It’s finally time to share the start of our makeover with you!
Starting today in the US version of Yahoo! Groups, we’re releasing the first of several updates.
- One place to do it all: Stay up-to-date and never a miss a beat with the new homepage.
- Simplified posting: Easily post messages and photos to your group.
- Keep up with the conversation: Read and respond to entire conversations effortlessly.
- Intuitive, faster photo sharing: Share, upload, and view tons of photos in a snap.
- Instantly get in touch: Chat with fellow group members without leaving your group. (18 and older only)
You can learn more about these changes here.
You’ll notice that some areas still look the same. We’ve tackled the most popular “rooms” first and will be remodeling the others in the coming months. If you haven’t seen the changes yet, don’t worry – we are slowly rolling it out and they’ll be available in your group soon.
If you use a local version (non-U.S.) version of Groups, the same remodel will be available to you within the next few weeks.
You might notice that your Group might switch between versions as we complete all of the group migrations.
Stay tuned to the blog for the latest news as we continue our renovation. And we’re eager to hear your feedback, both on the suggestions board and here on the blog. Thank again for your continued support!
The Yahoo! Groups team
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Damn it
Don’t call it ‘Upgrading’
It is ‘ DOWNGRADING’
Soon the Yahoo groups would be DEAD
Varun Trivedi
Moderator : Lalkitab_discussion group
Is there a chance to connect Yahoo groups directly to a facebook account? like everything written at the facebook account can be seen at the new yahoo group, and everything written at the yahoo group can be posted at the Face book account?. Since a lot of our members found an option at facebook, anyone is sending messages anymore at our yahoo group
Did I just read somewhere that under the new & “improved” format, group posts can’t be moderated? PLEASE tell me that is not true.
help me to explpre
MY points regarding MY listserv groups still stands
“Facebooking” Yahoo is a BIG mistake. This may go down in history as one of the biggest in cyber history. You are going to encourage the development of less invasive groups by others.
“New and Improved” means “new and improved” for the financial benefit company, not for the users at all.
How does a private group remain private in this format?
If you do this, we will migrate to a different format. There are many small groups of friends on Yahoo… are you going to ruin their privacy?
This is an invasion of privacy, plain and simple.
Help me to explor
Many of us are very confused. We don’t wish to lose the ability of having a picture on the front cover of a group, because it’s used to inspire others, let non-members understand more about what we’re about, and showcase the work of current members. And I am confused about whether we’ll be able to have databases. They are very important in most of my groups.
WILING THESO CALLED ISLAMICREPUBLICIS TO BE DEMOLISHED GOD
زنده باد اندیشه سبز جوانان وطن پرست
There is always this tendency to emulate the new guy in an attempt to keep your site looking more “cutting-edge”. The same thing happened with Facebook when Twitter started getting big. But those of us who hate Twitter–and all the dumbing-down of our language that it emulates–badgered FB to change things back to the way they were… for ONE SIMPLE REASON:
IF WE WANTED TO INTERFACE WITH A SYSTEM LIKE TWITTER, WE’D SIMPLY USE TWITTER!
WE USE YAHOO GROUPS BECAUSE OF THE FEATURES IT OFFERS. WE DON’T WANT TO USE TWITTER. Nor Gmail groups. We want an interface that offers the functionality of Yahoo Groups.
Making your product less like your product and more like someone else’s simply makes us want to use NEITHER.
I do understand wanting to improve functionality. But why not start with having emails arrive more expediently instead of rehashing things that aren’t broken?
Is FEEDBACK getting deleted because it isn’t what the YGBlogs mods like?
MY points regarding MY listserv groups still stands.
Please leave things alone! IF IT IS NOT BROKEN, DON’T FIX IT. It’s not that we don’t like new and improved — but what you are doing is NOT improved. KISS
people may be complaining and be concerned about the change … i am already using this type of format with ning.com and i still have my regular yahoo group and the difference between the groups is amazing … members in the ning group are much more comfortable with this style … i absolutely love it and i am thrilled yahoo is going in this direction … i think once everyone is using it you will see the benefits immediately
This is a horrible change. I agree with countless others. We need an OPT OUT or a CLASSIC option. I do not want to lose my databases! I don’t want my serious group to be turned into a teeny Facebook clone!
The message archives especially, are handled horribly. Its cluttered and bloated looking. I hate the “Update Stream” with all the profile pics. Who cares? Yahoo! Groups is about sharing information, not showing pictures of our members cats!!!
Leave well enough alone, please. Or, give us a choice to go to the “Facebook” clone or stay with the original.
@eco: I disagree that it’s intentional. Do some reading about Yahoo from former Yahoo staff. It’s always been pretty lacking, they say. Long timers can point out a lot of the internal mismanagement that leads to exactly these type situations. I would like to know about viable alternatives people find. I need one with a mail server first, and an extra bell or whistle would be nice.
@Lester B: I agree, sounds good to me.
Greetings fellow group owners, moderators and members;
At the risk of being rude, could I please make a suggestion?
There are currently four different threads on this blog, each of them
dealing with the same issue… THE NEW GROUP INTERFACE.
Each time that Layla posts an announcement or update, a
new fragment of the overall debate begins. My suggestion is that
each time Layla provides us with some new information, that
we all move to her most recent piece dealing with THIS ISSUE.
Which would result in a much better exchange of ideas because
the discussion would include ALL of us. There have been some
excellent, heartfelt and fascinating posts to these various threads,
but sadly, I think many of the interested parties are missing them
because they are engaged elsewhere.
At any rate, I’m going to post this suggestion on each of the
fragmented threads/parts of the overall debate and
suggest that we all move to Layla’s…
“YOUR FEEDBACK REGARDING OUR REMODELING”
-Les
To all but the 3 who like(?) it, YGroups is destroying itself on purpose; to screw up this bad can’t b by accident. This reformatting was never meant 2 benefit us. Yahoo is overstaffed with the underqualified. A functional organization would address needs not create diversions. I have only been in groups for 2yrs. The first year I learned to use groups; until then I had little use for internet due to the ubiquitous cookies and pop-ups. The second year I guess yahoo stopped maintaining the site, putting all efforts into the reformatting. For the 2nd year I’ve had partial use of groups, since this year it seems they just let the functionality crumble bit by bit till I wonder whether to use it or not. I’m happily looking for a new venue and feel bad that others’ investments over many years have been lost. But remember, it’s obvious that the Yahoo mission includes smashing something we like to bits, even relishing in our disappointment. Don’t give them the satisfaction. If u know of a functional venue, please share the address. The quicker we leave, the less pain we will endure. Thanks to all u smart people who have shared stories knowledge experience and just brilliance. You’ll never know the extent to which u have helped others. Best wishes and see u soon on other more functional sites.
@Julie: Thanks for mentioning Yuku, I just checked them out and joined! All they need is a listserve and I’d be moving my active groups. They are a good replacement for Ning, for sure. Cheers!
Tonight all my groups are planning where to go after we leave Yahoo. I urge you to LISTEN to those who already have explained that many of us do not use the groups to chit-chat – there is a lot of lengthy, detailed medical information being posted, and as many as 300 LENGTHY posts a day.
Additionally, my groups have blind members who cannot navigate this.
We likely will be moving our groups to Yuku, proboards or a similar setting.
The new format is simply too inflexible and does not accommodate multiple uses of the groups.
Keith said,
:Just a suggestion but I would love it if all my Yahoo Groups migrated to Google Groups. Yahoo’s “makeovers” have always been about getting more ad content onto the page with a few extra features tossed in for the users”
Combat yahoops ads with Firefox with Adblocker Plus. I use that combo and have not seen an annoying ads in a couple of years.
Why, when something works satisfactorial, do you have to decide, like some god in the electron world, to change things. I realize you need a job, but keep out of unnecessary changes that you have no need to make.
This is horrible! Please don’t force this upon groups! Allow an option to “Opt Out” or use the Classic version! I have used Yahoo! Groups for ten years and it has worked perfectly for me and my group members.
Yahoo Groups is mostly used as a forum for people to discuss topics or common interests, many use it for writing/RPGs. It should not look like FACEBOOK. This is not a social networking site! I can’t stand the way the messages are posted/look. How could you change a system from a well organized forum to the horrible mess that is WALL POSTING?
I can’t believe it.
PLEASE DONT DO THIS!
After looking at a sample new home page, I am wondering what happened to the link to the newest photos. On lists with tons of photos and many pages of people posting them, it is hard to find the latest. I really liked the link to just the newest ones. Am I just missing it on the new home page?
If I wanted Facebook, I’d be on it. I tried it, and I don’t like it. Lots of conversation, most of it boring.
I love my yahoo groups as they are. Why not let them be?
To view your group in the new format, try this: it worked for me this morning. Alternately, check your group URL and try the opposite of this to undo the new group look.
In your url, type the word “new” before groups. so, if you were “groups.bobscars.com”, try “new.groups.bobscars.com”
I did that, because everyone kept saying “try it out”. SInce my group revert after a couple minutes when I didn’t know the above trick, I hadn’t seen the worst of things. Now I have.
Where’s Greg House when I need him? Something medically complicated is about to happen to me, I’m sure, and I need him here to at least insult yahoo while I convulse.
You’ve wrecked the message format for the archives. As test only you’ve left countless posts from my past unreadable, and author’s work uncreditable. In our archives, we relied extensively on replies that included portions of the other person’s reply included. These were distinguished from other people’s work by color and italics, etc. All that is gone, meaning it’s all one big jumble of character’s, which don’t display right, and never will again once you migrate things permanently. This is destruction of work product, as so many before me have said. It’s outrageous!
You’ve wrecked access to the archives by removing any ability for me to browse by date, which, with 12 years of archives, is a serious detriment to me.
Many members are gone over time and they won’t be back. Some addresses don’t even exist any more. So now I am stuck with Eternal Greyface as the icon for countless posts. There’s not much point in having icons if they are all Grayface, now is there? I want them out out OUT!
You have an expand command which I have to use on EVERY MESSAGE if the message is longer that a tweet. However, once I wait for it to load the message, there’s no collapse button to move it back out of the way.
There’s no expanded view anymore, so I have to spend eleven hours clicking and waiting for each message to load.
The updates page is almost exclusively messages on my groups, but what’s “confusing” (Layla) is that the updates page looks like the message page in my groups, but without the ability to expand them or order them coherently.
Again you have a redundant post something reply box on messages taht have been replied to once, and a mouseover (but otherwise invisible) reply button, making the reply box wasted real estate, and adding to the clunk factor.
The Group Info is GONE, until you realize that you can mouseover the group title and then the “i” appears and then you can click on it and see what the group is actually about.
Nothing was problematic in the old format of the page except the character limits on the description, and the inability to place the image as you wanted to on the main page. Now you have no main page, you have a foolish Updates page.
In your beta two years ago you had a nice clean banner up to that noted what was new, “2 new photos, 5 new posts” etc. This allowed a description module and an easy way to see updates without this kind of pig’s ear in the way.
So, as it stands, I can’t go back and look at my old messages because they don’t display right, and the original author’s works are lost among all the other’s upon reading it, soon to be gone forever as to who wrote what. Archive viewing online just because absolutely pointless, and maddening to navigate. A slider?! Really?
I need my messages to display as they were written. Rich text, HTML, and all. Anything less is a total wipeout of 12 years of creativity and fun, and respect for my authors.
I need to be able to get at my messages the way I used to. thsi new way is unworkable for me.
I need to have avatars OUT. Members page okay, but otherwise ALL THE WAY OUT.
I need my group information back in at all times.
I don’t need updates, nor do my members.
Aside from the return of the chat feature, this build breaks my groups, destroys their rich history (actually destroys them–literally), makes even getting at it ugly and problematic.
The visual aesthetic is terrible, ugly and confusing.
I am clinging to an increasingly fragile hope that you will come to your sense and stop this nonsense before it is permanent. You will have done immeasurable harm to countless groups if you go forward. My style of group represents almost every RPG group out there. You’ll destroying all those too, and that is no exaggeration.
You have really REALLY made the worst mistake you could have here. Utter incompetence and disrespect all the way. You wonder why there might be strong opinions? You wonder why there might be frustration? I just tried it out, like you wanted, and 12 years online are decimated JUST LIKE THAT!
Furious doesn’t begin to cover it. You may as well have shut it down. That would have been better. I don’t know how else to express my outrage from here except to start with more direct insults. I’m stopping now.
i am new to this site kindly halp me to explore it
I think Lester B hits the nail on the head. If new users want to use all the extra bandwidth intensive rubbish, fine. But for what are probably some of the biggest groups on YG, we must be able to KEEP IT SIMPLE. YG started as an EMAIL group, not a social network. If we want a social networking site, there are plenty of those. I appreciate that Yahoo may think they are loosing out to these sites, but you need to look at your some of your biggest groups, and understand their essential requirements.
1. TEXT ONLY as an OPTION for moderators
2. REPLIES default to the sender. If I really felt that something needed to go the whole group, I can make a new posting. But when someone offers something to the group, we don’t ALL need to know who is interested in it. Neither do we want our personal details broadcast to thousands of people. MS Outlook has a “Reply to ALL” button – It does not have a “Reply to Sender”. In fact if the email sent out by Yahoo does not contain the senders’s email address, then Freegle and Freeecycle will be TOTALLY unusable.
3. Keep the databases and links.
4. Some groups need to be able to moderate postings. If you don’t allow this, sooner or later someone will sue you for allowing a message with offensive content to be posted.
If you give us back these four simple things, most users will stay with you. DON’T do it, and I can almost guarantee that Freegle and Freecycle will all migrate. Google groups for example still support the option of a default email reply of “Reply to Sender” not “Reply to All”.
There are over 250 Freegle groups in the UK, with well over a million members. There are 4500 Freecycle groups in the world with over 7.5 million members!
We do like Yahoo – Don’t force us out PLEASE.
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i guess you don’t read internet news. Face book was selected as the most hated site on the internet. people don’t like it and i one for one am getting ready to drop it. yet you insist on changing yahoo to the facebook format, what a bunch of loosers. maybe yahoo should be dropped too.