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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.
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.
Actually, it's sunday.
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
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.
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!
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!
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.
Seriously, couldn't this space on /. be taken up by something that matters on the intarweb?
According to Alexa, Yahoo! is the most popular site on the internet. I'd say that that's more than enough to make a website matter, personally.
Goo goo g'joob.
Nobody is complaining? Everybody in the Relevant Google Groups are complaining! http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-Personalizing/topics
Most of the trackbacks for the Google Blog post announcing the change were negative, although Googleblog admins have since removed those trackbacks.
Most people dislike the wasted space of having the tabs to the left. People Also dislike the removal of the plus feature in rss feed gadgets, since the replacement (the first 20 words or so of the text of each article) is not nearly as nice looking or functional. (This change has since been reverted.) Lastly, many people are upset that gadgets can no longer be collapsed and expanded with just a single click.
Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
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.
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.
But that's only among the subset of browsers with their toolbar installed. If we look at Netcraft's take on the subject, Google is 14 of the top 16 Most-Visited, (Yahoo! #23) Hitwise also counts Google the best. Among my friends, nobody under thirty still uses Yahoo! except those who're still clinging to their fifteen year-old mail accounts, which again, Google does better.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
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.
Last I checked, although you can customize your yahoo page, you can't remove the F***ING HOROSCOPE! That actively pisses me off every time I set eyes on the page.
You're just saying that because you are an Aquarius -- so eccentric and passionately unwilling to fit in with everyone else.