Hi everyone,
Over the past few months, we have been evaluating your feedback on the new Groups experience that we have been testing with some groups for several months. Based on that feedback, we have decided to rollback the new Groups experience starting this Wednesday, January 12. We will instead iterate on the current interface going forward. Thanks for your feedback and thoughts throughout this process.
The Yahoo! Groups Team
“we have decided to rollback the new Groups experience starting this Wednesday, January 12. We will instead iterate on the current interface going forward. ”
Sounds like the Superman Shuffle!
So, what is your time line for getting the groups back up, like Freecycle?
İ’m sad. Because i loved and was verry hopefull of new yahoo groups. Still want to see a sign about new yahoo groups facilities.
@goodone,
Yes, Groups are old and many of their features are broken, but they are NOT outdated. Great concepts do not become dated like the last flavor of the month.
I bet if Yahoo started demonstrating that they value Groups contributions to the bottom line by finally fixing some long-standing bugs and improving online Help, Groups will revive in no time at all. There are some really simple things Yahoo can do for starters such as providing a link to Yahoo Groups page from this blog ( and vice verse) and showing interest in the Groups Suggestion board.
And since Yahoo relies so heavily on the free labor provided by its co tent builders, it needs our help in promoting Groups (and other Yahoo properties) outside of Yahoo. This can easily be done by commenting publicly on news stories about Yahoo, facebook, Myspace, etc., because pretty much all media nowadays provides a readers comment section on every news article they publish on the web.
well, i must be the only one who thinks this rolling back will certainly roll back group’s future popularity, since it’s outdated, broken in many ways, and simply too old.
Hey everyone:
Do you all remember the previous Yahoo! Groups beta that we were testing (like a few years ago?) It was REALLY nice.. a complete customizable page.. you could add boxes to your page for HTML, VIDEOS… Change the BACKGROUND….completely change the color theme. It was REALLY nice…but it just faded away. We need that…CUSTOMIZATION!!!
Personally..I liked what we were testing..but I’m sure they’ll think of something we’ll like even better!
Thanks,
Denver
Glad to hear it, but clearly your approach leave some users feeling like you don’t understand them. Again. Until you can demonstrate you understand what users want, and get feedback along those lines, don’t use words like “iterate”. No one outside of IT land uses that word. You’re not working to please yourselves, you’re working to please your users (right?). Talk TO us, not AT us. It’s like reading a boardroom memo here sometimes. I know Yahoo is struggling right now, but gee, I wonder why?! Boards full of advice from users and negligible good action visible. You can’t put our feedback into measurable results that meet our needs.
You want to improve groups?
Firstly: Add the chat feature in as a standard page immediately. You have technology, just make that number one to do. I can’t believe you didn’t do that commensurate with the rollback anyway. Another miss.
Secondly: Add some options to catch groups up to the 21st century. Let us have a videos page. Give us a welcome page WE can customize with some actual controls. EVERYONE has this. Except YG. We get 1000 characters, and a picture whose size and placement we can’t control. Let us post RSS feeds in to the group, so people can get more news on what is going on in their area of interest if they want to. This is like 10 years ago stuff. GET WITH IT!!!
Honestly.
Good luck going forward, but I’m done putting up with Yahoo’s foolish development processes. I’m looking for the next thing that’s going to meet my needs. Prove me wrong, you might win me back, but this fiasco cost you the last bit of good will I had. I used to want Yahoo to do better, Now I just want someone else to do better than Yahoo.
Please re-read what Aki said; I second the motion.
And what SuperHipChick said and what Barbara in NY said about your handling of communications.
Also, what lots of others said about fixing what’s broken.
I did like the new layout, but I guess the old layout will have to do for now
. I just think that Yahoo Groups would attract a lot more folks if the old layout would at least feature a profile photo of the members when they post – it would make the layout look more up-to-date. It’s ok but rather “blah”…just my opinion.
Happy new year 2011 To all
What worries me is how long before they pull the plug on groups like they pulled the plug on everything else before it. They’re clearly NOT happy with groups and are dying to make it more popular but if it isn’t going to pick up in popularity, it’ll be dropped.
This is unsatisfactory. We just began using the chat group for our new group, and you should have disclosed this to new group formations BEFORE you just up and canceled it. You SHOULD have begun this only after formally (by group postings, emails, or whatever way) letting people know.
I only found out about this by going to our group today and finding CHAT to be OBSOLETE. Then, I had to search for answers. Sadly, I am disheartened at the way this was handled for whatever your reasons.
Perhaps you should reevaluate the way in which you chose to announce this AND the way in which you surprisingly deleted group functions from us.
Without appreciation,
SuperHipChick
i have noticed a huge delay in postings the past couple days sometimes it will take hours before i post something sometimes it doesn’t go up at all why is this. it makes it very inconvienent for some when an item is already taken adn the post is delayed or never put up. hope this issue can be resolved soon
Thank you for the YGroupsBlog announcement, however incoherent it may be. Maybe someone among you could write the message more clearly for the millions of Yahoo Groups’ members, a large percentage of whom do not understand jargon because they are not IT professionals, and another large percentage of members for whom English is a second language.
For instance: Rollback may not be a commonly-understood term. Coul dyou have simply said, “The new format will be stopped on January 12th.” Neither is: “iterate on the current interface.” Did you intend to say that classic Yahoo Groups, with which we’re all familiar, will be the format to which the Y tech team will devote its efforts?
While I have you attention, I hope, could you take a look at this very page? On the upper right hand side under the heading Useful Links appears a clickable link called “Groups Message Boards” which leads to nothing.
I encourage the Yahoo Tech Team members to actually join some Yahoo Groups to learn how we use them. You’ll find the subject groups to be very interesting. They’ve stood the test of time.
What the #@$% did all that mean. How about an explanation that the average person can understand!!
Thanks for all your effort. It is very much appreciated.
Hooray! The short time we had the new format in our Freecycle groups were a disaster of epic proportions. Thank you Yahoo! for hearing our calls to keep the old format. I’m sure that Yahoo! now wants to focuson on improving on a proven format. ONE SINGLE BIG CHANGE that would help all us moderators/owner is the ability to change the membership signup page. For many, the ability to customize the memberhip signup page would allow us to receive the necessary imformation to validate membership. This is especially important when residential or other requirements are necessary to gain membership. This would also include mandatory fields that must be filled in before the membership request can be submitted. It would also reduce the amount of follow-up email that invariably happens because the prospective member didn’t provide all the requisite information that the moderator/owner needs to determine eligible membership.
good news, wise decision.
A brilliant decision!
Thank you!
Please fix Search.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheTravelzine/
just fix the actual problems….thank
@Deb — There’s much wisdom in requiring product developers, and their managers, to be first and foremost experienced users of the product.
The expression “eat your own dog food” has been used for decades in product development circles to express this idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_your_own_dog_food
Thank you for finally coming to this decision. After a long time and lots of work, I came seriously close to closing all my groups, but I held on until the changeover was forced. I had already taken the deep breath and decided to give up on the group experience totally.
I know that for the Ygroup team, this entire matter has not been an easy one. Likewise, it was very frustrating to everyone owning and working with groups, as most could see their hard work being flushed down the drain.
Sometimes the best decision is to admit a mistake and move forward. Thank you for doing just that.
Saw two posts at GMF today about Chat in group not working. Since there’s been no Chat module in Groups for years, I expect these were new-formula groups and, in anticipation of new formula end tomorrow, the Group Chat module is already turned off.
Ref:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GroupManagersForum/message/34181
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GroupManagersForum/message/34175
Thank you. I would like see chat incorporated into classic. Also, I think you should retain the y_groups_team Yahoo! Group (as a classic group, of course). The addition of chat and keeping that group would allow groups members to provide you with valuable feedback.
Great decision !
i just regret it took all this time, and created all this mess !
Now pleaseeeeeeeeeeee just fix the actual problems
no other innovations of this kind
make a super Yahoo groups working 100% in all parts
with what we have actually – because it’s much fine for us
thanks you
Nubia
ttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nubia_group/
Thanks so much for the information and I am very glad. But I’d also love for you to add a chat system to our regular groups.
That’s not much to go on.
I hope at the least the message search problems will be fixed.. I find it odd that no-one from the early days at Yahoo who knows the code and how it works cannot be found and contacted and brought in as consulting help. Or even that there are no list owners or mods of any Groups that can’t be tapped either.
Am not being smug here, but in a situation where you’re stuck, don’t EVER hesitate to ask for help if you get in over your head.. That ability is the *hallmark* of professionalism. In the business world, end results are what matter, not how you get there. (within reason, of course)
I ended my experiment with the new groups interface and am rebuilding my open ‘family’ group with a new name in classic. I just couldn’t come to terms with the way it was laid out..
I’ve since QUIT facebook – COMPLETELY – and stripped out as much of my profile data as possible – this Goldman Sachs deal.. I want NO part of them.. (read the WSJ and other financials – they’re hardly good players)
I feel sorry for the YGTeam – I can imagine it’s frustrating, esp. so if you’re put to work on a product you don’t really understand – my simple suggestions is that each member of the team, open a YahooGroup of their own and focus on a DIFFERENT aspect of the service..
One build and work with databases, another with Photos, one text messaging – sending stories or an online journal and just WORK with a group of your own and build it with groups owners and mods or family – whomever – with the open understanding that it’s WIP and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each of the parts – and all the many ways a Group can be formed and what each is centered around.
The Groups service really IS designed for a wide range of options and they’re ALL actively used every which way by millions.. Dabble with THOSE variations first and learn the service from every angle.
Thanks for keeping us updated.
Regards,
Deb.
So did members not like the “new Groups experience” or was it too hard or too expensive to implement, or all of the foregoing?
Looks like the “Great Social Experience” has had a fatal coronary. When the “new and improved” groups was announced last year and all the rhetoric from Yahoo that we were going to “Love” it despite the avalanche of protest I could see the end of the many groups I belong to or own/moderate. Fortunately saner heads prevailed at Yahoo and “Classic” was maintained. There are those who did like the new look and no doubt they will be unhappy with the roll back but the vast majority of Yahoo Groups users it’s a great relief. Now perhaps some of the glitches and problems with Groups will be addressed and perhaps some of the bells and whistles offered as options … such as Chat which would be nice.
No Avatars please though.
Thank you!!
I am surprised it took them so long to figure out the new look was a disaster.
Good. Great news for Freecycles and Freegles!
A wise decision … we like it how it is! Thanks!!
What on earth did that mean?
Th-th-th-th-that’s all, folks!