Comments on: Yahoo Quashes Groups Redesign in Wake of User Backlash

By: Brenda

Brenda — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 05:19:21 +0000

YESSSSS! We did it! :)

It’s finally official! We do get the choice to keep our Classic Groups! The new remodel is going to be offered as an option to choose, not something we have to opt out of!

Below is the link to the video which is the unprinted part of Carol Bartz’s interview with USA Today, and the first question is about Yahoo Groups.

It proves it without a doubt, that we did win our fight to keep Classic Groups! I’m not sure why the video part of the interview wasn’t transcribed with the rest of it, that would have helped greatly, but at least it’s now here for all to see. (sigh of relief).

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42806360001?bctid=628449885001

Brenda
Nightowl >8#
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/modsandmembers/

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:55:11 +0000

Well, I’ve been in contact with Jim Stoneham himself, and he’s actually aware of our group and checking it out.

I think we should be cautious, for sure, but I think he and the powers that be at Yahoo are listening to us now, and taking us seriously. :)

But we’re gonna stay there to keep Yahoo on their toes. ;)
(to paraphrase a line from one of my members!)

Thanks Liz, for writing our article and helping us get the word out where it needed to go!

Brenda
Nightowl >8#
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/modsandmembers/

By: Darryl

Darryl — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:10:01 +0000

Is anyone really surprised? Yahoo has destroyed everything it has ever touched. Web rings, Clubs, Geocities, 360/Mash, Profiles, etc… I was one of the ones that left after Clubs got destroyed and became Groups. It was so sad to see clubs turned into glorified e-mail lists.

And I wouldn’t trust them when they say they rolled back. You *know* they’re still going to push with their new redesign somehow. They’re not going to give up. They’ll destroy Groups and end up trying another re-design in a few years.

By: bodyrockin

bodyrockin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:49:17 +0000

E-mail and privacy was a big issue but they had also removed some features that were essential to one of my groups that is almost 7 years old and with over 34,000 members that dropping those features that it was built on and that all those members joined for, would have basically made that group and many of the others I own totally useless as we have used them since day one.

The rich text editor function is critical to my groups and that was one feature they said would be gone.

All in all dropping the re-model at this time was great news, and personally I have no issue with changes but not those that destroy years of hard work building a groups membership base as I have nearing 70,000 members all total.

By: Marius

Marius — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:30:42 +0000

It is most refreshing to see Yahoo, which has been pretty much indenturing itself to the teens and tweens, realise the importance and the benefits of leaving at least one corner of the ‘Net to its more literate members: those who can hold a sustained discussion on a topic of mutual interest besides each other.

By: Deborah Terreson

Deborah Terreson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:44:11 +0000

Rightly so that Yahoo rolled back their disastrous changes.

This notion that everyone HAS to compete with facebook online is ludicrous.. on par with insisting every shoe manufacturer makes Doc Martin style boots since that is popular with a certain ‘trendy’, younger set.

Following another business’ design in an attempt to ride on their coattails of success is a sure sign of screaming insecurity of the value of one’s own product.

Yahoo’s issue is that they have never really engaged the e-mail list *owners* in a dialogue of what and how to tighten up the Groups service, to make a bigger draw through the web portal. Their offerings on storage – 100 GIGABYTES for Photos (!!!) puts Yahoo in a league of their own, NO ONE else comes close to touching that generosity, yet the UI for viewing Photos is an esthetic, buggy disaster. As a graphics artist, I’ve been requesting for YEARS simple element and color changes that would better display graphics and photography and bring more users to owners’ various lists AND make people *want* to visit their groups daily.

Apparently, chasing after facebook (which I have a page on and hardly use, so what does THAT tell you?) and it’s uniform, bland, sameness is a preferable gambit.

Ugh. As I wrote earlier, “Where Web 2.0, and the “Look at me!” Attention Deficit Disorder ‘tweet’ crowd meets the Web 1.0, topic-dominated world of listserv users is a spectacular clash of cultures.”, and Yahoo got caught up playing to the children and forgot the adults still hold the purse strings.

Regards,

Deb.