Up-coming Change to the Yahoo! Groups Invite Feature
Just a quick announcement to let folks know that due to abuse of the invite feature within Groups (it’s being used to send spam), we’ve been forced to remove the ability for group moderators to customize invitations (or “add” messages) until further notice.
If you need to send a customized invitation, one work around is simply to send users a personal email with a direct link to the “join” page. This link will be:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NAME_OF_YOUR_GROUP/join (where “NAME_OF_YOUR_GROUP” is replaced with the actual name of your group).
Sending this link to someone is exactly the same as sending an invitation, except that if your group requires approval of new members, you will still have to approve them after they complete the join form.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. What about closed groups? I’m a listowner of a closed group and the only way to add members is for me to send an invitation from the website.
A. You can still invite members by sending an invitation from your group; you just can’t personalize the invitation. If you wish to send a personal message with an invitation, you might send a heads up via email prior to sending the group invite.
Q. Why not reinstate the feature and just limit to number of addresses in each invite to say 5 or something?
A. Putting in such a low limit would impact all users using the feature and still would not stop the spammers exploiting the custom message feature.
Q. What about the “add” feature? Will we still be able to do that?
A. The add feature and the invite feature will work the same in that the ability to write a custom message will be removed for the same reasons.
A. Closing down abusing groups does not solve the problem as these spammers just create new groups at a very rapid pace.
Thanks for your understanding.
Yahoo! Groups Team
Thistledown said,
April 21, 2008 @ 10:31 am
In the Little Dragon Castle we use the Heart of the Castle E-group as our official roster of members. When their application for membership is approved we do not Invite them to join but Assign them to the E-group. Use of the E-group is restricted to the Owner of the Castle.
How will you change affect the ability to assign members to the E-Group.
Gh said,
April 21, 2008 @ 11:17 am
It seems that one by one features we like and use are disappearing and so called “features” we don’t want or need will be added such as the related group thing. Let’s see now, so far we’ve lost chat (due to supposed abuse) which many of us used and loved, why not just ban the people abusing it instead of taking it away from everyone? We lost the yahoo photo album that kept a copy of all the home page pictures. Just found out that happened recently and couldn’t believe it. Had I known I’d have kept a copy of all of them for a group history. Not sure why that took place. Now we’re losing the ability to invite supposedly due to abuse. Again, why not just get rid of the abusers instead of getting rid of the feature? Seems like it’s throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Hollywood Celebrity Gossips said,
April 21, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
I agree with Gh
please make a poll when u people want to take decision about any featuers after all its yahoo group family, and in family all member get equal chance of decision making, but this time its we can understand its issue of spamming and u have taken decision in best favour of member but u have to come up with solution rather than removing feature
K said,
April 21, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Why not just get rid of the groups using it as spam instead? And why not get rid of those rudderless groups that are filled with nothing but spam? It seems as though everyone gets punished for the few.
GrizzlyBear said,
April 21, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Well that sure is gonna suck for all those with Closed groups, isn’t it? They can’t send that link, it goes nowhere. They’ve got no other way to get new members except the Invite. Might as well just delete all those groups now, rather than let em die a slow lingering death
Karen said,
April 21, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
I wondered about the closed groups and am not sure about the wording of the original statement but it sounds like they can still invite, (i.e. “we’ve been forced to remove the ability for group moderators to customize invitations (or “add” messages)” but they can’t say anything. Of course, just an invite without any explanation probably doesn’t do much and goes to junk or is deleted. I think the wording needs to be changed so we understand if there is an invite ability at all. Closed groups would have no way to add members without that.
Sam said,
April 21, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
That will be all the private moving to google then unless there is some special allowance for us????
Katie said,
April 21, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Please, please, fix the “Add” link! While it is an inconvenience that I cannot add a customized note (which I always did!) its much more of an inconvenience that I cannot add people to our newsletter group directly. (The “Add” link is currently not working) We won’t have nearly the effectiveness we have by only using the “Invite” feature. Many of our readers are elderly and don’t want to deal with the tedious process of subscribing.
I agree with the others that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice a great feature because of those who misuse it. I hate spammers and hope they burn in hell!
Cheryl said,
April 21, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
What about the groups that are INVITATION only??? I had to change mine to that to keep spammers out. How do I invite members now???
trav said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:10 pm
I agree. ENOUGH, YAHOO. BRING BACK THE FEATURE-RICH ENVIRONMENT YOU SEEM BENT ON DISMANTLING. YOU’RE SO BUSY WORRYING / FOCUSED ON SPAMMERS THAT YOU’VE LOST SIGHT OF THE GOAL. GOOGLE WILL PASS YOU UP BECAUSE OF YOUR MYOPIC, IRRATIONAL APPROACH.
Kathie Thomas, A Claytons Secretary said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
I run a membership based group and depend on being able to do the personalised messages - one of my groups is by invitation only and no-one can apply to join.
Surely the number of groups using this feature far outnumbers the spammers?
Valarae said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
I agree with Cheryl. I moderate several groups, all of which are closed groups that are by invitation only. What am I supposed to do? This really stinks. There has to be another way to deal with the spammers. I have never had one spammer problem in my closed groups in six years. Can we allow allow invitations in closed groups only? We need ANSWERS!!!!!
Mindtempest said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:21 pm
ok. Maybe a CAPTCHA can be added to the send invite with personalised message window, so that spammers cannot use spambots for that purpose?
Betty said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
I have two questions, well one question and a suggestion, actually.
First, I trust this is a temporary step? I sympathize with how difficult it is to fight spammers, but really I don’t see making things yet more inconvenient for users is good for them or for Yahoo as a whole.
Second, if I may suggest a solution, what about using CAPTCHAs to verify the validity of personalized invitations? I would think that would catch the majority of spam and still be convenient enough for both Yahoo and it’s users, as I know it is already used in Yahoo mail and other places on Yahoo.
Philip Costa said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
I am the owner of Inkle_weaving, coowner of Heartsigns and the Loom groups.
I would like to see an easier way to change members form moderated to unmoderated,. Maybe like radio buttons on the mem,ber list pages that you could choose moderated or un moderated and a save changes button for each page. I get really behind sometimes on taking people off of moderation. Note I use modration primarly for new members to make sure they are not spammers or some nonrelated subject matter being oisted,
Evening Rain said,
April 21, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
Hey folks - I started lists with One Group - then E-groups came along and it was all good - then Yahoo took over and there were big changes, some good, some not so good. They don’t care if you move to Google…..it’s a free service after all. They don’t care how it may inconvenience some groups that are private - ah - there will be other groups to fill your space……that’s the reality of it all. I hate to sound cynical, but I’ve been around long enough to have seen and experienced a lot of changes. At one time, they had groups that would abuse people - that was their purpose - and I’m sure there are some still going strong, except they are more careful now about it - and you’d complain and nothing would get done - in fact, at one time when some of the group employees were real buddy/buddy with some of the yahoo group list owner/moderators, they’d do things they sure weren’t suppose to do on behalf of their friends. I know first-hand.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Yahoo - always have I even PAY EXTRA for a larger email account for one of the groups I belong to that has a heavy mail load - never thought I’d do that again, but I have.
But the only effective way they are going to stop these spammers and they are getting worse - is to do something about it - like they can easily get their ISP numbers - I do it myself and have a program where I can trace their ISP numbers and make direct complaints to their internet service providers- or turn them into spam cop - and keep doing it again and again until these low life spammers get the message - but that’s too easy.
Chat rooms use to be nice at one time - they are better now - now that Yahoo got rid of the porn drive-by ads - all those ads are done by a program and hit hundreds of rooms at the same time - and the porn was disgusting most of all - see my pics and if you accidentaly hit a link it took you to hard core porn - come on, they could have stopped that back then too - if they can do it now, why did they permit it to go on for years? Sometimes, Internet Service Providers get paid for lists of their customers by spammers….it goes on all the time. Spam is big business for a lot of people. The only way we are going to get them to stop, is like I said, turn them into their ISP servers - I do it on my own - but that’s my response. I’m sick to death of spammers, both on groups and in my private mail. I get few of those now; however, because I use Spam Cop and it works. Yeah, so they are going to come back with a new identity - so Yahoo closes the account out and bans that isp number permanently. Why is that so hard to do for Yahoo?
They know who I am by checking my ISP number - but they don’t even have to take the time or trouble - I’ll tell them who I am anytime they want to know.
Instead of taking these trips all over the world - which must cost big bucks for yahoo - but they are doing it for a purpose too - to drum up more business - there is a lot of competition between Yahoo - MSN and Google for customers. Town meetings? I don’t see the point other than drumming up new business - which Yahoo has the right to do - they are after all, another big corporation and the bottom line is corporate profits.
Corporations don’t care about people like us - the little people of the world - other than they want our money, so the corporate officers can get a big bonus or two or three or more every year - sometimes in the millions - and that means raises for the upper level staff members too - that’s what it’s all about today in America. The almighty dollar.
If you want to get rid of spammers - go after them yourselves - use Spam cop - but don’t depend upon Yahoo to do it - or to close down groups that are repeat offenders over and over again. They will just keep cutting out options for the good folks who are legitimate group owners and have good lists - rather than deal with the offenders themselves.
I feel sorry for those of you who work so hard to get large memberships - stop knocking yourselves out to get high numbers and enjoy what you have. It’s not worth the aggravation.
Life is too short to sweat stuff like this.
Laci said,
April 21, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
As I read the latest “change’ Yahoo will be depriving of us I had to wonder why Yahoo gives so little credit to Group owners/ moderators. I’m no rocket scientist but does not each owner have the ability to unsubcribe an unwanted member (spammer)? Can the owner not warn all of it’s members to put said, spammer on ignore? I just did that exact thing this past week and have had no futher problems. Why does Yahoo insist on making things more complicated than needs to be. All this spam hysterics is pushing Yahoo over the brink. How has Capatcha codes solved anything? Surely not bots, spammers. The only things Capatcha codes has deter is people. People have left Yahoo in droves. If Yahoo is paying a executive for advice on controlling Groups wake up Yahoo. You’re being taken!! It’s very obvious Yahoo wants no input from Group owners/moderators. Grizzlybear just about covered it.
RS said,
April 21, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
So, the spammers are making groups, and using the invite feature to spam their services/whatever? Howabout a Report Invite as Spam button on invites instead, which:
(1) flags the attempt as spam, reporting the group to yahoo for review.
which
(2) disables the group’s ability to use adds (since it has been abused), at least with custom messages.
Then we police the community instead of yahoo. Then anyone can use it until they abuse it. Yes we’ll still get the occasional invite as a spam trick, but once we report it, the entire YG community is spared. Or you could limit how many invites go out IF they have custom messages (and otherwise keep the regular limit). Or all of the above.
It would really be rather nice if you created solutions to address issues, and targeted violators, rather than affecting the whole user-base. I don’t expect any better at this point, but please work on creating these solutions. 10 years as a YG user (back to onelist/egroups days), and never have I had this problem yet. Not that its a big deal to lose the custom messages, but it was rather nice to have. Sad we (again) have to lose a feature because of abusers.
Please think about *designing* fixes, instead of just reducing service options. We’d ‘preciate it. Best of luck.
maryland_hoosier said,
April 21, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
Question -
Will the people to whom an invitation is sent be required to have a Yahoo ID?
I moderate a group where members are moslty in their 60s and up (to and including post-octogenarians) who find it difficult to impossible to get a Yahoo ID. Some have others (friends, neighbors, family) help them find the group, and have no need for anything but the group messages. A large number of our members, did not grow up with computers, and are barely able to turn on the computer, but are valuable, contributing members of the group, which was formed to deal with a health issue found mostly in people of an advanced age.
Will a Yahoo ID be required? If so, then Yahoo may lose another group to some other entity.
Shalf said,
April 21, 2008 @ 9:24 pm
I’ve noticed in the last few months several instances of attempted spam posts in my groups, being posted from the Groups Message Poster, not via email. This implies that there are either low-wage workers following scripts, or automation (”robots”), working the Groups’ web sites. Fortunately my groups moderate new members so none of these messages have been posted (yet).
If they are rapidly creating new groups, and new accounts, this means they’ve found a way to circumvent the CAPTCHA tests already in place. If that is the case adding a CAPTCHA for customized messages probably won’t help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha#Circumvention
Perhaps a better solution would be an approval mechanism where the customized text would be fed to a spam filter (and not generic SpamGuard, but one with its own training specific to custimized invite text). A strong “not-spam” score would release the invites. Some policy would have to be designed for strong “spam” scores (disable the customized text feature?) and intermediate cases (delay transmission proportional to the spam score?). Of course someone’s got to train the filter, at least initially, and periodically review a sampling of its decisions.
Dean said,
April 21, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
I understand the need to monitor and eliminate spam. However, what I don’t understand is with all the modern software and hardware available at even ones level such as a simple user like me, I am able to eliminate 99.9% of the spam that would have reached my inbox just 5 years ago. It ends up in my junk mail box which I can direct to automatically delete or keep. Depending on the level I set it at dictates that, I also can create rules so that when it comes into my mailbox it will do a varity of this including looking for any word that says unsubscribe in which it places it in an unsubscribe box. I guess what I am trying to point out is that at my level I can purchase simple software for less than $40 that does alot of wonderful things to spam the simpliest is delete it. Surely, a multi-billion dollar corporation such as Yahoo that is considering a financial partnership with Microsoft can solve a simple problem such as spam when it relates to an email account that must enter your system and mail that must travel thru your system when a simple person like me that exists on less than the amount of money that your corporation spends in one day for all the coffee, cups, creamer, stir sticks, etc (consumed and used) in all your break rooms, meeting rooms, executive offices, and other misc. places I have forgotten about world wide. Surely with your stock trading at $28.55/share and a takeover price from Microsoft of some 43 Billion, it would seem that Yahoo could come up with a better solution to this problem than simply turning off the switch. I mean if I can get almost 90% there with $40, how about giving me a little time and some working capital, say $2 million and I would propose bringing in some of these other experienced moderators to work with your experts and we could solve this problem the right way. Once fixed, we might even be able to add some more state of the art features to it like combining your present yahoo chat service or pieces of it, so it is similiar to EBay’s Skype that has skyrocketed and make a better product by combining the two and cutting your costs by eliminating some duplication. Sound good? I think so, some of the best suggestions come from those that use the product the most. CIAO!
tammy duncan said,
April 22, 2008 @ 12:18 am
IM A REGULAR CHAT IN PARTENTING 1 AND THERE ARE ALOT OF BOTS ONE PERSON DOES IT ALL THE TIME IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT AND IF SO WHAT? CAUSE IT IS GETTING OUT OF HAND AND THE PPL THAT WANT TO CHAT OR ASK PARTENTING QUESTIONS CANT CAUSE THEY CANT EVEN GET IN THE ROOM AN MOST OF THE BOTS ARE UGLY NAMES SO IF THERE IS ANYTHING I OR YOU CAN DO PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY EMAIL THANKS FOR YOUR TIME TAMMY DUNCAN
earthstorm said,
April 22, 2008 @ 2:00 am
When will the groups be functioning again? I cannot access pending members or posting history it keeps saying “Maximum Transaction Time Exceeded”. Everytime Yahoo Groups makes changes or “updates” we have problems on the groups. This is getting too frequent! I love Yahoo Groups but unfortunately it is causing me to pull out my hair once too often in frustration.
Thank you!
Douglas McCarroll said,
April 22, 2008 @ 4:14 am
A quick perusal of some of the comments gives me the impression that most of them are negative. I don’t have time to understand all the issues, but on the face of it this seems like a very sensible move to me. Spam is a big problem. Thanks for doing what you can to impede the spammers.
Roxy said,
April 22, 2008 @ 4:35 am
I own and run a closed group for a non-profit that is invite only by moderator. We use the invitations to explain many things about the group. Most people are not tech savvy. Spam is NOT an issue for such groups.
If you keep taking away the features we utilize from groups that aren’t issues they will wind up going somewhere else.
Thanks Daddy.
Katherine said,
April 22, 2008 @ 5:14 am
Yahoo does care! If you don’t think so, you quite obviously have not attended one of their Town Hall meetings. I don’t see Google doing anything like that and Google Groups has many of the same problems that Yahoo encounters. At least Yahoo is pro-active about it. I have used Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, MSN Groups and many other types of social networking sites and Yahoo is still by far the best in my book. If you don’t believe me, then why don’t you ask FlyLady?
Do a survey too and find out how many other groups have a blog like this where you can make your voices heard.
ClassyCat - Kit said,
April 22, 2008 @ 11:57 am
ALL I CAN SAY, IS THAT I HOPE ALL OF THIS GETS CLEARED UP EFFECTIVELY, AND SOON.
I REALLY ENJOY MY 2 SMALL GROUPS.
I HOPE THE INVITE FEATURE “IS LEFT IN TACT.”
I HAVE NOT HAD ANY BIG ISSUES WITH SPAMMERS COMING INTO MY GROUPS. A COUPLE OR 3 HAVE SHOWED UP, AND GOTTEN THE “BOOT.”
THEY ARE REALLY A STUPID BUNCH, IMPOSING THEIR GARBBAGE WHERE IT IS NOT WANTED!! YOU’D THINK THEY’D GET A CLUE.
THE ONLY THING I WOULD LIKE TO SEE (NO PUN INTENDED, SINCE I AM VISION IMPAIRED) - IS SOME FEATURES THAT WOULD HELP THE VISION IMPAIRED HAVE A LITTLE EASIER TIME WITH A CHAT AREA, BOUGHT INTO THE SYSTEM ONCE AGAIN.
I ENJOY YAHOO, AND APPRECIATE THEM AT LEAST LETTING US ALL KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON, AND HOPEFULLY, THEY’LL SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SOME OF THE IDEAS MENTIONED HERE.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!
Chrissy said,
April 22, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
I for one hardly ever us the invite .But I agree there is way to much abuse with this feature.Ppl joining your group and inviting ppl without there permission.And strangers inviting you to join their groups.Its annoying and not to mention rude.I don’t care if my members go to a differnt group,but the “inviter” should have there permission to add them its a violation of privacy!I for one would like rules for this feature like only adding friends on your IM list and making it impossible for strangers to add/invite you.(I know you can change it so ppl can’t add/invite you ,but some ppl don’t know about it)The “adding” feature should be done away with.Like I said way,way,way to much abuse of this feature.I’m glad that you guys are attempting to do something about it.
Thank you
Brent said,
April 22, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
I suspect that this is going to fall on deaf ears, but I feel compelled to chime in. This seems poorly thought through, poorly communicated and very disappointing to the very core constituency that makes up your user base. I rely on the Invite and Add features considerably, and the ‘workarounds’ suggested do not in fact provide equivalent capability. In addition, there seems to be a new Invite limit which will further reduce the utility and value of the service. From this user’s perspective, Yahoo has either truly lost touch with the original value and intent of the service, or is not-so-subtly looking to drive users away.
Please revert to the previous level of functionality, or at least allow individual groups to somehow qualify for exceptions. I have been a loyal eGroups/Yahoo! Groups member since 1999 and own or moderate a dozen or so groups currently. Loyalty should be rewarded and not punished.
Pamela said,
April 23, 2008 @ 9:00 am
How can I see if my group (NewClooneyGroup) is affected by this up-coming change to yahoo groups?
Gustavo said,
April 23, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
I run a group for a rapidly-growing organization where most people are not very experienced internet users and have big problems in the suscribe process. The number limit in the invite feature and the lack of personalize invitations are HUGE inconveniences for managing my groups. Why is Yahoo making things harder for group managers instead of doing the opposite?
JCP said,
April 24, 2008 @ 2:53 am
I rely on the Add feature heavily for one of my groups, and to a lesser extent for all my other groups. I’ve learned from experience that a polite “Invite” usually doesn’t get anywhere near 100% acceptance. That’s why the 10 Adds per Day limit is one of my pet peeves (but that’s another story).
The ability to customize the Add or Invite message is very useful to give a brief overview of how the group list will be used. Doing away with this function is more than just an inconvenience for me.
Several good suggestions have been made for policing the abusers without losing valuable functionality for the “good guys”. Here’s mine: why not moderate the Invite and Add messages of new groups until they prove they aren’t spammers? If the *customized section* of their messages doesn’t pass a Spam filter, they don’t get sent. Leave us honest groups in peace!
Katherine said Yahoo groups is still the best, saying:
“Do a survey too and find out how many other groups have a blog like this where you can make your voices heard.”
Lately I wonder…. Is this blog just here to make us *feel* like we’re being heard? Clearly the number of policy changes made despite overwhelming negative feedback keeps increasing. So someone else must be talking louder. Could it be the Benjamins?
JC
Bree said,
April 24, 2008 @ 3:46 am
My group is closed and my invites give special instructions on ID creation and information that must be present on the user’s profile before they can be approved. This new policy negatively affects my group.
Stopping spam is like stopping a car thief. You will never stop the thief if he is hell bent on getting that car. But you can sure make it more difficult and time-consuming to steal it. That deters 99% of the thieves who move on to easier targets.
I support the idea of reducing the number of simultaneous invites that can be sent rather than eliminating custom invites. It won’t stop all spammers but it sure makes it hard to spam a million email addresses 5 at a time.
I do not support the elimination of custom invites. And it is obvious that most of the moderators are not very happy about it either.
Do you even care what we think? Or is this just wasted breath and the change is a done deal cast in stone?
Bree
Moderator-Harley Davidson Owners of Western NY
Carsieb said,
April 24, 2008 @ 5:35 am
I work with a group of members whose highest level of computer expertise is email. They need me to add their names to membership list(s). As long as I can do this without customizing the message all is well. However, the language in the announcement was so vague that I am not sure I still have that ability.
Gary Plana said,
April 24, 2008 @ 9:07 am
I’m the owner of two Yahoo! groups that support a fan convention, MileHiCon in Denver. One group (”MileHiCon”) is open to the public and serves to keep the fan community informed about our activities. The other is a closed, unpublished, invitation-only group which I restrict to members of the convention’s organizing committee. In this closed group, we discuss a lot of things that we do NOT want the general public to know, basicly behind-the-scenes planning, financial matters, and the like.
If I read your post correctly,, anyone who can figure out the name of the closed group can go to the URL, add /join at the end of the URL, and join this closed group. It is absolutely essential that the only people thatc an join the private group are people that **I** send an invitation to — I **must** keep iron-clad control over who can join this group, and it sounds to me like you’re taking that control away from me with this change.
If this IS correct, Not only am I gong to be mad, but we’ll be leaving yahoo groups as soon as I can find a suitable replacement.
Kate said,
April 24, 2008 @ 9:35 am
This is a pain because we have people who may unsubscribe or report us for abuse because they don’t have any clarification about what our group is. That said, either I’m confused or most of the other commenters are. Yahoo doesn’t mean that spammers are using the invite page to spam existing groups. Spammers are “inviting” people to a group and using the customized part of the invitation as their platform. Seems stupid and inefficient of the spammers when they are limited to 50 ppl/day, but no one said spammers are brain surgeons.
rick tofte said,
April 24, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
Glad to see some action to prevent spammers.
Here is another BIG problem you will not acknowledge.
It was brought up by another group moderator and the fix was nearly impossible.
Somehow the ‘unsubscribe by email feature’ is being used to access the yahoogroups server. Who knows what they are doing once in there.
Look at your own groups PLEASE to confirm you are not being used.
I am sure many of you are..here’s where to look;
1st Open your particular home page(s)
Then look at the
MANAGEMENT category on the left side, then choose,
EMAIL COMMANDS.
Then scroll down and look at the recent activity.
You maybe shocked as I was and have asked other group moderators privately. They had no idea what has been going on for 4 years now.
Complete strangers email addresses abound, all followed by this line;
“member unsubscribed by email.”
except they are usually not even a member. Spammers no doubt.
I have asked Yahoo groups what to do about it because I want to correct a flaw they have evidently.
They said “it is up to the moderators to patrol members activity.”
UNSUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL NEEDS TO BE MANUALLY SELECTABLE.
Is there any way to turn the automatic unsubscribe feature by email off?
My groups are subcribe by invite only.
Why can I not allow the same protection against rogue users ?
All I did was open an email in 2004 from the group owners that sounded legit.
That was when yahoogroups only allowed group owners to be spammed.
Once it’s too late it really is.
I have hundreds of users in 2 groups.
I invited them 1 at a time over years asking questions to try and keep out spammers.
I have culled the members list many times since then.
I think Yahoo does not want people to know about it myself.
Keep that stock price high guys.
Keep out Microsoft PERIOD.
Because I am gone if it comes to that.
Respectfully submitted,
Rick Tofte Member since E-groups day 1
Owner of;
SoltonMS40@yahoogroups.com
Ketronusers@yahoogroups.com
nima said,
April 25, 2008 @ 8:56 am
excuse me but can anybody tell me:
How can I send a e-mail to some of my group members?
Ann said,
April 25, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
Instead of turning off the feature due to some “bad” people, why not ban the bad people? Cancel their ability to have a yahoo email address and it will cancel their ability to spam.
RMS MD said,
April 26, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
I moderate a closed group that is a subset of a classic car club. membership in the parent club is required for membership in the group. My “Invite” message is descriptive of the mission of our group and gives CLEAR instructions about how to join the group which were included in my “ADDED message.” Now that this is gone, I KNOW from experience that many new members to the club wil have difficulty joining our club’s Yahoo group. Please find a way to bring this feature back!
RMS, MD
A classic car hobbists who like many volunteers time for his club. A physician in real life.
Mike Feldman said,
April 28, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I’m trying to start up my group of ~120 members. I’ve run into 2 Yahoo rules, which seem to be undocumented:
(1) no more than 50 invites per day. I can live with that, but does that mean a calendar day (that is, wait till after midnight till the next calendar day)? A 24-hour day (that is, wait exactly 24 hours after sending an invite)? Please document the rule so us mere mortals can understand it.
(2) several of my group members (mostly school principals) have e-mail addresses info@blah-blah. Yahoo rejected these, saying “info@…” is not an e-mail address. OK, I’ll go back and tell them they need to use a different address. But just which IDs are verboten? Or are we supposed to find out by trial and error?
Thanks!
Mike
Coly said,
April 29, 2008 @ 9:58 am
I enjoy yahoo groups but how this latest move by Yahoo helps against spam is beyond me. Its the same principal as if you were to go to the dentist to have a sore tooth pulled and the dentist pulls the wrong tooth. They can still spam groups by leaving a spam message in groups and if they are banned they can just get another username and send more spam. They are also still able to spam people with invitations so this move by Yahoo didn’t help either. Let the group moderators set there group settings to moderating all messages if they want and they can deal with the spam.
Two things I will add:
1. Spammers hit dead groups the hardest. If the members don’t like being spammed in a dead group leave or just change your mail settings. If they are to lazy to do that than its their fault.
2. I have never been spammed by invitation and I belong to several groups so I am not sure it is as bad as they say..
PJ Ray said,
April 29, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Jami,
I would like to attend the yahoo meeting if there is one scheduled to be in Houston, Texas as a group owner/moderator. My group is (Positive) Affirmations to De-stress.
(979) 531-0831
(I actually live in Wharton, TX but Houston is the nearest big city to me).
Thank you so very much!
mollyann365@yahoo.com
PJ Ray
Juror2 said,
April 30, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
I cannot tell you how much this ticks me off. People sign up to join my mailaing list in person at my booth and now I feel like I’m sending them a huge form letter with no personalization whatsoever when I add them. As if the Yahoo! group direct add letter wasn’t insanely long and spammy already, now I can’t even personalize it with my own words?
Cher said,
April 30, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
I think this is crazy, Yahoo has a feature to turn invites off for one and also the info is attached to every invite letting the person know they can turn this feature off. I think the concept is a good idea but what they should do is have yahoo not let duplicate invites go out, say we invite someone to our groups that yahoo ID or email if invited again within a certain amount of time would be blocked. After that time period ends that email can be re-used again unless that person shuts off the invites completely. I don’t see this as the worst spam out there esp when there is a feature to turn the invites off. It’s sad that the groups are falling apart year by year.
Katherine said,
May 2, 2008 @ 9:17 am
I have conducted an experiment since the change occurred and here are the results:
I have found that if I only send an e-mail from my personal account inviting members to join our Yahoo Group, that very few do. But if I send the e-mail and then send them the Yahoo invite, that more of them do join.
I have also found that when I add new members to our newsletter group, they are sent an e-mail with the Yahoo group description so I have edited that description to sound more like the welcome message that I used to send.
I live in California and applied for the beta panel. I called the place in San Francisco as instructed and they never returned my call. You might want to reconsider that Yahoo!
WK said,
May 2, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
It seems to me that if Yahoo Groups limits the number of the INVITE feature to 10 like Yahoo Groups has done with the ADD feature, Spammers wouldn’t use it because any Spammer can create a ‘free email account’ with the ability to send 25-50 emails, so why fool around with only sending 10??? This “MESSAGE” feature is necessary to let the Recipient know what the INVITE or ADD is all about because many times the Name of the Group isn’t enough!!! Please add this feature back with limited ability!
Deborah Brooks said,
May 6, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
I’m glad I have MSN Groups to fall back on.
You want to punish the majority?
WHY?????????????
SHYAM said,
May 6, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
asas
Creig said,
May 7, 2008 @ 10:44 am
I don’t understand why YG is cutting their legs off to trim their toenails.
Any spammer can still send spam through invites to a new group. All they have to do is put their spam into the group description and it gets sent with the invitations.
A better method is to not allow invites at all for new groups. Make them wait a day or two. Especially if the id they are using as group-owner is also brand new. That will discourage drive-by spammers from using that feature.
I need the personalized invitation because people sign up via meetings, street fairs, etc, and they need to know that this is the group they signed up for and not just some other spam.
I am already looking into Google groups. It is painful to move a group with hundreds of members, but so be it.
Netra said,
May 7, 2008 @ 11:52 pm
when replying the group email in yahoo group, the personal address of previous sender appears. How to get automatically the group address instead?
Helge Gunther said,
May 9, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
I am a moderator of a closed group and have invited new member to join. Now these invites do not show up in the moderator activity list. Also, they are not listed under “Pending Members.”
What is going on? It’s bad enough not being able to attach a personalized message to an invite but not having a record of who has been invited makes it very hard to document who has and has not been invited.
Jon said,
May 10, 2008 @ 4:16 am
Limiting invitations has been the worst development I’ve seen yet from Yahoo Groups. It doesn’t even make good business sense for Yahoo and punishes group owners who’ve stuck with Yahoo Groups through thick and thin.
At MySpace you can invite up to 500 friends a day to your profile. Why not set that limit for each individual group?
If we can’t continue to draw new people to all of our groups, Yahoo will die even faster than it has been the last several years.
Btw, dropping a personalize message is also a very bad idea as the topic of many groups can’t easily be explained from just reading the group name.
Please go back to the old invitation system asap and deal with people who set up phony groups to spam their porn sites on a case by case basis.
tope said,
May 11, 2008 @ 10:19 am
Hey i like to say that good feature are required in the yahoo and i will like them to improve on the network for more information about health and good life visit http://www.drug-abuse-solution.blogspot.com
http://www.discovertruesuccess.com
http://www.gracetech=drugrehab.blogspot.com
tope said,
May 11, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Well done in yahoo so far and keep improving on your site thanks visit
http://www.gracetech-drugrehab.blogspot.com
Jon said,
May 13, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
Hey YG, I’m absolutely thrilled to have a 1000 member invite limit per day now!
I’ve never even come close to inviting that many people to one group in a day, but it’s nice to know you’ve given back dedicated owners the chance to keep their groups filled w/new lifeblood again!
Cheers, Jon
gobi said,
May 15, 2008 @ 12:20 am
welldone
RS said,
May 15, 2008 @ 11:49 am
Why spam a group when YG doesn’t clean up their comment boards…just spam here…(sigh)
dharani said,
May 17, 2008 @ 8:11 am
hi i want yahoo gorups
dharani said,
May 17, 2008 @ 8:12 am
ha hlkjofd jjdsadi oadiohkj
hutchins said,
May 18, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
Dear frinds of American Freedom of speach,
It has come to my attention that requests for any betterment or solutions of any kind are being blocked on the web. Search for betterment or any general term of who can or what is the way to better our situation are directed to sex ,sports, or bad news …….. ways to do things other than search fo betterment or the truth in america.
Please help reverse this treason ,,,,,,, demand to know who is blocking the solutions …………… share the truth if you love America …..tell it now!
Patricia M. said,
May 19, 2008 @ 6:00 am
this was a really dull idea. now anyone in a closed group can invite someone to the site to join, the moderators will have no idea who they are or who invited them. we have a closed group and those diverse, we do like to know where the posters stand before inviting them…just to avoid spamming and silliness.
we need the right to include a message. if you have people who spam, delete their yahoo membership. don’t limit those who use it in fairness.
Glenn King said,
May 21, 2008 @ 6:21 pm
I am going to write a smaller message than the first previously planned.
Personally in my opinion spam is not a major problem for active dedicated
moderators. They just remove the spammers.Spammers who are removed
have better things to do then to keep changing their user ids to post in a
group that does not want them.
Spam through invites? Only owners and moderators can sent invites not
regular members. The only way a potential spammer could send spam
within invite messages would
would be if he created a group just for that purpose.
For several years now I have been the member of a general average of 50
groups. I have never received spam though an invite. I do not believe that
it is a real problem.
So why is yahoo doing this. I personally think that they want our groups
to fail. Why? I can speculate on this latter.
Glenn King
rajamohamed said,
May 22, 2008 @ 8:31 am
i need this group please joined
Kassie said,
May 22, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
well thats kool, improving the group and all and blocking spam. It will be a lot safer i think…
Kassie said,
May 22, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
i mean this is hecka lame i just re read it….your closing the group that is so not nice!! well like that one person said i still have like myspace and all that other stuff
iffy said,
May 22, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
My 1st time to visit here.
right now No Comments………..
Chuck Agustin said,
May 23, 2008 @ 7:11 am
When I checked my Group list in “Members”, I saw 30 names.
A former member who unsubscribed wants to get back in. I sent an invvite through the Members invitation form. The result, rejected. It said “already member”. I rechecked, and his name or email address is NOT in the list of 30.
How do I solve this problem of getting him back to the E-List?
mohammad said,
May 23, 2008 @ 9:56 am
hiiiiiii
09193782769
Timothy Maguire said,
May 31, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Yahoo guys,
you need to update your Help FAQ! I spent hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t do this anymore.
Some of us don’t read these things, and just search for them when there’s a problem. SO MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND OUT.
Frank Mazurkiewicz said,
June 13, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
How do I enable another member of a Yahoo Group that I started and moderate, the authority to also serve as a moderator and thereby able to edit within the group and use the Invite and Promote feature?
Frank Mazurkiewicz
Julie said,
June 16, 2008 @ 7:32 am
I get around this impersonalized automatic yahoogroup invite by sending a regular email (with my closed groups detailed information) to my new member and ask them to send an email to:
“NameOfMyGroup”-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
That way they are getting my groups information and still able to subscribe.
Hope that might help some of you.
William Gartin said,
June 19, 2008 @ 11:39 am
“If you need to send a customized invitation, one work around is simply to send users a personal email…”
So… if we’re to use personal email to explain why we’re inviting them, what our list is about and why they might wish to join, why do we need y’all?
Instead of dealing properly with YOUR spam issue, you big solution is to screw all the moderators who run their lists responsibly? Dumb. Extraordinarily bone-headedly dumb.
Purple Girl said,
June 22, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
Why not do some of the following:
1. Implement CAPTCHA to reduce the abuse and prevent spambots from creating abusive groups or using the invite feature for spam.
2. Take the lessons learned from Yahoo! Answers and implement Community Moderation.
3. Have the option of flagging abusive invites and after enough reliable reporters report, the custom messages are disabled for the group, or their entire invite feature is disabled. Then Yahoo! can check the group to see if it was abusive, then reinstate it and mark the reporters as unreliable, or finish deleting it.
prolan12 said,
August 5, 2008 @ 6:57 am
ZH1KHu wrerrerreteee
prolan3 said,
August 5, 2008 @ 7:21 am
80VJci wwwwqqqqsssddd
prolan5 said,
August 5, 2008 @ 7:34 am
R3HDSv eeeerrrffddgggggggccccc
derf said,
August 15, 2008 @ 2:55 am
lJRYCV re re rerrrreeee gththtt
Madeline said,
September 9, 2008 @ 8:34 am
Hi,
I’m the moderator of a couple of groups. I do not post my name on the group description so potential members do not have access to it before they join. Is there a way for potential members to find out who moderates my group before they join? While I don’t post my name in the group description, I feel potential members have a right to this information.
Sorry if this is not the correct way to post a question - I couldn’t figure out how to.
TIA
Satish B Puri said,
September 18, 2008 @ 3:37 am
I have started a small closed group. Unfortunately some prospective members are unable to join the group (even after i have invited them) as they don’t have a yahoo id.
Agustin Jones said,
November 12, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
d7ms1b4t6q66b3ye