Starting today, you'll notice a few more changes to Yahoo! Groups. This
includes: changes to CAPTCHA, the ability to post from the owner address, and a
fix for the problem preventing some users from being able to moderate groups via
email. More details can be found below.


CAPTCHA

We know that transcribing and translating the CAPTCHA codes can be difficult. As
of today, we're updating to a new CAPTCHA implementation, which includes the
ability to refresh codes you can't decipher (versus being forced to try and
fail), and the option of using an audio CAPTCHA for those who are visually
impaired. Not sure what CAPTCHA is? Find out more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha


Posting from the Owner Address

One of the most common requests we get from Moderators is the ability to post
messages from the owner address (as opposed to the moderator's personal
address). This feature will now allow moderators to mail to group members using
the GROUPNAME-owner@yahoogroups.com address, giving moderators and owners the
option to post in a way that clearly delineates them as moderators. Group owners
and moderators already have the option of rejecting messages from the owner
address, a feature we pushed a few weeks ago.
Moderation by Email

Also in this release is a fix for group moderators who were having issues
approving pending messages via email. Moderators affected by this issue were
using email clients that (in violation of internet standards) do not honor case
in reply to addresses, meaning that they would turn upper case letters into
lowercase.  Since the codes that enable email moderation to work relied on the
reply address being the exact sequence of characters we were expecting, email
moderation commands did not work for these users.  But we have now updated our
code in a way that will enable email moderation to work for even these email
clients, which should allow moderators to approve pending messages and members
via email once again.

As we continue to push out new fixes and releases, we'll keep you posted!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Do you use Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)? If you use both Yahoo! Groups and
Twitter actively, we want to talk to you!

Please reply to this email or contact Melissa at yahoogroups [at] yahoo-inc
[dot] com.
Please include:

- Your twitter name/link to your Twitter account
- Your primary address
- Your name
-  A list of the groups you own or moderate
- Why you'd like to participate in the beta

Thanks in advance, and we look forward to hearing from all the Twitter users
soon!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Back in April, the ability to edit your membership information within a group
was frozen as a result of changes to the profiles system on Yahoo! (See
screenshots in this post:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/08/18/update-to-the-members-page/ for
clarification)

Prior to April, you were able to edit the information that displayed in black
beneath your name within the Members section of your group. However, many of you
reported that after April the information displayed here was no longer correct
(as you have moved, changed your name or had a birthday), or, you simply just
didn't want it to show at all, but were unable to edit these fields.

Starting today, this feature will no longer be visible to group members or
moderators as we are removing it altogether. Instead, when viewing the
membership page, you'll notice that only the user's ID (or alias), status icon,
message link, and the edit icon appear. (See screenshots in this post:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/08/18/update-to-the-members-page/ for an
example)

This feature will not be gone for forever, as we're working internally to ensure
that the information revealed is both correct, and what you want to share.

If you're a moderator who previously used this information to verify a group
member's age, you will no longer be able to do this by glancing at your
membership list. However, you will be able to click on a user's name and will be
taken directly to that user's profile (if they've opted to make their profile
public).

It's important to note that as a moderator you will never be asked to verify a
user's age (especially if you're running an adult group and wish to ensure that
people under the age of 18 are not attempting to join). This "check" is done
automatically by Yahoo's systems: if someone is under the age of 18, they will
not be able to access a site that is intended for mature audiences.

But if you're simply looking for a way to keep up with your members, and, learn
a bit more about your group members, you have a few options:

     * Request that group members have a "public" and complete profile when
attempting to join your group
     * Create a file that is sent out to all new members, asking them to provide
additional information about themselves
     * Add the "Group Profile" application to your group. (To do this, you must
be a moderator or owner. Click on "Applications" in the left hand column of your
group, and then click "Browse Applications" and locate "Group Profile" from the
list. Click "Add" and then give the application a name and description and click
"Ok." Then, once you click on the application name, you'll be instructed on how
to start configuring your new group profile

We know this is an important feature for many group members and moderators and
assure you that this feature is not gone forever! We will be sure to update you
here and on the blog (http://wwws.ygroupsblog.com) as soon as the member detail
feature returns.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Several of you have reported that when using Safari on a Mac the new "Updates"
feature within your groups you're unable to get past the pop-up.

If this is happening to you, here's how you can solve the problem:

-Upgrade Safari-
This "persistent pop-up" is only happening with the beta version of Safari
(3.0.4). To upgrade your browser, please go here:
(http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ )or, click on the Apple icon in the top
left corner and click on "Software Update" to check for the latest version of
Safari.

-Disable the update prompts-
To do this, go to the My Groups page: (http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups )and
click on "Edit My Groups." From here, you can manually change your updates
settings, or, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and change all of the
settings for the groups on that page, at once.

If you've made these changes and are still having trouble, or, are using a
browser other than Safari, please be sure to report these issues to Customer
Care
(http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/general.html).

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

If your group has more than 350 members, you may be experiencing problems like
an out of date member list, new users not getting emails, or problems with
unsubscribes.

See this blog post for background and to stay updated on where we stand with a
fix:

http://tinyurl.com/RepDBbug
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/07/20/issue-update-new-members-not-showing-\
up-in-the-member-list/

And our apologies for the hassles we know this is causing. Solving this problem
is the team's top priority.

- Gordon Strause
Yahoo! Groups

P.S. If your group is less than 350 members or is experiencing other issues, the
problem is almost certainly unrelated to this issue. As always, contact Customer
Care if you need support from Yahoo.
http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html

OUTAGE UPDATE: The outage scheduled for Wednesday, July 15, did not take place.
Instead, on Thursday, July 16th (today), there will be a site-wide outage
impacting all Yahoo! Groups.

During this time, you will not be able to access any of your groups, and, mail
will be delayed. Once the site is back up, mail delivery will resume. This
outage will start at about 3pm PT (10pm UTC/GMT-to determine what time the
outage will take place in your neighborhood, please visit this link:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html) and should last roughly 2
hours.

Once the maintenance has been completed, we'll update the blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com).

Thanks for your patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

This week (July 14, 15, and 16), we'll be performing maintenance on the
remaining 75% of Yahoo! Groups that were not affected by last Wednesday's
outage.

This maintenance will take place over a three-day period (July 14, 15, and 16),
as we'll be working on 25% of Yahoo! Groups at a time. This means you may be
able to access some of your groups, but not all, during the outages. For the
affected groups, mail will be delayed, but will return to normal once the outage
is complete.

All of the outages will take place at 3pm PT (10pm UTC/GMT-to determine what
time the outage will take place in your neighborhood, please visit this link:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html) on the 14th, 15th, and
16th.

While we know that outages sometimes seem to come at exactly the wrong time, we
again hope to have these next three done within 2 hours.

Once the maintenance has been completed, we'll update the blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com).

Thanks for your patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

On Wednesday, July 8th we will be performing scheduled maintenance on the Yahoo!
Groups databases. During this time, some of you may not be able to access your
groups, and group mail will be delayed.

Maintenance should take roughly two hours, and will begin at 1pm PT (8pm UTC- to
determine what time the outage will take place in your neighborhood, please
visit this link: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html).

Once the maintenance has been completed, we will update the Yahoo! Groups blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com).

Thanks for your patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Here are updates on three problems affecting significant numbers of
groups or users.

GROUP ACTIVITY LOGS AND RECENT ACTIVITY NOT UPDATING
As many moderators have probably noticed, the "Group Activity" logs in
the Management section have not been updating. The team has been working closely
with Tibco, the company behind a key piece of software that Groups relies on to
process our incredible volume of these logs, to address the issue, but the
problem is not yet solved. And while the work will continue over the weekend
(it's 7:30 pm on Friday in California as I write this), I wouldn't expect this
issue to be resolved before some time next week.

Unfortunately, the queuing system that processes these logs is also the system
that updates the "recent activity" module (on group home pages, the Groups Front
Page, and My Groups), so this module will be out of date as well until the logs
problem is resolved.

MESSAGE SEARCH
We're painfully aware that this is the bug that will not die. And while there is
some good news, it's balanced by some not as good news (caused mainly by the
logs problem):
- The Good News: Approximately 8000 groups have been migrated to the new message
search system and for these groups, message search is working correctly again
(with a couple caveats described in the Bad News below).
- The Bad News I: The new message system also relies on the same queuing system
as the logs. So messages posted since the logs began to backlog (for most groups
on the 19th) won't appear in search, even for groups on the new system.
- The Bad News II: No additional groups can be migrated until the
queuing system is fixed.
- The Bad News III: A couple (of the nine) servers the new message
search system is running on are behaving flakily. So sometimes it may be
necessary to repeat a search a couple of the time to get the right
results (though we hope to address that problem soon).

VERIZON and COMCAST DELIVERY ISSUES
We began receiving reports today that some Verizon and Comcast users are having
trouble receiving messages from Groups. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can
do to address this issues. We are sending the messages to Verizon and Comcast,
but they are either bouncing them, delaying them, or dropping them. And this
despite the fact that we have filled out (multiple times) the information that
Verizon and Comcast ask for in these situations.

At this point, the only thing that is likely to help the problem is for enough
Groups users to complain to Verizon and Comcast so that they feel compelled to
take action. And when you do complain, there are three things you can do to make
it more likely your complaint will be acted upon:
1. If there is information about your latest bounced message on your
"bounce history page", send it along with your complaint.
http: //groups.yahoo.com/ member/preferences/communication/bounce_history?
email=YOUREMAILADDRESS is the direct link to your bounce history.
(remember to replace "YOUREMAILADDRESS" with your email address).
2. If the problem is messages being delayed (rather than not delivered), send
them the full headers of your delayed message.
http://www.fraudaid.com/find_headers.htm
3. Point them to this group, which is designed for ISP Admins:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ygmailadmin/

We're sorry for the hassle and inconvenience these problems cause.

- Gordon
Yahoo! Groups

P.S. As always, if you need help from beyond Yahoo! beyond the
information in this post, your only option is to contact Customer Care:
http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html

While we try to read comments on the blog and mail to the owner address, we do
NOT take action on them. The ONLY way to get help is to contact Customer Care.

This Thursday (June 11th, 2009) Yahoo! Groups will be undergoing maintenance.
During this time 50% of groups will be unavailable for up to an hour. The outage
is scheduled to begin some time between 2 and 3 pm PT (10-11 pm GMT).

While the maintenance is going on, all features of affected groups, including
messages, photos, attachments, etc. will be completely unavailable. However,
once the outage concludes, any messages that were posted to these groups via
email during this downtime will be distributed.

For more information (or to comment), see this blog post:
http://tinyurl.com/20090611downtime
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/06/09/planned-outage-thursday-june-11-2009/

Thanks, and our apologies for any inconvenience the downtime may cause.

- Gordon
Yahoo! Groups

P.S. Remember that neither commenting nor replying to this message will get you
help for problems you are experiencing with your group. The ONLY way to get help
from Yahoo! is to contact Customer Care:
http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html

Have posted the message below to the blog
<http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/05/26/bug-update/>, so folks who are
interested can now leave comments there (although, as I mention on the blog, if
you want to report an additional issue, commenting on the blog is not a
substitute for contacting Customer Care).

In addition, I added to the blog post an additional bug, which I inadvertently
left off the original message below: this is the "disappearing text in replies"
bug, which is affecting some users:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/missingreply.html

--- In moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com, "Gordon Strause" <gordonst@...> wrote:
>
> As lovers of the outdoors know, with the summer comes more bugs.
> Unfortunately, this year a fair share of these bugs are afflicting
> Yahoo! Groups.
>
> Below is an update on our highest priority bugs, all of which our
> engineering team is actively working to squash.
>
> If you would like to report additional issues, contact Customer Care:
> http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
> http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html
>
> (NOTE that replies to this message will not get a response. Contacting
> Customer Care is the only way to get help from Yahoo!)
>
> Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues, and we're
sorry for any additional hassles these bugs have caused you.
>
> - Gordon
> Yahoo! Groups
>
>
> MESSAGE SEARCH PROBLEMS
> This is our number one priority bug since it's affecting so many groups and
has no work around. As folks who read the blog know, we have been working hard
to rebuild our message search system for a number of months.
>
> The Bad News: The final phases of the this project have proved trickier than
expected, which is why we haven't met our goal of having groups that have signed
up to be migrated on the new system by mid-May.
>
> The Good News: Talked again this morning with the engineer leading this
project, and he believes we're very close to being able to roll out the new
system more broadly. In fact, he hopes to solve the last remaining issues and
actually begin migrating more groups as early as tomorrow (although I think
Thursday (Pacific Time) is more realistic). And assuming he encounters no
unexpected problems, we should still be able to have all groups that have signed
up to be migrated on the new system by the end of the month.
>
> Message Search Blog Posts:
> http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?s=message+search
> Message Search Known Issue Page:
> http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/ki-30.html
>
>
> PROGRAM INITIALIZATION OR TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE ERRORS
> We know that many groups are seeing this error when they land on the
> group home page or pending messages page. Usually, the error will go
> away if you refresh the page, but if the problem persists despite
> multiple refreshes, please contact Customer Care.
>
>
> GROUPS BEING MISTAKENLY CLASSIFIED AS ADULT
> There has been an ongoing known issue where groups are mistakenly
> recategorized behind the "adult wall" (meaning that no one under 18 can
access). And while annoying, until recently Customer Care has been able to fix
this mistake quickly for affected groups (when it is brought to their
attention).
>
> But in the past few weeks, for a handful of groups, the problem has
> become much more frustrating because they are being reclassified as
> adult every single day. In other words, the problem is being fixed by
> Customer Care, but a bug is causing the group is to placed back behind
> the adult wall again the next day.
>
> We are working hard to identify what is triggering this bug (it has
> nothing to do with the content of the group), but as of yet have not
> identified the root cause. Once we do, we will roll out a fix. In the
> mean time, if your group is being affected by this issue, please let
> Customer Care know, and they will manually fix your group every day
> until the problem stops.
>
> Recategorized into Adult Known Issue Page:
> http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/movedintoadult.html
>
>
> MODERATORS UNABLE TO CHANGE THE GROUP HOME PAGE PHOTO
> Some moderators are currently getting errors when they try to update
> their group's home page photo. Please contact Customer Care if this
> problem is affecting you.
>
> We should be able to manually fix the problem for your group right away
(though it may take us longer to roll out a more global fix that will prevent
the problem from occurring in the first place).
>
>
> PROBLEMS UPLOADING PHOTOS
> Some users are reporting problems uploading photos, with only half the
> photos they submit being successfully uploaded in any given upload
> attempt. If this problem is affecting you, please contact Customer Care.
>

As lovers of the outdoors know, with the summer comes more bugs.
Unfortunately, this year a fair share of these bugs are afflicting
Yahoo! Groups.

Below is an update on our highest priority bugs, all of which our
engineering team is actively working to squash.

If you would like to report additional issues, contact Customer Care:
http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html

(NOTE that replies to this message will not get a response. Contacting
Customer Care is the only way to get help from Yahoo!)

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues, and we're sorry
for any additional hassles these bugs have caused you.

- Gordon
Yahoo! Groups


MESSAGE SEARCH PROBLEMS
This is our number one priority bug since it's affecting so many groups and has
no work around. As folks who read the blog know, we have been working hard to
rebuild our message search system for a number of months.

The Bad News: The final phases of the this project have proved trickier than
expected, which is why we haven't met our goal of having groups that have signed
up to be migrated on the new system by mid-May.

The Good News: Talked again this morning with the engineer leading this project,
and he believes we're very close to being able to roll out the new system more
broadly. In fact, he hopes to solve the last remaining issues and actually begin
migrating more groups as early as tomorrow (although I think Thursday (Pacific
Time) is more realistic). And assuming he encounters no unexpected problems, we
should still be able to have all groups that have signed up to be migrated on
the new system by the end of the month.

Message Search Blog Posts:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?s=message+search
Message Search Known Issue Page:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/ki-30.html


PROGRAM INITIALIZATION OR TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE ERRORS
We know that many groups are seeing this error when they land on the
group home page or pending messages page. Usually, the error will go
away if you refresh the page, but if the problem persists despite
multiple refreshes, please contact Customer Care.


GROUPS BEING MISTAKENLY CLASSIFIED AS ADULT
There has been an ongoing known issue where groups are mistakenly
recategorized behind the "adult wall" (meaning that no one under 18 can access).
And while annoying, until recently Customer Care has been able to fix this
mistake quickly for affected groups (when it is brought to their attention).

But in the past few weeks, for a handful of groups, the problem has
become much more frustrating because they are being reclassified as
adult every single day. In other words, the problem is being fixed by
Customer Care, but a bug is causing the group is to placed back behind
the adult wall again the next day.

We are working hard to identify what is triggering this bug (it has
nothing to do with the content of the group), but as of yet have not
identified the root cause. Once we do, we will roll out a fix. In the
mean time, if your group is being affected by this issue, please let
Customer Care know, and they will manually fix your group every day
until the problem stops.

Recategorized into Adult Known Issue Page:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/movedintoadult.html


MODERATORS UNABLE TO CHANGE THE GROUP HOME PAGE PHOTO
Some moderators are currently getting errors when they try to update
their group's home page photo. Please contact Customer Care if this
problem is affecting you.

We should be able to manually fix the problem for your group right away (though
it may take us longer to roll out a more global fix that will prevent the
problem from occurring in the first place).


PROBLEMS UPLOADING PHOTOS
Some users are reporting problems uploading photos, with only half the
photos they submit being successfully uploaded in any given upload
attempt. If this problem is affecting you, please contact Customer Care.

http://tinyurl.com/groupsandupdates
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/05/20/yahoo-groups-your-profile-on-yahoo-an\
d-updates/

WHAT AND WHY

Over the past few months across Yahoo!, you may have noticed a new feature
called "Updates", which is a way to share what you're doing on Yahoo! with your
connections and to see what your connections are up to on Yahoo! as well.

Yesterday, this feature was introduced to Yahoo! Groups giving users the option
of sharing their activity on Groups into their Updates feed on
http://profiles.yahoo.com.  For example:

* A user posting pictures to a quilting group could share these pictures with
their friends as well.

* A user who has posted to a travel group about the best rides at Disney World
could let their connections know about this review in case they also had Disney
plans.

* A user who has posted an answer to a tax question on an accounting group with
public archives could in essence publish their answer to all their connections
or anyone who comes across their profile.

For members, Updates is a way to offer more exposure to the content they have
created and to effortlessly share with friends.

For moderators, Updates can drive new members and increase the level of activity
in their groups.


FEATURE SUMMARY

* Updates allows an easy way to share your group updates with all your
connections (ie. Updates are shown to your connection across Yahoo properties
such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo IM, Yahoo Profiles).

* Currently only photo updates are being published. In the upcoming weeks more
update types such as message posts, polls, links etc. will be published. When
you opt-in to this feature all your update types will be published as they
become available.

* Updates is a feature that is fully opt-in per user per group (ie. you can
opt-in in one group while remaining opted-out in another).

* Updates is defaulted off for all groups. No updates will be shared unless you
explicitly opt-in.

* Updates is not supported for Closed groups, Adult (age restricted) groups, or
users using an Alias (alternate profile for their group). In other words, it's
not possible to opt-in for these groups.

* For groups that require membership to view content, only updates (ie.
thumbnail, photo name etc.) to the content being posted will be sent and
non-members will still be required to join the group before being able to view
the content in detail (ie. full size photo etc.).

* You can delete any specific update you have published directly on your
http://profiles.yahoo.com page


HOW IT WORKS

See the blog post, which include lots of useful screenshots:

http://tinyurl.com/groupsandupdates
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/05/20/yahoo-groups-your-profile-on-yahoo-an\
d-updates/


FEEDBACK & HELP

Please leave your feedback on the blog as comments or, if you have ideas for
improvements, post to the Suggestions Board:
http://tinyurl.com/groupsandupdates
http://suggestions.yahoo.com/?prop=groups

If you believe you are experiencing a bug, contact Customer Care:
http://tinyurl.com/contactCC
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/forms/forms_index.html

If you want advice or to discuss with other moderators, try one of the groups
about Groups:
http://tinyurl.com/groupsaboutgroups
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/ownmod/starting/ideas-01.html

But please do NOT reply to this email. While we do try to read the messages to
the Moderator Central Owner address, you generally will NOT get a response.

Thanks,

- Gordon
Yahoo! Groups

As you may have noticed, earlier this week the number of people you can invite
per day dropped to 50 people. This was done in an effort to combat spam and
reduce system load (the email delays some of you saw last week and this week
were a side effect of people abusing the invite system).

It is important to note that while the invitation limit has been lowered, it
does NOT mean that only 50 people can join your group. Additionally, if you want
to encourage more than 50 people at a time to join, you can still send them an
email directing them to either:

     * Visit your group home page @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GROUPNAME and
click the Join This Group button.
     * Go directly to your Join Page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GROUPNAME/join
     * Send email to your group subscribe address:
GROUPNAME-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Note: In all three cases make sure to replace "GROUPNAME" with the actual name
of your group (e.g. moderatorcentral-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

While we know that this can be frustrating for people looking to start a large
group quickly, we are currently working on a new feature that will prevent
measures like this in the future. We'll be sure to keep you updated on future
developments on the blog (http://www.ygroupsblog.com).

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We're aware of the problem with delayed messages affecting some messages
to some groups and are investigating the cause. Will update with more
information once we have it. Usually, once this type of problem is
diagnosed, it can be addressed quickly.

Apologies for the inconvenience. Please refer to the blog for the latest
updates:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/04/23/message-delays/

- Yahoo! Groups Team

Thank you all for your patience during this week's outage. We wanted to keep you
updated on a few issues that may be impacting your experience on groups.

Missing Groups
After Monday's maintenance a few of you have reported that some of your groups
were "missing" from your groups list. If you are missing any of your groups
please go through the Membership Wizard, found here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/memwiz This will detect any groups registered to your
ID. Once you've completed the Membership Wizard any "missing" groups should
return to your groups list.

AOL Users
We're receiving reports from some moderators and users that some AOL users are
not receiving messages from Yahoo! Groups and are being put into bouncing
status. For more information on this issue and information on how to "unbounce"
yourself, please go here :
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/aol.html

New Members Not Showing Up
If there are members who have recently joined your group but do not show up in
your Membership List, please report this issue to Customer Care, as this is a
bug. When reporting the issue to Customer Care please provide a list of the
missing members. To report this issue, please go here :
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/forms/forms_index.html

Message Search
While we know that many of you are disappointed that this week's maintenance did
not include a fix to the message search issue, we are happy to report that we
will be pushing out a fix to ALL groups in the next month that should resolve
this problem. Currently groups that are affected by this bug are not returning
search results altogether, or, may not be returning complete results. If your
group meets these criteria, please register your group here :
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p6290938.aspx and it will be one of the first
groups migrated over to the new Message Search next month.

As always, please stay up to date on the latest issues by checking the blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com) or the Known Issues page
(http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/index.html;_ylt=AqMe.bl\
DgWspDQU_a1af7mlmcXdG) in the Help section. If you're having an issue that isn't
addressed here or in the help section, please report the issue to Customer Care
so we can investigate the issue further.

Thanks!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We just wanted to let you know that today's scheduled maintenance is now
complete. You should be able to access all of your groups and all of their
features.

Thank you for your patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

On Monday, April 13th, 2009 Yahoo! Groups will undergo scheduled maintenance.
During this time your group will be unavailable for 30-60 minutes.

The outage is currently scheduled to begin at 1 pm PT, 8 pm GMT. At this time,
1/4 of all Yahoo! Groups will become unavailable while the team services these
groups. Once maintenance is complete on that 1/4 of Groups, they will be made
available again, and the next 1/4 will become unavailable until all of the
groups have been serviced.

In total the maintenance period should last around 5 hours, with the maintenance
concluding around 6 pm PT, midnight GMT.

While your group is being serviced, all features of your group, including
messages, photos, attachments, etc. will be completely unavailable. However,
once your outage time concludes, your group and all of its features should
return and any messages that were posted to the group via email during this
downtime will be sent out. Please note that your group's outage should only last
around an hour.

In an effort to better communicate to all of you, a blast message will be posted
to all groups starting today and continuing on through April 13th, 2009, linking
to this message on the blog. This blast message is visible on all groups to all
members and moderators.

Thank you for your patience—during the outage, the blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com) will remain up (and comments will remain open) and
we will update you all as information becomes available.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

If you've searched for a group today you may have noticed that things look a bit
different. Today, we introduced the first phase of our new groups search
solution which will help improve the "searchability" of groups. To try it
yourself, just visit http://groups.yahoo.com and search for a group in the "Find
a Group" search box.

This recent redesign was the result of feedback from users like you, and is the
first step in a series of changes to search that will help you find the groups
that are the most relevant and right for you.

We've added features like: new sorting options, updated group information, and
quick links that enable you to "Join" a group, right from the search page.

You can find a full walk-through of all the new features on the Yahoo! Groups
blog (Post found here:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/04/09/a-new-look-for-groups-search/).

All of these features are currently available in all Yahoo! Groups searches
(however, they're not currently available when you're browsing a group), so be
sure to give them a try and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on
the blog! (http://www.ygroupsblog.com) We'll be sure to keep you updated on
additional updates to search as they become available.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We wanted to keep you updated on a few issues that may have been impacting your
groups over the past few days.

Digest Delivery: Several users have recently reported issues with the delivery
of daily digests. Digests were not being delivered unless a group hit "25
messages," which affected some groups We have corrected this issue and all
groups should be fixed by tomorrow (Thursday, April 9, 2009).

Delayed Messages and Bounces: Group members and moderators who receive their
email through Verizon may not be receiving all messages, or may be receiving
messages long after they've been posted to the group. Verizon has apparently
been "grey-listing" mail from Yahoo! Groups. We have contacted Verizon to remedy
the problem, but we are ultimately dependent upon them to resolve the issue.

If you feel as though your ISP may also be delaying the delivery of Yahoo!
Groups mail, you can find the official list of outgoing mail servers here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ygmailadmin/ This list will be useful when
reporting the issue to your ISP as they will likely ask for the IP addresses of
the mail servers that need to be "white-listed" to prevent future issues.

Once we have an update or confirmation from Verizon we'll be sure to share it
with you all on the blog (http://ygroupsblog.com).  In the meantime, thanks for
your patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We know that being a moderator takes a lot of work. Being a good moderator takes
even more work. And being a GREAT moderator? That takes dedication, patience,
and an unmatched level of compassion for your group and your group members.

We also know that you all are the heart and soul of Yahoo! Groups and know the
ins-and-outs of running and creating an amazing and thriving group. While your
group may have the opportunity to know and appreciate you, we'd love to have the
opportunity to promote your group, your abilities as a moderator, and, share a
few of your own moderation tips and tricks with other group members and
moderators.

Featured Moderators (and groups) will be showcased on the Yahoo! Groups Blog,
and, on Moderator Central in the new "MVP: Moderator Value Program." Select
Moderators (and groups) could also be selected for future Yahoo! Groups news
stories, articles and ad campaigns.

To nominate a fellow Moderator, or, to nominate yourself, just follow this link:
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p6291825.aspx

You'll be taken to a survey site where you'll be asked to answer a few questions
about the Moderator you're nominating (either yourself or someone else).

Just a heads up, if your Moderator is selected for the "MVP" program, we'll be
using some of YOUR answers on the nomination form on the groups blog and in
Moderator Central, so be clear and thorough when answering the questions, and
only share what you'd want shared with the world!

We can't wait to read your submissions and start showcasing your knowledge (and
groups!) to help other budding groups and moderators flourish.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager




Please note: Due to the number of nominations received, not all moderators will
be selected for this program. Prior to being featured on the blog or in
Moderator Central an email will be sent to the nominated Moderator asking for
permission, out of respect for their privacy.

Recently, we introduced the new attachment beta to a handful of Yahoo! Groups.
Based off of the feedback we received from these group members and moderators
(and from other members and moderators who weren't part of the initial beta who
wanted to be) we've decided to roll out this feature to all groups, beginning
today!

This feature will gradually become available in all Yahoo! Groups over the next
couple of weeks, so be on the look out for this great new option.

Not sure if your group has the new attachment feature enabled? In the left hand
column, under the "Messages" section, beneath "Post," if you see "Attachments,"
your group is ready to go. Don't see this link? Your group doesn't have this
feature enabled just yet, but should see it soon.

Additionally, if you participated in the attachment beta, we're happy to let you
know that we've pushed out a bug fix that now shows an attachment thumbnail
instead of the "Attachment: Attachment Name" format that previously appeared.

This new update should make it easier for you to preview and manage your
attachments, and view the content that matters most to you.

For those of you who do have this new feature enabled in your groups, here's a
quick walk-through of the new options/differences.

To access these new options and change your preferences, you must be a moderator
or owner of an enabled group. To get started, click on "Management" in the left
hand column of your group. Then, under the "Group Settings" section, click on
"Messages" and under "Posting and Archives" click "Edit" and scroll down to
"Attachments."

Here, you'll see a third Attachment option: "Store on site (exclude from
emails)"

This new feature allows for attachments to be stored on the groups site instead
of being sent out in emails.  This allows for digest users to review/receive the
attachments, and, makes it easier to retrieve specific attachments long after a
thread has died as they're accessible in the "Attachments" link in the left hand
column.  Attachments share data space with photos, so you now have 100 gigs of
storage.

If you wish to continue to receive attachments via email, your settings should
be set to "Include in emails (exclude from site)."

The third option is to exclude attachments all together.

If your group has this new feature enabled, please share your thoughts in the
comment section of the Yahoo! Groups blog (http://ygroupsblog.com) Thanks!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Over the past week we know that some of you have experienced problems with your
groups (both on the web and with email delivery). These issues were/are the
result of a recent data center move, which we blogged about on the 19th. (Read
that post here:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/03/19/even-groups-gets-the-hiccups/)

As part of this move, we had also upgraded to higher performance hardware, but
the upgrade didn't work out as planned. The team has been working to resolve
these issues and stabilize your experience, and we're cautiously optimistic that
we'll have Yahoo! Groups back to normal before the weekend.

That said, we'll definitely still be monitoring the system closely, and we
encourage you to keep checking the Yahoo! Groups blog
(http://www.ygroupsblog.com) for the latest updates if you experience further
problems.

In addition, we've definitely learned some things from this incident (and from
the feedback folks have been sharing about how we could better communicate), and
we'll blog about the specific steps we're planning to take in the area of better
communication around system issues next week.

We know-I know -that this past week or so has been rough, and we apologize for
all the inconvenience the problems have caused you and your groups. We can and
will do better in the future.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Over the past three weeks we know that some of you have experienced a few
hiccups while using Yahoo! Groups. For this, we're sorry– we're in the process
of moving to new data centers, a move which should enable us to deliver faster
page loads, a more stable system, and an all-around better user experience.

Currently, about 75% of Yahoo! Groups have been moved over to the new data
centers and the remaining 25% of groups will be moved over in phases between now
and March 31st.

As is the case with any move, however, issues sometimes arise, which in this
case have resulted in temporary delays or bugs. As a result of this, some of you
may be experiencing a temporary issue accessing your files and we're working to
resolve that now.  We're sorry about any inconvenience caused by these problems;
and we appreciate your patience, as we work through these issues in an effort to
improve your experience on Yahoo! Groups.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

First off, thank you to all of you who have been affected by this issue and have
waited patiently while our team works to resolve the problem.  We have been
working hard to complete a new, more powerful and scalable search system (rather
than simply patching the old system as we had done in the past), which is why
this fix has taken longer to complete.

But, we're happy to let you know that the team is in the final stages of QA-ing
the new system (checking for bugs, testing for stability, etc.); and if all goes
well, we should be able to start switching over affected groups in the next 2
weeks.

Eventually all groups will be switched over to this new system, but since we
don't the capacity to move all groups to the new system immediately (there are
more than 5 billion messages and 40 terabytes of data to index!), we want to
first address the groups who are having message search problems.

If the search bug has impacted your group and you'd like to ensure that it is on
the list for migration, please click on the link at the end of this message.

(Note: If you have already reported the problem to Customer Care, it is not
necessary to do so again. We have your information already. On the other hand,
reporting the problem a second time won't hurt either, so if your group is
having search issues and you're not sure absolutely sure it has been reported,
go ahead and complete the form).

This link will take you to a site where you'll be asked to provide:

- The email address of your group (this is listed at the bottom of the home page
of the group in the list of group email addresses— so, if you were the Moderator
for Moderator Central, you'd enter moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com).

NOTE: If this issue affects more than one of your groups, please enter each
group address on a separate line in the form.

- Your role within the group (Member, Moderator, Owner, none)

- Your email address (please use the email address that you have registered with
Yahoo! Groups--if you have multiple email addresses registered with Yahoo!
Groups, please enter them all.)

If you have already reported your group's search issue to Customer Care,
remember that you do not need to fill out this form.

If your group is not currently experiencing search issues, please do not fill
out the form.

Your group will be migrated over to this new system in the near future, but in
the meantime, we want to ensure that all impacted groups are taken care of
before we begin migrating over groups that are not having any search problems.

Thanks for your patience and understanding while we work together to fix this
problem!

Now, here's the link to report your group's issue:
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p6290938.aspx

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

PS, if for some reason you have trouble following the link in this message or
have difficulty reading this post, this same message has been posted to the
Yahoo! Groups blog.

The specific blog post that relating to this issue can be found here:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/03/17/groups-search-update/ However, more
information on other Yahoo! Groups features (as well as up-to-date information
on issues) can be found by visiting the blog at http://www.ygroupsblog.com

We wanted to give you a heads up that the Mail team will be conducting
maintenance this coming weekend that might impact some of you.

Beginning the evening of March 13 (Pacific time), you may experience problems
accessing your Yahoo! Mail account. Should you be one of the users impacted by
this maintenance you should be able to access your mail and all of it's features
again the morning of March 14.

For more information and to stay up to date on Yahoo! Mail news, be sure to
visit the Yahoo! Mail blog (http://ymailblog.com).

Thanks for your patience while the Mail team works to improve your experience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

We wanted to let you know that we've identified and resolved a bug with photos
that was causing notifications of new photos to not go out.

The good news is, the issue has been resolved and if you currently have your
photos (and messages) set to "moderate" within your Group, you'll begin to
receive notifications whenever members upload photos that require approval.

The bad news is, if your Group took advantage of the new photo feature and
uploaded a bevy of photos, you may have received a series of backlogged messages
notifying you of past photo uploads that needed approval.

Moving forward, if your Group is set to moderate photos, you'll be notified each
time a member uploads a "batch" of photos. You won't receive a message for each
individual photo, but instead, for the series as a whole (ex. Joe123 uploaded
photo(s) to your Group).

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Hi all,

I'm happy to let you all know that Yahoo's scheduled maintenance was officially
complete Saturday morning. Thank you all for your patience whilst we work to
improve your experience on Yahoo!.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager


PS, for those of you who emailed me asking what a colocation is, it's basically
a large data center. Want to know more? Here's a great article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocation_centre

On Friday, March 6th (TODAY), Yahoo! will be performing maintenance and upgrades
at some of our coloations. This upgrade is currently scheduled to start at 6pm
PT and will take several hours to complete.

This maintenance may affect the message search feature within your Groups on
Yahoo!, but most users should not experience any issues or delays. We'll be sure
to let you know as soon as this maintenance is complete. Thank you for your
patience!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

The Yahoo! Groups team is happy to announce a few new features for Groups
Photos, including the ability to upload many photos at once (similar to Flickr),
the ability to set an album cover image, and the ability to comment on photos. 
And while this release does not include the ability to create photo sub-folders,
the team is aware that this is a feature many of you want, and are looking to
include it in a future release.

To introduce you all to these new features, I've put together a quick
walkthrough over on the blog (including screenshots and a step-by-step for some
features), which can be found here:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2009/03/03/new-features-for-groups-photos/

Once you've tried the new photo feature out, please feel free to share your
thoughts with the team by leaving a comment on the blog—we'd love to hear what
you have to say about these newest features. Thanks!

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager