Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo Changes User Profiles, To Massive Outrage
Wiseleo writes "Yahoo decided to massively screw up their entire userbase by changing all user profiles to blank. No warning, no automated way to get data back, and other unwanted changes. The blog has such choice quotes as 'We know this has been a rough transition for some of you and, and are committed to helping you use, understand, and (hopefully) enjoy your new profile,' and, 'We also know lots of you worked hard on your old profiles and want your data. If you feel like you're missing data, we've saved a copy of your old profile (and alias) and our Customer Care team can retrieve this information. You won't, however, be able to revert back to your old profile format, but you will be able to get any data that you think is missing. To do this, please go here to contact Customer Care.' There were 850 comments posted, all negative, on the first day. There are hundreds more today. There is even more outrage on the Yahoo Messenger blog."
And nothing of value was lost.
Seriously, what could be in your profile that you don't know about yourself?
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Seriously, couldn't this space on /. be taken up by something that matters on the intarweb?
Can we get Facebook and MySpace wiped clean, too?
When hotmail was new, before Microsoft owned it, there was genuine discussion over how appropriate it would be to trust a service that you don't pay for.
Seems like for the last ten years or so, that's not even been on the table. It's just one more service that people expect, and expect to run with utter reliability
I know these companies make a buck from advertising revenue, or whatever. But YOU don't pay them a penny, unless you want to. Most people don't want to.
If you're complaining because the least part of a large service that you have been using for free, perhaps since the dawn of the commerical internet, has made an unexpected change... well, really, you need to have a long think about whether or not that makes you an ass.
Even if it doesn't, relying on a free service to keep ANY of your data probably makes you one.
I mean, doing business with Yahoo has been bad business for years now. And people are surprised that Yahoo just doesn't give a shit? Why would you use their services? They've been customer-unfriendly at least since the dot-com thing went south.
I was kinda hoping Microsoft would buy them so a few dozen bil of their funds would wink out of existence over a couple years. This Google ad deal is far less satisfying.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
I can imagine that there are some people somewhere who give a flying crap about this. I am not one of them. In fact I find it amusing that so many people are upset.
I know that online profiles are stupid, but why did they do that. They should have implemented a migration process or something like that. Now Yahoo risks losing some of its userbase for some braindead decision (from the users' point of view).
I can't say I'm happy about this - among other things, I had to reset my profile with absolutely no notice whatsoever, and all of my online friends are going to have to do the same. But, I'm not paying any money for this service - I don't even use the official Yahoo client (I use Trillian instead) - so it is theirs to do, no matter how annoying it is.
However, I want to know something. When you look at the profile screen, an important word stands out in one of the corners - "BETA." "Beta" means that the service is still being tested, and isn't ready for full release. So, what I want to know is why the entire user base of Yahoo was put onto a profile system that hasn't moved out of beta testing yet. There is no way that is good practice.
In all seriousness, this should have been finished and declared done before a change like this was made.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
Are they not dead yet? Next you'll tell me AOL is still around.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
They're just practicing for when Microsoft buys them out. Microsoft has a long history of losing user data.
Clearly, this is monumentally bad customer relations, and some people are going to say "they did it because they don't care". But there must be some business / technical explanation. Does anyone know what they are trying to achieve by reseting the profiles? Is this a necessary fallout from some change in their profile infrastructure? Or did they just plain screw up?
and nobody's complaining.
Isn't this just the type of thing that Stallman was referring to not long ago? Granted, the particular details of this instance are not THAT alarming (people's profiles) however, it certainly goes to show . . .
I agreed with him then, and will certainly keep it in mind.
Moe
SARAVA!
There was a significant event, the new site with absolutely free
video adult avi format www.respect-mastrubatsiya.org
I wasn't even aware that people actually USED their Yahoo profiles.
I just logged in for the first time in a couple of months and did not see much change, other than increased clutter on the screens getting me to yahoo mail.
What changed? Am I supposed to be outraged too? Inquiring minds want to know!
Actually this was part of the deal with Google. Google said: "We'll fuck up iGoogle, if you fuck up Yahoo! Profiles. Just wait a few days to make it look like a co-incidence!"
It's all part of the Zion Catholic 9/11 7/July Conspiracy by the Royal Family to take over the world, in order to secure a monopoly on Cheese production. WaKE UP SHEEPLE!!!111!one
WIth Yahoo in a slow death spiral, I would think they would try to gain customers not lose them.
I don't get it. If they still have the data, why is it so hard for them to write up a script to fix the mistake?
It shouldn't take one of their programmers more than a few hours to whip up, and would save them all this headache.
I wonder if there's more behind this "accident" than we're seeing.
They reeeeealy should have let us buy them! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
I love people that bitch and moan about a free service making changes. Don't like it? Take your zero dollars and go somewhere else.
There used to be clever hacks in the old Yahoo Profiles to modify your profile to do things like play MIDI files and change the background and run Javascripts via a series of exploits in the way the Yahoo data forms worked.
Yahoo wants to get rid of the exploits by wiping clean every profile after it fixes the exploits. Some of the exploits stole passwords and other data and some even installed malware.
I don't mind having a blank profile, I am not really notable anyway. I am a pirate ninja and just love to blend into the background so nobody can notice me as I turn invisible. :)
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
10 PERSON has good idea and sets up internet COMPANY
20 PEOPLE eventually flock to COMPANY and use their services
30 TIME passes
40 COMPANY bosses get itchy and need to scratch, read: they feel they need to be 'innovative' and/or they feel they aren't making enough money
50 CHANGES happen to site which affects users ability to conduct their business (buying/selling/communicating etc.)
60 PEOPLE are fucked off with CHANGES and complain bitterly
70 COMPANY ignores PEOPLE
80 GOTO 30
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Some friends and I were discussing general utility questions and the issue of what we'd be willing to pay for Google (the search engine) and Gmail (the email service) if we had to.
The consensus opinion was $50/year for search, $20/year for email. Take that for what you will: it's a water cooler discussion.
For Yahoo mail and search, MSN anything, or ownership of all of AOL free and clear, $0. Give or take a nickel.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
And this is a perfect example of why I will NEVER use 'cloud computing'. My data on my hardware that I have complete control of, thank you.
I worked at Yahoo for five years. I have no idea who's left (most folks I knew have also since left), but this is a clear sign of losing focus on the user. First there was the draconian booting of everyone off the old version of My Yahoo! & now this.
Why do people get to make decisions like this & keep their jobs?
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
Someone tell them they should schedule something like this every few months to let us know they still exist.
That a first world government, like the US or England, wanted yet more information on people to collect, and they wanted Yahoo to help. Yahoo caves, wipes everyone's profiles clean, so when they get rewritten, that data goes straight to the secret databases.
I believe that everything is still there at the old address right? http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_profile Or, am I missing something?
or was that 59: POKE 966, 0?
I better go call the professor, the symptoms are appearing again even after the deep C therapy.
There's a MUCH easier way to commit suicide!
1. Open Mouth
2. Insert barrel of pistol
3. PULL TRIGGER!
Got it?
The amount of pure incompetance out there is truly staggering, ISN'T IT YAHOO???
Suppose you have a PC that's infested with all sorts of malware. Your first instinct is to just format and reinstall, right?
ok, with that in mind, who's to say that the staff at yahoo saw the thousands (millions?) of spam profiles with links to porn/malware sites and decided "you know what, fuck it, we can just start with a clean slate. The users who aren't bots can always get their data back anyway."
You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, you know?
only if you had direct access to their visual receptors integrated physically onto the host in their preservation cell? What version are you in? I'm in 1.4, trying to remove some of these patches installed ever since I was tricked into receiving the food.
What if your fade actually didn't work post >2.1, and answer me this: what firmware allowed the symbiotic pirate to ninja couplink?
Some people try to store their encryption keys in MIDI, and use an old version of Netscape or Mosaic to redirect it to their MIDI synthesizer to authenticate event sequences remotely.
I have more ideas, but I don't want to share them here while everyone is watching. A decentralized profile database preserved peer-to-peer caching torrent would replace MYSPACE, YAHOO, FACEBOOK, web applications, journal/Blogging email, nntp, filesharing, and all userID disputes by timestamp all in one super tunnel of simulated authentic traffic to conceal the carrier.
I really wouldn't want to be on the "Customer Care" team, dealing with all the pissed off people that will be asking for their data.
If the customer does not call, Yahoo Help ends the On-Line session.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
... it's not actually important.
850 angry comments can't be wrong. You are currently feeling rage.
Whew! Thanks for clearing that up.
Now let me find something I can smash into tiny pieces ...
since Yahoo already disables searching for other members using their search function at members.yahoo.com. They make you subscribe to Yahoo Personals if you really want to find someone (whether for a relationship or not). Their search function was hit and miss over the last few years and now I think it is off for good. They also have been raising their Yahoo Personals membership fees over the last year. Big surprise there.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
'Beta' now means "it's cool because it's new." It's 0-day for the masses.
paintball
I just redid my profile, and it did automatically fill my interests field for the new profile with my interests from my old profile.
I didn't really have much else there. Photos had already been moved elsewhere.
paintball
Yahoo? Wasn't that some page at Stanford? (Disclaimer: I'm 24; I remember loading the original URL on a 2400bps modem; and yes, it was the hot thing back in the day.) Yes, it's outrageous for them to do this with no real warning or 'gradual transfer' to the new format (and especially for them to not carry over the old data into the new format -- really? are you kidding me?) but I'm more intrigued by the backlash; in a social circle of my contemporaries, I can't think of anyone who is seriously concerned with Yahoo.
for insisting on 38DD blondes. There is a fixed brain to boob ratio and it can't be violated.
Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
It often takes time for it to become clear just how right Stallman is but so far he always is. Why do you think his detractors focus on Herd and the GNU/Linux naming? Because they can't argue with his theories.
First sign someone is right, his enemies attack him on non-issues.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Anybody who uses Yahoo deserves what they get.
The first time I installed SBC DSL, I allowed the stupid Yahoo software on my machine, which at the time was running Windows 98. It crashed the entire OS, and I had to restore my Registry to get it back.
Fuck Yahoo and anyone stupid enough to use them. That applies to AOL and AOL users, and MSN and MSN users, too.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Now where is that Raymond Rife sticker and Scotty's ashes that would properly christen the holy cause!
Next thing you know, they'll delay the TCP/IP link to 10 seconds on first login whenever no matter how fast we clicked past their spam screen, oh wait...
... but the biting irony of posting this on Slashdot as anything but an AC is just too delicious.
/. profile from a yahoo profile, really?
I mean, how much different is a
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Anything to keep setting up a British Telecom home modem from installing 100 Meg of Yahoo crap all over your system, when all you need is web access to the BT hub, would help a lot. My god, it's bloatware and crapware. I don't *WANT* Yahoo based internet pool and poker just to run my DSL modem.
have a look at Flickr. They've completely f*cked it up and removed loads of useful features
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
/. recently reported Google had voiced interest in Yahoo. Between MS and Google's take over bids, it would make sense for Yahoo to intentionally piss off their clients in preparation for the new version. their ad clients would like to see a nice shift.
Because any goverment gives a shit about yahoo user profiles or could not simple collect the info the old database.
You are one of the reasons conspiracy theories are ALWAYS seen as the brain farts of the moronic.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Why not check what the SLA says you are entitled to, which will be what you paid, i.e. nothing.
You get what you pay for or what you build yourself.
...just got fed up with the terrible spelling.
*** Don't be dull.***
All that work, and there is STILL no way to turn back on your Y!IM web presence... in fact, there's no way to turn it OFF anymore either.
Outrage? Really? sarcasm{Oh dear god no, they lost their age, gender and three "cool links".}
Really now, come on. Seriously.
Where's Red Foreman when you need him?
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
They want a piece of facebook's action. I just went through the reset up (yes, yes, I use Yahoo, shut up) and looking at the layout and how it's set up it's a yahoo version of facebook.
And to quote a movie: 'This is not a good sign. No, no, no, no, no.'
By the way, if anyone can tell me the name of that movie I've been looking for it for ages. It's a comedy involving rafting that is late 70s, early 80s.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
fantasy sports profiles were unaffected.
How far are you out of touch that you still use Yahoo for personal data anyway? People still really use Hotmail and Yahoo?
> its about competition. Other free services would never do this. And though we don't pay
> them, they get money from us.
If you don't pay them they don't get money from you. They may get money from people you buy stuff from, but that money stops being yours when you spend it. Try to understand that to these advertising agencies you are the product, not the customer. Nothing wrong with that as long as you remember that the services they give you are just promotional gimmicks. They have no obligation, legal or ethical, to deliver anything at all to you.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Grrrrr.
rs
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I already force Wikipedia to be in the search when that venerable project is what I actually want.
I try a few anti-ad search techniques, but they don't really work all that well.
Something to do with ThinkGeek.
I logged into Yahoo for the first time in like a century to see what all the hoopla was about, and went through the new profile generation process. When it prompted me for "Name", "Display Name", "Interests" and "Anything Else," the default text in those textboxes was the information that I had had in those fields on my old profile. So I'm not sure what exactly you'd need to contact customer support for....
Thank god Chauncey is dead ... walking on water must forever remain a secret.
If Chauncey was on yahoo, then PuppetPOTUS Bush's overlords would have forced yahoo to report Chauncey's secret as a potential weapon of global terrorist. Then the Overlords of Subversion would have used Chauncey's secret to rule the world.
Remember "Pinky and the Brain"... well Pinky is nothing like PPOTUS Bush, but "The Brain" looks like a close blood relative of DickUS Chaney and CrawlUpUS Rove.
Anyway, I always wanted to meet a/o "Just Watch" Chauncey, but today I am relieved that Chauncey cannot be exploited for megalomaniacal gains over US "The People".
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
its users to a yahoo home page....
hmmmm....
They've been incompetent for many years now.
Their email service was sub-par. They waited until Google innovated an AJAX interface (and then some) to try to innovate on their own, and they failed to create an interface that is as good.
They shut down their Yahoo Photos service, requiring users to move around their photos (or by default, lose them all).
Yahoo sucks.
I noticed my privacy settings were changed. Did anyone notice that? I had to reset those up too. Ugh!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
It's one thing to be user-friendly, but Yahoo's content always suggested to me a culture that was more about looking good than being good. Obviously, their target is the mainstream computer user, but my impression is that beyond that, their tone is almost anti-tech, definitely anti-nerd. Don't ask me to cite examples, I won't bother. As I said, this is "my impression," and it's a general one. I'd guess that in their hiring decisions, they consider "fitting into the company culture" far too much, and qualifications far too little to be a place I'd like to work, so I haven't applied. Google asks the right questions of applicants: numbers of patents, entrepreneurial successes, programming awards won. So, I'm not at all surprised to see this happen to Yahoo!
"I can't imagine how things could get any worse!" (some guy) "That could just be failure of imaginatioÂn on your p
When SBC/ATT went to SBC/Yahoo or ATT/Yahoo
OK, yeah, maybe we did of RoadRunner.
But the point is that not all Yahoo! users are using the free service.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly changed to blank. I fear something terrible has happened. "
This must have hurt their stocks pretty bad!
Programmer 1: Our new format is incompatible with the old format.
Programmer 2: Can we convert them?
Programmer 1: Not easily. Let's just force everybody to re-do their profiles. This new format is very neat, after all, and warms my heart as a programmer. What's the worst that can happen? A few million people get mad at my employer? Bah! That's nothing when weighed against the satisfaction of introducing a neat program that warms my programmer heart.
And sadly that's exactly the way it is at many places. Most programmers are clueless about making user interfaces intuitive (much less testing same, witness the famous Bill Gates letter about MS's tortuous online store ordering system) to say nothing about making sure their "neat new thing" handles upgrades flawlessly.
Is it really that hard to look at it from the user's point? What would you, as a customer, expect? You'd expect to log in to see some new features, but all your data is still there.
Oh, by the way. For millions of users, it's worth it for the company to have a few extra programmers integrate all the old crap and the new crap so it can all work at the same time. Just a small loss in stock price for this fiasco would justify dozens of programmers.
The real problem: poor planning on the part of management for letting the developers dictate the path. Somewhere, somebody above the buffoon programmer who said "well, wipe it all then" was a manager who should have thought, "Well, that'll piss off our customers." But didn't.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I never used my profile for anything so I didn't care whta they did to it until I tried to change my alternate email. When I click on update email I go directly to the update profile click save and try again it deja'vu all over again. They didn't just screw it up the FUBAR'd it.
F'ing morons they could fubar a wet dream. Every try and submit a URL to them? Holy convoluted beaurocracy Batman! It's like trying to pull hen's teeth to submit a URL. About the only thing that works even half way decent is the web based email, now if only I could get the bloody site to stop crashing my browseer on my Debian system.