address, Email Moderation
UPDATE (11/21: 5:45 pm PST, 11/22 1:45 am GMT): Because of a bug affecting CAPTCHA on non-U.S. groups, we’ve temporarily rolled back to the old CAPTCHA for all groups.
Starting today, you’ll notice a few more changes to Yahoo! Groups. This includes: changes to CAPTCHA, the ability to post from the owner address, and a fix for the problem preventing some users from being able to moderate groups via email. More details can be found below.
CAPTCHA
We know that transcribing and translating the CAPTCHA codes can be difficult. As of today, we’re updating to a new CAPTCHA implementation, which includes the ability to refresh codes you can’t decipher (versus being forced to try and fail), and the option of using an audio CAPTCHA for those who are visually impaired. Not sure what CAPTCHA is? Find out more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
Posting from the Owner Address
One of the most common requests we get from Moderators is the ability to post messages from the owner address (as opposed to the moderator’s personal address). This feature will now allow moderators to mail to group members using the GROUPNAME-owner@yahoogroups.com address, giving moderators and owners the option to post in a way that clearly delineates them as moderators. Group owners and moderators already have the option of rejecting messages from the owner address, a feature we pushed a few weeks ago.
Moderation by Email
Also in today’s release is a fix for group moderators who were having issues approving pending messages via email. Moderators affected by this issue were using email clients that (in violation of internet standards) do not honor case in reply to addresses, meaning that they would turn upper case letters into lowercase. Since the codes that enable email moderation to work relied on the reply address being the exact sequence of characters we were expecting, email moderation commands did not work for these users. But we have now updated our code in a way that will enable email moderation to work for even these email clients, which should allow moderators to approve pending messages and members via email once again.
As we continue to push out new fixes and releases, we’ll keep you posted!
Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager
Peter Briercliffe said,
November 19, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
Is this written in English?
Tiffany said,
November 19, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
Yahoo groups has been having a problem since yesterday. Whenever I use Firefox to access yahoo groups, the pictures are not showing up. When I go to my group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tiffanywhisper, the main group photo is not showing up and none of the pictures in the photo albums are showing up. All the pictures are just blank and not showing up. However when I access yahoo groups via Internet Explorer, all the pictures are showing up just fine! Please fix this! It’s been going on for 24 hours now. My pictures that are uploaded onto my yahoo group in the photo albums and on the main group page are blank when I use Firefox to access ANY yahoo group…not just mine!
Shal said,
November 19, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
Tiffany, I’ve no problem seeing your home page photo using Firefox 3.5.2. Perhaps you’re using the adblock extension and accidentally blocked Yahoo’s image server, yimg.com
Or perhaps you’ve got the “Load Images Automatically” setting configured to block the image server. Check Tools, Options -> Content tab, the Exceptions button next to Load Images Automatically.
Tiffany said,
November 19, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
Thanks so much! That fixed the problem!
september amyx said,
November 20, 2009 @ 5:13 am
You say that converting the email addresses to all one case is a violation of internet standards, yet when I tried to add TheCrafty1@septe******* the yahoo site automatically converted it to all lowercase!!!! I’ve been trying to unsubscribe from this one yahoo group forever, but everytime they say they can’t find me as a subscribed member. All the addresses I use are listed in my account, and I’ve tried using the two I can see in the long headers, as well as all the rest. What Gives!!!!!!
Susie said,
November 20, 2009 @ 8:57 am
There are no updates to my group because your “bug” has once again deleted it. What has happened to dependable Yahoo?
Larry said,
November 20, 2009 @ 5:34 pm
Melissa writes: “Group owners and moderators already have the option of rejecting messages from the owner address, a feature we pushed a few weeks ago.”
I’ve looked at the prior blog entries and have not found a mention of this. Have poked around my group management settings and find nothing that suggests such an option.
Where is it, and exactly what does it do?
Thanks
oth said,
November 20, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
A new symptom for the sick Message Search:
Any search that produces more than one page of results – only the first page of results is displayed. Clicking Next is sick, and of course this is the weekend and no one is home until next Monday, sigh…
I don’t want to report it to Customer Care: I reported a problem to them last week and received a response from “eric” advising me to report this problem on the public Group’s Suggestion Board. I replied to the KMM email – I did this on Mon, November 16, 2009 10:18:24 AM – so far no reply.
Any suggestions?
Ron said,
November 20, 2009 @ 6:06 pm
“I’ve looked at the prior blog entries and have not found a mention of this. Have poked around my group management settings and find nothing that suggests such an option.
Where is it, and exactly what does it do? ”
This is referring to messge rejection from the web page … there is a choice between your personal address or the owner address. Click on the down arrow in the address line and you will see the owner address … default is your address.
Ron said,
November 20, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Re Posting from Owner Address
( This feature will now allow moderators to mail to group members using the GROUPNAME-owner@yahoogroups.com address, giving moderators and owners the option to post in a way that clearly delineates them as moderators.)
I see this is available from the web page but how about via email? 99% of my posts are done from email, not the web. I would love to be able to show messages from the list admin as coming from the owner using email. At the moment I use a modified form of my own address thru Eudora as coming from “Moderator” when posting admin messages. Tried a test via email to a goup, as yet nothing not even a rejection. Will this also apply to email posts?
Shal said,
November 20, 2009 @ 7:06 pm
Ron, doing by email depends on your email service.
In Yahoo mail (and many others) it is possible to “spoof” the From: address to be your group’s -owner address. In Yahoo mail you do this by setting up the -owner address as an “account”, but leave the pop retrieval setup blank. Then when you send a message your “From:” line will be a drop-list that lets you select which “account” you are sending this message “from”.
For such a message to post to the list you need to do one more thing: add the -owner address as an “Alternate Posting Address” in the Edit options of the email address you use for that group. The edit links are found on the My Email Preferences page, a link on the My Groups page.
Then be sure to set the moderation override on your own membership. Otherwise you may find junk mail coming in to your group via the -owner address!
Don said,
November 20, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
Several blog entries back, you (Melissa) described how you were going to fix the issue with people being unable to set their “real name” in the reply-to field. I encourage you to finish that. Thanks!
Monica said,
November 21, 2009 @ 2:41 am
Shal – I’ve done the first bit that enables me to select the group owner address in the “From:” line.
But I’m a bit confused with the last step: “be sure to set the moderation override on your own membership. ”
How do I do exactly that?
Thanks.
Greenie said,
November 21, 2009 @ 6:10 am
Hi,
I am trying to join a group – I complete the join form and submit but it comes back and says
“/!\ The word you entered does not match the image. ”
but there is no image! The captcha (I assume) does not show up. I have tryed latest version of both Firefox and Internet Explorer with my firewall on/off.
Please help!
CanuckSiS said,
November 21, 2009 @ 6:37 am
Well… Joining Group is still NOT possible. Captcha does not appear on the Join Groups Function and therefore results in the “The word you entered does not match the image. ” Error.
Fuming said,
November 21, 2009 @ 6:40 am
Getting the same as Greenie. I’m am the moderator of a Yahoo group and I there are people trying to join it with the same problem. So I tried joining my group with separate Yahoo Id. Same problem. Seems to have happened in the last couple of days since the changes to CAPTCHA have been introduced to Yahoo Groups. Please fix it ASAP !!
Shyanne said,
November 21, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Hummm…. I tried joining a group and had absolutely no problem at all seeing the CAPTCHA image, I am using Firefox 3.5.5. Although I never use Explorer I did test joining a group using IE8 and no problem their either. I suspect it is a problem on the users part with browser settings or something.
Shal said,
November 21, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
Monica – This step isn’t necessary, but I recommend it because group -owner addresses tend to get used by spambots and viruses when they send their Junk.
Find your own entry on the Moderator’s tab of your group’s Members list. Then click the pencil icon (”Edit Membership”). Near the bottom of that page it will list your current Posting Messages setting. Click “Edit” then choose “Override: This member’s posts are always moderated”.
That way any message you post to the group will be held in the Pending folder. That will let you delete any Junk that happens to arrive in your name so that it doesn’t get posted to the group. Your own messages you simply approve. It is a bit of a hassle, but it can be better than letting the Junk hit your group.
Simon said,
November 22, 2009 @ 4:56 am
Yahoo,
Congratulations on breaking the search facility again!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group//msearch_adv
“Whoops, need to tell us what you’re looking for before we can search. Please fill in at least one of the fields below.”
I’m getting this on several groups and no matter which field I enter data into.
Also, the search box from the message page fails if there is more than one page of results. The first page displays (Matched Messages 1 – 10 of however many ) but when you click on ‘next’ the next page responds with “Please try a query in the search box. “.
I’ll submit this officially if I can find the right link.
Simon
Hani said,
November 22, 2009 @ 5:37 am
I Would Like To Join Your Nice Group .
Thanks alot withe My Hot Regards .
Hani said,
November 22, 2009 @ 5:41 am
Yaaaaa ……….
It’s My Pleasuer To Join Your Nice Group .
Judith Stein said,
November 22, 2009 @ 7:22 am
MELISSA–Same problem here as reported by Simon above: no matter how many search fields you fill in, Yahoo tells you, “Whoops, need to tell us what you’re looking for before we can search. Please fill in at least one of the fields below.” This has been the case for at least the last several days, effectively rendering Advanced Search inoperative.
Ron said,
November 23, 2009 @ 9:25 am
Shal said
“For such a message to post to the list you need to do one more thing: add the -owner address as an “Alternate Posting Address” in the Edit options of the email address you use for that group. The edit links are found on the My Email Preferences page, a link on the My Groups page.”
Hi Shal/Melissa
Just went through the above procedure and there are two problems. All the owner addresses I added cannot be edited on the My Email Preferences page .. when I do so I get a message Group Error message “Groups User not Found”.
In addition on the Edit My Membership page for whatever groups I added the owner address to it shows all of the owner addresses for the groups as “disabled” Maybe I am missing something in the steps? or there is some sort of glitch in the process. I want to try and get this all worked out before I suggest to my various moderators that they do the same.
Ron said,
November 23, 2009 @ 10:20 am
Further to above … yes … addresses were verified. Also noticed if I click on one of the older addresses in the Preferences page you can then edit ok, just the newest ones seem to be the problem.
Coly said,
November 23, 2009 @ 11:36 am
I can’t access yahoo Groups at all. When I try to log in with Internet Explorer there is a message that says “Internet Explorer Cannot Display Webpage” and to the left of the message is a picture of Earth with a red x. When I try to log in with Mozilla Firefox the page is blank.
Latest find email address owner news – Yahoo! Groups Blog » Groups Updates: CAPTCHA, Posting from the … said,
November 23, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
[...] Yahoo! Groups Blog » Groups Updates: CAPTCHA, Posting from the … [...]
Lahonda said,
November 24, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
Wondering if I have been kicked out of the freecycle program,
I have posted wanted adds and they have not been sent out..I was wondering if I had done something wrong?
Because I’ve not seen either one of my posts.
ruthie said,
November 25, 2009 @ 12:23 am
group: teaneckshuls
many yahoo email members r complaining about all group msgs going to spam folder. additionally some gmail email members r also saying the same thing. information on this, pls?
thanks!
Anne Bucklin said,
November 25, 2009 @ 8:15 am
I’ve tried everything I can to get rid of freecyclePortlandME@yahoo.com. A friend downloaded it for me, but I don’t use it, and it fills my messenger page, every day! What can I do? Help!!!
Simon said,
November 25, 2009 @ 3:13 pm
@Anne Bucklin,
Send a blank email to freecyclePortlanME-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com to unsubscribe from the group/mailing list.
Simon
Roz said,
November 26, 2009 @ 2:19 am
When using the search in some of the freecycle groups, I’m a member of,
search will bring up one page. When click on older for older messages, there appears double (2) search boxes with a message ” Please try a query in the search box”. Which does nothing but keep bringing back the double search boxes and does not go past the one page.
Does anyone one know what the problem is and when it will be corrected?
Do I need to contact the group owner?
oth said,
November 27, 2009 @ 9:12 am
Three weeks ago we were told by Yahoo Gordon that the YG team is in the process of hiring new employees to work on features such as Applications.
I wonder if it isn’t a good idea to have announcements of this sort here on the ygBlog, so that Group members are given an opportunity to comment?
For example, I prefer to have bugs fixed first. There are major bugs, such as a broken Message Search and a broken MyGroups homepage which have been broken for years now. Why aren’t those bugs not given top priority before the implementation of new features?
Is anyone reading the comments here?
Barbara said,
November 28, 2009 @ 6:51 am
I do not understand the following explanation nor what it means:
Posting from the Owner Address
One of the most common requests we get from Moderators is the ability to post messages from the owner address (as opposed to the moderator’s personal address). This feature will now allow moderators to mail to group members using the GROUPNAME-owner@yahoogroups.com address, giving moderators and owners the option to post in a way that clearly delineates them as moderators. Group owners and moderators already have the option of rejecting messages from the owner address, a feature we pushed a few weeks ago.
ruthie said,
November 29, 2009 @ 1:11 am
group: teaneckshuls
many yahoo email members r complaining about all group msgs going to spam folder.
this problem is not being addressed & is still ongoing….
thanks in advance for some input here, guys!
Nubia said,
November 29, 2009 @ 10:41 am
Hello i am Nubia owner of Nubia_group
since this last update some of my members face problems with the mails
the particularity of these members who complained to me is that they all took membership with their office ID (different compagnies) and all from south africa
before they used to receive the mails normaly in html form, now they receive the mails in text form LIKE IF THE MAILS HAVE BEEN EDITED, with information of who approved the mails, ID of sender and non understanding text codes
i mailed customer care about this problem but i got as answer I CANNOT REQUEST HELP FOR OTHERS !!! as group owners can’t we ask customer help for our members ??? they told me i must request each member who face this problem to complain by himself !
i find this answer really non acceptable
and i am not able to help my members as i don’t know what is happening and why suddently they receive the mails in this form
did you ever heard about this problem and can you fix it
thanks
Nubia
Nubia said,
November 30, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Hello this is nubia again
after making some search it seems some of my members from south africa receive the mails from the group encrypted
so they are not able to see anything
and this since your last update
can anyone help them to fix the problem
thanks
Nubia
owner of Nubia_group
John Sundberg said,
December 2, 2009 @ 12:00 am
Recently when I send email by Yahoo Mail to a group member, I receive a list of updates from that group member and am able to access their group, although I am not a member. Thus I am breaching the groups security. Why is this happening? Thanks
pakistani mujra said,
December 2, 2009 @ 11:14 pm
good improvement. Thanks a lot
kimo said,
December 3, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
hhhhh
phani said,
December 4, 2009 @ 4:28 am
i want to join in this group
Sam said,
December 7, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Hello Yahoo-team,
Suppose you are aware in the meantime that starting last friday many groups are having severe problems. Messages with attachments appear in the group messages archive, but are not delivered to the members mailboxes (no matter which one gmail, yahoo, or whatever).
Please tell what is causing this problem, what are you going to do about it and how long will it take to solve this.
Are the disappeared messages lost in cyber space and do we have to repost all of them, or will they be delivered later ?
Hope to get a reply soon.
Regards,
Sam
Debbie K said,
December 7, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
To Yahoo Management
Why are your Groups experiencing lost messages for days now? Anytime there are attachments in group messages and sent to the groups they are lost and the intended recipients of my messages do not receive them. What has happened to Yahoo messages? This is a major and disruptive problem. Why the suspicious and irresponsible silence from Yahoo management? I and no doubt others expect much better response from you!
Sherry said,
December 7, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
Thank you for alowing me to join!! I hope to find my way around soon…if I bump into anyone just shove me in the right direction. lol
-Sherry
ruthie said,
December 8, 2009 @ 12:35 am
still waiting for an answer on group msgs going to spam for our yahoo email address subscribers….group is teaneckshuls
please respond.
Space_patroller_laser said,
December 8, 2009 @ 9:13 am
The problem with Yahoo and other CAPTCHA is that you must be either well sighter or nearly totally audio since the audio CAPTHCA’s require you to rmember about 7 entries. given sequentially which is petty much out of the range of most persons. These things give me a fit
There is another kind of CAPTCHA used by, I think, the Health Physics Society. It works like this: A sequence of about 8 letters is displayed. below that is the instructions to type thme in but to leave out certain once. something like
A B E I Z P N Q
Type these lettersin the box. Omitt the second and seventh
with the input box being under the instructions. What suprised me is that the letter display looked like text and not an image
Diana Harrison said,
December 8, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
I am a moderator and have been experiencing problems with Google popping up with its toolbar and a lot of garbage. This happens on any computer I try to use, even at work. This makes moderating very difficult and fustrating. Has anyone else experienced this? I am moderating through our site on Yahoo. Is this sabotage by Google? Thanks.
Artie said,
December 8, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
First let me say that I love Yahoo for its great mail accounts and customer services in general.
Then let me say this: What’s the use of the CAPTCHA but annoying current users who manage several Yahoo groups and MUST send a lot of mail? A few days back you wrote that you have deleted MILLIONS of spammer accounts. So? The usefulness of the CAPTCHA is at least DUBIOUS for the spam messages continue to flow from your accounts CAPTCHA or not CAPTCHA. Otherwise, please explain what’s the point of it. Regards.
Sam said,
December 9, 2009 @ 8:57 am
Hallo,
Is there anyone in the Yahoo team who did a course Public Relations ?
Have not that impression. Still -after more than 5 days- not a single word
about the fact that in hundreds (perhaps thousands) of groups not a single
posted message with an attachment has arrived in the members mailboxes.
This lack of communication and politeness is a company like Yahoo unwurthy.
Sam
Lester said,
December 9, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
CAN’T ACCESS ANY OF MY GROUPS AS OF 12-09-09 12:23pm
Getting the following message:
We’re Sorry…
We are unable to complete your request at this time. We are aware of this problem and are working on a resolution. (code -9997)
If you continue to receive this error for more than 48 hours, please contact our Customer Care team. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Lester said,
December 9, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
UPDATE: I have gone to a different computer [with different ISP]
and am still unable to access ANY OF MY THREE GROUPS…
Therefore, this is definitely a Yahoo issue, and not an issue
with my computer… It’s been a couple of hours since all
my groups went down… WHAT’S UP?
Again, this is the message being displayed regardless of
which group/URL I visit, and/or which computer/ISP is involved:
We’re Sorry…
We are unable to complete your request at this time. We are aware of this problem and are working on a resolution. (code -9997)
If you continue to receive this error for more than 48 hours, please contact our Customer Care team. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Judith Stein said,
December 9, 2009 @ 3:04 pm
The group FairfieldLife is also displaying the error message Lester quotes, but I’m having no trouble accessing any of my other groups.
Moreover, FairfieldLife is now missing entirely from my My Groups listing. When will this be fixed, please?
joe said,
December 12, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
New to yahoo blog and yahoo in general hope to have a great time and meet alot of interesting people who i can talk shop with Will be great to get to know you all kindly drop me a line i will be looking forward to it
in the meantime check out my store and let me know if you find any problems with it you would fix if it were yours Always open to suggestions
wpkredyt said,
December 15, 2009 @ 12:36 pm
Hi! I’m additional here and i demand to explain you my new website kredyt studencki . I was wondering if you guys could toll it, take a run-out powder steal some suggestions or explain what i should change in it. I was working really incomprehensible doing it so i would appreciate your advise a lot. Cheers!
staceywarnock said,
December 22, 2009 @ 9:09 pm
My dog Ziggie is on the loose in the 1300 block of 56th street. He is a Jack Russell Terrier with a black head and a white body with a black spot on his back. He spends alot of time in the gated community on top of the hill behind us.
razmuhammad said,
December 24, 2009 @ 5:14 am
thanks for owner and all of yahoo groups staffs.
Aysin said,
December 25, 2009 @ 4:43 am
Hello! I’m Aysin from Turkey. I have just joined this group. I am doing a project(its name is comenius) I want to find partner from europe’primary schools. If you know this project,can you help me about finding partners?
pavelmarcel said,
December 27, 2009 @ 3:25 am
Hello,i am Marcel from Roumania and i am interesting for this partners
Eil said,
January 3, 2010 @ 5:05 pm
Excellent and I wish the best for all yahoo groups and owner
neetu said,
January 6, 2010 @ 9:09 pm
hi i m having a troubel with my other groupes of yahoo
i want to join ur group
connie said,
January 7, 2010 @ 2:19 pm
Hi, i have been a member of freecycle for awhile and I still cant post any ads. I have been going crazy tring to post. Can anyone help me?
Uttara said,
January 11, 2010 @ 3:02 pm
On my computer I am used to either viewing listing posts individually or as Group Topics.
Since this weekend, my connection to Yahoo only allows me to see new post under Group Topics. This is not so bad accept for the fact, I have to take the extra step and TIME to find the new posts interwoven in the Group Topics. No longer can i see individual posts listed with current one listed lst.
I which I had the option to do both has I have had in the past.
When I push the button to see individual listings I still get Group Topics and
have to scroll through days of commentary on subject to find most recent post.
Wendy Cutler said,
January 12, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
Do you guys moderate this blog?? You can’t delete the spam?
I did want to comment that the captcha is way easier to read now than it was a few months ago. I’ve hardly ever had to enter it more than once, whereas I used to never get it right the first time. Thanks for that.
Now what about the long-time moderators being able to add more than 10 people at a time? Or make the limit per group, not per person. There was supposed to be some action on that several months ago. Thanks.
cynthia said,
January 14, 2010 @ 12:15 am
After replying to an email I was at the screen that says ’sent’ and it said “update from HollyW” the person I had replied to, and it said she had posted a comment on a site, it gave her comment and a link to the site.
This is bizarre. I talked to Holly who said she never wrote the post, but more importantly, she doesn’t want her name being used in this way. I don’t either. I’m wondering what’s showing up about me on people’s email. Very weird and inappropriate.
Eric Snyder said,
January 14, 2010 @ 2:02 am
How do I turn on Groupsupdates for a specific group? I’m not receiving updates for a group I own.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fullcirclesottawa
Ant said,
January 28, 2010 @ 7:11 pm
Hopefully it will be moderated regularly this new year 2010
Yahoo! Groups Blog » Forward button removed from Yahoo! Groups said,
February 3, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
[...] included in this release is the return of the audio CAPTCHA (we first blogged about this back in November) — an accessibility feature that makes using Yahoo! Groups much [...]
Daniel S said,
February 3, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
GROUPNAME
owner@yahoogroups.com
Just went through the above procedure and there are two problems. All the owner addresses I added cannot be edited on the My Email Preferences page .. when I do so I get a message Group Error message “Groups User not Found”.
In addition on the Edit My Membership page for whatever groups I added the owner address to it shows all of the owner addresses for the groups as “disabled” Maybe I am missing something in the steps? or there is some sort of glitch in the process. I want to try and get this all worked out before I suggest to my various moderators that they do the same.
Plz learn more… and more…
Tricia J said,
February 7, 2010 @ 8:56 am
I was just directed to this by someone who thought it meant that we could post from our regular email using the listowner address. Reading it, I understand why they came to that conclusion, because it wasn’t clarified that this is ONLY FOR LIST OWNERS WHO MODERATE FROM THE WEBSITE.
Since YahooGroups started as (via onelist and egroups) a primarily email-based list serve, and since promises were made that it would NOT be pushed to be a primarily web-based one (because otherwise a lot of us would be at the already existing web-based ones if that’s what we wanted and it wasn’t), those writing this blog might want to keep that in mind when posting such notices and note if a benefit is only for those moderating from the website. (A place that, as a moderator, I go only if I absolutely have to, which means, very few times over the course of a year.)