(Click on the images to enlarge)

Then:

Now:

This change was made as we recently discovered that this feature was being exploited by spammers as it allowed for spammers to freely enter up to 50 email addresses of their choice, as well as submit new content that may or may not have any relation to the original message from the group.

While we know that the removal of this feature may be frustrating to some, we believe it will also reduce the number of “spammy” messages that are being sent out through the Yahoo! Groups system– which is a big win for all Yahoo! Groups users.

Of course you can still forward a message yourself the old fashioned way by copy/pasting but remember, before you send on a group message, you need to have the “explicit permission of every group member whose content is being re-posted or re-transmitted.” (Review the Yahoo! Groups Guidelines here)

Also included in this release is the return of the audio CAPTCHA  (we first blogged about this back in November) — an accessibility feature that makes using Yahoo! Groups much easier for those that are visually impaired. To learn more about CAPTCHA, and how Yahoo tests for accessibility issues, check out this post on our sister blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

-Melissa & The Yahoo! Groups Team

UPDATE: 02/08/10 @ 10:42 am PT: we’re aware that a handful of groups were experiencing photo upload issues this morning. This issue has been fixed. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE 02/1/10 @11:27 am PT: this issue has been resolved for adult groups. If you are still having trouble uploading images to your adult group’s homepage or photo albums, please let us know by leaving a comment below. Thank you!

We’re aware of the fact that some groups may be experiencing intermittent issues with photo uploads. This may include:

• Difficulty uploading photos to your group’s photo albums
• Inability to update your group’s homepage photo
• A “404″ error when trying to view a new photo within a group

For most groups this seems to be an intermittent error, but our development team is aware of the issue and is currently looking into it/working on a fix. Thanks for your patience.

Online and within the news you’ve likely heard of some of the most common terms (malware, spam, viruses, and Trojans), but may not have known what they are, or, how to protect yourself or your computer from them. We’ve pulled together a quick resource guide outlining the who’s who, and where to go for more information. But when online, some of the most important things to remember are:

• Don’t trust pop-ups; things pretending to be virus checkers may actually be viruses (more on that later)
• You don’t have to understand a lot about online security to protect against the most common online threats. Keep your computer up to date and be suspicious about the sites you visit- employ the same skills you do in real life as you do online: don’t give out your personal information to strangers, and don’t trust something because it “sort of” looks official. And remember to trust your instincts: if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

What’s malware?
Malware is software that does something you don’t want done, usually installed without your permission. It includes viruses, worms and Trojans.

What is spam?
Spam is/can be: the repeated postings of the same content; off topic banter/answers/comments; links to commercial sites or merchandise; in general, unsolicited, unwanted or irrelevant messages, links or postings. You may run into it in your inbox, on message boards, in comments sections, etc. Basically, anywhere that someone can enter or submit text is susceptible to spam.

What is phishing?
This is any attempt to steal your account information. Phishers set up fake web sites that look like those of trusted companies to trick you into disclosing your account information. These pages can look nearly identical to the real thing, so it can be hard to tell that you are on a phony site.

Most commonly, you’ll see these as emails asking for the password to your bank account, your Yahoo! email account (urging you to send your account information or else your account will be terminated), or your credit card information.  If you run into a phishing email on Yahoo!, please do report it to us!

Remember to never click on links in emails, no matter how official they look. Use bookmarks or physically type the site name in.

To protect yourself further, set a sign-in seal and don’t give out your Yahoo! password on your computer unless you see your sign-in seal (for more information on this, go here. This helps you know when you’re on a phishing page, or when you’re on a legitimate Yahoo! login page.

Yahoo! Security Center

At http://security.yahoo.com/ you can assess your PC’s exposure to online threats, including malware, viruses, and an assortment of other online risks. Additionally, you can also learn about:

• Protecting your PC
• Protecting your online privacy
• Protecting your children online at Yahoo! Safely
• Getting rid of pop-ups, viruses, adware, or spyware
• And much more!

How to help protect your machine

Be sure that your computer has antivirus software installed and that its virus definitions are up-to-date- many computers do not, and this leaves them open to many malware attacks. Programs like Norton Anti-Virus or http://www.malwarebytes.org/ will help protect and prevent future attacks.

If you see a pop-up, close it promptly, without clicking on anything inside the window (buttons inside the window may download software, no matter what the label on them says, even if it’s “No”, or “Cancel”). Click the close button on the window frame (the “x” in the upper right on a Windows machine, the red button in the upper left on  a Mac).

If  that doesn’t work  use “Ctrl + F4″  on Windows or  “Shift + Cmd + W” on an Apple machine to close the window.  Worst case, kill the browser with the Task Manager on Windows or Force Quit on a Mac, and if you can’t do that, reboot the machine. (Be sure to save your work in other programs!)

Then run a virus-scan using an anti-virus program to check for any malware remnants.

At  the end of the day, it’s up to YOU to help keep your online experience safe—keep your software up-to-date and be cautious about giving out information, including passwords.

Photo by Globovisión

On Tuesday, January 12, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, centered 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The quake has caused widespread damage and casualties and structural damage. At this point, authorities are unsure as to just how much damage the quake has caused but know that its impact was vast and intense.

In times like these, it is important for communities to band together to provide support.

On Yahoo! Groups, we already form small communities- but in the real world, together, we create a collective bound together by one thing: humanity, and the ability to endure. And in times like these, it’s important to remember that, and to help others persevere.

According to the Associated Press, “it was clear from a tour of the capital that tens of thousands of people had lost their homes and that many had perished. Many buildings in Haiti are flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.”

If you’re using your Yahoo! Group to raise awareness and help the efforts in Haiti, please let us know by leaving a comment or emailing us at yahoogroups [at] yahoo-inc [dot] com

To learn more about how you can send your support to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti please follow the links below.

Unicef – Efforts in Haiti – Donate

American Red Cross – Blog – Donate

View more of Globovision’s photos from the quake. WARNING: photos contain images that may not be suitable for children.

Currently there are two issues some groups may be experiencing:

Internal error message

Some of you started reporting early today that you were seeing the following message

Network Timeout

The server at groups.yahoo.com is taking too long to respond.

The requested site did not respond to a connection request and the browser has stopped waiting for a reply.

* Could the server be experiencing high demand or a temporary outage? Try again later.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer’s network connection.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.
* Still having trouble? Consult your network administrator or Internet provider for assistance.

We’re looking into the issue, and as soon as we have more information we’ll keep you updated.

Stale photo updates/counts

Some of you may have noticed that on your groups homepage that the number of new photos uploaded is incorrect. We’re aware of this issue and are currently working to resolve this problem.

Some groups may be experiencing a slight mail delay (between a half hour to an hour or more). We’re currently working with the mail team to get the queues caught back up and mail delivery back to normal. Thanks for your patience!

Some users are reporting that photos are not visible within their group homepages or albums: instead of seeing their images they’re seeing a white box with a red “x.”

Currently this issue is isolated to only a few select markets, including Australia, Mexico, South America, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, among others.

We’re aware of the issue and are currently working on resolving the issue.Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for your help in resolving this issue in a timely manner!

-Melissa & The Yahoo! Groups Team

Currently, some of you may have noticed that your list of groups (found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups) may be looking a bit sparse– we’re aware of the issue and are working on a resolution. P

art of this issue is impacting the accessibility to some groups, rendering some completely inaccessible, or for some only portions temporarily unavailable. (For some, only features like the membership list, files, etc. are unavailable but messages, applications, and photos are available).

We’re aware of the issue and are currently working to resolve it ASAP.

Thanks for your patience!

-Melissa & The Yahoo! Groups team

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 today’s 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

We’re aware that some of you may be seeing an error message that reads “Your browser is not accepting our cookies”– we’re currently in the middle of releasing a fix for this problem and should have things back up to normal shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager