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
A said,
March 27, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
Thank you for clearing that up. I don’t understand why many users with adult profiles never received an email, though. Also the emails were sent from what appeared to be an unofficial email address “yahoo@one.yahoo-email.com”, which made a lot of people think it was a hoax.
Kenn said,
March 27, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
It clears up absolutely nothing in my mind. I have an “adult” profile..with NO obscene photo on my profile..simply a photo of me sitting on a couch or a head photo of me in a do-rag..so why will these photos be deleted?
If you have a sunset..since the e-mail says all photos associated with adult profiles will be deleted..why then would a sunset be deleted? And then you will be allowed to what? upload the sunset once again?
And if you can NOT designate a profile as “adult” then does that mean “adult” groups will be next to go..? If you can NOT designate your profile as adult..now all profiles will be able to be viewed by minors?
Also, not all people with photos on “adult designated” profiles have recieved this e-mail?
Are we supposed to remove our profile from “adult designation”? Is Yahoo going to do that by itself?
Nothing ever seems to be very clear.
Kenn said,
March 27, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
One other thing..if you have “adult” interests listed on your profile..would that be considered “mature content” and thus Yahoo will delete the profile?
What if your profile says under latest news “we went to a nude beach” Is that mature content..and thus Yahoo dletes the profile?
You say “mature content” will be removed? What is that exactly? You can’t say you enjoy going to nude beaches? you like erotic photography perhaps? an adult joke/quote may get your profile deleted?
None of this is clear..or it is as clear as mud
nowaywins said,
March 27, 2008 @ 7:24 pm
well, another half baked changed by yahoo. all i can say is it is a good thing you have no bullets, else you would be footless by now. to imply that all users with adult ID’s have ‘mature content’ on their profile is an insult and a joke. an insult because i have seen adult profiles with nothing in the photo area, and a joke because i have seen non adult profiles with the nastest of photos. to make a policy that only applies to adult id’s is wrong. with all the real issues, broken features and other problems with yahoo right now, to use the time and resources to delete photos from adult or any profile is sad. with all the half finished projects on the go… killing 360°, killing beta groups, building MASH, flickr, Group Recommendations. deleting profile photos is a waste. you may think your joggling well, but look at the floor at your feet, its a mess. you continue at every chance, to make the users mad and owners want to walk.
roger
Amie said,
March 27, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
Frankly, i agree wtih Kenn and Roger. You’ve cleared NOTHING up, not one thing, other than that y’all are tinkering around again, meaning more things are going to screw up and that there’s more possibility for mistakes in deleting folks’ profiles to be made.
i have a picture of my white siberian husky on my “adult” profile. D’you mean to tell me that that is too riske’? That, perhaps he’s leaning a little too far back, thereby making it too provocative, as if he was luring someone in? Come on, folks. There’s enough other things y’all NEED to be tinkering with. If you want to search out “adult” profiles that have porn pics posted, or even nude pics, and delete THOSE pictures, then fine, do that, but leave the rest of us, who are TRYING to abide by all the rules and regs, alone.
Amie
nowaywins said,
March 27, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
dear yahoo
do you know something we dont? you say “We encourage you to upload a new profile photo on that date” have you forgotten the upload feature doesnt work. to the point you have “The Edit Picture feature is temporarily unavailable.” on the page. so unless your planning to roll out a fix on the same date, thanks for nothing. and if you are, dont. you can barely hande what your doing now, trying to do 2 major things at once will bring down the system.
roger
Phil said,
March 27, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
Can you explain this new policy to me
i have a photo i cannot change and cannot delete
so why would you delet it for me
Whiterabbit said,
March 27, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
So any mature content in the text will remain but the picture will be removed regardless of the picture’s content!?!?!?!? To further confuse the issue, this adult content will no longer be shielded from minors by being designated as adult and blocked from users identified as minors!?!?!??
This makes zero sense on any level.
Charles said,
March 27, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
This seems really silly. Nothing about this whole thing appears to be quite kosher, but I’m not entirely suprised–Yahoo has already made it nearly impossible to locate adult oriented groups unless you already know about them.
shevah said,
March 27, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
RE: Yahoo Eliminating “Mature Content” April 9th.
Passing on some information that may be of concern for some of you.
Quote - [Sadly... they are going the same route that MySpace has done with
adult profiles/groups... In time... they will not be welcome on Yahoo
unless they are looking and acting totally vanilla - even if
deemed "adult" or "mature.]
It seems that if you have “adult” selected on your profile, your photo will be deleted and you should be prompted to upload a new photo. The only problem with that is that their photo uploads have been out of service for months. So i don’t know how they will institute this.
Yahoo will then eliminate the adult category of profiles. Since we cannot edit our photos on our profiles, my suggestion is that you create a new profile not connected with the current email you are using and do not place a photo in it. Do not mark it as “Adult”. There has been no mention that whole profiles will be eliminated, but if by chance you profile disappears, you have a back-up.
Hopefully the group moderators are backing up the list members so that if anything happens to this list, they will have the members list to start a new group someplace else. But I don’t think that will happen for some time. Right now, Yahoo will be concentrating on profiles. But I expect ‘Adult” groups to be next on the chopping block agenda.
The Profile Edit of Photos features is temporarily out of service and unavailable -
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/members/profiles/members99.html
Hopefully they will fix this soon so that we may change our “adult” photos on our profiles.
This is the answer from Yahoo that came in October 2007:
[Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Member Directory.
I understand that you were having difficulty changing photo in your Yahoo! Profile. As of this time, we are experiencing technical challenges in our system. Please be confident that our engineers have been alerted with
"Upload/Delete Photo" issue which was not functioning properly. They are
currently investigating this issue for a quick resolution and are also
taking steps to prevent similar incidents in the future.]
Yahoo FAQ: Profile Photo -
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/members/profiles/md-101.html
Yahoo Moderator Message Boards are talking heavily about this subject. No one is saying it is a hoax, especially since the information is stated on some of the Yahoo pages listed above.
Editing Your Profile:
You can edit or customize your profile by adding text, images, your own voice, and even links to the other Yahoo! services that you use. Go to the Yahoo! Member Directory and click View My Profiles in the upper-right corner of the page. Click the “Edit” link next to the profile you want to change. You can edit your profile on the next page.
The profiles edit page shows you exactly what other users see, except that the yellow edit bar is not present. You only see the edit bar if you are logged in to your own account and viewing your profiles.
Lois said,
March 27, 2008 @ 9:34 pm
Hummmmm, Sounds to me like you want Yahoo Groups and Profiles to go under. Is this True?
Nowaywins post was spot on, you need to fix things that are Broken and leave the Adult Profiles alone. I sure would not want to find Adult were Kids could see them.
I personally think you need to re-think this Idea.
Linda said,
March 27, 2008 @ 9:39 pm
When I received the email regarding my yahoo “adult” profile I was confused. I was fairly certain my photo was an acceptable photo. I checked and was correct it is a head shot with some cleavage showing. I have seen more skin showing in the nearby shopping center or just walking down the street. Then I discover I can not even replace the photo due to issues that Yahoo is experiencing. Guess perhaps it is time to start looking for a site that is a bit more accepting of even the most demure adult profiles.
Lea said,
March 27, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
We have not been able to edit our profile photos in a good while. I just checked again and still cannot. Here is “alert message” located above photo: “The Edit Picture feature is temporarily unavailable. Please check again later.”
My profile is not an Adult Profile.
Gordon said,
March 27, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
Folks: It doesn’t matter whether the photo is inappropriate or not. No one from Yahoo! is actually going to be looking at the photos and making a decision. It’s going to happen automatically. Since there will be no more “adult wall” for profiles, to be safe, all existing photos on adult profiles will simply be removed.
Sp if you’re photo was actually innocuous, all you will have to do on the 9th is repost it. It’s as simple as that.
majik_handzz said,
March 28, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Yahoo idiots. I unchecked the adult profile, and we’ll see what happens. Plenty of adult context, so it’s stupid. Yahoo has gone downhill for some time now, and I use other adult sites. Yahoo is becoming for kids, because it was started by kids. Not worth my trouble.
Greg said,
March 28, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Yes Yahoo playing big brother again. Adult profiles is a GREAT idea. Mature content, who decides, who are the porn police? The adult designation helps keep minors from accidently coming on content not for them, esp if you have a cybersitter type program. Yahoo, I think you are crazy and resent this decision. Yuo rolled it out and made it, as usual, ambiguous at best. so many people have regular pics on theur adult profile also got an email saying their pic would be deleted? Sounds like lazy as well….
Ifthis happens my homepage and emails will be changing, and less hits means less ad revenue, maybe we should all do that!!!
Anne said,
March 28, 2008 @ 12:45 am
The reason I designated my profile as “adult”, was so I didn’t get inundated with questions about my chosen “lifestyle” and interests. As happened previously! The picture on the profile which Yahoo wrote to me about, is the same one which is on 2 other of my profiles, not designated “adult” ………….. Sheesh!
Now some profiles do contain mature content and aren’t designated as “adult” These are the ones I would be concerned about if I were Yahoo. But hey that’s too much like common sense ain’t it ………. and that would mean someone checking every profile ……………. not this sweeping “It’s adult, lt’s got a photo ….. DELETE!!!!!” mentality we see at work here.
Yet more “Big Brother” tactics I fear!
shevah said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:28 am
Here is the response I got from Yahoo Customer Care regarding the inability to edit photos in your profile.:::
“Hello Shevah,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Member Directory.
I appreciate your getting in touch with us and I understand that you
were having difficulty making changes in your Yahoo! Profile photo.
We understand that the ability to change or upload a new picture on your
profile has not been active for a while now and that it is a concern. We
are aware of this problem and hope to have it fixed within the next
round of enhancements that we implement to Yahoo! Profiles. The
development team is focusing all of its resources on building a new
universal Yahoo! Profile which we are certain will delight you. Because
we are focusing our efforts on the new solution, this bug will not be
resolved. These changes may take several more months, and we apologize
for the inconvenience in the interim.
We appreciate your reporting it to us — your input helps us to identify
ways to constantly maintain and improve our service.
Should anything else come up, please email us anytime. Any information
you may provide us can be a big help in bringing a solution to this
issue. Until then, have a nice day!
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Member Directory.
Regards,
Dave
Yahoo! Customer Care”
shevah said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:38 am
This response from Yahoo Customer Service is in reference to the “Adult Content” removal even though the photo posted was “clean”. It explains it fairly well. :::
“Hello,
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!
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Member Directory.
Regards,
Jamie Lynn
Yahoo! Customer Care”
Louise said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:40 am
I spent fruitless hours yesterday trying to reach Yahoo in order to get some answers that this vague Profile Changes notice prompted me to ask. I still have not heard back from Yahoo! Members Directory.
I am having trouble believing that this is the last of this that we’ll hear about. In Yahoo’s own group Moderator Central there was nothing said about these notices going out and no explanation given until 17:00 Thursday evening. There was no explanation given as to why this notice came from a different domain either.
This entire fiasco is setting yet another precedent which is leaving Yahoo’s membership reeling in confusion and in some cases, panic. This is the way to run a business?
I don’t think so.
Louise said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:43 am
With the removal of the adult designation from Yahoo profiles what safeguards are in place to protect minors from viewing inappropriate, mature and offensive content?
Earl said,
March 28, 2008 @ 4:02 am
Just another way to infringe upon your RIGHTS.
Whats wrong with Yahoo, WE try to protect minors from viewing adult content in the WAY YAHOO provided and if you CAN’T STOP IT though age verification ways, WHY take it out on those who are ADULTS?
Next thing you will want will be ANY pic posted will be with a “Burkka”!!! Is that where you are headed? Let us know now and we will all have pics like that!
Yes, we are free to not use Yahoo and Yahoo is making sure it turns itself into the Ultra Conservative Right Wing Site its heading to become!!
Just my Humble Opinion.
LadyGold said,
March 28, 2008 @ 4:06 am
Thanks Jami! I have been getting asked.
pet692001 said,
March 28, 2008 @ 4:15 am
Have you ever wondered why Yahoo’s stock has gone down? They are pissing off the wrong people, that’s why! Instead of listening to those twisted Christians they should leave us alone. The reason for the adult profile listing is to keep kids younger than eighteen from viewing them. It is so that the twisted Christians and people who pay for advertising have nothing to gripe about. What we are doing is NOT against the law, just against morals and ethics, which I have yet to find specifics in the bible about. Not that I believe something that a MAN wrote and twisted to suit their needs anyway.
I have no obscene photos in my profile, but yet they announced that they will delete them. I suppose I will have to do what majikhands did and unclick the adult profile listing.
LAdy Silver Dove said,
March 28, 2008 @ 5:39 am
I changed my profile to a non-adult one. The reason I made it adult in the first place was that I was sick and tired of wanna be idiots IM’ing me and blasting me with wanna play requests. I am taken, I don’t wanna play with someone I don’t know and I don’t think that just anyone should have access to our information. My photo, while sexy, was not pron by any means and I know one person that actually has a photo of her husky on her profile, so obviously Yahoo is too lazy to even check things out before they just randomly start deleting stuff. I own 5 groups here and am a member/moderator of several more. We are seriously considering leaving yahoo for good. Less people, less revinue…bottom line.
If you all remember a site that used to be popular called “The Globe”, where are they now? They started to be the pron police and all of a sudden, like within 6 monthes, they didn’t exsist anymore. Yahoo should take a cue from that disaster and just SHUT UP. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Joy said,
March 28, 2008 @ 5:49 am
This is absolutely bassackwards and makes no sense whatsoever! If the ‘adult’ designation from profiles is removed what are those of us, who are members of adult groups that require the adult designation for membership, to do? We will be removed from our groups if the adult designation is no longer allowed.
IF indeed, Yahoo is just trying to comply with the new laws regarding “adult” photos online, then why not just remove the ability to upload photos to one’s profile entirely? Voila! Problem solved. Why target a specific group? It looks a LOT like discrimination to this adult.
Unfortunately I, and obviously many others, don’t believe this is the case at all. Rather we get the distinct impression that Yahoo is bending to pressure to remove adult content altogether. If that is the case at least have the balls to say so directly rather than give vague reassurances and excuses.
Joy
Staci said,
March 28, 2008 @ 5:58 am
I don’t think you should take our pictures away either if we have adult pics set to adult profile. It’s not our problem if parents can’t watch their kids, nor is it your problem. Make people that choose to have kids held accountable for what their kids see.
Lisa Renee said,
March 28, 2008 @ 6:26 am
Excuse me?
How, *exactly* does this blog entry clear the issue of “adult profile designation” up?
Is, or is not, yahoo going to continue to allow the adult profile designation? *That* is what the mass email claims to be directly addressing while secondarily addressing the issues of pictures and “mature content”.
Deb said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:11 am
Oh, Good Grief, Yahoo!!
pet69 is right…You’re pissing off the wrong people!
Nothing has been clarified and my guess is you have no intention of clarifying further because you’re going ahead with your new policy and basically, we can all just like it or lump it. And that’s just it, isn’t it?
I think what’s very clear is that Yahoo is bowing down to the religious “right” people and giving into whatever pressure they are putting on Yahoo. It makes no sense to simply arbitrarily delete any and all photos in adult profiles. It would’ve made better sense for Yahoo to have had a little foresight in the beginning, and have designed a fair and reasonable photo policy in the first place. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20 and it’s never too late to make a correction. I belong to an adult personals site and one thing they do is actually screen every photo before it is put up. It’s not a perfect policy by any stretch of the imagination and this site has certainly pissed off many a member, including me. But at least with a clear policy about which pics are acceptable and which are not, members have greater clarity about what’s not going to be allowed on the site and why - unlike this new policy which threatens to do away with any pics of folks with their beloved cocker spaniels just because the profile happens to be labeled “adult.” Oy! And shame on you, Yahoo for not giving your policies greater thought than that, or your members more respect.
RS said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:18 am
Louise said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:43 am
“With the removal of the adult designation from Yahoo profiles what safeguards are in place to protect minors from viewing inappropriate, mature and offensive content?”
None, because as of that date, we are not supposed to have any mature content in our profiles. If we do after that date, it will be a violation of the TOU. So anything sexual or “mature” or whatever must go. No more mature content is allowed. Unknown if the universal profile will allow anything PG-13 or not yet, but if I read it right, Yahoo is trying to clean itself up by simply saying “no” to anything “naughty”. Sorry to all you non-mainstreamers. Yahoo isn’t the place for anything racey any more.
The pics are being removed by automated process because they don’t have the time to look at each person’s profile and give it a yes/no. There are probably hundreds of thousands of profiles, so this makes sense to me.
At least that’s how I read it. Moot point to me, I don’t use the profile system and leave no personal info in there. I used a 360 profile at one point, but moot point there too, since the U.P. will replace that whenever it debuts.
Heh…”U.P.”, If this will be the Yahoo Universal Profile, we’ll be abreviating it as “YUP”. Will that make us all YUPpies? Stellar! I call the blue Mercedes!
“RS” needs coffee…
Bella said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:21 am
This is totally insane. The vast majority of us who have adult IDs do so to prevent unwanted contact from those who do not understand being an “adult”. my profile has a pretty innoccuos, tame picture on it. If i change my profile out of “adult”, will that portrait now be unacceptable and my ID deleted? Why are ONLY Adult profiles being targeted this way? It’s just as easy to upload objectionable material to non-adult IDs as it is to adult IDs.
Also, if i WANTED to remove my picture, i couldn’t, at this time, as you’ve disabled that feature, and don’t give me some B.S line about working to restore and improve it. That’s synonymous with either A) you don’t know what you’re doing, or B) you’re trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
Furthermore, as an owner of 8 lists, and moderator of 5 more, i am going to be setting up test groups on sites other than Yahoo, and two of my groups have 20,000+ members. Believe you me, if i find a better hosting site? i WILL close my groups and move them to another site. Can Yahoo hear the money in lost advertising revenue, literally, walking out its door yet?
bella
Nisa said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:40 am
This is the first step to removing Adult Groups. If we cannot have Adult Profiles, then eventually, Adult Groups will be gone. I do not trust Jami when she said yahoogroups will not be effected. Maybe not tomorrow or next month, but eventually adult groups will be gone.
Bob Boynton said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:03 am
Thanks. Now I see they intend to delete all photos from profiles tagged adult. No big deal unless it is part of another agenda.
I think the problem is that Yahoo hasn’t published a roadmap for what they intend to do with regard to adult content users.
loraine said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:18 am
This is totally nuts! imho. Looks to me as if Yahoo wants to be a kids only site. This is very sad to me, as i’m definitly NOT a kid and Yahoo has been my ‘home’ for as long as i’ve had a computer. i AM an adult with adult likes and think, like any community, there should be areas for kids, and areas for adults. The increased censorship we yahoo members have been experiencing is wrong. i’ve had pics on my 360 deleted that didn’t even show any genitals or sex acts. Why? i wondered. Who knows. Yahoo sure doesn’t give any explaination. Just accuses you of violating TOS. As the mother of 5 grown children, i can assure everyone who doesn’t already know it, if they want to find out about sex, they don’t need yahoo or even the internet. Why are we all being treated like children of sexually insecure, paranoid parents?
Shalf said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Louise, minors will be kept out of adult groups the same way as they always have, by virtue of the birthdate they gave when they registered their ID.
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/03/27/clarification-about-the-yahoo-profiles-photo-announcement/#comment-2767
As RS said, nothing will keep minors out of profiles, as there won’t be any adult profiles — no profile may have mature content after that date.
But note that there are hundreds of millions of profiles! I don’t know how many of those are designated adult, but the numbers alone pretty well explain why Yahoo won’t be having employees look at each photo before deleting it.
Tania said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:54 am
I am cunfused why we need to give up our Adult status along with what ever current photo. I like know that only other adutls can view my profile. I don’t have a photo now on my profile but would be upset to lose it only to be able to put it back in. Does not make good customer service sense.
Betty said,
March 28, 2008 @ 10:16 am
I’m sorry, but this explanation is not satisfactory.
Why has Yahoo decided to stop allowing adult profiles and why has there been so little notice?
Jeff said,
March 28, 2008 @ 10:27 am
So *this much* is clear:
1) Yahoo will delete all photos from Adult Profiles on April 9. And the designation of “Adult Profile” itself will be eliminated.
Questions: So what about links, and sentences, and paragraphs that could reasonably be deemed just as “mature” as any photo? Jami says the photos are being deleted on April 9. The email said, though that after April 9, “mature content” will not be permitted. Define, please.
2) Jami says that Adult Groups, including their photos, will not be affected in any way. How can that be so, to the extent that Adult Groups require Adult Profiles?
Questions: Am I wrong about that? Does this mean that anyone with a Yahoo Profile can join an adult group? And, of course: Where is this all going? If it was some neato thing, Yahoo would surely have a press release, huh?
Jami, can you even say that you’re not allowed to tell?
loraine said,
March 28, 2008 @ 10:35 am
LOL@by virtue of the birthdate they gave when they registered their ID. Where in the world did you get the idea that everyone who makes out a profile gives the real date of birth?? There is no way to stop a minor from making out a profile that gives an ‘adult’ age. I, or anyone else, can give any date/age they want.
Party Girl said,
March 28, 2008 @ 11:30 am
Soon this will be a kiddie site. Then we shall see how much money they will spend?!?!? Strongly feel that Yahoo ADULT Groups will go away very soon.
Groups owners need to start ramping up their own sites and building a member list for themselfs. We did this and now have profiles, forums and live chat for our members.
John said,
March 28, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
There is actually a POSITIVE side to this, believe it or not. We have been unable to upload/change/delete pics in any of our profile(s) since their last great upgrade last fall. So, we will make Yahoo do a little extra work and have changed ALL of our profiles [and so is everyone we know that has a pic they no longer want in their profile] to ADULT status so the pics will finally get deleted.
We are curious however as to “what” they deem as “mature adult content” since their new Yahoo Answers area is full of 1000’s of posts by minors(under 18) about everything from masturbation, sex in ALL forms, penis size and such so we must guess that those topics are NOT mature and adult in nature?
Party Girl said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
I am betting that we still we not be able to upload a new picture with in 30 days of them taking away the current one. Just think 100’s of thousands of people trying to upload a pic and I bet yahoo is going to try to put a hold on them so they can approve each one of them!
Debbie Donovan said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
Why did you tell us to redo the pic when you have not allowed us to do so for a very long time. Also….my pic is not even R rated. There is nothing porn or adult about it. I did eliminate an entire nick with that account because the pic was adult even tho it was a famous sketch.
Larry Rogers said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
I have no problem with Yahoo deleting my picture from the profile that I marked Adult in accord with the TOS that was in effect when I set up the profile. What I do have issue with is that there will be many adult content pictures on profiles that the owners did not mark as adult, like the naked backsides of men and women.
The other thing that bothers me is the second part of this announcement with eveyone seems to have swept under the table by taking issue with the photograph being removed. Yahoo will “REMOVE ADULT CONTENT From Profiles marked ADULT” I tried to pin down a Yahoo agent at HELP as to what this meant. He told me to read the TOS. It does not provide a list of words that are not permitted, but just try to write a group dexcription and Yahoo will tell you if a word is not acceptable. So, somewhere there is a list. Why do they not make it PUBLIC?
I am wondering whether on April 10th I will have a BLANK profile with just my handle which will no longer be designated “Adult” for me to fill in? that is how I read the notice
“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.”
I am still wondering whether the “mature content” within “non Adult profiles” will also be removed or whether this discrimination is limited to those of us who followed the old TOS rules when we first joined Yahoo.
Gary said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
If I go in and update my profile to designate it as a regular profile (remove the adult setting) what will happen? Will my photo remain as it is?? If it is graphic nudity will it also be removed? I find this to be rediculous since I have seen naked pics on regular profiles. Maybe try that??
Larry Rogers said,
March 28, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
One more comment I would like to add
I originally designated my profiles as Adult when I joined Yahoo because that is what the TOS at that time indicated I should do to keep minors from contacting me.
I do not want minors, under 18 to contact me. The Adult profiles were to allow Adults to contact others who were Adults and avoid having minors applying to get into the groups and contacting those of us who have no interest in Children.
From the way I see it, Yahoo may be no longer protecting Children by eliminating separate profiles. In fact, if there will no longer be Adult profiles, what is Yahoo doing to protect children? In the past, children were warned that these profiles had adult content.
But the real issue is, Does Yahoo have the right to discriminate toward a group of adults, that they originally set up, who wanted to protect children?
By eliminating the “Adult” profiles and making everyone general, more children could be contacting adults who had wanted to be able to participate in adult activities without having Children under 18 contacting them.
RS said,
March 28, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
From a legal standpoint, Yahoo is much safer with “family friendly” only content. The recent laws from what I understand leave vague definitions regarding content, so unless this is a prelude to a better system with more safeguards, such as the YUP project (no idea regarding plans for that), that can offer more protection to users and minors alike, Yahoo is probably doing it to safeguard themselves from exactly what has been described above: The weak system of a minor simply falsifying a birthdate to see the durty pitchers in someone’s profile.
With recent events regarding MySpace users, and all the publicity that comes with a problem, this is probably a smart move until they can find a better way to contend with adult content.
I would *think* that adult Groups would be legally safer than a profile because
*They are limited to a specific part of the directory, if listed at all
*I would assume that most keep their photo sections as “members only”
*Yahoo specifies where that content should go.
This means that random users (adult or minor) would not encounter the “offensive” content spontaneously (or are much less likely to), and thus Yahoo has done its due diligence in the eyes of the law. I’m not a lawyer, or up on the newest laws regarding adult content, but when it’s hidden away like that, you are better legally protected. If they do anything they might simply require your group to make photos section “members only”, or some such. The whole thing does need an overhaul, as it is far from perfect, but my perspective is that we shouldn’t expect anything helpful anytime soon.
Sadly, from what I’ve read recently, I wouldn’t expect Yahoo to be able to contend with this (or any other) issue to our general satisfaction. Much as they may be trying to revamp themselves, you don’t change a workplace culture overnight, or even in a year. Hats off to those that may be trying to shore the place up, but we users should lower our expectations more than a little and simply be pleasantly surprised if they manage to hit a homer. I have read a few things online that explain why we’ve seen so little action and so many “fixes” that made our experience worse. Too bad, because they own some terrific stuff, and look how many of us are in foul temper but still here anyway.
My point is, I’ve learned a lot in the last week, and as vociferous as I was, I see now how much of it may not matter near as much as I’d like. I’ll keep throwing ideas out there, and adding to the choir, but I find it a slim possibility my ideas will catch attention *and* make it past the internal culture problems I’ve read about at Yahoo.
Tell Brad the peanut butter factor shows just as brightly out here as it showed to him in there. Reading his memo made my user experience make so much sense, and I was not surprised at all to learn that the Yahoo product offerings and deveopment process were 100% reflective of the internal culture at Yahoo. I hope that memo was not just the hot air some people painted it as, and the bleeding is not in vain. I’ve seen great ideas be all hot air before, and it doesn’t keep a sinking ship afloat for long. I have some hope for the future of Groups, because if someone can give the ideas voice, there’s at least a chance at creating the idea itself. Not a guarantee by any means, but it’s a start. Still seeing much peanut butter out here, so I know things can’t have changed that much, but some changes do encourage me. Maybe you at least got it out of your departments? Well, a guy can dream, eh?
(For those of you clueless to my references, feel free to check my blog for the link to what I’m referencing. Someone in Yahoo seemed to “get it” awhile back and said so in no uncertain terms internally. That memo made its way public and my hat is off to the author in the hopes he’s still tilting at silos, and not windmills.)
RS said,
March 28, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
by the way:
“What about minors”?
Minors (under 13) is covered under section 3 “Registration Obligations”. Minors between 13 and 18 however, are not explicitly covered. Ironically, this is arguably the age group in need of the most oversight and protection.
The only protection built in is the followings tstement in Community Guidelines:
“Adult content is permitted only in areas marked ‘adult’. You must be 18 years or older to access these areas.”
Since profiles will not be allowed the Adult designation, we are by default of this statement, no longer allowed to post adult content there, of any sort. So, until they take away the ‘Adult’ category from YG, your group is safe.
“What about my mature/adult content”?
At present, Yahoo exempts itself from responsibility for member conduct, but reserves the right to remove any of our content that violates the “Member Conduct” section, specifically section 6a.
“You agree to not use the Service to:
a. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;”
That covers all the ground they need to cover to delete anything at any time, much as any service provider you can find will have almost the same verbage in their TOS. The same community guideline applies from above too. If your group is categorized as Adult it should be safe from yahoo until they take away the Adult category from the groups directory. Which they could do at any time if they chose to. The only reason adult content of any kind is safe now is that they are too big to catch you or anyone else right now, except through specific reports, so bulk dumps like these are the only realistic option.
If you are worried, clean it up, because after that date, your profile may put you at risk, and thus your access to all the services it is tied to.
Kim said,
March 28, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
This is foreshadowing. MSN groups did the same thing some time ago with little to no notice. That was followed by a closing of everything “adult” on MSN, obviously owned by Microsquash.
Rhetorical question: What company recently turned down Microsoft’s offer simply because they were not offering enough money?
Who thinks that a deal has maybe been made for the sale of Yahoo to the company that took away all its adult content?
Hmmmmm.
willow said,
March 28, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
I also think this has not cleared anything up. That e-mail is not from a standard yahoo address and indeed when i sent that mail to yahoo asking if it was a fraud i was told it had not come from yahoo, So this whole statement is either a lie or a coverup and they sent a trial balloon that failed. Yahoo should make a much stronger statement.
i also have a profile that was designated as adult (no longer i changed that when i got the mail) but had a perfectly g-rated picture.
willow
Leslea said,
March 28, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
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
Eric Carwardine said,
March 28, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
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.
Tom said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
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.
zon said,
March 28, 2008 @ 7:56 pm
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.
Babs said,
March 28, 2008 @ 8:16 pm
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
Anthony Kennerson said,
March 28, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
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
bridget said,
March 28, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
why??? dosen’t make sense.
Cassandra said,
March 28, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
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.
Stoney said,
March 29, 2008 @ 3:03 am
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.
Radiokida said,
March 29, 2008 @ 4:06 am
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?
SJK said,
March 29, 2008 @ 4:30 am
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.
JRobert said,
March 29, 2008 @ 5:29 am
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
Tom said,
March 29, 2008 @ 6:20 am
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?
Tom said,
March 29, 2008 @ 6:46 am
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??
Darrel said,
March 29, 2008 @ 8:35 am
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.
Susie said,
March 29, 2008 @ 8:52 am
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
Steve said,
March 29, 2008 @ 9:33 am
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.
Chuck said,
March 29, 2008 @ 10:24 am
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.
nowaywins said,
March 29, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
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
Deb said,
March 29, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
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?
Jess said,
March 29, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
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….
Judy said,
March 30, 2008 @ 5:21 am
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!
deb said,
March 30, 2008 @ 6:59 am
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).
Darklady said,
March 30, 2008 @ 8:03 am
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?
SHiP said,
March 30, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
>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.
smasra said,
March 30, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
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
Bobsattic said,
March 30, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
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.?
Todd said,
March 30, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
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.
Cassandra said,
March 30, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
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.
Charlie said,
March 31, 2008 @ 7:27 am
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.
Cassandra said,
March 31, 2008 @ 7:40 am
Why do they keep removing my post here that told me that Yahoo THEMSELVES said it was a hoax???
Dantcer said,
March 31, 2008 @ 5:24 pm
The cure for the yahoo blues.
http://multiply.com
FRank said,
April 1, 2008 @ 8:13 am
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?
Jeff said,
April 1, 2008 @ 8:38 am
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.”
Robert Hands said,
April 1, 2008 @ 9:50 am
This is why long time Yahoo people leave and go to Google.
Edna Bambrick is rolling over in her grave
REPORTED!
snow falcon said,
April 1, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
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
Sylk said,
April 2, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
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?
Sylk said,
April 2, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
It’s a manpower/logistics issue…..come on people. It’s just not that serious!
logical surrender said,
April 2, 2008 @ 10:48 pm
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.
Tron said,
April 3, 2008 @ 12:04 pm
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 ?
David said,
April 3, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
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.
Charles Antonelli said,
April 3, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
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.
James said,
April 4, 2008 @ 9:56 am
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?
Jeff Schult said,
April 10, 2008 @ 5:18 am
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?
Nisa said,
April 10, 2008 @ 7:15 am
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?
Jeff Schult said,
April 11, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
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.
Nisa said,
April 12, 2008 @ 9:22 am
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?
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