Some of you may have received or heard about an important notice sent to users regarding their Yahoo! Profile photo. This announcement seems to be generating some confusion that I hope to clear up.
The notice, a copy of which I have included below, was only sent to users who have a profile marked as adult at http://profiles.yahoo.com/YID.
Two things to make clear:
- Just the photos on adult profiles will be deleted on April 9th, not the profile itself or a person’s Yahoo! ID
- Adult groups themselves, including their photos, will NOT be affected in any way.
In short, even if you completely ignore the notice, the worst that will happen is that your profile photo will disappear on April 9th.
Notice that was sent out
Email title: An important notice about your Yahoo! Profiles photo
We’re making some changes that will affect one of your Yahoo! profiles. After April 9, 2008, mature content will not be permitted within Yahoo! Profiles.
In accordance with this new policy, users will no longer be able to designate an “adult profile,” and mature content will be removed.
The profile (http://profiles.yahoo.com/YID) for the Yahoo! ID YID is marked “adult.” The picture associated with this profile will be removed and deleted on April 9, 2008.
We encourage you to upload a new profile photo on that date that complies with the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
For additional information or to learn how to get a copy of your photo before April 9, 2008, please visit our help pages.
Jami
Groups Community Manager
hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
That’s funny. My photo only disappeared for a few hours on the 8th. It’s been back ever since and I can still change it back and forth from the Adult Designation. I wonder what’s going on, and if these changes have been delayed or cancelled, to let us all know instead of leaving us wondering.
Anyone from yahoo care to tell us what’s up? Delayed? Cancelled? What?
April 11 … looks like they did the deed, finally. Photos are gone on a few I checked; “adult” warning is gone, too.
As though they never existed.
Did yahoo change their minds? My adult profile photo disappeared briefly on the 8th, was back on the 9th and still there today. The Edit Photo feature still does not work but we can still designate our profiles as adult.
If yahoo did change their minds, FANTASTIC! If not, what’s up?
Another question. What are your plans (long or short term) for adult groups? If Adult Profiles will eventually go away, does that mean down the road all adult parts of yahoo (including groups) will go away too?
So it’s April 10, the day after Yahoo said they were going to delete photos on adult profiles.
The photos still exist, and so do adult profiles.
Way to communicate with customers, Yahoo! Good on you!
So what are you not going to do next? Buy Microsoft?
Okay so no photo, no adult designation, no mature content.,.this mean I can no longer place my adult groups links I have and my own adult website link on my profile any longer as my Home Page links or Cool Links..what?
This is just ONE MORE NAIL in Yahoo’s coffin for me. I’ve been migrating many applications I used to rely on Yahoo for over the past five years — I used to be a loyal Yahoo customer (and, still pay for my Yahoo e-mail account!), but when they went on a Yahoo Groups deleting spree, taking userids with them (including the one I had since Yahoo went online!), I lost everything — address book, Yahoo IM chat records, buddies’ list, Yahoo Maps! locations. I was lost.
I don’t trust Yahoo anymore, and from the way things are looking, I’m never going to again. I hope Microsoft DOES buy them up just to FIRE the sorry asses of the people that made my online life hell for over a year.
.. I’ll be on Google watching with glee.
Well once again Yahoo! isn’t thinking. What’s gonna happen to the adult links in adult profiles? Well I think Yahoo! really needs to get their heads out of their ass. HELLO YAHOO!!!!! Kids can see the links and go to adult rooms. I can really see a big lawsuit happening when a mother catches their child on an adult groups site. Get real Yahoo!!!!. That’s why most of us don’t use you anymore.
Dantcer, just what is ‘multiply’. I’ve been there and I can’t see how it can function like a Yahoo group.
Can you explain please ?
I’ve been trying to get Yahoo to close everything adult related since the whole pervert, predator, pedophile and animal abuse thing ages ago.
Finally this is a step in the right direction.
Captcha did nothing to deter porn bots and booters.
If you go to almost *any* adult room, it’s loaded with bots, pervs, predators, pedo’s and animal sex freaks.
Self-control goes a long ways and these people did nothing to control themselves.
Now if Yahoo would get-rid-off all adult chatrooms, the incredibly bad fetish rooms and such, that would complete the picture.
It’s a manpower/logistics issue…..come on people. It’s just not that serious!
I don’t understand why so many people are complaining that they don’t understand. Yahoo is getting rid of the pictures. Rather than go through mountains and mountains of profiles and decide on an individual basis what picture can stay and which ones have to go…they are getting rid of the entire database of pictures…just wiping it out and starting again.
That’s really not so hard to understand….is it?
I too have an issue here. I don’t care for the adult designation going away, because I am responsible. It gave me some control of who could see my profile. And I do not have much control over my profile. There are some bits of text indicating interest that I have not been able to delete. I do not want people under 18 to view my profile.
So on top of all the other questions about this policy is an implication that *text* will remain.
My inclination is to just delete my yahoo accounts completely and hope that Yahoo actually deletes them, because I really can’t control what’s out there. The kinds of things that get put into words, sometimes by doing a member search, are much more “adult” than any photo I would post.
snowfalcon
This is why long time Yahoo people leave and go to Google.
Edna Bambrick is rolling over in her grave
REPORTED!
Please, folks, stop suggesting that the email is invalid. The IP address means nothing and the domain : yahoo-email.com is registered at: MARKMONITOR INC. which is a trusted partner of Yahoo. They obviously chose to send it out this way … the existence of this groups blog thread ought to be enough to convince anyone that the email is real, huh?
That said, one would think that Yahoo could have anticipated some of the concerns and communicated better. I’d be willing to bet that some people at Yahoo DID anticipate, but they didn’t get listened to; either that, or the prevailing ethos there right now is “keep your head down and you won’t get it cut off.”
I don’t understand either. I don’t have an obscene photo. I just have material in my profile that I’d rather a child not come across. Deleting photos doesn’t solve the problem especially since you can’t change your photo anyway ever since they did the switch to photobucket. They need to come up with something better. I don’t understand how removing adult profile picstures till improve things. Are they sure they won’t be touching the groups next?
The cure for the yahoo blues.
http://multiply.com
Why do they keep removing my post here that told me that Yahoo THEMSELVES said it was a hoax???
Let me know if i am wrong… I am taking this as notice we will soon be able to update our profile picture, which we have not been able to change since yahoo photos became defunct.
WooHoo! Now I can FINALLY change my profile picture. Please don’t burst my bubble and tell me I am still screwed since I never had an adult profile – that it is a fix for all older profiles.
I wrote to Yahoo Help and sent the email headers and text of the “official” email, asking if it was true. Their reply is as follows:
“Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.
The webpage or message that you are writing about is a hoax originated
by someone other than Yahoo!.
You should assume that any unsolicited message asking for your Yahoo!
ID
and password, security key, or other sensitive information is part of a
scam to gain unauthorized access to your account. Feel free to simply
delete such messages, or if you would like to be sure we are aware of
the scam, you can file a report at:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/abuse.html
If you have already entered your information into a suspicious message
or web page, you should immediately change your password and update any
other information you provided. If you provided credit card or other
financial details, you should also contact your financial institution.
If you are unable to change your password or regain access to your
account, you should contact:
account-security@yahoo-inc.com
For useful information and resources regarding online security, please
visit the Yahoo! Security Center at:
http://security.yahoo.com
Please let us know if you still need assistance so we may assist you
further.
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Mail.
Regards,
Jennifer Sanchez
Yahoo! Customer Care
46886529
For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/”
And what happened to the comment I posted with this once already? For some unknown reason it got deleted. Strange.
Once again Yahoo has created more attention to something they have no reason to worry about. As many other group moderators have stated, having a Yahoo Profile simply listed as “Adult” only requires those that view it verify that they are of legal age (18). We have had our picture on our Yahoo Profile before they decided to make the lousy decision to try and force everyone into the “Flickr” photo system. OUR PHOTO is entirely a “G” rated picture and allows others to essentially see who WE are.
YAHOO. PLEASE GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.
Drop this silly, un-warranted idea of the profile change and let all of us who have paid (And otherwise), for Yahoo services through our internet providers, continue to use it as it was. You’re only forcing us away from YAHOO which can only have a negative affect on your advertisers.
Thanks for allowing me (Us), to vent.
I don’t understand why yahoo is making such a big deal outa profile photos have we gotten so thin skined that we’re going to let evrything get to us and let a fue ppl tell the many what thay can and can’t see or do?
I thought thats what the “adult” class was for so that the younger ones on the net wouldn’t be able to see the sometimes mature content of some of the profiles.
I have seen far worse things on far younger profiles that everybody can get to . Are thay going to delete them too?.
If thay realy want to do something to help why don’t thay do something about all the spam that is flooting around there site.?
great step , because most of this profiles owners have a bad marks !
most spam messages i got from yahoo messenger comes about adult sites
i think most sender have adult profile
thanks again
best regards
>Why didn’t Yahoo provide this information to Group owners?
O most solid writer/commentator Madame T, there are many reasons why they did not mail it out to every Group owner, but more than likely the REAL reason was apathy on their part as they (Yahoo management) believes that every group owner and moderator is actively part of the moderators’ groups and reads each and every news posting that is made in the same way that most software content producers believe that each user who clicks on the shareware “I accept” button reads through that generic ten page of six point font “customer agreement”.
>Is this a 2257 related action on Yahoo’s part?
2257A possibly but 2257 no as the text there specifically excludes internet service providers such as Yahoo from having to keep the same records as specific sex film producers.
HOWEVER, as many others here have already said Yahoo is trying to appeal to the soccer moms and clean up the open areas of the groups more and more thus I agree that Yahoo management IS slowly beginning to censor THEIR network in order to appeal to younger crowd in the same way that myspace announced recently that all adult content was to be removed from their services when Murdoch brought the service, though myspace has yet to implement that bulk removal directive in any applicable way on myspace yet though has stated that such a clean sweep CAN come about when they choose to do so.
Why didn’t Yahoo provide this information to Group owners? I still haven’t received the notice and only learned about it after a few of my Group members posted about it. Is this a 2257 related action on Yahoo’s part? Why is a company that’s capable of so many technological wonders so utterly incapable of clear communications with its Group owners and members?
As far as deleting photos goes, it seems that all photos wil be deleted if a profile is marked as ‘adult’ ,,, without regard to it’s content .. as someone noted they have a picture of a sunrise .. i don’t believe yahoo is going to take the time to check out every photo on adult profiles .. it will be just be an arbitrary deletion of all of them. It may help if you just remove the ‘adult’ label on your profile(s).
Ya know… I think Yahoo is gonna lose all adult users in the end. The only ones apparently,will be the “church lady” “goody-two-shoes” sissy ,cry baby, fundamentalist “Christians”. In “other news” its been purported that global warming and war is being brought on the United States because Americans are “living in sin”. Excuse me? Let’s get rid of all “adult content and porn of the internet and God will save us??? That’s like the Catholic Pope going over to Islamic, non Catholic or Christian countries and telling them to “play nice”. This is another MAN trying to play God. No one in those places care what he has to say in the first place. Second place is that he will most likely be a target for some idiot with a gun. Is this the “clientele” Yahoo wants left in its site? Fundamental christians? The “porn Police” dictating what “adult content” will be allowed on the internet are probably comprised of these “holy roller” types,who are trying to save the world from Gods wrath. Please.
I thought Yahoo is smarter than that. Maybe all “adult content” people will go get another web group site,and differnt e-mails. Maybe we can sit around and watch Yahoo,Inc. crash and burn from its own stupidity. Its apparent that those who “control” the world’s take on morality are taking steps backwards to puritanical standards. What’s next” burning at the stake” for any groups with “adult content” ? Good grief!
I,m sorry.. but I am an ADULT…. why must yahoo play big brother to my pic or content??? Let the parents monitor the kids.. not yahoo monitor the adults.
And they warn you to change pics… when that feature isnt available
I’m looking for an ADULT site… anyone creating one? lol
I dont need to be monitored.. I,m over 21 and live in the USA.
Yahoo is loosing its appeal….
Well, here’s a thought that literally just occurred to me…and it may be a much more complicated issue than I am aware of, but just as group owners and moderators have control over who joins and participates on their groups, why can’t Yahoo give some control to adult profile owners to control who has access to those profiles? I mean, as it is now, literally anyone can view an adult profile just by clicking on the little disclaimer…whether they are of adult age or not. And really, anyone can put the age of 18 on their profile to gain access to adult groups anyway – but at least it’s an extra step one would have to go through- ie: in waiting for the profile to approve access…most minors would lose interest in the pursuit, I would think. I dunno. Just a thought. Have the powers-that-be even considered this idea?
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Member Directory.
We have checked your account and it shows that one of your Yahoo!
profiles was set to Adult Profile even though your photo was
considered ‘clean’. If you received our email on 3/26/2008, it was
because your profile was marked as “adult”, regardless if your photo
was “adult” in nature or “clean”.
Before, if you have adult material that you’d like to use on your
Yahoo! Profile, you were asked to set up an Adult Profile. This will
give you the freedom in choosing the content you’d like to place
there.
However, as of 2008/04/09, mature content is no longer permitted
within Yahoo! Profiles. As a result, all photos in profiles marked as
“Adult” will be removed. We suggest you to change the status of your
adult Yahoo! Profile to a public profile.
First, please visit:
- http://members.yahoo.com
Click “My Profiles” in the top-right corner of the page.
Next, click the “Edit” link next to the profile of your choice. This
takes you to the Profiles editing page.
Finally, click the “Edit Profile Information” link in the yellow edit
bar at the top of the page. At the bottom of the following page, find
the “Adult Content?” checkbox and remove the check mark. That’s it,
you’re done!
If you have any other questions or concerns please let us know as
soon as possible as we’re always happy to help!
We appreciate your reporting this to us — your input helps us to
identify ways to constantly maintain and improve our service. We are
always striving to keep Yahoo! Profiles as the best member directory
on the planet to communicate with millions of other users!
If you need further assistance with this process or with Yahoo!
Profiles, please reply and we’ll be happy to help.
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Member Directory.
Regards,
Dave
Yahoo! Customer Care
Ok, this is enough for me. I’ll keep the address so I will have a “valid” e-mail address to give the spam vendors, but I’m not wasting any more time with yahell… or it’s messaging.
They won’t or can’t stop the spammers and the IM bots etc. but banning “mature” content can be publicized to prove they are being politically correct. I hate political correctness…
Maybe this will put the wooden stake in the heart of this zombie.
Yet another way for Yahoo to impose censorship on its members. If the so called “Adult Site” were really monitored as they say, then I see no need for this further harassment of members. Perhaps the members will finally get the hint and find another server to post on. And for those who choose not to, don’t complain when they say that a word in your profile is not up to their standards.
IP Address is not near Wichita, Ks but it does come out of Arizona.
IP Address Country Region City Latitude/
Longitude ZIP Code Time Zone
208.50.56.49 UNITED STATES ARIZONA OVERGAARD 34.3906
-110.553 85933 -07:00
Net Speed ISP Domain
- GLOBAL CROSSING GBLX.NET
I guess I’ll be taking my groups to Google. They don’t have any adult content, but I don’t want children playing on them, so they’re marked as adult. Same with my profile…
BTW, I never received the email, even though I have an adult profile.
How can we take this email seriously?
The originating IP address 208.50.56.51 is someplace near Wichita KS. Not Sunnyvale CA… where all of Yahoo’s OTHER correspondence comes from.
The domain, “one.yahoo-email.com”, has no match in InterNIC Whois.
Has Yahoo itself been duped or spoofed?
And why is Yahoo constantly pandering to children??
How can we take this email seriously?
The originating IP address 208.50.56.51 is someplace near Wichita KS. Not Sunnyvale CA… where all of Yahoo’s OTHER correspondence comes from.
The domain, “one.yahoo-email.com”, has no match in InterNIC Whois.
Has Yahoo itself been duped or spoofed?
I don’t see why your all are doing this folks, unless down the road you are planning on doing away with adult groups as well !!!
I know you all are in a fight right now with trying to retain ownership of the corpation and all, but don’t you think your profits will go down if you all continue to go about things as your are ?
If you just went back to doing things as you did a few years ago then I think things would be better. The desision to do away with 360 started all this I beieve. I know you wanted to make it along with your other services better. But I believe you went about it wrong. Instead of trying to make something different(better) than what you had and slowly introducing it to everyone. You decided to do away with something(360) before you had a viable option for everyone.Plus you have not been updating 360, which is farthering in the friction with your current custumoers.
Now add this desision to delete “adult” pictures, alot of which aren’t(which if you actually took the time to go and look you might see) ?
The only logical reason I can see your doing this is in the hope of making Yahoo more “acceptable” to News Group, so as you might be able to “merge” with them. But in the end I believe in the end will result in the deletion and/or closure of all adult content on Yahoo.
I enjoy using Yahoo, but if these issues continue I (along with millions of others) will be forced to go else where. Someplace not so restrictive in it content.
J. Robert Weightman
Well. it is nice to see that Yahoo believes in censure ship and loss of freedom of speech. You have NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to tell us what we can or cannot read, see or do. As a veteran of the US MILITARY who defended the right of FREEDOM OF SPEECH, EXPRESSION ETC, I find your actions deplorable. Answer me this, WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DO THIS AND BE A MORALITY COP?? Dont give the the song and dance routine about the Yahoo Acceptable Use Policy, It is obvious that you will doctor that document to suit yourselves and do what you please. Have a good day, COMRADE.
I tried to change the image to something less ‘adult’, but “the service is temporarily unavailable”. So why did you inform me to change the picture when I cannot?
My reaction to this “notice” was instant. I unchecked the box. No matter what pic was on my profile will remain. As stated above, it could be just about the nastiest photo anyone could possibly find and Yahoo would let an 8-year old see it.
Bad decision Yahoo.
Yahoo is turning into KiddyLand and doesn’t want “Adults” roaming freely throughout it’s Land. This move to end the practice of designating Adult Profiles will be a bigger headache for Yahoo than simply leaving it alone.
Chat, Photos, Adult Profiles. See a pattern? Next up, Adult Groups. They won’t say it now but what’s to stop them? Once a feature is gone, other dependent features go as well. We’ve all seen it over the years.
I’m pulling out while I still can.
I sure hope the Powers that Be at Yahoo realize that they are not making any friends over this.
First we lost user chatrooms. Then we lost Yahoo Photos for an inferior service called Flickr. Yahoo has abandoned 360 for something aimed at younger people called Mash. And now this.
Every day is another straw on the camels’ back. Yahoo is becoming more and more restrictive by the day. You people who run Yahoo have no clue how angry we longtime users are, and getting more so every day. Don’t wonder why many of us are leaving… you are making it blatantly obvious that you don’t want us to stay.
What really is shocking is that it is also obvious that you just don’t care.
why??? dosen’t make sense.
I happen to have an adult Yahoo! profile, as well as being the owner and manager of several adult Yahoo! groups…..and I am, like the consensus here, absolutely flabberghasted and outraged by this recent action, which only smacks of second hand censorship of legitimate adult content.
The problem for me is not just the fact that non-adult profiles with merely “suggestive content” will be totally unaffected by this change in policy..but that this elimination of adult profiles will simply result in adult users merely switching to non-adult profiles to attract visitors to their groups…thus actually making them MORE accessible, not less, to unsuspecting viewers and children alike. The only logical result of the results would be to simply pull all of the adult and “mature” profiles, or place some very restrictive (as in 2257 restrictive) bookkeeping requirements so extreme as to force adult content out of Yahoo! Groups.
Indeed, this is the very same strategy of creeping censorship that is being practiced by MySpace and LiveJournal in their attempts to re-sell themselves as “family-friendly”…and to win sales from conservative forces.
At least MSN did allow the option of outsourcing all their adult groups to World Groups when they pulled their adult groups from MSN Groups four years ago. Will Yahoo! allow their groups the same privilege…or will they simply drop them on a moment’s notice as they are doing with this new rule? And could this new “mature content” restriction be (mis)used just as suddenly against non-sexual but politically-based controversial content, too that might not suit their…..ummmmm, chosen demographic???
This better be a genuine hoax or a mistake, or Yahoo! will definitely lose a long-time customer…forever.
Anthony
Now this makes no sense to me what so ever, so let me see if I understand this correctly, yahoo is going to delete pics in adult profile “that they deem objectionable” Hah! as this is going to be a joke as someone is going to sit there and deceide which pics are and which are not. With that said two things come to mind why can’t a user keep the adult designation? as persons who want a private adult profile should be allowed to have and keep them as they are not viewable to the public and for those who want a public profile can have em, Sounds to me that too many high and mighty types complained or the company taking over has a new target group. Second thing is what makes even less sense you are going to allow the adult groups and profiles to stay what was accomplished here? NOTHING!!! My thought would to be to allow us adult profile holders to have control of our profiles and make them private (with the make profile private option) as do other communities, problem solved! Oh! wait it might be the goverment trying to control what we see and hear on the non regulated super information highway. I think this whole thing is stupid and a wash as it does nothing except give a certain person at a certain time the power to remove what he or she thinks is an objectionable pic and the pics on the groups and in other places gets to stay. Final funny thing all the fetish people and groups recieved the emails first tells you where this is heading…. Babs
figure that this is to get rid of the adult groups. pretty soon I figure that yahoo will only be for fundies and toddlers. all the adults that arent toadies to the evil fundie god will go someplace else including myself if they keep pushing.
going to look at my gmail account to see if my google groups at least can be moved there. only thing left for me on yahoo once they end the adults area is yahoo radio and I can find just as good of stations elsewhere that probably play better music.
A member of my group just informed me of the new adult profile picture policy.
Notice of this policy change should have been given to ALL group moderators and ALL Yahoo members who have adult profiles with sufficient time for people to save the photos from their profiles. This notice should come from an official Yahoo domain that is known to users. It should also be accessible from the Yahoo home page and all adult groups.
Because of the inadequate notice, the policy change should be postponed until a minimum of 30 days after full notice is given.
I do not question Yahoo’s right to make policy changes. However, why should legal pictures be eliminated? The policy is weak because someone can get around it by having a general profile with any picture they want. Until a complain is filed, Yahoo would have no control. The purpose of the adult profiles was to make sure only adults would be able to view adult material.
Once again, it looks like Yahoo is caving in to people who want to force everyone to follow their one political, religious and moral point of view. This runs contrary to the freedoms in the US Constitution and the purpose of the Web.
There is room on the Web and in Yahoo to have areas for different points of view and activities.
The “Adult” tag did act as a warning to the superstitious: “Don’t Go Here!” Without that tag, users will either avoid all profiles, or systematically visit every profile. All the miscreant has to do is lace his or her profile with some “tempters” and sit back and wait. And it doesn’t require much imagination to envision the “hobbies” and “links” that would interest such a miscreant.
Yahoo! could better expend its resources in trying to locate hidden messages in the totality of all the images it hosts; the science of ‘steganography’. I think we can confidently assume that subversive elements around the world are using Internet images as their notice boards.
All I see are censors going to town at the expense of the users.
It’s up to ME what I want to peruse on the net. It SHOULDN’T be up to some yahoo (pardon the pun) who gets a mad on because someone wants to have a risque picture on their RESTRICTED ACCESS profile.
Once again, yahoo strikes in the name of “decency”… WHO’S decency? Who knows? Frankly, I find this sort of BS censorship a LOT less decent than even the most crude nude picture!
L