Over the years we’ve received a great deal of feedback from Yahoo! Group
members, that while they love the groups they are currently members of, it's
often very difficult for them to discover other relevant groups that they might
also be interested in joining. In response to this feedback, the Yahoo! Groups
team is testing a new feature that will make this process easier and surface
recommended groups based on common members between groups. These recommendations
will appear in the right hand column of Groups emails.

To read more please visit the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/03/13/coming-soon-group-recommendations/

Please do not reply to this post. If you'd lke to comment or ask a question,
please do so on the blog.

Thanks!
Yahoo! Groups Team

We are aware that some Groups users may currently be experiencing site slowness
when accessing the Groups site. Our engineering team is currently investigating
this issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Please look to the Groups blog for updates: 
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/03/25/groups-site-slowness/

Thank you for your patience,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

I am sure you will all be happy to learn that we've completed the test phase of
the Related Groups feature. This means that “Related Groups” are currently
no longer appearing in the right hand column of Groups emails.

The results are in
As mentioned in the original post on this topic, we were testing a concept that
we believed would address a concern we have heard from Groups users, members
specifically, that while they love the groups they are currently members of,
it's often very difficult to discover other relevant groups that they might also
be interested in joining. As Leonard mentioned in his update to my original
post, our goal with this test was to learn whether the feature is useful for
Yahoo! Groups users. If we found that the feature was useful, we would want to
invest more into it. If we found that it was not useful, we would want to remove
it or improve it. The results are in and we found that the members who received
“Related Groups” in their group emails did indeed discover other relevant
groups that they were interested in joining. As a matter of fact, the member
uptake of this feature far surpassed our expectations (meaning that an
overwhelming number of Groups members subscribed to new groups they learned
about in their group emails).

What does that mean?
Well, this means that we've validated our belief that this would be a great way
for Groups users to discover new groups. This also means that we’ll be
investing more into this feature. Before you get upset, please hear me out,
there were some other learnings that I wish to share as well.

As we've assured all along, we have been reading all of the comments, feedback,
and suggestions you've shared with us here on the blog, on the Groups Suggestion
Board, on the Moderator Central Message Boards, and in the various groups about
Groups. We are full aware of the concerns some of you have and the last thing we
want to do is implement a feature that is contrary to your group guidelines or
that would cause any unnecessary disruption. We realize that so many of you have
invested a great deal of time, energy, and a devotion to your groups and we are
extremely grateful for that.

Based on your feedback, here are some things that we will be changing in the
release of this feature (which won’t be for some time, and we’ll give you
advance notice):
  - Provide a way for Groups owners and moderators opt out, allowing them to
decide what will work for their group, or not
  - Reconsider what we call this feature
  - Further optimize how groups are selected to appear (attempt to make them more
relevant)
  - Explore options to allow Groups owners and moderators more granular control
  - Give you advance notice when we decide to re-launch this feature

Last but not least, the one thing I want to leave you with is that your
constructive feedback is very valuable to us. While not everyone may agree, it
is the responsibility of the Groups team to take the entire Groups community
into consideration when thinking about new product features and solutions. This
includes Groups owners and moderators as well as Groups members and in this
case, we saw that group members found value in this feature based on the test
results.

Thank you once again for your effort to share your thoughts with us!

Please post any comments to the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/03/25/related-groups-feature-test-results/

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

As many of you know, we hosted our third ever Groups Moderator Town Hall event
in the Dallas area in early March.

At these events, we give local moderators an opportunity to come together to
meet and exchange ideas with other Groups owners and moderators in their area,
meet members of the Yahoo! Groups team, and ask direct questions of the team in
a panel discussion. The feedback and suggestions we hear at these events
provides the team with yet another avenue to identify opportunities to make
improvements to the Yahoo! Groups product.

To get a glimpse of the most recent event and to listen to a podcast higlighting
a portion of our very first event, please visit the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/03/31/groups-moderator-town-hall-re-cap-up-\
coming-event/

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

On April 2, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM PST, we will be conducting emergency planned
maintenance on the Groups site.  During this time, some groups will become
unavailable for up to 30 minutes.  Mail to some groups may also be delayed for
up to 60 minutes.

Thanks,
Yahoo! Groups Team

Tomorrow, April 9, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM PT, we will once again be conducting
scheduled maintenance on the Groups site. During this time, some groups will
become unavailable for up to 30 minutes. Mail to some groups may also be delayed
for up to 60 minutes.

Thank you for your understanding,
Yahoo! Groups Team

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.

Thanks for your understanding.

Yahoo! Groups Team

Because I've received a number of emails with the same questions, I wanted to
take the opportunity to post answers for all to see:

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.

Q. Punishing all Yahoo groups because of a minority of 'bad actors' within Yahoo
groups is just plain silly. Why can Yahoo just close down the Yahoo group that
is abusing the invite feature?
A.   Closing down abusing groups does not solve the problem as these spammers
just create new groups at a very rapid pace.

Please post any additional questions to the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?p=64

  Thank you.



--- Jami wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks for your understanding.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Team
>
>

In celebration of Earth Day this year, Yahoo! is focusing on one of the most
important themes of environmentalism: Reuse. Check out the Yahoo! “Free is
Good” microsite: http://green.yahoo.com/earth-day featuring Freecycle and
other Reuse groups. For those of you not familiar with Freecycle and other Reuse
groups, these are groups that encourage people in local communities to give and
receive “free” goods from their neighbors. To inspire more activity and
encourage exploration of what these resuse groups have to offer, from now until
May 4th, Yahoo! will “hide” special prizes in randomly selected Freecycle
and other reuse groups posts. These prizes are specifically eco-friendly in
nature (e.g. a Smart car, organic food delivery, eco-resort trip, concert
tickets to Sheryl Crow, other locally relevant cool prizes and my personal
favorite – toilet paper – b/c that just isn’t reuseable!). Also featured
on the “Free is Good” microsite are real stories from real people who have
found “treasures” on Freecycle.

To read more, and to comment, please visit the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?p=65

If you are a Yahoo! Groups moderator in the Atlanta, Georgia area I’d like to
invite you to a special Groups Moderator Town Hall event on Tuesday, May 6.

This event will take place from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. and give you an opportunity
to:

  - Participate in a panel discussion with the Yahoo! Groups team.
  - Meet and exchange ideas with other local groups owners and moderators.
  - Hear the latest news about Yahoo! Groups.
  - Enjoy complimentary food and beverages.

If you live in the Atlanta area and own or moderate an established, active group
and want to voice your opinions on how we can make Yahoo! Groups better, please
go to the site below and send us your group information:
http://guest.cvent.com/v.aspx?3B,Q3,7461ad08-6f0c-47ff-bc2a-af14cd85bfc4

Once we receive your information we’ll get back to regarding availability.

For those of you who aren’t in the Atlanta area, don’t fret, it’s our goal
to plan Town Hall events in different cities throughout the year because we want
to hear from you too! Please visit the Groups Moderator Town Hall link above to
submit your information so we can notify you of events planned in your area.

Thank you for being a part of the Groups community, we look forward to meeting
you!

Sincerely,
Jami Heldt
Groups Community Manager

Dear Moderators,

Trust all of you are having great time moderating your Yahoo! Group/s.

Yahoo! India truly appreciates your efforts in maintaining your wonderful
group/s, each one making a difference in the lives of all its members in its
unique way. After the grand success of earlier two Moderators’ Union, the
stage is set once again for an event in Mumbai on 7th June, 2008 to recognize
you and your great Groups.

Click here to learn about past events:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/moderators_league

To be a part of this event all you need to do is to click the link below and
register yourself or your most active member in Mumbai:
http://in.promos.yahoo.com/moderators-union/

  If your group is short-listed; we will get back to you with more details.

  Please join the Moderators_Discussion Group for an exclusive discussion about
Moderation of Groups: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/moderators_discussion/

So, what are you waiting for? If you live in India, please register now.

Best regards,
Shefali
Groups Community Manager, Yahoo! India

We are aware that many of you experienced an issue with in-coming messages being
rejected earlier this evening. The root cause of this issues has been identified
and is now fully resolved.  Please resend any messages that were returned at
this time and they should go through without a problem.

If you still experience issues, please notify Customer Care:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/general.html

Thank you,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

We are aware that some Groups users are experiencing issues with photos within
their groups including:

- Red X instead of a homepage photo
- Inability to upload photos
- Timing out when attempting to upload photos

We are working to identify the root cause of this issue and will fix it quickly
as possible. I'll post updates as I get them to the Groups blog:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?p=78

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Jami
Groups Community Manager

Did you know that there’s an advanced message search feature within Yahoo!
Groups?

If you click Advanced next to the search box on your group’s messages page, a
new page opens up with options you can select to create a very specific search
of messages within your group. This tool allows you to search for messages from
a specific timeframe or date range, from a specific member, or by subject or
topic.

Once you select your criteria and click the search button, all messages within
the group that meets that criteria are returned. This feature has saved me a
bunch of time on more than one occasion and I hope you find it useful as well.

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

We are aware that there is a Yahoo! Mail issue that is currently causing some
users to see html code (ex. “nbsp;”) within some Groups messages. We are
currently working to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience this
may cause.

On a brighter note, we believe the problem causing some groups to have long load
times, particularly when trying to access pending messages, has been fixed. If
you find that you are still experiencing problems with long load times, please
contact Customer Care at:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/general.html

Thank you,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

Over time I’ve been asked by several groups users what it takes to keep a
product like Yahoo! Groups up and running, so I thought it would be fun to meet
with Ian, the person who leads the team that does just that.

Visit the Groups blog if you'd like to listen to the podcast with Ian and learn
what he and his team do to keep the groups site up and running:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/?p=81

Thanks!
Jami
Groups Community Manager

Over the years we've seen a lot of speculation around how long it
really takes for changes made to group settings to be reflected when
users search and browse in the Groups directory. The truth is that
some common changes have taken much longer than necessary to be
reflected within the Groups directory.

Those days are gone! The Groups team made some backend changes to the
Groups directory and as a result, the time it takes to see common
changes within your group has been dramatically reduced.

Please visit the Groups blog to learn more:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/06/18/yahoo-groups-how-long-does-
it-really-take/

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

Please note that the URL below truncated due to its length.

You can always go straight to the Groups blog when I post messages
here pointing to it:  http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/

I actually recommend bookmarking the Groups blog...and visiting
often! :)


--- In moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com, "Jami" <jheldt@...> wrote:
>
> Over the years we've seen a lot of speculation around how long it
> really takes for changes made to group settings to be reflected
when
> users search and browse in the Groups directory. The truth is that
> some common changes have taken much longer than necessary to be
> reflected within the Groups directory.
>
> Those days are gone! The Groups team made some backend changes to
the
> Groups directory and as a result, the time it takes to see common
> changes within your group has been dramatically reduced.
>
> Please visit the Groups blog to learn more:
> http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/06/18/yahoo-groups-how-long-
does-
> it-really-take/
>
> Best,
> Jami
> Groups Community Manager
>

In case you haven't heard the latest news from Yahoo! Mail
<http://ymailupdates.com/blog> - if you weren't able to get that
special yahoo.com email address you had hoped for, now is your
chance to try again. The only catch is that this time it will be an
@ymail.com or @rocketmail.com email address (yup, for those of you
who remember, we brought RocketMail back). You can read more about
this news, and about the history of RocketMail by visiting the
Yahoo! Mail blog <http://ymailupdates.com/blog>.

One thing I wanted to point out to all of you Yahoo! Groups users is
that if you do get one of these new @ymail.com or @rocketmail.com
email address, you will be prompted to create a new public profile
when joining or starting a new group. When creating your public
profile, if the name you select as your "screen name" is already in
use, you will be asked to choose a different name. Once you create
your new profile, you will be taken back into the normal "join"
or "start a group" flow.

For the full post, and to ask any questions you may have, please
visit the Groups blog:
<http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/06/19/new-offerings-from-
yahoo-mail-and-why-it%e2%80%99s-important-to-you/>.

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

Several of you have asked how group rankings (or order) is determined
when someone searches (or browses) for a group within the Groups
Search Directory, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain.

Please visit the Groups blog to read more:
<http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/07/07/group-rankings/>

Thanks!
Jami
Groups Community Manager

While the majority of the Yahoo! Groups team is working on
strengthening and improving the core Groups product (more on that to
come soon), a small team of folks have been working on a new way to
create features within Groups, features that can be customized by
moderators to fit the specific needs of their groups.

We've been calling the work this team has been doing "Groups Labs",
and we are excited today to announce the first new feature
(or "grouplet") built using the Groups Labs framework: the People
Map!

What is People Map?
Read more on the Groups blog:
<http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/07/08/try-out-the-new-people-
map-beta/>

We look forward to hearing what you think.

Thanks!
Jami
Groups Community Manager

P.S. You can try out the People Map (from a member perspective) here
in the Moderator Central group, just click on the link below:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moderatorcentral/app/peoplemap>

Read more about People Map on the Groups blog:
http://tinyurl.com/6mmcoc

I'll use TinyURL for long URL's from now on, I promise!

Best,
Jami

--- In moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com, "Jami" <jheldt@...> wrote:
>
> While the majority of the Yahoo! Groups team is working on
> strengthening and improving the core Groups product (more on that
to
> come soon), a small team of folks have been working on a new way
to
> create features within Groups, features that can be customized by
> moderators to fit the specific needs of their groups.
>
> We've been calling the work this team has been doing "Groups
Labs",
> and we are excited today to announce the first new feature
> (or "grouplet") built using the Groups Labs framework: the People
> Map!
>
> What is People Map?
> Read more on the Groups blog:
> <http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/07/08/try-out-the-new-people-
> map-beta/>
>
> We look forward to hearing what you think.
>
> Thanks!
> Jami
> Groups Community Manager
>
> P.S. You can try out the People Map (from a member perspective)
here
> in the Moderator Central group, just click on the link below:
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moderatorcentral/app/peoplemap>
>

I apologize for a third email on the same topic, but the TinyURL I
sent out didn't include the full URL to my blog post (that's what I
get for moving too fast). And now there seems to be a problem with
links created using TinyURL.

You can go directly to the Groups blog, the People Map post is first
on the page:

<http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/>

Thanks for your patience!


--- In moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com, "Jami" <jheldt@...> wrote:
>
> Read more about People Map on the Groups blog:
> http://tinyurl.com/6mmcoc
>
> I'll use TinyURL for long URL's from now on, I promise!
>
> Best,
> Jami
>
> --- In moderatorcentral@yahoogroups.com, "Jami" <jheldt@> wrote:
> >
> > While the majority of the Yahoo! Groups team is working on
> > strengthening and improving the core Groups product (more on
that
> to
> > come soon), a small team of folks have been working on a new way
> to
> > create features within Groups, features that can be customized
by
> > moderators to fit the specific needs of their groups.
> >
> > We've been calling the work this team has been doing "Groups
> Labs",
> > and we are excited today to announce the first new feature
> > (or "grouplet") built using the Groups Labs framework: the
People
> > Map!
> >
> > What is People Map?
> > Read more on the Groups blog:
> > <http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/2008/07/08/try-out-the-new-
people-
> > map-beta/>
> >
> > We look forward to hearing what you think.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Jami
> > Groups Community Manager
> >
> > P.S. You can try out the People Map (from a member perspective)
> here
> > in the Moderator Central group, just click on the link below:
> > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moderatorcentral/app/peoplemap>
> >
>

Hi everyone; it has been some time since we've announced what we
have planned for the Yahoo! Groups community, so I thought I'd
outline our plans for 2008.

Over the past few months, the Groups Team has been hard at work
strengthening and improving our existing systems, while
simultaneously innovating and developing new features and options.

What's new now�

So far, we have released the following to the site:

� An entirely new search and browse system. This new system fixes a
number of known issues, makes search updates much faster, and
improves the sort order when you browse for groups (many
enhancements related to this release were highlighted in the recent
post called Yahoo! Groups: How long does it really take).

� A new "Groups Lab" initiative which consists of a team of folks
who work to create features within Groups that can be customized by
moderators to fit the specific needs of their group. The People Map
is an example of a feature that was developed by this team.

� A new technology platform for the site (not quite fully released).
We are changing every page of the site but doing so in a way that
won't disrupt your existing experience. This new platform will allow
us to release features much faster than ever before.

What's to come�

To read more (and to comment) please visit the Groups blog:

http://tinyurl.com/6dz373

Best,

Leonard
Director, Yahoo! Groups

We are currently experiencing delays in processing email to Yahoo!
Groups. We have isolated the issue and are working to repair it, at
which point email delivery should catch up.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

How many of you find that positive word of mouth directly results in
new members to your group?

Are you doing anything specific to generate that word of mouth beyond
running a fabulous group? Are there specific tactics that you use with
the intent to get new members to your group?

Visit the Groups blog to share your tactics and have the opportunity
to win a prize for sharing: http://tinyurl.com/6j4gb2


Groups blog: http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

Just a heads up that the maximum file size that can be attached to a
message has been increased from 1.5 megabytes to 15 megabytes.

Have a great weekend!

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

In order to maintain sanity at work, one must take a break on
occasion to let off some steam. What better way than by partaking in
a little dance? I think Matt Harding might agree me on this.

If you've never heard of Matt, go check out
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com. He traveled to 42 countries in 14
months to make his most recent video, "Dancing 2008," which has been
viewed more than 8.5 million times since he posted it in June. His
scenery included a tulip field in the Netherlands, the DMZ in Korea,
the "Painted Ladies" in San Francisco, children in Yemen, Bollywood-
style dancers in India, bushmen in New Guinea, and free spirits in
Paris.

Matt was invited to come do a video with Yahoos in Sunnyvale and you
can check it out on Yodel Anecdotal:
http://ycorpblog.com/2008/08/04/and-now-we-dance/

Enjoy!

Jami
Groups Community Manager

We are currently experiencing Groups mail processing delays.  We are
working to isolate the cause of this issue and will post updates as we
make progress.

As always, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause
your Groups.

Thank you,
Jami
Groups Community Manager

I'd like to introduce you to the Yahoo! Groups Product Management Team
and highlight the role it plays in the larger Yahoo! Groups team.

What do Groups Product Managers do?
Groups Product Managers (PMs) are responsible for Yahoo! Groups as a
business, meaning that in addition to directing the overall product
and its features, PMs have to figure out how to make money off the
product through ad sales or other avenues. The PMs also take the lead
in working with other teams within the organization, including
Customer Care, Sales, Legal, the Paranoids (the team at Yahoo! that
ensures we are safe and secure), and other Yahoo! properties like
Mail, Answers, and Registration. that are relevant to Groups.

Please visit the Groups blog to read more:
http://www.ygroupsblog.com/

Best,
Jami
Groups Community Manager