Yahoo! Messenger Blog

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1. please dont forget to include a thingy to block and disable all photo sharing and games and game invites thru messnger in ur next build please i prefer playing games on the yahoo site not on messnger

   Comment by catherine — March 12, 2007 #

2. u need to develop a im thats usable on the PlayStation Portable! It pees me off that there is noway to im with this!

   Comment by Matt D — March 12, 2007 #

3. I’m hoping a personalized voice mail greeting, call forwarding, maybe some voice 2.0 features, and an unlimited US calling plan are coming, Maybe this year?

   Comment by Jim D — March 12, 2007 #

4. This is the voice of a frustrated plugin developer.
   I don’t want to sound too “whining”, but I think it is high time you close your “ydn-messenger · Yahoo! Messenger Developer Support”. To keep this group running is a deception of programmers.
   I doubt if anybody reads it more than once in 2 weeks, not talking about answering people.
   On the contrary, if you take a look at “AIM Plugin SDK Discussion” (http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=557054)
   you will see a vibrant community with the help of the AIM people.
   VERY frustrating.

   Comment by Anonymous, — March 13, 2007 #

5. Catherine, you could use a solution like YTK Lite or YTK Pro to block games and photosharing invites easily.

   http://www.ytkpro.com

   Comment by Venom — March 13, 2007 #

6. So when can we expect a new Mac version?

   Comment by Alex Rodriguez — March 13, 2007 #

7. To Anonymous:

   You will notice a difference of AIM’s plug-in community and Yahoo’s community primarily because Yahoo! is now transferring more of its services from a *closed garden* to more of an *open garden*.

   This is no small task by any means. The Plug-in framework is relatively new, and I am hoping along with you they are releasing more and more of the API, so we can create some truly great and useful plug-in’s.

   This community is just now starting out, so please be patient with it. You will see more and more features, plug-in support when they release more builds of the messenger application.

   I do think however they should have a small 2- 4 man team running on just the SDK part of things to help control the flow of information, support and new features to the developers. It is a great thing for everyone involved; you the developer get exposure and credibility, where Yahoo! gets free labor!

   Comment by UnSaKreD — March 13, 2007 #

8. New Yahoo build is out!

   http://download.yahoo.com/dl/msgr8/us/ymsgr810_244_us.exe

   Comment by Venom — March 13, 2007 #

9. If you want voice chat in Windows Vista…

   Instructions:

   1) Download the updated codec from here… http://www.bytescribe.com/downloads/tsp_codec_install.exe

   2) Install the codec update, and reboot if it asks.

   3) Try voice chat and it should work!

   Hope this helps all Vista users!

   Comment by Venom — March 13, 2007 #

10. Hi Yahoo Fans, Feel free to join our noheat community. http://www.noheat.com Tech News Too Cool!
    Feel free to IM me through Yahoo Instant Messenger. Add Yahoo IM to your comments on webpages and MyBlogLog.

    Comment by Christopher Carey — March 13, 2007 #

11. So cool . . . (”,)

    Comment by darwin — March 13, 2007 #

12. On Vista, when someone sends me a file and I choose the directory, or want to send a file, it shows the old windows 3.1 style dialogs!!! AhH!!

    Comment by nabeel — March 13, 2007 #

13. We can probably expect an updated Mac version around the same time the Yankees win a World Series. It’s years away.

    Comment by derek jeter — March 13, 2007 #

14. ahhh Yahoo! can you please create a secure way to post comments so that your blog isn’t hit by novice spammers so much?

    While you’re on that, check out the Mac team.. see if they’re still alive.

    Comment by Lucky — March 13, 2007 #

15. yahoo messenger appears to have connection issues today…march14 2007

    Comment by blah — March 13, 2007 #

16. As the author of Y!TunnelPro I realize the amount of effort that goes into the development process of a large scale project. I’m curious however as to why Yahoo! has continued to ignore the SPAM problems in chat rooms, something that used to be a significant cornerstone of Yahoo!. In the past SPAM has be a simple annoyance but in recent weeks if not months the chat servers have become overloaded and are now working at what appears to be maximum capacity (299,866 users in over 23,000 rooms) not only diminishing the chat experience for all users but making it nearly impossible for them to even get INTO a chat room.

    All recent data that I have collected indicates that nearly 60% of all users in chat are now SPAM bots. Their profiles are nearly identical. The messages they post are simple repeating scripts that are easily detectable. My question for you as a project manager is why does Yahoo! not address this problem? If a single software developer can detect and block 85% to 95% of SPAM with a less than 2% error rate why can’t Yahoo? Do you not care about this problem or are you simply incapable of addressing the issue. I know this sounds harsh but the conditions of Yahoo chat are far worse than anything I or anyone else could possibly express with words.

    I urge you to take this issue as seriously as I and other third party developers have and start addressing this problem with the diligence required to restore chat to an enjoyable experience!

    I have posted a copy of this message on my forum and will be sending a copy to all of my customers as well as other third party developers. If there was ever a time act this is it.

    Regards,
    Chet Simpson
    Author of Y!TunnelPro and a Yahoo! chat regular

    Comment by Chet Simpson — March 13, 2007 #

17. I am in complete agreement with Chet tha chat rooms are almost impossible to get into and when you do get into a room there all spam bots if your lucky there might be one real chatter in room.Surely Yahoo has the knowhow to fix this and thank you

    Comment by Richard Metcalf — March 13, 2007 #

18. chet is right ..why are you allowing the amount of spam to run rampant in the rooms. possibly if you found a way to get rid of that the system might work better ..also why is everyone having problems with yahoo dropping out …some can even predict what time its going to happen

    Come on raise your game yahoo or you could end up with the emptiest chat program in town …if ya dont count bots

    Comment by blair spalding — March 14, 2007 #

19. To: “UnSaKreD”

    I don’t have high expectations.
    Let’s start with the basics:
    1) in YDN, the last 8 messages were not answered.
    The last answered one was on Feb 16th !!
    2) How much effort do you think it takes to publish a message about a new build ???
    Why do I need to hear about it in this blog from “Venom”, or keep track of sites like filehippo.com ?

    Comment by Anonymous — March 14, 2007 #

20. i have to agree with chet, yahoo is now crap takes hours to get in rooms when you can.
    and bot well i bet there is 70% bots in rooms come on pull it together. how can you say 8.1 is compatable with vista when there is no sound

    Comment by lizard_keeper — March 14, 2007 #

21. I agree with chet, the bots are at rediculous proportions now. Not all are spam bots however quite a few are brought in to flood chat rooms by booters. So my question is…why can’t the spam/sex bots be removed to an acceptable limit ?and why can’t the booters be stopped? Chat used to be fun. I realise that yahoo is a free program with some excellent features, but it needs to be taken back to the fun days not the way it is now. Yahoo please sit up and notice..a lot of chatters are going to other programs, sadly i might add.

    Comment by pebbsy — March 14, 2007 #

22. Yahoo Messenger is Compatible with Windows Vista 100% it also allows you to use voice in Yahoo Chat.

    [b]Why cant you get voice?[b/]

    Its because you have not updated your TrueSpeech Codec. You can do this by visiting here and clicking the Trusted Installer Web URL. I found this update on the internet yesterday. Im suprised though Yahoo did not update the TrueSpeech codec which has already been published by TrueSpeech.

    http://www.wackyb.co.nz/vb/showthread.php?p=1727#post1727

    Enjoy Yahoo Voice on Windows Vista.

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

23. I agree with Chet Simpson, author of Y!TunnelPro
    I’m disabled and rely on yahoo for enjoyment and infomation, and it’s getting harder and harder to enter a chat room (i’m guessing because it’s full) Only to find the room loaded with Spam Bots advertising the same garbage. Personals, Porn Sites, Webcam Sites, ect. It not only annoying, it’s bad for minors that enter the rooms. Dateline NBC is working on “online preditors” WHY CANT YAHOO WORK ON “ONLINE SOLICITATION?”

    Comment by Neil nnap317 — March 14, 2007 #

24. I would truly be embarrassed if I were in charge of Yahoo’s ability to diminish the spam bots that have inundated their program and did nothing to stop it - regardless of it being a free program or not, why wouldn’t you put the effort in to have the best program you can have? If you’re going to do something, do it right. It’s that simple.

    Comment by Donna — March 14, 2007 #

25. 100 % percent correct Chet I have done an extensive study of the bot problem. I can only assume that yahoo knows of the problem as they are allowing it perhaps they even receive monetary gains from the same half a dozen or so companies that make up these porn / spam bots. Not too long ago Msn when they had their chat rooms were getting flooded by spam bots and then they came up with a plan to charge 20 bucks a yr to allow you to chat without the bots. Apparently this was not a moneymaker for them and they shut down the chat forum. Perhaps this is what Yahoo is wanting to do.

    Comment by docpc58 — March 14, 2007 #

26. Hi… i just wanted to suggest something. For the next yahoo version, I’d be nice to have the possibility to have more skins and more emoticons, or have the same system that msn messenger have… you can add emoticons just right clicking on them and adding them (and those emoticons are not the default ones), I’ve tried to use smiley central but it’s full of spywares and virus… so, that’s not the best option, it will be nice if yahoo messenger group and their designers could do something about it, i mean, more features. That’s all what some costumers ask. best wishes,

    Marysabel.

    Comment by Marysabel — March 14, 2007 #

27. I have to agree with Mr Simpson trying to get into a chat room these days is not like it use to be. What is going on with yahoo rooms? Hope you guys will put little more effort into the chat rooms & spam that has taken over yahoo chat rooms. I would hate to think yahoos given up on this & more concerned about the new vista junk. But that’s just my opinion I could be wrong.

    Comment by Bill T — March 14, 2007 #

28. I applaud Chet for his comments. As one of his customers who bought ytunnel a long while back (two copies mind you for laptop and main XP system), he and his group have labored to try and keep up with massive bot blocking, and I know his frustration must be great on their part at Ytunnel.

    All of our frustration levels in chat have reached what would seem a breaking point. All the letters we send regarding violations of Yahoo TOS, seems to fall on deaf ears. Or, it may be what we all have assumed, Yahoo reaps profits on the number of user hits entering their domain…and so why should they care? Most of us legal and forthright folks out here would gladly pay a ‘fee’ for chat use, because to us, it is a social gathering, and something we look forward to, conversing with friends on a daily basis.

    Well, nuff said, I know the only true and good people that are reading this are in the same plight as myself…

    Comment by Paul Bounds — March 14, 2007 #

29. Well..now its my turn to vent….wtf is wrong here….when i go to a chatroom..i really would like to interact with humans, not programs pushing the same pornsites, booters kicking me out, and quackerhackers filling the rooms and blocking entry by people who want to socialize…this is rapidly becoming not fun anymore..just try to get into ranch1…kane from chicago has it locked up tighter than a virgin in a whorehouse, and complaints of abuse have gone ignored by yahoo. I am taking the emerson speed-reading course just to try to keep up with the rooms..when i can get into them….even with my ytunnel, its at ludicrous speed, and if i pause reading to reply to a simple hello, i am 2 pages behind when i look back at the screen. Maybe its time yahoo turned to controlling the existing versions of messenger, instead of releasing a new one every couple of months. maybe its time to try another venue for chat…..

    Comment by Robert R. — March 14, 2007 #

30. i not only agree with chet but i have to say ty someone for finally speaking out in droves, im sick to death of spam, aka sex bots, and then we have the hackers the booters, and im feed up with it all…if 8.1 gets hit to many times then you are a boot everytime someone tries to pm you, come on smarten up your game, i to am here for a reason, im going blind and fighting it with all my muster, but, this is more then rediculous now, its on the sublime

    Comment by sharon — March 14, 2007 #

31. As a long time user of Yahoo Chat I am becoming more and more frustrated with the rooms. I spend more time placing “bots” on ignore so I can read whats being posted by humans than I do actually participating in chat. There has to be a way to prevent these bots from taking over chat. I also use Ytunnel to help but it can only do so much. It is up to Yahoo to screen the bots not a 3rd party program.

    If it wasn’t for the price, and the fact that AOL takes over so much of a PC when you install it, I would have switched long ago!

    Comment by Otto — March 14, 2007 #

32. Chet, I whole heartedly agree with you in terms of chat being absolutely horrid.
    There really is no excuse for it, and in all reality it has been a problem for quite a very long time. Which I am sure is why you and the makers of YTK pro get a lot of business from it.

    They should have some way of building in filters on the server side or even client side (they have very loose filters now). For example the automatic block after x amount of messages has been sent. They should also have alternative filters similar to what you run for ytunnel. I am hoping they are going to be doing something about it server side instead of client side anyway.

    To Anonymous,

    1.) This is why I suggested they split off a team just for getting information to the developers (us).

    2.) See aforementioned, and I also believe the new yahoo messenger has auto update.

    Comment by UnSaKreD — March 14, 2007 #

33. Hello , As a yahoo chat user, I find it nearly impossible to enter Yahoo chat,for 60 to 70 percent are BOTS… Please can you adress this problem before I have to look else where to find a better chat server… I have premium Yahoo and its no better as far as chat goes,,,Thank you in advance for your attention to this mater…

    Comment by Cyris — March 14, 2007 #

34. bai fratilor lasatine ca neati omarat

    Comment by Camelionus — March 14, 2007 #

35. I so agree with all that Chet says about the yahoo chat room problem. Why cant yahoo fix this problem? Every report goes unanswered or just a standard form if you get a reply to your abuse of TOS. The hackers and the booters should not be encouraged to run amok in chat. They are just being rewarded for doing something that is just wrong.You would think a huge business such as Yahoo would want to project a better image.Why would we want to trust our other business on Yahoo when they cant even keep hackers out of chat? Surely they would address this befor everyone moves to some other client.Please Yahoo sit up and take notice befor you lose your all your users!

    Comment by Paula — March 14, 2007 #

36. I agree with Chet, yahoo needs to fix these problems, and has needed to for along time. The reason i picked yahoo , and liked it so much more then the others, was it was so much fun. That is no longer the case, between bots, booters and hackers stealing accounts, not to mention not being able to get in the room, it is frustrating and stressful, definatly not the relaxing fun time it used to be. Yahoo is constantly upgrading, yet never fixing the core problems, it makes no sense, fix it before everyone moves on to other chats, which may not have have all the fun features, but are definatly easier to chat in.

    Comment by purplerosefire — March 14, 2007 #

37. I have to agree with Chet, the bots have over-taken the rooms and have made near impossible to enter a room. Even with Y-Tunnel, I spend the first 5 minutes in a room just putting the bots on ignore, but they reproduce quicker than rabbits. Yahoo needs to seriously look at this issue and fix it. Maybe more people need to complain on a daily basis and then Yahoo will start taking us seriously.

    Comment by sweete_caroline — March 14, 2007 #

38. you get spam allover any chat network why should Yahoo be the most important Chat Network to stop SPAM? If they are going to stop the chatroom spam then they might aswell remove the advertising from their messenger. Its like AIM , Their Chat Network is full of spam in chats and is impossible to read peoples messages.

    Yahoo cant kill SPAM but they could take action on those made responsible for it and those Host URL’s who are also made responsible. Yahoo could also add Spam Guard featuring to the chatroom to block out this spam.

    YTKPro and YTunnelPro are the only Applications that block the SPAM in yahoo chatrooms. These Applications also have alot of features. A pro option to remove the user from chat and send them to the Super Ignore Bin so they wont be seen ever again your side.

    Anyway..

    Yahoo have a option where you can ignore PM Spam. You can ignore them and report them for Abuse. Maybe something over at the Yahoo Messenger Department can be worked out to try stop this SPAM but i dont think your going to get any luck. Yahoo have not been so concerned about Chat Spam in the past so why should they care about it now?

    Ahhh yea just as i remembered

    not sure if Sarah remembers my idea on ditching the old Protocols and just staying up to date with One Protocol. This will also block all 3rd party clients and other applications until they come out with a new Authentication DLL to login to the network. Thats the time you can probably update your Protocol or try and secure it more?

    oh yea hello did not see you here chet

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

39. I find it funny a room will say it has 24 people and when you get in the room it’s more like 4. Far to many bots. Then you get the fights and someone brings more bots in.

    Comment by teddy — March 14, 2007 #

40. I dont think it was necessary the Author of YTunnelPro getting its users to attack this blogger with posts regarding Spam. This is really off topic and i think all posts regarding Spam related talk need to be moved to another Blog post or deleted in respect of us real Bloggers. This has totally gone off topic.

    ^^^
    please read Sarah >:D

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

41. vb, I will disagree with you on this:

    Yahoo cant kill SPAM but they could take action on those made responsible for it and those Host URL’s who are also made responsible. Yahoo could also add Spam Guard featuring to the chatroom to block out this spam.

    Yahoo! could take a more proactive approach to removing spam. They could setup the same filter methodology as E-Mail Spam. Take a look at Bayesian spam filtering,

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_spam_filtering

    Yahoo! is dumping old protocols, YCHT etc. And merging things over to YMSG. I am hoping with a new release of a YMSG protocol, they will add some server side Bayesian filters for incoming chat / pm text.

    This could effectively reduce the spam rate by about 80-85%. Problem being server load, cpu time and display time(when the message is sent to when the message is received) I would wager

    Comment by UnSaKreD — March 14, 2007 #

42. I also find the conditions in Yahoo chat deplorable. Long ago I left MSN chat to come to Yahoo because it was a more friendly place. No all one can find is porn ads. I have children that are getting close to the ages to be surfing the internet and I will probably have to block everything Yahoo has from my computer because I cant be assured that Yahoo keeps adult content where it belongs. It might be a little different if the pornographic ads were only available in adult rooms but they are posted in any and all rooms.

    Comment by snuff01_2000 — March 14, 2007 #

43. [...] I am writing this post because of a rather heated debate going on over at the Yahoo! Messenger Blog.The general consensus of the comments is that Yahoo! is inundated with way to many SPAM messages and Bots. [...]

    Pingback by unsakred.net » Yahoo! Messenger Spam — March 14, 2007 #

44. I agree with Chet Simpson, author of Y!TunnelPro
    I’m disabled and rely on yahoo for enjoyment and infomation, and it’s getting harder and harder to enter a chat room (i’m guessing because it’s full) Only to find the room loaded with Spam Bots advertising the same garbage. Personals, Porn Sites, Webcam Sites, ect. It not only annoying, it’s bad for minors that enter the rooms. Dateline NBC is working on “online preditors” WHY CANT YAHOO WORK ON “ONLINE SOLICITATION?”

    Comment by nnap317 — March 14, 2007 #

45. Well finally someone makes a great statement about the problems with yahoo chat, ie, spam, bots, etc. Thank you chet. Chat is just not fun anymore. I do have another chat program I go to and that one does not have the problems yahoo does. Get it together yahoo and fix this.

    Comment by Sandy — March 14, 2007 #

46. I agree with everything chet said. I need not repeat it. I chat in Paltalk often. I am considering moving there for good. I hope the spam situation/bots change radically and soon!!!

    Comment by anonymous — March 14, 2007 #

47. Sick of the nasty bots . . . sick of the booters . . . sick of not being able too get into the rooms . . . sick of conference doesn’t exsist . . . sick of invalid user . . . sick of already in this room . . . sick of deleting bots n booters . . . sick of no voice . . . sick of “new yahoo builds” and no improvement on these issues . . . sick of being sick . . . Obviously it’s contagious and going around, maybe the next “new build” will include free valium and barf bags. C’mon Yahoo . . . Free doesn’t mean at the cost of our nerves. Chat should be fun . . . not full time employment as beta testers.

    Comment by Davidsmountain — March 14, 2007 #

48. I also agree with Chet’s statement about SPAM. I don’t care what client everyone uses, it’s a universal problem. We, as the active Yahoo community, should have our voices heard right now, and hope and pray that Yahoo can do something about this uncontrollable SPAM problem.

    Please Yahoo, listen to our voices, regardless of what clients/programs we use, please finally do something about all this SPAM. This is the time we (the different factions of the Yahoo community) should put all our differences aside, and agree and do something about the SPAM problem. It effects everyone. It causes chaotic problems. It causes us not to enjoy chat like we used to when SPAM was a small problem. It’s the right thing to do, and the right thing for good business.

    Hear our voices.

    Thank you.

    Michael King (AKA Venom)
    YTK Pro Forum Administrator

    Comment by Venom — March 14, 2007 #

49. i have to side with Mr Simpson chat is not like it was. when it takes u 20mins to get in a chat room ,only to find out that there are like only 1o real ppl in it the rest are bots. i would think Yahoo could do something about the ppl makeing bots to flood the room`s.If Yahoo has sold spots to the site ones that pay for there bots spam thats fine. i can live with that ,but you should be able to put somethning in that program to run it .and for the one`s that are not paying for it .Yahoo should have something that would shut them down! then maybe we can have chat back like it was.You know its sad when you got ppl out makeing bot`s to flood the rooms and booting or just being disrespectful to ppl in genearl! well thank for your time hope you can fix`s this

    Comment by troll_ass — March 14, 2007 #

50. Chet and the other concerned chatters are correct. Yahoo Chat has become an abomination relative to its fun and responsive original self. In my opinion it should either be fixed or scrapped. As it exists in its current form it has become a major irritant. Clearly the program priorities have changed in the last year, with yahoo choosing to punish 100% of its users for a problem created by less than 1% of the chat population. There are solutions. Use them or confess your apathy yahoo. I truly hope you choose to fix this situation……and ciao.

    Comment by rocky_raccoon — March 14, 2007 #

51. I umm really think Sarah should just opened another Topic regarding Chat SPAM. This is a very serious issue in chats and I Agree with chet for bringing it to your attention now actually. I have monitored chat all day and is all i see is stupid bots spamming their affiliate weblinks.

    NOW!!

    I was chatting to a bot for 2 and half hours a few days ago and i did not realise it was a bot. Can you imagine how fustrating this is?

    Thank You chet for the updates :p Now…… Can Yahoo ensure we can chat in peace without bots or not?

    :-> come on Yahoo Team Zap! them all

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

52. has to agree with chet i has been trying to get into the room i go into for the last three weeks now if i do get in its after trying for well over two hours and by then most of my chat time is gone have even tryed being invited in by people that have gotten in the room……….. click on the link and nothen
    does not matter if i am useing ytunnel or trying to get in alone with out ytunnel same thing can not get in the rooms….. sure hope the brains at yahoo get off them and fix the problem ……. sure miss chatting in yahoo

    Comment by James Nickerson — March 14, 2007 #

53. I wholeheartedly agree on the chat situation. I’ve had Ytunnel Pro for several years. When I first bought it, it got nearly all of the bots in a yahoo chat room. But now, I can just picture a little man with a little gun trying to hit all of the targets and failing miserably because someone let all the targets loose at once.
    This is ridiculous. Doesn’t yahoo realize, that if these bots continue to grow unchecked, that NO human being will ever be able to get into a chat room again? Then where will they be? And how does this reflect on Yahoo Inc.’s paid for services? It reflects very poorly, is how. If they are not fixing their popular program, what make us users thing they will fix a service that we pay for?

    Comment by Rini — March 14, 2007 #

54. I think it is very clear why Yahoo does not want to do anything about all the SPAM…..They are the one’s that are doing it ! They just want to make $$ from the porn sites….oh…maybe they control those too. It is really sad to see Yahoo come to this…chat was fun at one time but now it is so hard to even get into a chat room.Just goes to show that Yahoo does not care about what is going on…they just want the $$$$$$$$.I hope that some other chat service grows enough so that it is worth going there to chat with your friends because as soon as there is another option…..Yahoo can kiss my *** !!

    Comment by ezegoing3944 — March 14, 2007 #

55. Thank you for allowing porn bots to corrupt the minds of the people of our nation and many nations. You incompetent facktards who work for corporate yahoo. Which leads to another question, if our posts are moderated here, why the fack arent they moderating the content we get in chat rooms.

    Thank you,

    Sincerely,

    Fack you

    Comment by dewb — March 14, 2007 #

56. i agree with chet on the things that he has said it is so diffult to get into yahoo these days and to change rooms people are starting to leave yahoo because of this problem …and i hate to see that …yahoo has been the best for chatting and music rooms ..we hate to see this happeninig and would like to see it straighten out so it is as enjoyable as it us e to be …please try and correct this problem thank you very much

    Comment by bewitched422002 — March 14, 2007 #

57. to whom it may concern , have to agree with the issue of spam bots whom are quiet annoying and make it hard to chat in rooms as well as the booters that frequent yahoo chat rooms, and just boot at wil because off their selfishness and arogance, have reported several seems they are still going strong. for one there a numerous spambot with the same id clogging chatrooms and sending messeges to view their cams or websites, really now something should be done let them open their own room see how much clientel they will get

    Comment by Volker Reuss — March 14, 2007 #

58. I agree whole heartedly with Chet Simpson, I’ve used YTunnel almost since the day it came out and it doesn’t help with getting into the rooms & doesn’t really do much to prevent booting by other chat users etc….Super Iggy Bin is probably it’s most useful feature in the present Yahoo climate.
    And….
    How come Yahoo voice/sound quality is so poor compared to say..Paltalk or Inspeak?
    Yep i’m another disgruntled long term Yahoo chat user looking elsewhere as i’m getting so bored with the problems that Yahoo can’t or won’t fix.

    Good Luck everyone with your comments & complaints…In age old Yahoo tradition they’ll probably be completely ignored.

    Comment by jaywickrob — March 14, 2007 #

59. 1,000 ignores i got in this room within 1 hour due to this unrespected spam

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

60. Like all others before me I agree, get rid of Spam bots. I’m sure the majority of people using yahoo are just as fed up with them as myself,,not being able to get into rooms to chat is an almost thing of the past in the last month, and like myself this is a form of connecting with friends and music room chat only to be told room full of what!!! spam bot!! thats what,,,
    I am only one person out of how may that use Yahoo as a form of communicating,,Ty Chet, hopefully our voices maybe heard this time and something is done.

    Comment by poochey — March 14, 2007 #

61. its so obvious the reason yahoo doesnt work on this chat room spam issue is that they make a portion of the money that these spam bots make from diff. pornographic websites, i’m sure they have deals with these people.. this is the way they make a buck from a free application

    Comment by branden — March 14, 2007 #

62. I’m not a expert. But I think if Yahoo! limits access to it’s rooms per IP per user then it will make very difficult if not impossible for people to launch hundreds of bots in Chat from one computer or internet connection.

    Comment by Jaunty_mellifluous — March 14, 2007 #

63. I totally agree with all the above comments, the Chat experience for me has become a total nightmare for me and many of my chat friends.

    Trying to get into a chat room for almost 20 - 30 minutes has become the norm.

    Surly, Yahoo, with all its experience and expertise can solve the problems and let us all get back to enjoying chat!!!

    Comment by WuRz — March 14, 2007 #

64. Thank for frenchies

    Comment by Olivier D. alias ze kat — March 14, 2007 #

65. If its money yahoo wants,say so…Chet is right on all accounts
    Yahoo Is Going Down hill and even lower buy not correcting things By adding new versions they think they sloved the problems

    Comment by like I care... — March 14, 2007 #

66. Bravo Chet!! You said it best and I totally agree with you, as well as many others in the blog today. Yahoo is rediculous at the moment, most of my friends just communicate in Instant Message now.

    We use to meet to enjoy music, chat, and make friends, this was what I thought it was designed to do. We use to complain when the ‘occasional’ bot appeared. Now it’s ALL Porn bots. In communication with Yahoo! for other things I use to add comments about getting rid of that garbage, but it has continued to increase to a ridiculous number.

    The enjoyment of Yahoo! Messenger is over. You can’t get into rooms, have difficulty with sound, and if you wait literally minutes and a room finally opens, it’s just full of bots.

    I just purchased a new computer and couldn’t get the version that worked before. Now I have the frustration of constantly downloading, uninstalling, re-downloading…….and nothing works. If anyone has a suggestion as to a version that works, please let me know?

    For the moment, I just hope Yahoo! reads all these, steps up to the plate and repairs their program to it’s original working order…….and hopefully controls the PEST population along the way!

    Yahoo! could provide ’special rooms’ for those who actually spend money on those Porn Bots and not throw that garbage in the face of everyone else.

    We don’t need more emotes and special effects, we just need a program that WORKS!!

    Comment by G.S. — March 14, 2007 #

67. Agree with Chet as well. The worse of the bots being those of the voice disconnect variety, the booters which send out numerous voice packets to flood the connection and render chat, and the software, useless. Not only is this bad for Yahoo but it is also not too good for a computer, especially if the computer in question is a little outdated. Not everyone has a 2006 spec’ed system.

    The order and time in which Yahoo chooses to repair something, leads me to believe that maybe a percentage of the spam-bots are intentional to recoup the cost of the client software being free. If this is the case, there are many other alternative ways to promote one’s business and having adult related content able to roam around an environment meant for both adults and children is a no-no..

    I made a small mail client once, a few years ago, designed specifically for mailing Yahoo’s support branch. It ran on a timer and sent the same email letter of disgust in intervals of 2 minutes. Not much came out from that project except a boatful of autoresponse emails., lol.

    Yahoo needs to look into these issues and devise workarounds in timely orders.

    RJ

    Comment by rjisinspired — March 14, 2007 #

68. i fully agree with chet;
    almost every room is flooded with spam and bots; it is nearly not possible to join a room-
    i wonder if yahoo cannot get quit of that problem.
    regards from hekla

    Comment by hekla_01 — March 14, 2007 #

69. I agree whole heartedly with Chet Simpson, The past few mo.s trying to get into a room takes 10 to 20 min. And when you do get into a room there is only a few real people in the room the rest are spam bots ,,pornographic websites.

    Comment by Don — March 14, 2007 #

70. It’s not only the bots that are a problem…i chat in a room that is virtually bot free but the problem over the last few days is voice servers. Seems the room is on at least 2 different voice servers. What a pain, I hope this problem is roon rectified.

    Comment by Ellie — March 14, 2007 #

71. Whether you feel this is the fourm for this topic or not the point remains we as users have to get the attention of the people that produce this software.We as people as users have the right to feel that the software as well as servers that accomodate the use if it have a reasonable degree of useability.This is not the case Yahoo has gotten away from it’s messenger userbase in order to gain money wise.This would be ok if the money was used to enhance the yahoo experience but it’s not.If this is what it takes this to get someones attention then we as users against spam have to unite and bring this issue to someones attention that may be able to fix this.

    Comment by RangerDude — March 14, 2007 #

72. Chet Simpson wont let me on his forums to get support for his Product atm for recent false obligations towards me but i can ensure you YTunnelPro users Yahoo have already took the word in by now and that they care about the current SPAM issue. If nobody can be Civil how are they meant to work together.

    Yahoo Team i have sent you some nice logs to your Offices at SunnyVale regarding SPAM.

    This will be my last post for this tread //

    I want to mention one more thing and i aree with UnsakRed about his information he had to share with me in PM Today regarding Filter Training

    

    Comment by vb_packets — March 14, 2007 #

73. What has always puzzled me is the fact yahoo!’s network will disconnect the (Receiver) of the large payloads in booting scenario’s instead of disconnecting the (Sender) to neutalize the payload in the first place.

    Yahoo! at one time had a url blacklist, they may still have, why is it not in effect? You can record all ip’s of users but you can’t filter out hyperlinks in a IE control, says much for the prow capabilities of the yahoo! development team.

    Why doesn’t yahoo! messenger have a UI ability to add clientside words to be dropped clientside? Why does it have to be a farce to have to open an encoded file (Filter1.enc) to manually add words that are just simply replacing spam for a load of **** on one’s screen. Yahoo! messenger has the “Automatic” ability to remove text from the screen already, why not give the user the option to utilize this feature? A single person been able to add a hyperlink could deter a lot of spam on their screens as messenger can auto remove it making their user entered words..

    The spam guard feature in place is not really working as we have to see the spam to report it and when we see it another id just sends it the next time and the block is useless, adding also the ability for users to auto ignore any ids with hyperlinks in a pm would be very beneficial not to mention a rather effective deterant against IM born worms/virii/phishers.

    Perhaps my ideas, comments fall upon deaf ears but i give you the choice to prove them wrong and reply and give us your opinion and your reaction to the above forementioned plea’s from your users.

    Comment by Dermot — March 14, 2007 #

74. Since yahoo was purchased by SBC.. Att.. or what ever.. it has gotten so bad the I just ck to see If I can get in..Its awful anymore.. Porn Bots galore Complaints go unheeded..and is run by morons . nothing gets fixed.. nothing gets acomplished. Same goes for the ATT/ DSL packages.. they are offered but always unavailable.. maybe TDS MetroCom can supply our needs
    AS YOUR PORN BOTS SAY, ATT, “LISTEN UP!
    Norm G… a disgruntled Yahoo user

    Comment by Norm G — March 14, 2007 #

75. I think its’ time for the developers at yahoo chat to wake up and smell the coffee. Chet Simpson has hit the nail on the head. Yahoo Chat is suffering from abuse of spammers and the end result is a chat experience that is going to hell in a hand basket. To add to the problem, the boot bots and voice bots present in many rooms compiled with the presence of spam bots makes it near impossible to enjoy what once was a great chat service. Yahoo Chat developers need to step up to the plate and take action, NOW!

    Comment by Mike — March 14, 2007 #

76. I completely agree about the bots. They are prolific. It’s become apparent that Yahoo! is completely uninterested in maintaining their chatrooms. They put out new builds, but don’t maintain those new builds in a way that makes the chatters experience pleasant. Both 8.0 and 8.1 have issues that are making chatting a pain, but the porn adverts and bots are making it so that no one can enter rooms and when they do it’s a fluke. I don’t chat much but when I do I expect that experience to be as stress free as Yahoo! can make it. I can deal with the people but I cannot deal with the bots. I do believe I’m going to end all associate with Yahoo! and all it’s subsidaries if this problem cannot be resolved in a timely manner.

    Oh and what is with the disappearing text? I’ve been dealing with my text “timing” out in chat for almost 2 years! Only way to fix the issue is to leave and come back but that’s nearly impossible with the bots.

    Please address these issues soon…

    Frustrated in Oregon

    Comment by Jen — March 14, 2007 #

77. Whoops! I can spell I just can’t type.

    association*

    Comment by Jen — March 14, 2007 #

78. Count me in to those who are complainig.
    Yahoo chat is getting, since I started to use it in 2001, from bad to wors. Now it is allmost impossible to use it at all.
    disappointed in norway

    Comment by dieter — March 14, 2007 #

79. Bots will be the death of yahoo chat if someone doesnt do something about it. Its fast becoming an unpleasant experience and quite frankly a waste of time. Please, please sort it out!

    Comment by jay jay — March 14, 2007 #

80. I think we all agree with Mr Simpson…i too have bought YTunnel and its great for the bots…but as we all know that does not seem to be enough….its not just the porn bots that are anoying its also the bot programs other chat users use aswell…surely yahoo can fix this problem and we all can carry on enjoying our yahoo experience.

    Comment by naughty — March 14, 2007 #

81. All the new features I see in Yahoo Messenger have me honestly thinking more and more about Yahoo letting the chat rooms die intentionally. If I’m wrong then by all means correct me.

    I don’t see anything added to rooms. I don’t see any improvements. I see no attempts to reduce spam or bots. I see no effort from Yahoo. These days it’s all about the one on one chat. It’s all about emoticons, PC-to-PC calls, PC-to-Phone calls, etc.
    Logging can be a chore in and of itself. Everytime I do log into Yahoo Messenger I find loads of offline messages from bots and getting into an actual chat room is nearly impossible. Does Yahoo care? Chat rooms are a wasteland of bots. The anarchistic and chaotic chatting environment and hassles dealing with Yahoo Messenger are likely one of the best marketing tool that any other competing IM could dream for!

    Wake up, Yahoo!

    Comment by rotjong — March 14, 2007 #

82. Problem = too many spam bots in the FREE chat/cam services

    If I work for a company that advertises on yahoo, I get told that my ad is seen 3 billion times/month on the yahoo network because yahoo tells me the trafic is 3 billion, then I pay them for what they tell me the trafic is….those BOT are a large portion of the trafic, the bots even take two server spaces because most of them have a webcam pionting to the cam server also, so I am paying yahoo to show my ad to bots, Yahoo could care less, more trafic = more money. The only salution is to show MY company how much money i am waisting on sex bot advertising.

    Salution = go to the people that are paying YAHOO to advertise the product to complain about all the bots, these people pay yahoo money for ALL views of the ad (including the bots, since they have an IP address, yahoo gets to count them as a view), so the pepsi ad gets paid for millions of times a day for a bots to spam the rooms, yahoo does not care, they get paid for showing the ad to the bot address…tell the people that are paying for the ad the numbers, and they take the ad money to a better form of advertising. Yahoo looses the money for the advertisers until they FIX the problem. They just get paid for trafic, they do NOT care if it is a real person, or a computer, or a bot, it is bandwidth trafic that makes MONEY for yahoo. Cut the money off, and they will listen, and try to work on the problem.

    Salution, have yahoo hire 3 fulltime emplyees to moniter chat rooms, track IP logs, and block those IP(s) addresses for making yahoo money…lol…like that will EVER happen! Why would yahoo spend $120,000 (oooops its 2007 - they will get 3 someones in india to do it - $50,000) to lose $80 million in taffic.

    Comment by Brucer — March 14, 2007 #

83. I totally agree with the manager of Ytunnel Pro. This is getting ridiculous with the spammers or “bots”. Either I can not get into a chat room or if I can, I have trouble getting voice, etc. Wouldnt it be simple if Yahoo gave us the user rooms back and use the methods that Paltalk and AOL chat have, LIKE, being able to bounce the spammers, bots, troublemakers out of the chat room? Yahoo, get your act together!!!!

    Comment by Rhonda — March 14, 2007 #

84. i too agree with chet, i love chatting with family that are far away and my friends, but with the amount of bots in all the chat rooms it makes it hard to get in.. if only yahoo could get rid of the bots completely, then more ppl will use yahoo or if yahoo could make yahoo chat like paltalk where ppl can create their rooms and then be adminatrators and then be able to eject unwanted ppl in them and then maybe yahoo could be a most welcome chat… yahoo was always good when i first started out, i do like yahoo , but lately it is has been difficult, please yahoo do something,,, we all need something better

    Comment by ladymo56 — March 14, 2007 #

85. I totally agree with Mr. Simpson.. Yahoo is getting so ridulacoius, its like pulling hens teeth..With all the bots , it isnt fun an more to chat.. they have taken over yahoo like a bad virus or locus… if yahoo could let us have rooms to create like Paltalk and other chat clients then, yahoo would be like it use to be , fun and exciting.. people are getting discussed in the quality… when having control of your room like Paltalk then then quailty of chat would be better and safer.. I have alot of family members that are discussed as well. and this is the only way i get a chance to chat because they are so faw away., so if yahoo.. could clean up thier act and the chat rooms and bring back the user rooms, yahoo would find less troubled people… yours truly… and regretfully… GG

    Comment by gg — March 14, 2007 #

86. I too am about fed up with the spam in the chatrooms. There has been a big problem especially in the Ranch chatrooms. I know for a fact that some person who is upset and fighting with someone else is creating a lot of the bots and sending them to the rooms to fill them up to keep chatters from being able to get into the rooms. No matter what room we change to, the person eventually finds us and fills the room with spam bots or booter bots. I and several others have been reporting the problem for several weeks with no relief. We have thought of changing to another chat system. I agree being able to create private rooms again would definately help the situation. Please do something to fix this mess!

    Comment by Angel — March 14, 2007 #

87. i too would like to add my voice to those who agree with chet…yahoo chat rooms used to be a way to relax and have a laugh but now with the stress of getting in and sometimes staying in its becoming more of a frustration. Im sick of the yahoo servers disconnecting me and booting me from the room that i have just spent an hour getting in!. I would gladly pay for yahoo chat if i knew that it was going to work without the booting, bots etc. I have complained in the past about booters but no action seems to be taken about them either…cmon yahoo get your act together and give us what we want??

    Comment by Maggie — March 14, 2007 #

88. I also agree with Chet. When I come home and want to relax by chatting with my friends it’s anybody’s guess whether Yahoo will let anyone into a chat room. The SPAM bots runneth over!!!!!!

    Comment by Kandi — March 14, 2007 #

89. I too will put in my agreement with Chet Simpson and the others.
    I would also like to point out that I no longer go into the chat rooms because of all ot this crap! Yet I STILL get offlines from TONS of porn bots!! WHY?? I HAVE the spam filters on,I pay for my YTunnel, and STILL these things come through!!
    WHY won’t Yahoo do anything about these SPAMbots?Maybe they do get kick backs.
    Wouldn’t that just add icing on the cake of the case as to why they closed the private chat rooms?? That was one of their first mistakes…a lot of us used those rooms because the regular “public” rooms were so horrible.Now we just use IM. The conferences don’t work properly,and as others have pointed out, the voice servers always screw up. They are also correct when they talk about Paltalk having it ALL over Yahoo.In voice and streaming video.A lot of people use Yahoo simply because it’s free and that’s what they can afford.Why not take pride in your product??Surely someone can do something about this disgusting situation.
    For the person who wrote about Kane in Chicago and Ranch1 - all you have to do is throw him and his various names in the bin and you can get in.Unless he has your screen name specifically locked out on some sort of auto-boot prog,you should be alright.Also,you might want to place a call to the FCC - they know who he is.:-)

    Comment by udntknwme — March 14, 2007 #

90. I agree whole heartedly with Chet. Why do you allow bots to permeate the rooms and cause so much havoc? Do you really care that little about the rooms now and the users? As many resources and people that Yahoo! employs, why would you not do something about these problems? You put so much effort and people into constantly improving 360 and email…should be believe that the rooms are next? I would be nice if you addressed the concerns of the users and work to address them and resolve them. When ever you think things can’t get worse they do. Yahoo! has NEVER been this bad and it raises the question WHY…why has chat gone downhill? Do the powers that be see it as a pain in the backside and don’t care? With so many other applications and vendors coming along offering services, why would you want to run the risk of losing people to them? Or is it because chat rooms are being closed down by others and u figure yahell is one of the last places people have to go so they’ll take it or leave it no matter how bad it gets?

    DO…..SOMETHING……!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by Pamela — March 14, 2007 #

91. Well, the idea I have is, Yahoo can make alterations to how the YMSG protocol is used and made. Meaning, people whom change the number in older protocols wouldn’t be able to log in. Thus stopping porn bots, AND boot bots. Two birds, one stone.

    The problem here is, it would kill third party chat clients like YMLite, YahELite, and Yazak, among many others.

    Comment by Venom — March 14, 2007 #

92. i’m sure that most of those who voiced complaints here on this blog have also sent the complaints to yahoo itself, only to receive a form reply email from yahoo thanking us for our comments, and the matter will be looked into…. guess what folks… the spam bots are now running corporate yahoo, and they crank out the form reply emails to all of us humans… it’s another version of the Terminator movies trilogy… the machines are taking over the world, and they think that sex on the internet will keep us quiet… yahoo, if you are reading this, then i can expect my account to get locked out within the next few days…. keep up the good work, chet!!

    Comment by raynman47 — March 14, 2007 #

93. I agree with all the above but wonder where can I complain (like yahoo gives a rat’s about what’s on here) and how can all of us set up mail clients to send Yahoo the message to overload them?
    As for vb_packets ” Chet Simpson wont let me on his forums to get support for his Product atm for recent false obligations…”
    First isn’t it false allegations?
    Secondly are you Dermot the dumb ass from Ireland?
    Would be nice to toss fat Dermot in with the bots too.

    Comment by Ya_tiredof_spam@ — March 14, 2007 #

94. yahoo needs to do something about the rooms cant get in or when i do i cant get voice or it tells me it doesnt exsits

    Comment by marie — March 14, 2007 #

95. Another agreement here with Chet Simpson the software developer of YTunnelPro.

    Yahoo offers a free service with the best, and most user friendly chat rooms on the web — an international forum for communication and entertainment.

    But it has devolved in the past 3 months time and users are running like mad to emerging alternatives. I personally have had old friends from years of Yahoo association say they are leaving because of the spam bots clogging the rooms with their hyperlink sewage.

    Time is running out for a solution, and I know I speak for thousands of loyal fans when I say we would all sorely miss this wonderful hub of free speech.

    Dear Yahoo — Please do take action before it is too late. And if you have a fix in the works, please candidly put aside your corporate political correctness and inform your diehard groupies before we all fade away from neglect.

    With appreciation and concern,

    Dex

    Comment by Dex — March 14, 2007 #

96. I agree with Chet wholeheartedly. I remember when everyone in a chat room was a REAL person. What happened to that? Why has yahell let this go on and on?? Are they getting a kickback from the porn industry?? In the last 2 yrs I rarely go into Yahell chat, I chat in Delphi. No Bots, No Ads. It doesn’t have all the “features” that Yahell has, but no bots is a blessing.

    Comment by Lethalwpn8 — March 14, 2007 #

97. I totally agree with this, it is just getting inpossible to get into chat rooms, half the time and when you do get all the stupid porn bots rubbish, I has really gone down hill last 6 months or even longer.
    Also could you please do something about the stupid idiots who think it is fun to boot people out of rooms and generally cause problems with laggers etc.
    Half my regular mates from chat don’t come in anymore or hardly ever.

    PLEASE YAHOO LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR USER ARE SAYING

    thanks
    Mark

    Comment by Mark — March 14, 2007 #

98. Please, please do something about this

    Comment by Mark — March 14, 2007 #

99. chet is absolutlely correct,yahoo used to be a great place to come chat and meet new people(real people) now it is nothing more than an oversized billboard for ads.i get kicked out of chat (by the servers) about every hour or hour and a half (literally)and if i manage by some outrageous miracle to talk to another human i get cut off,and i get signed off in the chatroom very often,this is getting to be a real pain and really annoying my ytunnel stored messeges gets jammed with spam bots.Im not real sure why you dont pay some attention to this but you really need to

    Comment by Mike — March 14, 2007 #

100. OK…for one, you get what you pay for (meaning you pay nothing to chat on YahPoo! For two, YahPoo generates revenue based on the porn bots as well as sites/programmers that develop the newest YahPoo toys like booters and crackers. It’s true, like it or not. If it were a pay service, they would not have these issues as their income would directly apply to the secuity of the chat world. Scripts would be defunct hours after development. Login strings would be sniffed out in minutes. If they were motivated enough by revenue of the users, a mass login of 5000 bots by the same IP would trigger an automatic failure judged by sentry software that should be applied to the server network. If this was in place the loss-of-voice issues would be readily addressed.

     Yes, all of your piddily complaints have fallen on deaf ears as well as Stevie Wonder’s eyes. They do NOT care because they don’t HAVE to. Stop whining, stop buying GayTunnel for $17, use a better client for free like YahElite (which btw seems to be far better at updating on a timely basis, and to this day is the best client I myself have used in my 4-ish years of chatting). Oh my Buddah, chat on YahPoo is free. I am amazed that anyone is upset by the lack of attention to the end user’s complaints. You don’t make them any money by sitting on your asses and looking for sex (hence the bots). Perhaps this is a turning point in YahPoo Chat. The “hey-day” is long gone. This is internet chat on the decline. Do they have all the same issues in MSN chat or AOL chat?…I seriously doubt it. Because AGAIN…..the users PAY to have the priviledge. When was the last time any of you got something for free that didn’t have it’s own degree of suckiness?

     I admit, if YahPoo Chat went under tomorrow, I would be a bit disappointed. But maybe then I would try to not be a lump in a chair living thru blips on the screen and maybe even get more sunlight on my skin to dull the winter blahs. Man, some of you take this crap to heart far too deeply. If TV were more interesting, I wouldn’t chat at all! I have the phone numbers of the “regs” I chat with that I want to have. I have met in person many times the ones I think worthy of my down time from work and home. A few I haven’t, but it is only because they live too far away to just go hang out with whenever. Mostly it is just out of boredom I am in a dang room anyway.

     Lighten up, stop demanding the impossible and improbable, and keep your focus on the real life that you live everyday. Spend more time with friends and family IN PERSON, and maybe less time in a stupid chatroom talking about sports/sex/reality TV. In short, if you actually care about chat politics and programs, you need a break.

     Enjoy the rest of your life.

     Comment by Jayzus H. Crust — March 14, 2007 #

101. yahelite sucks. deepthroat is to busy sucking off craig. craig sucks too. i could take a big dump on ymlite and yazak.

     get real people. don’t use ytunnel or 3rd party clients.

     Comment by Jay — March 14, 2007 #

102. its time for yahoo to do something about these porn bots and get them out of the rooms so people will start coming back to yahoo , if its not to late already . yahoo you are losing alot of users due to this fact of the bots and its to damn hard to get into the rooms , too full of bots , your users use to have a great time chatting in your rooms now if you go into them you will find 40 bots not 1 real person , now tell me something isnt wrong …yahoo if you cant figure out what is wrong i could have a 8 year old kid tell you what is wrong .. now is the time to fix it ………….get rid of the porn bots…..

     Comment by jimmy — March 14, 2007 #

103. Plain and simple, YahPoo Messyger is far too large a program and resource hog to be trusted. Messenger is tacky, lame and overloaded with too many bells and whistles. Messenger embodies everything that is wrong with chat. It’s all about looks and not about functionality and purpose. Same as Windows Vista. It looks nice but doesn’t work worth a pile of crap. “Third party clients” as “Jay” put it, are the only reason many people continue to chat because FACE IT….at 80 MB, for YahElite…versus what….2.8 GB for messenger? HELLO? Nevermind the vulnerability of messenger even with the all toilety YTunnel on hand as a further source of RAM depletion….Hands down, clients win. YahElite, Yazak even NastyChat back in ‘05 are better. In fact..I *SALUTE* the writers of those 3rd party clients because they understand Messenger is a pile of moose droppings. Those of us who suffer the likes of Trixie PornoWhoreuses and packet pounding because all we want to do is speak our minds…who wouldn’t look to something better?…Get off your Hobbie-Horse and understand not all of us are incoherent to our desires. We want to chat spam-free…..FOR free. Why pay to chat when you can just get a hooker?:)):)):))

     Comment by Jayzus H. Crust — March 14, 2007 #

104. Well, having read all of the posts on this blog I feel that I can contribute to the current topic at hand. For people that aren’t aware of who I am, I am one of the developers of YTK Lite and YTK Pro, Yahoo! Messenger ’super enhancements’ much like Chet Simpson’s Y!TunnelPro is.

     About the spam… this, as already covered, is a problem *and has been* of ludicrous proportions. There isn’t anything being done about it and even Messenger’s “Spam Guard” is worthless since I highly doubt that the Yahoo! chat team even bothers with checking the “reported” spam bot Y! IDs for taking action.

     Spam, however, definitely isn’t the only problem that needs to be dealt with on a large scale. The servers performance over the last couple months has been extremely poor and having to wait sometimes minutes to have your chat room login acknowledged and then wait some more to actually get into the room (the server sending the room list to you) is pathetic. There is a noticeable (several seconds) delay when even logging into the network and then you have the room delay on top of it. Booting is still around, voice lagging and account cracking. Spam is just the icing on the cake here.

     Programs such as Chet’s and my own deal with many of these problems and do it well. However, we shouldn’t have to be covering so many bases since it seems everything is a problem concerning the Yahoo! Chat IM network these days. A bit of cleanup should be in order and has long been awaited.

     The user decline and lack of interest over the last year and a half has been due to Yahoo! making some seriously half-assed decisions concerning IM features. Instead of adding more and “growing” off the already well-known and popular features (widely used over the years) you guys have taken away nearly everything worthwhile. Taking away /GOTO support (/Follow affected because of this decision too), User-Created chat rooms (big blow!), YCHT and Chat 2 protocol (collectively the browser-based web chats as a result) all have been the reasons for that decline and will continue to be. These features and alternative ‘choices’ were what many die-hard chatters relied on and, being no longer available, warrants them to investigate other IM services to fill the void now that their beloved functionality they had grown used to has been thrown away. Another annoying change to the Yahoo! server architecture has been the more recent chat room message text size limitation, limiting chat room users to 300 characters. I find this limit to be far too restrictive and problematic for users that normally type out larger chat messages.

     In closing I feel that in order to maintain or attract your users you should at least consider rethinking some of those decisions *at least in the future*. The spam “infestation” would be a good start and if you’re needing guidance I’m sure Chet, other third party developers or myself wouldn’t mind supplying our anti-spam research and filtering routines to assist you effectively speeding up the process.

     Adam - Co-Developer of YTK Lite/YTK Pro
     Torseq Technologies
     http://www.ytkpro.com

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 14, 2007 #

105. Well besides the bots, can anybody tell me when Jay’s balls are gonna drop? As he has the IQ of a Brick and the humour of a toad…fat, lazy, ugly, fork tongue and no purpose in life at all.

     Comment by Dermot — March 14, 2007 #

106. Hear Hear! Chet is absolutely correct in that Yahoo chat room users have suffered horribly over the past couple of months with assorted log in issues, not being able to stay in the rooms, can’t get sound, invisibility issues, SPAM bots flooding the rooms, booters, room laggers, etc., etc., etc. - the list is long and undistinguished.

     I realize Yahoo chat is a free service but like a few others above have mentioned - it speaks poorly of Yahoo services in general when Yahoo cannot control the negatives enough to make it an enjoyable place to be on the net. As a webmaster, based on the lack of service and attention to these problems, I would certainly NEVER recommend hosting via Yahoo to any of my clients.

     It’s about time Yahoo paid some attention to these problems - they have the technology - they’re just not using it. Get with it and quickly, please.

     Comment by Webby — March 14, 2007 #

107. I have been around yahoo chat for well over 10 years,and I have never know chat to be like it is now.I have made and lost alot of friends using chat.But it seems now days I can’t even get into chat because of all the porn bots and the booters.I know it wouldn’t be to hard for yahoo to get rid of them.I am tired of there messages they send out saying we are aware of the problem and are working on it.So I think it is time they started working on it.
     P.S. this wasn’t started to call people names! Stick to the topic!!

     Comment by OWP — March 14, 2007 #

108. I agree with Mr. Simpson!! The whole Yahoo experience used to be very pleasureable. Now I spend almost all of my time ignoring SPAM bots.

     Comment by Jerry — March 14, 2007 #

109. Yes I agree with Chet. If I didnt have YTunnel I would not go into the chat rooms. But even with it you cant get into the rooms and when you do the bots out number the real people 4-1. Please try and fix this problem.

     Comment by Sassy — March 14, 2007 #

110. I, like everyone here it seems, am fed up with the SPAM in the chat rooms. I either cannot get into the rooms because of the bots, or I get booted(flooded by the same pms) by someone who doesn’t like what I said. Yahoo needs to do something about the bots, booters, and hackers. Myspace finally got their im service up, and they already have chat rooms, they are looking more apetizing every day that goes by that our complaints go unheaded. Yahoo makes money off of these bots, even though I do not know of one person that has ever really clicked on one of the links they pm you with. They need to bring back the user rooms, and make it so that there can be more than one moderator so that the rooms can stay open even when you are not in them for the others that like the room you created. They let a few bad predators ruin it all for everyone. Let us take control of the rooms, and we will stop complaining. Make it so that we can voice chat all the time, and we will stop complaining. Get rid of the bots, booters, and hackers, and we will stop complaining. Make yahoo chat enjoyable how it was just a few years ago, and we will stop complaining. A warning to yahoo, you will loose a lot of your customers if you keep ignoring us. Myspace, paltalk and many other chat clients are opening up and stepping up to the plate to give us what we want, so if you wish to keep us, make us happy!

     *another disgruntled yahoo user*

     Comment by disgruntled user — March 14, 2007 #

111. Chet is right ever since yahoo dis away with the user room yahoo chats have steadily gone down hill , anyone of us in regular chat could delete HUNDRED OR MORE BOTS A NIGHT yahoo needs to put someone on this problem , they keep making new versions with the same flaws, if the really want more people to use thier services they need to listen to what the users are saying this problem may not be easy to fix but at this time it looks like yahoo is encouraging the bot fevelopment or ignoing for what reason that escapes me more people please respond

     Comment by Derek — March 14, 2007 #

112. more and more yahoo chat user are leaving everyday , due to that fact yahoo has seen fix to do away with everything that was enjoyable in chat . no more users room , cant join user in chat , then when you do get into a room its full of nothing but bots . wake up yahoo you are losing all your users we when to different chat clients . entill you address this and get it fixed yahoo you will lose everyone . if people stop using your service you will go broke …….

     Comment by mmf — March 14, 2007 #

113. I as well as others agree with Chet ….. Yahoo needs to do something to fix the problem with the bots. Messenger is a fun place to go to chill out, but dang it would be nice to go in there in a timely manner, and not have to put up with sooooooo many bots. I would appreciate it if u would do something … anything …. just show some effort !!!!!!!!!!!!

     Comment by Bug — March 14, 2007 #

114. I have an SBC Global account, which means I pay for my Yahoo services. It sickens me that even though I pay for my services, I’m unable to do so, because the “techs” only design “cool new features” instead of fixing the core of Yahoo chat.

     Chet Simpson’s product is great, but its bitter-sweet that I had to pay for his services so I can partially use services though Yahoo that I paid for. Come on Yahoo, get it together.

     Comment by gothicmemberyoda — March 14, 2007 #

115. I hate to admit it, but the yahoo chat experience has truly brought out the cynical pessimist lurking just below the surface. I’m certainly not alone in my frustration over the spam bots, booters and various and sundry other distractions from what can be, but seldom is anymore, a really wonderful venue for meeting and conversing with people from all over the world! (oops…my optimist is showing…sorry, I digress) Having been in the receicing end of a number of “support” replies from yahoo over the years, I feel pretty certain that this attempt to get the attention of someone…ANYone…will fall on deaf and or uncaring ears at yahoo. It’s really a shame, yahoo…you had a great thing going, but personally….I’m getting my funeral clothes ready for yahoo chat.

     Comment by groovy! — March 14, 2007 #

116. I totally agree with Chet. Get your act together Yahoo! This has gone on far to long.

     Comment by bamacowgirl8188 — March 14, 2007 #

117. Three cheers for Chet! As a longtime user of Yahoo’s chat rooms, I too have become increasingly disgusted with the lack of care the owners seem to have for the human users. My thought is this…if they can’t maintain a chat room, how good are their other products? At one time, I used exclusively Yahoo products and services but now, due to the lack of caring or ability to maintain a simple service, I have ceased to use (and pay for) other Yahoo services. Yahoo stockholders, hear us ROAR! It’s your bucks these slackers are wasting and if you want your investment to grow, you’d better suggest to Management that they maintain the heart of their product line…being the chat rooms!

     Comment by jules — March 14, 2007 #

118. I haven’t been able to get into yahoo chat with messenger for months. I am very computer literate, have uninstalled, reinstalled, went back to lower versions, nothing I’ve done has worked and no help from the yahoo team.

     My account was also deactivated by yahoo with absolutely no warning at all, I was not the only one who’s account was done that way in the room I chat in. There are booters who like to hang in the chat room and they go to various people’s blogs and use their bots to log complaint after complaint with that lil button on the 360 until yahoo deactivates your account, no warning, no investigation to the validity of the claim. I lost my email address I’ve had for 7 years, all the emails I had saved, email addresses, a 360 that I worked hard on which had all sorts of info and scenic (landscape) pictures I had taken, there was no nudity on my blog, no x-rated stuff, my blog was marked for mature content even tho there was none there. I have emailed yahoo over and over asking for an explanation and all I got was there was a TOS violation and directed to that web page. I read it umpteen times and have failed to see where I violated their TOS at all. I even had one person at customer service and said it was due to my profile, again there was nothing x-rated, no cursing, nothing disgusting etc etc, I’ve seen far worse profiles before and still do. When I asked the lady just what was so offensive about it or what violated their TOS about it she quickly backtracked and denied that she even said it, I still have the emails and tossed it right back at her.
     The customer service department is a joke at best and being that I am in the computer industry and work on a daily basis with customers who seek email capabilities, web page capabilities, adverstisement etc, I have since started steadfastly warning them not to utilize any Yahoo services because the customer service department is non-existant, all they know to do is to point you to a TOS that they don’t even understand themselves.
     I have been in yahoo chat since 1996 and have seen it go from a pretty decent service to being one of the worst as far as customer service goes and that goes with any area that they might own.
     I even had another id that was hacked from a geocities website by phishing and reported it to them but the person that stole my id quickly changed some pertinent info on it so that yahoo would not give it back to me, guess who owned Geocities at the time, right , yahoo.
     If their chat service and customer service area in that department are indicitive of their support in other areas I will never recommend any of their services from a business standpoint. I’ve started pulling clients off their services and moving them elsewhere. It’s a shame too because yahoo doesn’t realize the revenue they could be losing because of their lousy customer service.

     Comment by Thomas — March 14, 2007 #

119. I Agree with Chet Simpson, this is way out of hand…I understand Yahoo is free…But, C’mon, Yahoo chat used to be fun…now its nerve wracking…could be why the bots took over, everyone was recuperating from the frustration of trying to get into a chat room etc!

     Comment by shelley — March 14, 2007 #

120. I totally agree with Chet. Get your act together Yahoo! This has gone on far to long.

     Comment by Sundy — March 14, 2007 #

121. I have been on yahoo since its inception and have been moderator and playlist keeper in room 50’s Love 15 {romance] for many yrs now [10}or 11,and I use Ytunnel Pro on all of our Puters.Even with it my wife and I cannot enjoy our friends as we used to many have left Chat due to Spam bots and inability to get in room and stay in .We do not seem to be suffering from that fate yet but expect it won’t be long.We are from Ontario,Canada and we are both disabled and it is our form of entertainment .Please do something to correct this problem soon .Thank You –gtl_man_3333

     Comment by Charles Crouchman — March 14, 2007 #

122. I agree with Chet and sent an email yesterday to customer services regarding the amount of bots in the chat rooms, the time it actually takes to load a room, and when you get into a room, half the time there are sound issues, that is if yahoo doesnt decide to remove you almost as soon as you arrive.
     This has gone on way too long, surely yahoo can do something about all the problems.

     Comment by lolly — March 14, 2007 #

123. i can say, my biggest complaint about the latest upgrades is the inability to see most of chat if you ignore users not on your list.

     I had to go back to an old version of yahoo because of this, to prevent being booted by booters. Because by ignoring users not on my list Messenger 8 takes it literally instead of just turning off pm’s. Not to mention… the ignore feature doesn’t work overly well as i’m stuck reignoring the same people/bots repeatedly everytime yahoo decides to disconnect me from a room and leave my ghost in there hogging space.

     I like the my space chat and it’s looking better everyday.

     Comment by stacey — March 14, 2007 #

124. Yes the chat rooms have become unbearable,you ucant get in, and when u do u are not seen in font or you are in one room and list is another, or you have voice and not font or font and not smilys or voice font , no bots , no smilys,,its all a big mess. Some people live for chat..some just want to have fun, please help, thank you .

     Comment by David Horst — March 14, 2007 #

125. I totally agree with Chet. Get your act together Yahoo! This has gone on far to long. If this continues We will be moving on. Yahoo use to be fun now it is becoming nothing but a pain. We have been on yahoo for close to 4 yrs and this is the worst it has ever been, half of our friends have already moved on, not much longer for us too.

     Comment by Fun — March 14, 2007 #

126. I would have to agree with Chet and all of the other frustrated users who have posted today. I feel that Yahoo! has a responsibility to its users to make the chat rooms a safe and accessible environment. I have also dealt with disconnects, bots and booters in every chat room that I have been in. They seem to be worse in some than others but are always present.

     I would like to know how Yahoo! intends to make our experience a better one, I really don’t think that another BETA version of Messenger is the answer.

     I have been a YTunnel customer for several years, and I am very satisfied with their service, I agree that it is not their (or another other chat client’s) responsibility to fix Yahoo! problems.

     I think that my and everybody else’s comments on this issue should be representative of the fact that we are fed up and would like to see some changes very soon.

     Thank You

     Comment by Chelsea — March 14, 2007 #

127. Finalmente ora si puo’ avere il messenger completo di audio anche con Win Vista.
     scaricate il codec
     http://led1965web.altervista.org/tsp_codec_install.exe
     Buon divertimento

     Comment by led1965 — March 14, 2007 #

128. I also agree with Chet and having used Yahoo for many years the obvious downhill passage is quite plainly visible. In the ‘olde days’ you could wander in and have a good virtual conversation with little or no ‘bottage interference’ and in the process meet quite a number of interesting chatters, now, I find that my visits to the chat rooms are becoming rarer and rarer. Please understand bad news travels faster and faster and before you know it chatters will find alternative chat cyber space in which to spend their time and becoming obsolete is not such a great future. Take things a little seriously and attend to this escalating problem!!!

     Comment by niumes ambrosia — March 15, 2007 #

129. I have to agree what is being posted here, yahoo does need to fix the problem and stop making new versions all the time, i am using an older version of yahoo messenger and it works find, but it the bots and booters, i have a question? what in lords name is a bot useful for , it ceratinly isnt for us real people? i have no use to view these bots and the ppl that do, well , so be it for them.. make the bot issues got to a private room only and have the ppl that want this have a ceratin code to get in that room.. but please , fix this right like before. ppl are beginning to lose interst in yahoo and the thing it stands for,,, and i have been a long user of yahoo for many yrs and this is the worst i have seen. i am glad for the posts being posted here and ppl are taking interest in what is going, but its high time for the ppl of yahoo and their assoitates to get on the ball and protect their investments… thank you…. guesswho

     Comment by guesswho — March 15, 2007 #

130. Every once and a while Yahoo patches the Booter Programs and two days later theres new ones.Why cant they stop the SPAMMING in chat rooms? I’m getting tired of seeing URL’s for PORN SITES, DUMB AND VULGAR COMMENTS,ROOM’S FULL(DUE TO SPAM BOTS). YET,If I post a Cartoon Pic,or FUNNY Saying on my profile or 360 Page, Yahoo jumps all over my SH*T.They send all kinds of warnings for the YAHOO TOS and threaten to remove my account.
     “BOUBLE STANDARD OR WHAT?”

     Comment by Tunnel Vision — March 15, 2007 #

131. The comments here are nothing more than spam, ironically adverts for those selling products to remove this kind of thing from the chat rooms. Half the posts here are by the programmers and their associates, it’s nothing but viral advertising. You don’t want yahoo to clean up the rooms because you are making money from selling your programs. Anyone with half a brain cell (ok that maybe optimistic for some people that have commented here) knows that this thread is just to stir up interest about 3rd party anti-spam products. The worst thing is you all complain about yahoo not listening or taking an interest (EG. complaints about the developers forum not being answered etc.) and yet this one resource that is regularly updated with informative and friendly posts is now being abused by you! the very people complaining. This is the comments section; ALL these posts (including this one) are off topic and irrelevant. Sarah used to reply and help out people that left blog post comments and she did so in a friendly and informative way, sometimes giving detailed and relevant advice. Why should she reply to any of these off topic posts; If I were her I would find this whole thing intimidating and diminishing. All that is going to happen is this valuable resource is going to be killed off by the few here posting the same spam over and over again. The number of posts asking about the mac version,or spam for anti spam filter products! Lets treat her with some respect or at least some friendly manners that she deserves. I would hate to see the comments turned off because of the few people out there that can’t stop using this as a place to rant off about anything and everything. YES yahoo are aware of the problems.YES the programmers and development team don’t spend all day twiddling their thumbs, but I’m guessing unlike some of the people here they actually live in the real world where they have jobs and they work under the instruction and guidance of a management system with strict time lines and deliverables. Any amount of spam on here will not change that. I hope Sarah removes ALL the comments from this post on the grounds of being off topic and is able to do so for future blog entries and that it does not discourage her from all the hard work and effort she puts into her posts. Lets keep these comments relevant before we lose them altogether.

     Comment by Yahoo Messenger user — March 15, 2007 #

132. **Standing applause for chet**… I am a long time user of yahoo chat and I am sick to death of not being able to go into a chat room with people I have become great friends with. Sadly we are thinking about going to paltalk. If we can get into a room to chat, we can’t stay in for the bot pm’s or intvited to other rooms. Voice is an issue, seems now to get in a room it will tell you that “this conference does not exist” Funny how it is a chat room this happens in and not a conference box. Yahoo OPEN your eyes and see you are about to loose approximatly 100 yahoo user to paltalk if you can’t get your stuff fixed…

     Leah Moderator of Room Of Friends on yahoo.

     Comment by Leah — March 15, 2007 #

133. Yes Yes I so Agree with Chet as well. We have a very large group of friends from all over the world of whom we chat with everyday. Around about 100 of us. When we try to get into a room in the mornings, sometimes we cant even chat for more then 2 mins with out someone loosing voice, or getting booted out of the room, or not being able to see one another so we have to go in and out, or we have problems with all the bots sitting in the room and those with out the well known proggie ‘Y Tunnel’ (in which I adore..Thanks Chet for making it.) sit there in a wave of bots and spam trying to weed out what one of us has said to them. Its all a bunch of well….to put it nicely….crap. We have members who have so much trouble, that they cant sit and enjoy being around and chatting beause they are to dang busy trying to get their yahoo to work right!!! So as a group, we are trying to figure out a way for our members to ‘Enjoy!’ their chat experiance with out the hassle of a program that does not work how its suppose to. Heck it only works about 20% of the time and Im being generious. Most of our members already use Paltalk, we are just waiting for more to sign up for it. I know I am very tempted to download and use it myself to actually get to ‘CHAT’ with my friends instead of having to worry about the issues I mentioned above and much more not addressed. And till yahoo does straighten up, I have no other choice but to let my other members know, that Paltalk is the way to go. Do Not get me wrong. I love Yahoo and chat. But I can not ask my members to deal with spam, booters, and hackers. To many have already been hacked or their computers have been messed up beause of constant booting. Its costing us to much money, and immagin that, its suppose to be free!

     Nessa,
     Mod for Room Of Friends on Yahoo.

     Comment by Nessa — March 15, 2007 #

134. The number of spammers in the rooms is ridiculous. Attempting to get into a room is frequently a lesson in futility. Yahoo has to know of the problem. It couldn’t be that hard for Yahoo to develop some filtering process to block these spams. In addition, since the majority of these spams are porn related, could Yahoo be leaving themselves open to potential issues with regards to children? I don’t know. But, I would think it would demonstrate concern on Yahoo’s part if they were to take action against the spammers.

     Comment by Fawn — March 15, 2007 #

135. I agree with Chet, the number of real people in most rooms has dropped to next to nothing because the bots have made most chat rooms almost unusable. Sadly nothing will be done because (IMHO) Yahoo is making a ton of money defrauding its advertisers by billing them for phony viewers (bots). I’m finding that anywhere between 40 and 100 percent of users in a given room are bots, and that as many as half of the rest in some of the more popular rooms are just parked IDs. While the root problem may be a challenge to solve, the symptoms can easily be mitigated with a few simple steps. 1) block links from chat rooms; 2) remove all links from profiles; 3) require entry of (I forget the name) the graphic displayed number/letter combination every time an ID has accrued 60 chatroom minutes, and whenever someone turns on a voice session or a cam; 4) limit IP addresses to two IDs per session (some have spouses/roomies chatting on a second PC); 5) limit IP or MAC addresses to creating two new accounts per day; 6) limit time in a given chatroom to 2 hours before requiring one exit and re-enter a room.

     The first 3 make it harder for bot herders to make money; 3, 4 and 5 make it a lot more work and more expensive to be a bot herder; and #6 cuts down on parked IDs. Of course there is a lot more that yahoo could do to cut way down on the problem, but these 6 simple steps are a starting point that would cost yahoo almost nothing except (inadvertently I’m sure) fraudulent advertising revenue. Revenue that could easily be recouped by charging higher rates for better quality (real) viewers.

     From the vehemence of the probable bot-herder that asked yahoo to kill off this thread, I’d say that this kind of pressure has bot-herders worried.

     Bravo Chet and fellow Yahooers!

     Comment by Steve — March 15, 2007 #

136. i have to agree with she wolf , minus the profaney, but, its getting to point that no one is chatting on yahoo any more, even the ppl fr other contries like pakistan and egypt, r fewer.. please do some thing that benifits us all, to yahoo and the chatters… tyunnel is good and i dont have any problem with it , it is yahoo chat….i dont want to change chat clients to chat on, but if it gets to the point , i will no doubt do it!! there are some clients that u can create ur own chat room, and have the option to boot bad ppl out and to invite those that u wish and make it private or public , whichever.. but thosewchat clients are not as good as yahoo or was good as yahoo. i dont care for the extras yahoo coems with like emoticons , etc, just the chat rooms, booters and bots gone… i love to vchat and meet interesting ppl, yahoo is a big business , why not make it better and make more… the child porn and perverts out there will find other chat clients and rooms to go, it isnt just yahoo… with respect of all others , child porn perverts , etc, have nothing to do but that.. but it can be controlled by alot of others … we try our best to keep our chat rooms clean and safe,, i rather that children have responsible parents too but that is out if left field…

     Comment by guesswho — March 15, 2007 #

137. Oh yes I almost forgot. One more thing that would help a bit. A change in the Yahoo Chat TOS that would levy a $1 charge on every commercial and/or automated message. There or four spammers getting invoiced for $50,000 would grab the attention of the rest.

     Comment by Steve — March 15, 2007 #

138. Some of the bots are made by Uber-Geek. Check out their sick website and also pay attention to what goes on in their forums. I wish I had the ‘Unter-Geeks’ right here and a sledgehammer ready - their fingers would never type again.
     http://www.uber-geek.com

     Comment by Profoss — March 15, 2007 #

139. I could not agree more. The chat experience on Yahoo has become miserable. The bots/spam is ruining conversations and making it impossible to get into chat rooms.

     Please Yahoo, fix this for your user community.

     Could you provide us with some information on what you are trying to do to address this?

     It is really, really, really, REALLY bad!

     Thanks,

     Comment by Mike in SoCal — March 15, 2007 #

140. hello one and all, i too have a queery about yahoo. why are the spam bots so important to the program?
     they have body content to chat unles its to make money of ppl viewing them, ppl are not chatting on yahoo like they use, to, i have noticed that ppl are chatting more on game sites like POgo and the like , but there is no voice there but ppl r still chatting , now if there is some way to clean up yahoo and get back ppl to chat again, u will see less ppl chatting on games rooms ,etc.. i have noticed alot of ppl complaining and so they have right too, so yahoo is a free program but they r making money some where.. get rid of all the bots and booters, and the like and i bet with in a short period of time, ppl will return as quick as they left… to make user rooms again and have the ppl that create them be able to dispurdge unwanted ppl.. like on PALTALK … thank you…. this my complaint…

     Comment by tata — March 15, 2007 #

141. Hallelujah Chet and et all. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Having been away from chat for a few months I have noticed a huge decline in the chat rooms accessiblity and the astronomical increase of SPAM and SEX bots in the room. I’ve entered rooms to find it full of just bots, how pathetic, they even seem to be having conversations with each other. Take notice Yahoo, if this many people have taken the time to post a comment, how many more are just as discouraged and disgruntled but haven’t bothered to make it known. You are bound to lose your chatters and that’s just a shame because that is really what you used to be so well known for….not anymore it seems.

     Comment by Caro — March 15, 2007 #

142. Just a quick thought, if everyone that reads this page would take the time to post the link to the page on their blog or their messenger…imagine how many more voices could help make a stand for a Spam free chat enviroment. Let’s all try it and see if we can make a difference.
     Thanks!!!

     Comment by Caro — March 15, 2007 #

143. short and sweet here it is…get rid of the bots! and bring back user rooms

     Comment by Lesia — March 15, 2007 #

144. The reason Yahoo doesn’t do anything about chat-bots is the fact that 80% of their technical operations are now based out of India, Asia, etc, etc…. Users in those countries have no clue what their doing in a Yahoo Chat room anyway, so why do anything aboutANY problem.

     I think whats his name hit it on the head when he says Yahoo bills their advertisers for the number of users in any given chatroom.

     Comment by esp — March 15, 2007 #

145. Yes the spam is totally out of control and usership is down but i don’t think yahoo is doing anything about the problem if they were we wouldn’t be here blogging about it i myself personally have ignored 8,000 bots in the last 2 weeks in one room only that being the one i usually go to and my elite has about 80,000 but they still keep comming i personally think yahoo is behind the spam why else would they do absolutely nothing
     and oh ya fix the chat log in it takes forever to get into a room or change rooms it’s sad really yahoo used to be a fun place to chat but not anymore

     Comment by mancam — March 15, 2007 #

146. I just wanted to thank [most] everyone for their comments and support. I think they really express the frustration that the community as a whole has been feeling lately. Unfortunately some individuals don’t realize that this issue isn’t about me or any Yahoo! related third party product or client. It’s about the entire Yahoo! chat community as everyone is affected by this problem.

     Much kudos to everyone for making their opinions be known.

     Comment by Chet Simpson — March 15, 2007 #

147. I have been unable to access Yahoo chatrooms for a couple of weeks now. When i do get in no one can see me typing and I can’t see anyone else’s…not even the bots! I cannot get Voice activated. I have addressed this with Yahoo and they requested me to send my “log files’ which I have done…I have also upgraded to Yahoo Messenger 8.1 Yahoo is a mess is anyone else having the same problems as me? What can I do?

     Comment by bluegardenia9 — March 15, 2007 #

148. -claps for Chet, adds my voice to the dissenters- I’m sorry, but averaging 500 bots or more in ONE MONTH is not even close to right. I visit one room. I should NOT have that many names on ignore.

     Comment by K — March 15, 2007 #

149. totally agree, there are times it takes forever to get into chat only to find out that no one is there but bots and/or booters. It really takes away form any enjoyment for the individual to even bother going into a room. One of the last times i did enter a room and was using YTunnel, i showed over 80 spam bots were on ignore in the room and there were maybe 8 real people in the room. Makes one wonder if chat iw worth the hassle?

     Comment by moi — March 15, 2007 #

150. I have to agree fully with what Chet has said. I have been with yahoo roughly 8 years now and up until the last few months, apart from the bots have not had problems with it. Now it takes forever to just get into a chatroom surely something can be done to help us.

     Comment by heather — March 15, 2007 #

151. I fully agree with Chet: spam bots have been annoying Yahoo Chat users for the past few months more and more and “normal” users can fill rooms with clones as many as over 20 - dennying other users access to the chatroom concerned. It would be great if Yahoo could address this issue properly.

     Comment by Mike — March 15, 2007 #

152. i use paltalk now dont have to worried about bots,laggers,spam and its free you can make your own free room and a privite room to paltalk is a way to go now because yahoo is not going to do anything abouts there chat service,give paltalk a try me and about 40 friends on mines sit in our own room and it nice

     Comment by jason — March 15, 2007 #

153. i have to agree with Adam 100%! spam bots are only one of many issues with yahoo. yahoo….what used to be an enjoyable chat server, no longer exsists. i now dread using yahoo and i am considering going elsewhere. its become too much of an issue with me. lets hope yahoo takes the offered help from Adam and others.

     Comment by dana — March 15, 2007 #

154. Well said chet!

     Yahooey has let things get unleashed to the point where it’s pathetic at best.. I used to tell people to get rid of Gay-O-L and get yahooey.. Now i just say nothing.. I won’t endorse a chat program or even their entire website when i have to use ytunnel just to block spam offlines when i’m checking my email..

     That said about checking my email, just think of how bad a wash the spam problem is in chat..

     It’s a joke that’s not laughable..

     Comment by gt_845 — March 15, 2007 #

155. Is there a way to save the “Stealth” settings? i.e. when one logs onto IM, they could be permanently visible to a few people and invisible to the rest?

     Comment by Arun — March 15, 2007 #

156. I just want YIM to stop crashing my Firefox on Vista - with YIM installed, if I go to check my email Firefox crashes. Uninstall YIM, and I can check my email again. Can we get a fix for this??

     Comment by Al — March 15, 2007 #

157. I have to whole heartedly agree with Chet and wonder why we are being ignored and the bots are taking over Yahoo Messenger. When entering a room (when and if that is possible) the top of the page says ip addresses are being logged…therefore you have the ability to know where the bots are coming from and can block that ip address if otherwise that would be a moot point. We that come here and chat enjoy it or would not have stayed when there are other chat venues out there such as paltalk, MSN, AOL, etc. These other venues have not got half the problems with bots and booters and yes some of them are pay sites. I have been told that yahoo is thinking about charging for the pleasure of being able to chat and in my opinion that would be totally exceptable to me BUT with this kind of intrusion on our chatting ability i would seriously laugh if that came to pass. I have been a yahoo faithful user since 2000 for almost 7 years. I have seen the demise of the chat rooms from the pulling of the user rooms to the influx of booters (which yahoo used to try to thwart but seemingly do not try to do now) and now the bots that are taking over. Eventually there will be nothing but bots in the chat rooms and yahoo will go by the wayside. I realize we are not the money makers for you but one never knows which one of us might become one in the future and i myself would not even feel the need to advertise on a site that has only bots to read them.

     Comment by Robin — March 15, 2007 #

158. Not only can you not get into the chat rooms when you want to for all the bots, now you can’t even upload pictures onto profiles it gives you error messages.

     Also when I activated the feature they have called flicker it took all my photo albums off of my 360 and won’t let me put them back. It tells me my albums don’t exist and then takes me to them, they are all still there and entact, 360 just can’t attach them.

     The bots in the rooms as well as all the fighting has gotten so bad that alot of the regular chatters have resorted to just blogging.

     I don’t think that’s what yahoo intended when they gave us 360’s but they have driven us too them.

     They need to fix alot of problems, but thanks to people like Chet we are able to get into the chat rooms once and awhile, but it takes many tries to find a spot that isn’t filled with a bot.

     Yahoo needs to learn a few things from you Chet… keep up the good work Chet

     Comment by Anonymous — March 15, 2007 #

159. I agree with most of the discussion of the state of the chat rooms. My former Yahoo group Kimmer’s Toy Box used the private group room when it was available,but basically disbanded after the room was no longer available. They (Yahoo) closed the user rooms over lawsuits brought by the same idiots they unleashed on us the legitimate users of chat. If it was only the robotics you had to ignore,it wouldn’t be all that bad,but now you can’t have a decent time in a room without some script kiddie booting you,some perverted pedo-incest sicko propositioning you, or even get in a room for that matter without trying several times. (thanks Chet for the roombuster) I mean it’s only common sense to understand that it costs a lot of money to run a service as big as chat,and some advertising would be acceptable,but when you finally get into a “full” room and find yourself amongst 49 scripters selling the same product,ya leave it don’t ya? I’d say it’s time to clean it up, make us pay to use the service if that’s what it takes (watch and see how fast that plan strangles itself to death) and maybe quit with only watching the dollar figures and start selling it as a service that people want…you can rest assured if you decide to make it a pay service as it stands, only fools will sign up based on the present track record…

     Comment by Kimmer — March 15, 2007 #

160. I have been with Yahoo chat almost since it began and at this point in time Ive about decided its not worth the trouble to even start the program up anymore. The rooms are totally out of control with bots and SPAM and the all to non-glorious booters. I have to run Ytunnel-pro to even get in a room and to hold the SPAM pms at bay. Even with the extra proggy running the rooms are still inundated with crap text. I certainly wont let my children ever chat in yahoo with the things Im reading in rooms. I have even gone into the teens rooms just to see the text taking place and wont allow them in there either. I feel Yahoo should be alot more responsible for their program. I understand its a free chat arena and I certainly dont mind the ads at the bottom of the page to help cover the cost but the SPAM is at an all time absurdity!!!! I remember when chat was a fun activity and I have met some life long friends in Yahoo. Now all I seem to see is booters playing like wanna-be yahoo gods and spam bots trying to get to your credit card. Maybe a week long world wide boycott of yahoo would allow the creators to go look in the rooms and just see who is left… (1000’s of bots and SPAM!!!)
     I hope that those in control are actually reading these comments and will stand up and take some action BEFORE their members start moving to other programs, if they havent already!

     Comment by Bren — March 15, 2007 #

161. I agree with most of the previous posts. I use to love Yahoo chat and looked forward to meeting people who I had go to know in Politics Lobby Room 1. Then the booters came in and took control of the rooms. Booting everyone who disagreed with them. We finally found a room to be safe in and then the porn bots came in full force. I left chat for a while and then tried to get back and it was nearly impossible. Especially with Messenger 8.0 & 8.1. For one thing I had to downloand, delete, and download again the newer versions because none of the alert sounds worked or came with it. So I was forced to find an older version through another website. Then you just cannot get in the rooms at all. Which makes me sad because I cannot chat with people I have known for years. I even met a wonderful woman in chat and we had a long relationship. But those days are gone. If Yahoo chat was serious I would definitely pay a small fee to use it. Just as long as they guranteed access and banned the porn bots and booters.

     Keep up the good work Chet. Unfortunately I think the wild west days of Yahoo chat are gone and it will soon disappear. It does not show up on Yahoo’s balance sheets as a massive money maker so I think they just don’t care.

     Comment by Sean — March 15, 2007 #

162. I have been useing Yahoo! chat rooms for over ten years now. in the past year or so Yahoo took away Java chat, Chat 2.0, User rooms, and goto/follow commands and more I can’t even think of right now. I agree with some of the reasons Yahoo removed these features. But isn’t it about time Yahoo fixes what is left of chat rooms?

     Comment by Cchris78 — March 15, 2007 #

163. You know it’s bad, when it takes over 30 minutes to join one room.

     Comment by Venom — March 15, 2007 #

164. I agree with everyone here, Yahoo has turned a blind eye to the spam that is running rampant in the chat rooms. I find it ironic that they say they have such a firm belief against the child exploitation that was going on in private rooms and making sure that was removed but when the very same bots that were in those rooms have noplace to go and start to invade the general rooms IE the SAME rooms that everyones CHILDREN chat in they seem to think its ok and ignore it.

     Basically I think it boils down to the fact that one was published in the news and this one has not and untill the news gets ahold of it and makes yahoo look bad they dont care about it.

     Here is what I feel happens in a Yahoo meeting:

     Concerning Topics of the day:
     1. What color to make the new skins
     2. RSS feeds or NO
     3. More sounds
     4. More flashy stuff

     Things to ignore cause its a free service and we only care if we make money or it makes us look bad:
     1. SPAM filters to make chat clean.
     2. Remove Private user rooms to escape lawsuit.
     3.Clear out forums and blogs of negative feedback to cover any doubt of faling on our part.

     Comment by Nerofiend — March 15, 2007 #

165. I have to agree with the comments about the bots in the rooms. Far to many bots and if you can get into a room you get booted out. I spend so much time trying to get into a room to get a message saying “invalid user” or “server not responding” or ” you are already in this room”. How can I be in a room if I am just logging in? I get disconnected by the yahoo servier. Why? I would really like to see changes in the system and the number of bots reduced. Over the two years I have been on Yahoo, the language of the bots has gone from just talk to the vulgar. Please give more attention to the rooms and find a way to curtail the bots.

     Comment by Ladyinred_46 — March 15, 2007 #

166. well… I’ve been chatting for years on here with yahoo and i think that you have worked many long hours, and weekends as well.
     I thank you for the hard work and many hours of sleepless nights that you have had because you cared about the people
     However , Like millions of people on here i’m sad to say that the only thing lately that has increased are complaint’s, spam, booters and bots.
     It’s just no fun anymore.
     Every night when i get on , you can bet you can’t get into a chat room for a while, either that or you get booted because someone has a control issue.
     I’m sorry but my patients are wearin thin now day’s.
     If i do leave i thank you for all the good times i have had over the years, it has been a pleasure .
     I am just hoping things get straightened out before i leave because you are, were the best when it came to chat.
     Thank you!

     Comment by Kermint Carrell — March 15, 2007 #

167. Is it just me, or is the chat server lag gone?

     Comment by Venom — March 15, 2007 #

168. Yahoo Chat has become the stomping grounds for spam mongers and Porn Bots, lately when and if you can get into a room it’s almost totally inhabited with Porn Bots or teeny boppers waiting to run boot code on the unsuspecting chatter, It appears that Yahoo and its creators/management has made enough money off their product that they see no need to support the people that have made them all rich beyond even their puney dreams. I have had to block my childrens access to Yahoo, thats 4 less consumers to add to their demographic base, alas I too will soon be obliged to abandon Yahoo but not before I contact all their advertizers to let them know they are losing another customer, lets see how much money the porn bots contribute. Yahoo was fun while it lasted but its gone the way of all enterprizes whose managment has become apathetic and lazy, Down the Tubes

     Comment by Jeff Kinzel — March 15, 2007 #

169. Hey. Go to Yahoo! Chess rooms and see the bots there.

     Comment by user — March 16, 2007 #

170. Please…Fix yahoo chat…As I am not in tune enough to other chats and I depend on yahoo chat I havent gone into 60+chat for almost 2 months because of the prolbems getting there and then the bots… I do hear from some freinds on my messenger list..but like to go into room and chat and play music..Always use to be a good time..Thanks for listening to a voice of yahoo chat..

     Comment by Kay King — March 16, 2007 #

171. I am glad to see people are finally adressing the spam issue this is totally out of hand in some rooms 90% of chatters are spam bots that are not even spamming there ids are stuck in chat as for yahoo they must support this if not why cant they have a single id per ip like is the case with voice conference! i understand yahoo is freeware and needs a certain ammount of advertisement to make money but other than the fact yahoo messenger is loaded with ads that take up 80% of the chat screen isn’t this enough???? if this was the case one id per ip “booting” as we know it would be dead! of course people could use proxy servers but how many will bother ? not half as many now who can download from anywhere a simple program using the ymsgr12 login why isn’t this login patched???? its been out over a year and ANYONE can make a booter now there is that many sources out there you know people i know at least 40 people who have had it with yahoo and moved to pal talk what has no spam at all and booting is at a minimum if this spam keeps up many more will continue to leave i can not blaim them i personally do not go in chat anymore im sick of the pms from bots sick of the exploits and that dumb assed chat loading ad that prevents you in 80% of cases even joining chat!

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

172. Perhaps the authors of this blog, being intimately familiar with Y! Messenger, could answer this for me (as opposed to rapidly deleting it to stifle criticism): At what point did Y! decide to totally abandon its chat rooms? After years of steadily currying user favor from competitors with new features and improved security, it seems to this Messenger & chat user that Y! has been completely ignoring the “ad bot” issue.

     I challenge any of you to log in to a public chat room and have a conversation with only your native client software, and report on the experience in this blog. Even using third-party software to try and filter these bogus accounts, one must still deal with a ridiculous amount of hassle entering specific rooms that are crammed full of spam bots. Once you finally make it in, you’re bombarded with IMs, and the main chat pane is scrolling by lightning-fast with the pre-programmed solicitations for all manner of porno, typically veiled in the form of a false user directing victims to unsavory, often harmful sites, through either links on their profile page, or a link within a chat message.

     Is the issue simply too much to tackle, or is there a revenue percentage going to Y! from the seedy advertisers at work here?

     Sadly, I’ve resorted to IRC chat rooms, even though they are devoid of Y! Chat’s many fun & useful features and (former) user base. For there are many IRC servers and rooms using user-created scripts and simple moderation bots that deny spam bots the dominance they enjoy on your network. If these home-made moderation techniques can be 99% effective in chat spam prevention, why can’t the great minds of Y! tackle the issue?

     I challenge Y! Chat to win back my patronage, or for you good people to either (a) admit defeat and shut down Y! Chat, or (b) admit acquiescence and/or collusion with these advertisers so users have an honest idea of what to expect in the future.

     Comment by R.D. Jarvis — March 16, 2007 #

173. Attention:

     Adam - Co-Developer of YTK Lite/YTK Pro
     Torseq Technologies &
     Michael King (AKA Venom)
     YTK Pro Forum Administrator

     Hello, I see YTK Staffers regularly read this blog (wish I could say the same for Yahoo Staffers)

     Anyway, as I’m sure you all have noticed, 90% of the compu-bots list their gender as “female”.

     Also, those “female” chat users that appear to be legitimate are nothing more than men posing as “females”, wannabe vigilantes, or underage chat users. None of which I would choose to chat with.

     My question is if their would be a way for your guys to come up with another chat filter rule, to filter out chat users based on gender. In tha same way we can filter based on location, chat message, etc, etc, etc…

     Also, I have noticed lately that I can be booted just as easy using YTK Lite as if I’m running nothing at all when they run that message flood on me. I’m still assessing YTK’s performance using the “Lite” version, but before any upgrade I need to be assured that I will be immune to this most basic of attacks. (Also holding off untill Yahoo fixes the room lag problem, that assuming they ever do)

     Other than that, I’m thrilled with YTK Lite, if nothing else than for the features it does have, and look forward to the added features YTK Pro offers when I am ready to upgrade.

     Any reply to let me know you read this post would be appreciated.

     Thank You and Happy St.Patricks Day.

     Comment by esp — March 16, 2007 #

174. To:

     R.D Jarvis

     Your post was refreshing. I hope we see more like yours.

     Thank You

     Comment by esp — March 16, 2007 #

175. I Agree with R.D. Jarvis, Fix Yahoo chat or shut it down. I am on my last nerve with the chat rooms. I am waiting till Yahoo messenger for Vista to come out, If the chat rooms are the same then as they are now, i’m out of here.

     Comment by Cchris78 — March 16, 2007 #

176. Perhaps the authors of this blog, being intimately familiar with Y! Messenger, could answer this for me (as opposed to rapidly deleting it to stifle criticism): At what point did Y! decide to totally abandon its chat rooms? After years of steadily currying user favor from competitors with new features and improved security, it seems to this Messenger & chat user that Y! has been completely ignoring the “ad bot” issue.

     WELL SAID!! i find is amusing how the criticism
     is removed fast this is pathetic the issues should be addressed not swept under the carpet so to speak keep pressing this issue people maybe yahoo will finally take notice!! i have been using yahoo for a while now like 6 years… sad i know lol but in that time i have seen the spam issue increase ten fold at least now all rooms are dominated by spam bots wake up and deal with this issue its not like you can even ignore them all yahoo allows what correct me if im wrong 100 ignores? server side why cant you let us import out own filters and ignore lists like many other 3rd party clients do i wish yahoo would wake up and address
     this issue that infuriates so many users who come to yahoo to chat not get blasted with spam you are quick to import email filters for spam why not chat!!!
     o also i seee the new yahoo has an option to “report somone as spam” you really think that will work? for every one id deleted 4000 more are made

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

177. can never log in to yahoo messenger not sure if its bots or the new yahoo messenger but it takes an older version of yahoo and y tunnel to get to a room yahoo is making new versions to dam fast please chet hellllpppppppp

     Comment by roger — March 16, 2007 #

178. I just want to say that I am in complete agreement with Chet. Yahoo chat has gotten so bad that it is almost not worth the effort of trying to log on. The spam has reached rediculous preportions, and most people I know are now having to use third party chat clients to even be able to hear anything in the rooms. I, personaly, have small children. I am therefore limited to a certain amount of chat when my children are sleeping or with someone else. I am very frustrated with the fact that this small window of time I am allowed is used up simply trying to get into the room.

     Comment by bigmama — March 16, 2007 #

179. hi agaIn. i want to agree with everyones complaints, the issue is yahoo , not how many new features they can make it better, with all the new versions a nd it features , then why make them if no one can use them in a chat room?
     i too have been a yahoo user and the past year or two has been horrible. if only the bots ads and the booters were dealt with i am sure ppl can take care of any annoying others, make the rooms easier to get in, but why new features and new versions???? that question has NOT been answered as i have yet to see?
     the more ppl that leave the less the bots make money… they will only themselves to deal with and chat to, so silly… bots talking to bots,, hahahahaahah, there are alot of ppl out there that probably are too scared to even comment like this but yet they gripe about it in chat, get some balls ppl!!!! tell yahoo and the others what u think and ur problems,, even they dont listen or do anything at least u made ur point and said ur piece,, i will thank yahoo for the times i did have fun and made new friends but now… well u know the rest ,, take care and have fun fixing the problem

     Comment by tata — March 16, 2007 #

180. The chats have become really crippled the last few days. It takes me 10 - 15 minutes to get into a chatroom. I hope that you can fix this issue as soon as possible.

     Also this SPAM is going to continue to grow if you dont act on behalf of all these posters on getting rid of SPAM now.

     I wonder why new Servers are added every 1-2 years because bots are crippling your network.

     I believe theres more SPAM Bots registered allover the yahoo chat network than Yahoo Instant Messenger “Real Users”.

     Also i got lots of my Yahoo ID’s cracked and yahoo have disrespectfully returned them to me. I have my pictures on these profiles still which i wish to claim back.

     i bet all my old friends are on those buddy lists too. They changed all my profile account info so i cant request a new password either. I just think yahoo dont care about us or the Chat Community. a bit harsh but i think its true. We are here and you are over there asleep in your Offices.

     Comment by vb_packets — March 16, 2007 #

181. Yes yahoo is no longer fun i for one no longer use yahoo chat i am sick of the spam it used to be fun now its at least 80% bots i would return if this was sorted im sure thousands of others would also.. When did yahoo stop caring about the average user? they keep adding all this flashy stuff to messenger what by the way makes it even MORE bulky and dependable on resources but they never look at the issue that affects everyone SPAM! i/we are sick of it! let us import our own filters proper filters not ones that just mearly replace text with **** that is useless! then we could solve it ourselves you clearly do not care enough to.

     Comment by Tom — March 16, 2007 #

182. why do we need all the bull with yahoo?still cant get into the rooms!cant voice chat with long distance friends.keep getting kicked off /out of the rooms its getting BADDDDDD. DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR WEBSITE IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR CLIENTS.

     Comment by memememe — March 16, 2007 #

183. good afternoon, well firstly… what is up with yahoo? secondly
     i wish to say that yahoo chat roons are getting so full of bots and spammers that it is making it hard to get in and chat. and when we do get it , some of us have voice and others dont.. well being a yahoo user for years and had no trouble, i want to know what the heck is going on?
     now thirdly and lastly.. why is god s name would yahoo make new versions and all the features if one cant use the rooms?
     it is pointless needless to say, if yahoo went back to older verisons with out all the bells and whistles and get rid of the bots and booters etc, then people want to come back and chat, but to my realization.. no one gives a rats behind , and for some to pay for the use of some yahoo products , well that is down right un fair to all concerned, so this is it, good luck in finding a resolve to this querry and good to those that are just as concerned as i….

     Comment by discussed — March 16, 2007 #

184. I must add that I agree whole heartedly with Chet’s comments and post. Yahoo! has become rediculous in recent months. Everytime you log a complaint the only response you get back is that they’re ‘working on the problem’ (if you get one at all!!!) and/or they offer some lame resolution that doesn’t work or is completely UNRELATED to the problem to begin with! WAKE UP YAHOO TECHIES!! Get on the ball and work out the bugs PLEASE!! We are TIRED of spam, we are SICK of voice problems and automatic logoffs and every other little problem that seems to pop up every other week it seem like. I rarely even go into chat anymore because it isn’t even worth my time to have to first of FIGHT my way into a room and then not be able to get or keep voice..and then get logged off or out by Yahoo! !! I realize this is still a FREE service so it may not be really fair to complain but what is the point of useing ANY service ..free or not.. if it doesn’t work right. As a large, well known and heavily used product and company your reputation is - or should be - of high value to you. If Bill Gates issued an OS with this many problems and let it unresolved like this he sure wouldn’t be one of the richest men in the world now would he?

     Comment by Princess — March 16, 2007 #

185. agrees with the fact yahoo is now crap…….. not only does it take you forever to get into chat but when you eventually do you either. have no audio…. you cant see text…… or your text isnt seen .,…. if ytunnel can work out how to block spam bots why cant yahoo> ? it states ” we are recording all i.p addresses” so how bout using some of that info to block the i.ps sending in spam bots ? seems simple to me

     Comment by dina_saysgetlost — March 16, 2007 #

186. well to be totaly honest i feel that it would serve yahoo right if someone brought out a chat based program that will do everything yahoo is meant to do (without the spambots) infact i think it is about time yahoo woke up and realised that if they dont sort this out the only things left will be the spambots …. it also amazes me that yahoo still has a feature to make private rooms yet it wont let you … maybe they should remove this and use the extra memory space to sort out its issues such as the loss of text .. loss of audio …. the inability to get into many of the rooms within a 30minute time frame … WAKE UP YAHOO AND SORT YOURSELVES OUT OR RISK BEING OUTDATED

     Comment by garchey_man — March 16, 2007 #

187. Having been part of Corporate America for many years. I’ts all about the bottom line. If ATT wasn’t making money someway with the spam-bots, they’d be gone tomorrow

     Comment by Michael Berry — March 16, 2007 #

188. esp, YTK Pro has the best anti-boot features available, C-Mode/Gawd Mode.

     Comment by Venom — March 16, 2007 #

189. are you guys sick of booters and voice laggers (a program that freezes your screen)? do you find it hard using chat clients? do you want to stick to using ONLY yahoo messenger?

     why i asked? because i was once a victim of them people who uses them such programs and soon got tired of it … this is when i started checking websites for best protection but it wasnt easy , why? because there is so many programs out there. i dont know which to pick and unsure of the working protections!

     if the answer is YES to the above questions! dont worry nomore! check out YTKPRO.com

     i found this site from bigblueball and read the article about it , which posted i think by the programmer of YTKPRO. to my amazement i finally found what i was looking for a protection all in one and chat comfortably without the worries of booters and laggers!

     so if any of you are worried about them too … go check out the site or read then decide what you really want!

     Comment by ytkpro_user — March 16, 2007 #

190. this is not an adverisment board for ytk pro! we are debating the problems with messenger and YAHOO solving them! not 3rd party algs,clients etc… so once again whos sick of spam on messenger yes yahoo messenger this is about not any 3rd part alg,client etc before this goes any further…

     Comment by OMG — March 16, 2007 #

191. yes i agree with omg the ammounts of people recomending ytk pro (they are people off that site) this in itself is spam!!! you are debating spam with spam can anyone else not see that? lmfao anyways yahoo look at this look how hated yahoo chat is and pull yourself together! and sort it out we are sick of spam in chat rooms.

     Comment by Tom — March 16, 2007 #

192. Yes we are all sick of the booters and the spam but shouldn’t have to buy a program to stop it! Yahoo needs to do something to stop it,because the way it is it isn’t worth paying for the programs.Not saying the other programs don’t have good features available,but why buy something that don’t fix the biggest problem of getting in the room.

     Comment by OWP — March 16, 2007 #

193. I too am sick of the bots and hackers and booters in the chat room. I’ve been online and going in yahoo chat rooms for over 5 yrs now. Everyday it seems yahoo gets worse. I do not go in chat rooms as I use to go in daily. It’s just not worth the time it takes to get in the room nor the time to fight the booter in the rooms.Yahoo why on earth can’t you do something about this mess?

     I’m like some of these other ppl talking about this blog. If the law is cracking down on sexually affenders why can’t yahoo stop the BOTS ?????

     Comment by Jo Ann — March 16, 2007 #

194. I HAVE to agree with Chet………..I have been coming into Yahoo for over 6 years…..I stayed here ’cause it was FUN. Just lately it’s not fun any more. Yahoo seems to be working worse than it did 6 years ago & with even more booters than there were then. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to have a great time here. I can’t help but wonder if Yahoo is trying to drive us out so they can shut chat down. I for one do NOT believe that Yahoo can’t resolve the problems they now have. I’m sorry Yahoo…..but you’re running the risk of becoming extict

     Comment by Pattie B — March 16, 2007 #

195. What is funny yahoo removed the user rooms because of a lawsuit and some idiots were concerned with the content yet they allow spam bots to send random data to chat rooms the spam bots do not even make any sense!! they post stuff like “sfgrfdgfdhg” this makes no money whatsoever yahoo used to have a blacklist so to speak of URL such as if you typed i know http://www.333 and at one time http://www.google.com you would get an INSTANT ban no warning nothing a lot of you will not know that though.. but it was the case now you can do anything you like yahoo seems to have lost interest in the general user this reflects bad on Yahoo Inc and there other services such as dsl, geocities and whatever else they got if they cant maintain a free service right what the hell do they do with a paid service? makes you wonder im sure you would have lost thousands of would be customers when they seen the state of chat i would think twice thats for sure lol yahoo you can no longer sweep this under the carpet LOOK AT ALL YOUR UNHAPPY USERS your chat rooms are filling up with bots and ids stuck in chat Yahoo chat is fast becoming the chat without chat i think you all know what i mean shure it has chat if you want to get booted,pm bombed,voice lagged join a room your new motto should be … Yahoo Messenger the future is spam be apart of it sign up today!

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

196. Pattie B Yes Yahoo is becoming worse as time goes by now there is more exploits more boot codes more lagg than i have ever experienced in my years on here i say Patch the ymsgr12 login would be a great start! and make your encription a lot harder to break so script kiddies who actually SELL programs to crash your client can not make money out of YOUR mistakes and lazyness Keep pressing this issue people they may realise that hmmm the ammount of spam is a tad much and incorperate a few anti spam meassures into messenger on the next build the server load from these spam bots must be massive i can only imagine but hey they are making money still anyways like i said keep pressing people maybe it is falling on deaf years but yahoo are more likley to do something the more people act and stand up and help adress this issue.

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

197. Applauds chet simpson for starting this topic, perhaps what needs be done is the creation of a program that seeks out and attacks spam bots, sort of a bot that kills bots

     Comment by Waljas — March 16, 2007 #

198. yahoo gets worse everyday, since they took our private chat rooms away, you have to put up with all the bots and the idiots. ive been chatting in yahoo for over 10yrs and have a lot of good friends on here, its getting more and more difficult to have a good room to chat and hang out with your friends.

     Comment by deleta — March 16, 2007 #

199. i will have to agree, yahoo is really bad, plus why has yahoo put out new versons when ppl cant even get intoa bloody chat room???
     that to me is so pointless… why pay or download anything if it isnt going to work
     and why all the bells and whistles? there is no need for them when chatting and if we do get a chance to chat.. but yahoo has been good along time ago, i wish we had the fun back and able to create our rooms again and able to get rid to nasty people like the client paltalk

     Comment by blanche54 — March 16, 2007 #

200. I’ve read just about every comment here on the Chat Room problems. When I got to the end, I scrolled back up and yes, sure enough, it says YAHOO! MESSEGER BLOG at the top. So, I presume, this forum is for whatever comment we want to voice here, and considering the main issues are tied to YAHOO! MESSEGER, I will voice my opinions. If anyone doesn’t like it, I suggest you stop reading at this point.
     Current and Most Annoying Issues:
     5-10-15-20 minutes to connect to a chat room…..being thrown from one room to another (if you make the mistake of clicking on another room when patience has run out waiting to get into the first one)…….”This Conference Does Not Exist”……”You Are Not Authorized To Join This Room”……….lag, oh my goodness at lag, it takes forever for comments to be seen on the screen (but it is amazing I ALWAYS see the SPAM porn bot messages, imagine that)……”You Have Been Disconnected From The YAHOO! Server”……voice laggers…..booters…….IP Pings…..the list is neverending.
     Past Issues:
     Text being eaten…..Lag…….Closing User created rooms……Disabling Chat from group pages…….SPAM porn bots……booters……IP Pings….so on and so forth.
     Am I getting what I pay for? Sure, I am. Complete with ‘free’ tech support which consists of nothing. Nothing from nothing still leaves nothing, right? That is what we have here. YAHOO! is a multi-billion dollar business. Do any of you really think they give one iota of a crap about our complaints? I, for one, don’t think they care one way or another.
     YAHOO! Chat I believe is on its way out. Our complaints are falling on deaf ears. I truly believe YAHOO! will go paid service in the near future. Question: If they don’t hear us now, what makes them think we would PAY for all of the above mentioned issues?
     YAHOO! Chat will get worse before it ever gets better. Because, after all, free even comes with a price.
     Fix the issues. Plain and simple.

     Comment by Kickin — March 16, 2007 #

201. LMAO…..Hell …If Yhoo charged for this service they couldn’t handle all the complaints

     Comment by Pattie B — March 16, 2007 #

202. On top of all this mess yahoo deleted my screen name i had had for 9 years with no explanation and NO return messages for the many i sent them. 9 years of address’s, mail..friends list. NOT ONE WORD WHY

     Comment by rose — March 16, 2007 #

203. in the room i normally use “30s2″ it used to be a nice place - yet latley its gone and is going down here bots bots and more bots arghhhhhhhh, then theres a user who loves to bring in his own personally bots to lock the room– he even loves to boast hes steals other users ids and as for booting he does it a lot .
     I expect yahoo will do what theyve always done about complanits from the decent and that will be to do nothing as usually and let the service crawl up its up service port .

     You know when they had privite rooms,it kept the perverts away but now there invadeing and some of the nicks they have are to put it midley “sick”.
     Yahoo do something please.

     Comment by michael knight — March 16, 2007 #

204. ps i would also like to add , cant something be done to stop the voice boots, as bye the time i know theres one - it freezes my computer and nearly damaged it due to the fan goign nuts.
     Also can someone tell us why msgenger at yahoo.co.uk does not seem to have chat rooms on - where as the .com version does-is it a ploy.

     Comment by michael knight — March 16, 2007 #

205. Dear Yahoo…….It is yahoo!!! I would be much in agreement with Chet, He says it ALL.. most of the people in chatrooms are “BOTS” and seeminly hours at times to get in some of the rooms, it is quite disappointing when finally, you are in a room and all you see are bots, if you care about your program with clients, hopefully you do something on the situation…come on ‘Get with It’ thanks, for the years before the bots…back then it was really wonderful to sit and talk with ‘real friends’..

     Comment by MJamieson — March 16, 2007 #

206. Come on guy, you have the best chat program on the free market ….. why kill it with all the bots? If it wasn’t for ytunnel (ty Chet) most of us would have been long gone. But the time it takes to get it, being dropped, fighting for sound, THE BOTS, how long can we take it before we do leave?

     Comment by John S — March 16, 2007 #

207. Well here is my idea i think yahoo should use credit card verification on yahoo names when you create an account this in turn would STOP the vast majority of booters that are multi id or “bot” login this would also stop kids getting online in the first place and into yahoo chat and experiencing this xxx rated sites that are sent to everyone via spam you may be thinking this is not secure.. other sites nearly 90% of adult sites use this process its simple and secure and is a damn good prevent minors getting on then why not have the user rooms back yahoo could use that in there defense saying under 18s cant get on period and what does yahoo do now to stop multi id making a word verification is your bright idea!! that is insane are you aware this can be got around easy and how hard is it to type it in … No that does not work people simply parse the HTML source and word verification why don’t you encrypt the HTML to that page that will really cause them problems for the “leet” coders who think they are yahoo gods lmao if you encrypted the HTML source with a good decent encryption algorithm that is re encrypted if found to be broken it would solve the multi bot makers i am begining to think yahoo is run by a bunch of chimps who only care about how fat there wallets are this is going to be the most popular topic here THIS IS HOW MUCH THEY HATE SPAM was that clear enough? lol any ways keep nagging the chimps lol they cant delete the comments fast enough normally you say something negative boom its gone i recon at least id say hmm 40 have been deleted already keep deleting them it is not going to go away until you fix it or address the problem we the users have made yahoo what it is we can also be your downfall if it carrys on atg this rate the spam all chat rooms will be 99% bots and no one will be able to get into chat due to the fact that a yahoo can only hold i belive 60 chatters… correct me if im wrong some rooms now are full with bots and not ONE person in its mad yahoo

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

208. O on another note i seen a comment saying yahoo may charge i for one think that will be the case why? yahoo has teamed up with the kings of greed microsoft via windows live.. this is just the start mark my words well if anyone from yahoo ever looks at this lmao not many will pay for this as they would if you actually sorted the problems out. its not like they are even hard to fix like chet although i dont use y tunnel never have but if he can fix the spam and keep it to a minumum with a frigin alg that runs off your client why cant you never mind messing with vista messenger lol fix the one you have first!

     Comment by Karl — March 16, 2007 #

209. Please fix chat! It’s almost impossible to get into chat rooms. Plus, when you do (if you’re lucky after numerous tries) there’s nothing but bots in the rooms; bots outnumber actual chatters.

     Comment by Tina — March 16, 2007 #

210. Why it is Yahoo gives notice that their recording IP addresses? When you complain about booters and people threatening you, these people still show up to harass you? You can report these people in their numerous names and they’re still there. Chat used to be fun at one time, but with the booters, dickwads, and inability to enter chat, what’s the point?

     Comment by Tina — March 16, 2007 #

211. It is a shame that lately it’s so hard to get into chat. Then when you do get in you’re bombarded by bots; or booted by yahoo servers or whoever. Half the time voice chat doesn’t work. I don’t understand why the problem cannot be fixed. I thought newer versions of a software were supposed to be better. Yet chat just gets worse. Is there a problem with programers? It seems that way. If something isn’t broke, why fix it? It’s bad enough having to put up with the spammers and getting disconnected by booters or yahoo servers. Can we have the old yahoo chat back? When we didn’t have to put up with trouble getting logged on. When we didn’t have to worry about voice not working. When we didn’t have to be told numerous times we were already in the room. (DUHHHHHH) Newer versions of software are supposed to be improved; not operate worse then previous versions.

     Comment by Mick — March 16, 2007 #

212. This problem won’t go away. I firmly believe that Yahoo is in someway profiting from all these bots that are bringing chat to it’s knees. If their not then why wouldn’t they do something about it? Ever notice that sometimes you can’t get into a room and you try and try and them when you finally are able to get in there are only 2 bots sitting in the room and no one else. I think that these bots are granted some kind of special access that us users don’t have. A room can be totally full but somehow bots can still get in but real users cannot? Yahoo is in cahoots with these spam/porn bot makers without a doubt and are profitiing from their existance.

     Comment by Biker Trash — March 16, 2007 #

213. I agree with most of what has been stated about the chat here but the come back yahoo will have is ‘hey we are free - deal with it ‘ because thats been the attitufe so far. I have found going to http://www.OpenTalkLive.com a morepleasurable experience. Rooms can be made and only accesible with a password. Ihave heard complaints that it has bugs but as any one of us know all new progs have bugs to work out. Yahoo will never be the same and i truly believe that they receive some compensation for sex bots. regarding booters there is one who is well known for that and he has beenreported to yahoo several times. He is active instealing and cloning peoples names and I will not hesitate to post his nic here RUDEDOG769 is oneof his many nics. Yahoo has refused to acknowledge any and alll emails inregard to him. Goof luck Chet with your comments and I hope Yahoo listens finally.

     Comment by restlessnurse — March 17, 2007 #

214. Yea i agree yahoo is behind this spam to a certain degree notice everyone of us genral users have issues joining chat yet the spam bots get in just fine like i said before if the yahoo login was patched genral spam bots made by script kiddies would not get into chat yet the porn bots are still there i think yahoo still has the java proticol for buisness customers who pay in some way to spam there sites how else could it work… wap login for room spam NO ymsgr no you get banned remeber it does not make any sence

     Comment by Karl — March 17, 2007 #

215. top of the mornin, happy st pattys day to all, well i have noticed that u get into a room if it is full of bots but it does take time , but then try to get into a room that has only one or two ppl in it , well forget it , it wont happen , not that to me,. seems a bit stupid. why get in when its full of bots not only one or two ppl ?
     that is very strange and not just me . think that way. but so do others.. now like it was said by someone be4, if yahoo could just NOt make any more new versions and go back to the older ones like 6.0 or so, then make it so ppl can make their own rooms and add a litlew something extra to get rid of the nasty ppl that come to cuz trouble , then i think ppl would start to return, not only that, if the rooms were able to get rid of the kids in the adult rooms then there wouldnt be any hassels about that, there alot of adults that wish not ot chat to kids for fear that they could get into trouble, i do know of one such adult that had a voice conflict with a parent that came into the room and the perosn simply told the parent that the child should not have been the room to begin with, the pparent got discussed and very rude, but that is what is needed, a control on the rooms so that this wont happen. so with all the techs that know how to make new programs, spend some money of making such relevalent ideas such as i have mentioned. yahoo is going only to lose money if they dont pull thier socks up and get on the ball, this issue is not to swept under the carpet, sure it is a big deal and maybe hard to fix right away. but hey there alot of knowledgeable ppl in that company. so get with it yahoo and company !!

     Comment by blanche54 — March 17, 2007 #

216. I ahve to agree totally with Chet on the matter of the spam problem. I once hosted with Excite chat and they had strict policies for spammers and advertisements in there chat system ……siply put it was NOT allowed they had 0 tolerance for that. They would range bann spammers and bot makers to help keep the community pleasant. And that is what yahoo chat is its a community for “PEOPLE” to come and enjoy , share and even help others . not a place for programmers and spammers to come and reck turmoil and havick. Out of 30 sentences said ina room only 2-3 are even real persons talking. Clik my link , deny a voice conference from a BOT block pms with links from a BOT. I know yahoo chat can does have the resources to make change so please take the time to listen to the real people that help make yahoo what it is .

     Comment by Ken — March 17, 2007 #

217. i am real and not a bot…i have been with yahoo for many years and i have never saw so many and spammers as i do now, this is totally ridiculous, someone has to do something to make yahoo a pleasant chat place once more,i am not alone in this, there alot of others , too numberous to count that feel the same way,, help us to understand why yahoo has nothing to help.there are alot of ppl out there to make trouble in yahoo chat rooms, but me and my friends try so hard to stop that, but with little help, we dont encourage young ppl to come into the rooms we use,, they should be watched by their parents, but some parents arew not responsible enough ..me as an adult and with children and grandchildren know how easy it is for children to get involved with such perverts and porn… it isnt hard to keep them off those sites, just have to block those particular sites or even block certain other programs.. from younger children..

     Comment by blanche54 — March 17, 2007 #

218. OK , ONE THING ., WHY IN THE DEVIL DO WE NEED NEW VERSIONS OF YAHOO MESSENGER? IF WE CANT USE THEM IN CHAT OR ANYWHERE ELSE, YAHOO IS MAKING THESE NEW PROGRAMS AND WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WILL DOWNLOAD THEM? THERE IS NO SENSE TO THAT.. I MYSELF HAVE NOT GOTTEN ANY NEW VERSIONS , I AM QUITE PLEASED WITH THE ONE I HAVE, IF IT COMES TO THAT YAHOO IS CLOSING , SO BE IT BUT UNTIL THEN, I AM HERE TO STAY, YAHOO AND ITS HUGE COMPANY , SHOULD LET PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON… MAYBE ALL THESE COMMENTS AND POSTINGS ARE NOT DOING NOTHING, BUT AT LEAST WE ARE HUMAN AND ARE CONCERENED..

     Comment by blanche54 — March 17, 2007 #

219. I have to agree to what blanche54 is saying,,, with the new versions and such.. people pay money to have ceratin yahoo products and what for?
     good money going out with the bad?
     well in my opion, it isnt a good way to have that kind of reputation…i have paltalk , even tho it isnt yahoo, at least there are no spammers , bots or booters, there you can kick out anyone that is rude , nasty or perverted
     we dont take kindly to ppp, like that and as for kids coming in to rooms , well they kicked out as well, we as adults dont want any trouble or for that fact, babysit…. we r there to chat and have fun… so good one blanche54 , u said a mouth ful,,

     Comment by tata — March 17, 2007 #

220. Obviously Yahoo condones the promotion of PORN!!?? Which must be the case since they have done absolutely NOTHING to get rid of all the SPAM PORN BOTS!!!!! Remember Yahoo ACTION speaks volumes !!!!!!! I to have been a long time yahoo chat user and I am really disconcerted about the way chat has gone to hell in a hand basket over the last few months!! Just like everyone else in here I can’t hardly get into a room with voice, and then I have to fight off all the PORN spam in the room and from them IM’ing me.Then of course you have to deal with the JERKS ( putting it nicely) that think they own a room and boot people.Chat used to be so much fun but it sure as heck is’nt anymore!!! As far as the new yahoo 8.1 well from all the gripes and complaints I have heard from other people in chat (when I was able to get in) I am glad I still have an older version!! Stop making newer versions that don’t work and just FIX what we already have!! Try getting rid of the voice booters,laggers, bots and the troubles just getting into the room with voice intact and yahoo will be like days of old when it was fun !!!

     Comment by mad_chatter — March 17, 2007 #

221. hello , well i am here and i have a beef too.
     i cant get in rooms and when i do it takes forever, then the bots, spammers and booters, well if me and some of family and friends get in, some of us have voice and some dont.. we all have ben faithful yahoo users for many years and now this crap/
     well i think it high time to stop making new versions with all the features, what is the deal ? we cant get on yahoo or get in rooms, so whaTs the use of new versions and thank chet, with out Ytunnel , we wouldnt never be able to get on yahell
     thanks again , bye

     Comment by mommykins2008 — March 17, 2007 #

222. Does yahoo even care if it looses millions of users i have come to belive they dont the room http exploit took months to patch and only then they did after being pressed by people it took 2 MINS to patch they could solve this problem easy if they let us incorperate our own filters and not ones that replace text with ***** there will shure be a lot of stars on screen usless! ones that auto ignore the strings inside our filter this inturn would put spammers off why would they spam if no one can see them! they are making money after all even though 99% of bots make no sence and seem to post random crap somone is making cash they have the auto ignore option is somone tries flooding chat why cant thewy let us change that chat would be a much better place

     Comment by Karl — March 17, 2007 #

223. Thank you Chet and thank you for yTunnel! Unfortunately though, even with yTunnel! I gave up chatting months ago because of the spam and the booting issues. I can’t stand it any more. Chatting used to be so much fun and I have made many good friends over the years. Chat was my social outlet during my college years when all I had time to do was study. But, no more. Chat is not worth the headache. These days I email or phone my chat friends. sigh… I miss chat.

     Comment by Shawn — March 17, 2007 #

224. I really enjoyed Yahoo Chat Rooms. I had not problem at all getting into the rooms. It takes me about an hour to get in the rooms now, that is if I do get in at all. Yahoo, PLEASE do something about this. I remember when we had not problems at all with messenger. I’m sure it can be that way again….Thank you

     Comment by Missy — March 17, 2007 #

225. I like the rest of you completely agree with Chet, boot bots and porn bots… ALL BOTS are destroying yahoo. But the bottom line is Yahoo! DOESN’T care.. AT ALL. They will never come up with a solution to the problem, except maybe occasionally “patch” their servers, which only creates more downtime for chat users. Paying for yahoo won’t help, ‘cos your paying for them to advertise to you. Yahoo can, and will patch against booters, steal boot bots from the booters and then *give* them to advertising companies, I have seen this several times, yet they won’t patch against the bots.

     Reducing the amount of logins per IP would help, but that would mean my partner and myself could no longer use chat at the same time on two different PC’s on my home network. Not to mention, the last room booter I saw in action used only one bot, one login, and sent one massive packet. Yahoo patched against it…. bots still work though.

     I do have one concern though, as a paying user of YTunnel Pro, I see it as a bad move for chet to raise such issues, if yahoo blocks all bots, there really is no need to use YTP anymore, after all it’s main use is to block bots and booters…… Perhaps Chet will oblige us customers with a pro-rata refund if the bots go away? Just kidding chet, I love your program and will always support the fight to stop the bots. And lets face it, *NO OFFENCE MEANT TO ANY RACE / CULTURE” but we will always have those… nasty people PMing us for cam chat, sex chat etc, good ol’ YTP puts an end to that

     Bottom line, Yahoo! doesn’t care about the users of it’s “Free Service”, face it, these (as well as all other) problems with yahoo seem to be permanent. I TRY to think of them as a “Feature” not a “bug” ROFLMFAO

     Comment by yahoo hates me — March 17, 2007 #

226. ((((The comments here are nothing more than spam, ironically adverts for those selling products to remove this kind of thing from the chat rooms. Half the posts here are by the programmers and their associates, it’s nothing but viral advertising. You don’t want yahoo to clean up the rooms because you are making money from selling your programs.
     Comment by Yahoo Messenger user — March 15, 2007 #)))

     You call Yourself a Yahoo Messenger user?? Your a BIGGER IDIOT than the technicians working on removing the room spam!! 99% of the comments on this subject are users that DONT MAKE A DIME OFF ANY PROGRAMS, in fact,WE PAID FOR THESE PROGRAMS TO ALLEVIATE THE PROBLEMS YAHOO CANT/DOES’NT.
     You obviousy dont use the chat rooms or have any children. My guess is your one of those “users?” that has a yahoo ID because it’s free and hides behind the keyboard to stir up trouble. Or perhaps, is makeing money off the Spamming. Read back my clueless friend, theres strength in numbers.

     Comment by Nnap317 — March 18, 2007 #

227. well is time to go public with this i all ready contacted the news about this, here is the link and i got a respond back they are going to look into this matter with yahoo http://www.click2houston.com/contact/index.html just send them a message you will get a replay

     Comment by tommy — March 18, 2007 #

228. I do not agree with the suggestions of 1 user per IP.

     I do not agree with the suggestion of credit card verification.

     I do not agree with the suggestion of Yahoo! messenger/chat going paid.

     I do not agree with IP collection and harassing REAL people.

     Yahoo! should do everything to make chat simple, fun and free of problems. I wish the good, old days would be back.

     Keep it very simple: Keep SPAM guards just like you have for SPAM email. And make Yahoo! messenger a CLOSED SOURCE program so that the booters, etc. are not developed and they don’t work.
     I have repeated it several times and now you see the whole world is here to complaint.

     Comment by user — March 18, 2007 #

229. Nnap 317. sry but i am a yahoo user not a yahoo employee, i have been a user for a long time and i think the rooms should be like paltalk, monitored , and the get rid of the adverts.. the bots .. the spammers and so no. why do u think all these comments are from yaho reps ? just because u say so? maybe ur a yahoo rep huh? no doubt to put everyone off the subject at hand.. but anyway… i think that yahoo did have a great chat program at one time and yes, it is , free, but still alot of free programs are still making money with out any crap like yahoo has been having with their chat programs.. so as far as u r concerned this is probably another rep speaking , sry to disappoint Nnap, but WRONG, pal !!!!

     Comment by mommykins2008 — March 18, 2007 #

230. I totally agree with Chet and others. As a long-time Yahoo “chat customer” (and I’m sure Yahoo understands the meaning of customer), my frustration level has reached an all time high. It takes forever to get into a chat room, and once there, I am flooded with messages saying I’m in the room, chat error, I get bounced out and sent to another room, and the list goes on. The spam bots (porn bots) take up most of the room and putting them on ignore is like swatting flies off horses. It’s impossible. So, here is my suggestion. If everyone will write to the people who pay to advertise their products on Yahoo (legitimate companies) and advise these companies that they are going to boycott their products and why, then maybe Yahoo will pay attention to the faithful who have been around the longest as “chat customers” and fix these ongoing annoying chat problems. Maybe Yahoo needs to be hit where it hurts. Oh, and if my ID disappears because of this post, then I will know Yahoo does, indeed, read its blog and censors accordingly.

     Comment by Catherine Catherine — March 18, 2007 #

231. user ….

     I do not agree with the suggestions of 1 user per IP.

     I do not agree with the suggestion of credit card verification.

     I do not agree with the suggestion of Yahoo! messenger/chat going paid.

     I do not agree with IP collection and harassing REAL people.

     Yahoo! should do everything to make chat simple, fun and free of problems. I wish the good, old days would be back.

     Keep it very simple: Keep SPAM guards just like you have for SPAM email. And make Yahoo! messenger a CLOSED SOURCE program so that the booters, etc. are not developed and they don’t work.
     I have repeated it several times and now you see the whole world is here to complaint.

     OK first of all that was my idea you simply do not agree no reason you just do not lol its fact yahoo would be a better place if those were in action how can you argue with that???

     as for yahoo chat being paid tuff if its going to be paid it will be no one WANTS it to be paid like i said i think it will be now Microsoft have there claws into yahoo.

     Yahoo IS not open source………. if it was we would not be here bitching about this every developer who is sick of this would improve or try to the client but that is not the case.

     Booters simply sniff yahoo packets from the network then send them at a rapid rate via a prog prob made in visual basic Once again if it was one id per ip this would require socks 5 proxy to login and it would slash booting dramatically no one NEEDS more than one id online at a time ffs! yahoo must agree to this if they did not then they would allow by default multiple instances of yahoo messenger what is NOT the case.

     Comment by Karl — March 18, 2007 #

232. Wonders does Yahoo know what it is like to be in a religious chat room that is filled with porn bots?

     I think soon Yahoo will discover that the only users left upon their servers will be spam bots !

     As an independent technician I can not tell you how often folks complain to me about connectivity issues relating to Yahoo Messenger. I am tired of being public relations for Yahoo trying to explain away Yahoo issues to end users.

     Yahoo wise up instead of devising a means to cram more spam bots into your servers how about allowing REAL PEOPLE to use your system as it once was intended before the rise of the bots!

     Comment by WesS — March 18, 2007 #

233. I want to add my 2 bits about the over abundance of bots and misuse of the chat rooms. I have complained many a times. I am glad to see others are abit fed up too. I uninstalled yahoo messy and blacklisted all of Yahoo domains and affiliate via the HOSTS file as a result of my disgust. I temporarily disabled the Hosts file to post my comment.

     Comment by Shawn aka fishmaster — March 18, 2007 #

234. i hope The Yahoo! Team are going to address us shortly because everyones wondering whats going on with the Chatroom Listings.

     Comment by vb_packets — March 18, 2007 #

235. it is nice to see everyone voicing their opinion on the woes of yahoo but we have lost sight of the fact that yahoo wants the porn bots spammers (in fact I suspect that Yahoo even encourages them) there coz that is the way yahoo make its money, yahoo sells the programme to the spammers that allows them to have multiple logins and easier access to room as it is a priority programme something different to whatever version that we use, it is also a subtle backdoor way of conditioning us for Yahoo to tell us that if you don’t want spammers then for a yearly or monthly fee you can be spam free, Yahoo’s eventual goal is that everyone that uses Yahoo will pay, spammers and uses alike and don’t say it won’t happen because it will, well that is my 2 cents worth anyway.

     Comment by professor_perve — March 18, 2007 #

236. Obviously Yahoo could stop these bots if they wanted. Contrary to some of these comments they are not stupid but they are greedy. Yahoo must in some way benefit monetarily from these porn bots. Does Yahoo want to be ascociated with the porn industry, must be so. Maybe some one will investigate them, maybe we will see them in the news soon, be a real bummer for Yahoo stocks. As far as charging us, that will only open the door for the next yahoo, everyone will leave.

     Comment by John — March 18, 2007 #

237. March 18, 2007

     Hello Yahoo! Management Team and fellow chat users! I would like to begin this response by first commending Mr. Chet Simpson and a few others (I apologize for not recognizing your names), whom have created the necessary software programs for the mutual benefit of all, because after all, wasn’t our country founded on the principle and ideals of: “the needs of many, outweigh the needs, of the few, or the one?”

     I have also taken this time to write to the dedicated team of Yahoo! in a last ditch effort to finally resolve some ongoing issues that continue to plague the once wonderful services you provided to the world! And, I must thank you all, and tip my hat and extend a hand in friendship to everyone of you, whom have tried your best to make the chatting experience work well for everyone, who truly wishes to utilize this marvelous technological wonder at our fingertips, to hopefully communicate with the rest of the world.

     However, I’d like to point out that it’s been more than a month of trying to add pictures to a few of my different messenger accounts (public profiles), without any luck whatsoever (I couldn’t even send this to the link provided for help), that now my frustration level is at an all time high. Furthermore, as a regular chat user and once stockholder, I am deeply troubled by the ongoing repeated system failures going on within Yahoo! Instant Messenger; especially within the chat rooms.

     Yes, I do realize the service you’re providing is FREE (at least for me it is), and although I have various other third party chat clients in order to try and log into chat, I have always enjoyed and favored using Yahoo! Instant Messenger’s chat program (although it does use up a lot of computer resources). But, even the other chat clients available to the general public are becoming more and more unreliable with each modification or upgrade Yahoo! implements. I use Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (7,0,0,437) and the MyYahoo Module (6, 0, 0, 600) as a means of connecting to your servers. I will not upgrade to any other version until all the bugs have been removed and/or fixed. I am leary of using an older version which I still have available on my hard drive, due to the picture files, e-mote files, transfer files, photoshare, or archive ability or the word filter files no longer being compatible with these newer upgrades you have provided. I’ve spent many hours creating and adding to the “word filter file” for deleting any word that should never be spoken, let alone splashed upon the screen within a public chat room, and I sure as heck do not want to see those lewd and immoral words while I am chatting or playing music with other likeminded friends from around the globe. That file was lost when I updated to I believe 5.5 or 6.0. I wasn’t made aware that file would be destroyed or not compatible with the newer version or I would have saved the file to a disk. Unfortunately, there have been times when my eldest grandchild (he is 12) has snuck up behind me and he reads what is being said in the public rooms, and needless to say, I have ended my chat sessions because I do not want him exposed to the “Porn Bots” and the wording they use, let alone some of the chatters!

     I have also made a custom “e-mote file” which brings a lot of joy and happiness to other chatters, myself included. Yahoo! I have taken every step I know to minimize the impact that e-mote file has on your viewer or your servers. I am truly grateful that you even allow us (the general public), to use this incredible feature. Thank you! I also use a paid version of YtunnelPro 2.0 Build 378, which has been updated a few times from the original 272 build as a means of trying to keep the “Spam Bots” “Porn Bots” “Booter Bots” and other malicious users who have turned this once prized feature into an ongoing battle zone from preventing them from harming our families or personal computers with their erratic behavior. Also, the “Booters” who constantly use your servers as a means of wiping out innocent peoples’ computers either destroying their “soundcards” or outright hack into someone’s personal computer is intolerable (and it’s illegal) because these innocent people truly depend on this service to communicate with the outside world, have either become so enraged as I have, or are ready to abandon all hopes of trying to live some sort of meaningful life.

     Please understand that most chatter’s whom I have had the pleasure of meeting via using the chat rooms are in a somewhat position like I am today. I will briefly explain what I mean. On the way home from my office, I was involved in an auto accident through no fault of my own, yet my recovery in now into its fifth year with no end in sight, and without being able to use this service without all the nonsense I, too, am beginning to lose all hope of ever regaining what little is left of my sanity, independence, let alone become a productive member of society once again.

     Ever since last year in late March or April, each and every day has become more difficult to deal with let alone, the constant battling against the “Porn Bots” “Spammers” “Booter Bots” and especially the “Booters!” My only hope is that your outstanding programmers can finally figure out a way to stay one step ahead of these unruly characters, which from what I’ve read here, can easily be accomplished with minimal disruptions to the end users, whom continue to undermine what it means to be a decent human being and stop mistreating innocent people while they’re able to hide behind the blue screen and attack the general public with impunity. I am extremely thankful there are a few people who have the ability to go head-to-head with some of the nitwits, perverts and unruly individuals who constantly thrive upon living in a world of chaos, but they shouldn’t have to, especially since they’re running the risk of infringing upon the mighty TOS Yahoo! has clearly spelled out! Yet, these unruly people are violating every known paragraph, and created moral consequences unknown, but that’s not really true, because we know what they’re doing is wrong, but they still continue without fearing the repercussions that are at your fingertips Yahoo!.

     I am sure you’re all trying your best, and I can only hope that you can finally resolve these ongoing problems and triumph over the evil which continues to destroy your once respected operation. I’d like to say if you get the chance to please re-read Mr. Simpson’s letter which has graciously posted and has enabled his valued customers to read, since it explains in greater detail what you’re up against (I am not a programmer). Thank you all very much, and I am just another chatter hoping to regain some sort of normalcy in chat. I do realize there are thousands, if not millions of letters and/or complaints received each year, and I can only hope that you good people know there truly are many others who appreciate the astonishing effort you all put forth. But, everyone knows, a few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch, and hopefully you folks can correct the shortcomings within your corporation and get Yahoo! where it needs to be! Thank you for allowing me to post this, and more importantly, utilize Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

     Before I sign off, I’d like to leave everyone with these parting words. You know, even if one child (whether it’s your own, or not), is saved from being directly exposed to all the hardcore pornographic words and/or images that spew across the chat room screen, then we as adults shall be able to look them in the eyes, and let them know we truly have tried our best to protect them from the harm caused by the overwhelming desire of unscrupulous individuals!

     “Yahoo! the Bots are out there. They can’t be bargained with! They can’t be reasoned with! They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until Yahoo! is dead!”

     Oh yeah, before I forget, a few others and I whom once traded in Yahoo!’s stock daily (more than 60,000 shares combined), and stuck by the company when it was thrust into litigation caused by a few rotten apples before the plug was pulled on the user rooms, have since sold every share we have (we also know of 10 others who will do so within the next week), and until the problems are corrected, we refuse to purchase any more stock or funnel anymore advertising dollars into Yahoo!’s coffers. It would be delightful for one of your team members, of course at their earliest convenience, to try address and resolve our collective concerns. Have a great day!

     Yours truly,
     A very concerned America

     Comment by Concerned American — March 18, 2007 #

238. Karl said it best, and i quote:

     “I wish the good, old days would be back.”

     YES! what was wrong with the old days, when each room had a user with “OPS” and had the power to “kick/ban” unstable users… It would be o so simple then, if a booter or their bots appear… kick em outta the room… porn bots… boot em out… right now all we have is yahoo servers that are constantly being patched, and the ability to use “private conferences”.

     Comment by yahoo hates me — March 18, 2007 #

239. Add to the above points made above by me:

     I do not agree at all with the proposal by mommykins that Yahoo should go the PalTalk way. No! Never. Yahoo! messenger has it’s popularity because of it’s basic, simple, universally friendly and free environment.

     Furthermore, I do not agree that every room is Yahoo! chat should be moderated by REAL people. No! Never.

     Yahoo should have normal unmonitored rooms for general public. Have a good SPAMguard system for chat rooms. Just develop SPAMguard and you will see the benefits. And I am sure it doesn’t cost a fortune to develop this.
     And yes, you need to bring back User made rooms which can be monitored by the users themselves.

     Comment by user — March 18, 2007 #

240. correction:

     I do not agree that every room in* Yahoo! chat

     Comment by user — March 18, 2007 #

241. tonights problems - the room list has vanished!- why i wonder has yahoo chat imploded on itself - or have the bots got 2 much and crashed the system.
     Yaho would you be so kind as to do something please its not 2 much 2 ask.

     Comment by michael knight — March 18, 2007 #

242. I agree whole heartedly with A Very Concerned America. Booters & those porn bots are getting to be wayyyyy too much here. You need to put morals back into life & not think so much about your pocketbook. We would like to see Yahoo Messenger back to an enjoyable experience!

     Comment by A concerned americans friend — March 18, 2007 #

243. I agree whole heartedly with A Very Concerned America. Booters & those porn bots are getting to be wayyyyy too much here. You need to put morals back into life & not think so much about your pocketbook. We would like to see Yahoo Messenger back to an enjoyable experience!

     Comment by A concerned americans friend — March 18, 2007 #

244. Well it apears the yahoo rooms are failing to even load now they are prob doing “work” on them i thought it was just for me its for well all the people i have talked to tonight anyways and also the user room tab is now gone so as for user rooms coming back NO CHANCE now it took months for them to remove a simple tab lol i do not mean to offend anyone but does stevie wonder work for the development team?…. oo so we get a new yahoo with plugins etc WOW im amazed with every new version of yahoo it seems to become more bulky and eat more system recources and they seem to ignore the things that matter SPAM and actually joining chat i for one dont care about frigin launchcast and all that crap i want to chat not listen to the radio thats what winamp pro is for anyways watch this space.. hopefully i highly doubt it though they are fixing the room joining issues everyone is having that HUGE ad does not help things before that ad was in place it worked fine anyone notice that? or just me lmao and also by the time the vista messenger is out i think windows vienna (the alleged next version of windows) will be released the way they make progress if you can call it that

     Comment by Karl — March 18, 2007 #

245. ok user.. maybe i have a point u dont agree but yahoo mesenger is not like it use to be and maybe some of u are yahoo reps, but i dont give a rats behind.i am allowed to make comments and they are not being nasty or rude, so if u dont like what i have to say , well too bad so sad… yahoo was a good proggie at one time
     and what s the matter with mentioning paltalk?
     its another chat client and if it works , so maybe ppl will start using it , yahoo dont seem to care…

     Comment by mommykins2008 — March 18, 2007 #

246. Anyways i really do think this spam issue is so bad since yahoo user rooms only allow i think its 60 ids in at one time… and everyone can see those numbers increasing the real people numbers decreasing rapidly and the spam bots increasing whats it going to take to get this fixed if infact yahoo are making money out of this spam im 100% positive they are in some ways then you realise you need REAL people to actually click the links if it keeps increasing at this rate there will be no people to visit the sites that inflict countless spyware,dialers,adware onto innocent peoples pcs and just bots and Yahoos own greed would have destroyed its own chat service how ironic don’t you think people?

     Comment by Karl — March 18, 2007 #

247. the Max users for a room is 50.

     Comment by vb_packets — March 18, 2007 #

248. In recent months I have seen and experienced a lot of problems with yahoo. From no sound in chat rooms and when I call the yahoo headquarters I get a excuse like ” you will have to contact our law department”. Looks like you have some real good people who are scared to give the right answers to your customers. When rooms shut down due to something you are doing I call and still the same answer or no one answers the phones. Universally friendly messenger as one comment I saw is untrue when put in complaint about people harassing etc. you do nothing but waste my time and yours by not taking care of the problem. Something else is taking sometimes 2 hours to get into a chat room due to flooding the room with porn bots, which are a waste of space as they advertise sex sites. You could use that space to advertise job opportunities.

     As I know your company is stuck in the same rut from years ago and will never change until someone comes along and changes it for you or a lightbulb goes off in your head.

     Comment by magiks_world — March 18, 2007 #

249. I’d like to say that I am tired of all the SPAM BOTs.
     It’s a shame when you go in to a chat room and 90% of the names are BOTs. Many times I have iggied the whole room because they were BOTs.

     I think Yahoo! could do something about the BOTs.
     If Yahoo! cared about their live users they would fix this problem.

     Maybe every live user should stop using Yahoo! for just 1 day.

     Comment by Billy — March 18, 2007 #

250. Hey, have you guys heard of VC Sync yet? It’s the new product from Torseq Technologies, the makers of YTK Pro! VC Sync is the ultimate solution for voice lagging. It stops all voice lagging on-the fly, and you never lose voice at all, nor does your computer freeze!!!!

     Also, it works with all popular third party clients (with more coming soon!), in addition to Yahoo! Messenger, YTK Pro, and YTK Lite!!!

     http://www.ytkpro.com

     Comment by Mr. Wonderful — March 18, 2007 #

251. Well this above my post is just what were all talking about STOP SPAMING My god when will you people learn. Once is fine but over & over just because you don’t see your name…….If you want to advertise then do it in the right place (HERE IS NOT THE RIGHT PLACE) First place yahoo should start is YTK my god it’s been all most one week now I’m sure yahoo is going to ether reply to this “hole thread” or delete it all together. But stop the “JUNK” posts Because what its doing is not helping you its making you look desperate for people to buy your products. I thought about picking up a copy of your program but now i think I’ll stick with what i have do to your excess spamming with in the same thread as were all trying to get yahoo to look at. I’m just about 100% most of you know who I am & know what i use but in no way would i be basis on any program until now….Just leave the spam in your own form or blog not yahoos.

     Comment by wils — March 18, 2007 #

252. I would like to comment on the suggestion that this blog is being used for advertisement. I disagree.Most of the people posting here have no connection to those companies, other than that they are users. I, for one, am not even a customer. I use messenger for free. But do the owners of these companies (companies based on the use of Yahoo chat) not have the right to do what they can to help make a better experience for their customers? Isn’t it their responsibility to see that the people paying to use their programs get the best out of them? Wish Yahoo would think the same way.

     Comment by bigmama — March 18, 2007 #

253. Guys, please don’t mention YTK here anymore, thanks.

     Comment by Venom — March 18, 2007 #

254. Wils, Y!Tunnel was mentioned more here than YTK was.

     Comment by Venom — March 18, 2007 #

255. I agree with Chet as well. All this crap with the bots and booters in chat have me debating on just sucking up the $20 a year with hotmail and using their chat.

     Comment by Gina — March 18, 2007 #

256. {{ “IMPORTANT NOTICE
     As of April 2nd, 2007, we will no longer offer customer support for Yahoo! Messenger 7.0/ 7.5.
     We recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger.
     We will keep these help pages available online should you continue to use this version
     and have basic questions that these pages can answer” }}

     COMMENT:
     DEFINE: Basic questions that these pages can answer?
     Dear Yahoo Customer Support,
     This has to be an April Fools Joke!!
     You must FIRST offer customer support from your help pages in order to dis-continue it!! In my opinion, and past 7 years experience with the “Yahoo Customer Support Help Pages” the ONLY results I’ve gotten is Auto Generated Replies, followed by (days later) another Email stating to read the Yahoo TOS. If thats what you call HELP, then you may as well add 8.0 and 8.1 to that list. Your “solving?” of problems has gotten progressively worst
     Respectfully Yours,
     Nnap317

     Comment by Nnap317 — March 19, 2007 #

257. Well, I for one had to resort to YaZakPro last night to get into a chat room. This morning the room lists are back but forget getting into a room. It’s not happening. Someone on this blog mentioned that they called Yahoo. Where can I find the telephone number because I would love to ring them up and give them something to think about…not that they care…but it sure would make me feel better. Oh, and about posting photos on your profile (someone mentioned this), I sent a complaint to customer service (four times) and got the same response each time that the problem was my ISP. Yeah, right! After years and years of changing photos, suddenly it’s my ISP’s fault that I cannot post a new one? Is that what they think is the problem? Get real, Yahoo, listen to your subscribers and fix the problems.

     Comment by Frustrated in Florida — March 19, 2007 #

258. Lol vb packets i thought it was 60 :p o well that makes it even more of a possibility that the rooms will one day be all bots its looking that way anyone who disagrees lol must not go in chat much. and as for ytk and y tunnel they just help the problem nothing is going to get rid of all the spam the strings (text) the bots send changes so much as do there ids they get booted also ytk not as much the ONLY reason being its not been around aslong and is obviusly not as popular as ytunnel pro it will be anyways people i think yahoo are just going to delete this blog and sweep it under the carpet as normal and the user room joining issue is still there! i thought maybe they were working on it but no all that has happend is they removed the frigin tab for user rooms there devlopment team is a joke. how about removing the HUGE y chat transition ad(the one before you join a room) i think the normal ads what take over the entire chat screen is enough damn..

     Comment by Karl — March 19, 2007 #

259. On another note NO I AM NOT SPAMING i have started using http://www.opentalklive.com it is still BETA and has a few bugs but the staff there are nice the users are kool and it has NO SPAM!! woohoo i thought i would post this because i have been looking for alternatives to yahoo has been chat and this looks verry promising infact the coder of it is auto added to your buddy list! i think that says a lot about there customer care and it also has voice and is free check it out though people see what ya think

     Comment by Karl — March 19, 2007 #

260. RE: NEW BUILD

     There is a new build of Yahoo Messenger out. I havn’t been able to find any direct reference to it on any of Yahoo’s pages, but I did find a link at “Big Blue Ball”, a website devoted to internet chat. I would post a link, but lets face it, no one trusts links anymore.

     So for those interested, you could Google “Big Blue Ball” and click on Yahoo forums.

     I was a little wary of downloading it, so I decided to do so at the public library first. It looks about the same as the last build, and I didn’t really notice any improvement.

     I think the new one might be the new Vista version, but I’m not sure as we don’t run Vista at the house here and don’t plan to untill late next year.

     Just thought I would toss that out there for anyone that might want to give it a spin.

     Comment by esp — March 19, 2007 #

261. wow! everone is having the same problem as me or us. There’s is to much spamming but there is no reason to shut down the chat from yahoo im sick of this chat error i can’t join in my favorite chat Japanese anime or arts that sucks.

     Comment by scott — March 19, 2007 #

262. bro ytkpro is the best enhancement ive ever used! best antiboot and it blocks the bots!!!

     Comment by n2r — March 19, 2007 #

263. Well here’s a new one for ya. Once my wife and I “FINALLY” got into our favorite chat room and after many attempts of trying to get voice we both did >sort of

     Comment by mad_chatter — March 19, 2007 #

264. While I don’t condone the YTK spamming I can’t help it if people exercise their right to advertise a program that they enjoy (even to go as far as advertising).

     Wils, YTK doesn’t even have an option to advertise in it unlike about every third party chat client with their /advert commands and spam junking up chat rooms. Secondly, I wouldn’t want your business since all you seem to do is cry about posts that you don’t even have to read. Sad really.

     I’m betting that 90% of the ones complaining about “YTK Spam” are WackyB’ers buzzing into a frenzy because it’s a popular application now that has more to offer than any of theirs. Get over it guys.. there’s only one YTK and only one VC Sync but there are MANY bees in the hive.

     Adam
     Torseq Technologies

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 19, 2007 #

265. Once we finally got our ears on neither of us could see the same people with ears or each other. There were actually 2 different people playing tunes in the room but we were each listening to a different player as were the others in the room.Is that messed up or what ??? Chat is getting WORSE & WORSE NOT better !!!!!!! Come on Yahoo get your act together and actually FIX things.
     Make chat FUN & SAFE again. Get rid of all the PORN bots and the room laggers/Booters !!!!

     Comment by mad_chatter — March 19, 2007 #

266. mad_chatter bro ytk pro and vc sync stops all porn bots and booters and voice laggers bro!!!

     Comment by yoh — March 19, 2007 #

267. Seems the chatrooms are still locked up. I have not been able to access the chatrooms for over 24 hours. Yahoo took the room listings down 2 days ago and you could get in rooms instantly but now the listings are back the rooms are locked up once again. I dont know how many other Yahoo Chatters here can express this anymore than Chet has. “The Chatrooms are reaching Maximum Capacity and the issue has not yet been resolved with chats”

     I really feel sorry for all those who cant access your Chatrooms due to your “Chat Server errors”

     Comment by vb_packets — March 19, 2007 #

268. bro vb i feel your pain bro

     Comment by yoh — March 19, 2007 #

269. back in 2001 the chats used to be a good place to chat but since all your server upgrades and Maintenance the chats have got worse and must be currently running in SAFE MODE. I used to be a regular of Breaking News:1 and it was a good place to chat in 2001 and i met lots of nice kind American people. This room over the years has grown with BOT INVASION advertising their Services on Webcams and User Profiles aswell as trying to make out they are a real person in chat when they are not.

     More users are upset because they get booted out of the rooms all the time and Disconnected from your Services. I really thought you guys over at Yahoo! would of taken care of all this by now.

     At the end of the day is all we are asking is for you to put Yahoo Chats back into a enjoyable place where we can communicate. Let us make our own Private rooms again aswell because alot of Business Yahoo users and other popular users would love this Feature to come back to Yahoo Messenger.

     There ae now 269 posts on this blogger. I think everyones put their words across and expressed their Emotions against this issue. Please Please Please!! i cant say it again please give us our Yahoo Chats back to how they were in 2001, “And thats without the known chat exploits that were about then”.

     If the Yahoo Team do us a favor im sure we will do you many in return.

     Yours Faithfully

     Adam Gordon

     a famous Yahoo Chatter!

     Comment by vb_packets — March 19, 2007 #

270. Yahoo! USE to be considerate enough to let you know when they were going to shut down for ‘reconstruction’, or ‘renovation’. I’m inclined to believe there’s a whole new, inconsiderate group now in charge of the Yahoo! team. If a shutdown was unexpected, they would at the very least post an explaination following recovery.

     This not only explains the current ‘Character’ of The Yahoo! Corporation in general, but their lack of true ‘Customer Service’ as well. When you send an e-mail or call them, you get nowhere, either no reponse at all or some canned response that tells you absolutely nothing! Makes one assume their defensive posture is to hide their inability and lack of knowledge to correct anything.

     For every post on this blog I’m sure they represent hundreds of others who out of frustration have given up trying to use Yahoo! chatrooms. Most unfortunate are the ones who think their own computer is at fault and frantically uninstall and reinstall different versions and different programs only to find the same problems exist in Yahoo! Chat. Many have given up totally.

     I sincerely hope there’s just one individual left at Corporate Yahoo! who remembers when Messenger actually worked, when SO MANY people were dependent on Yahoo Chat, who were so thankful for the ability to meet people from all over the world and share customs and cultures, to check on each other…..AND that this Corporate person has a heart and a vision of making it a success once again!

     You will see a similar blog with happy, thankful people if you repair/restore Messenger!

     Comment by Stressed/Frustrated — March 19, 2007 #

271. Ever since Yahoo, has dropped the user rooms and have joined in total partenership with MSN the chat rooms the groups. all of yahoo has gone to SPAM and the chats and Yahoo have gone downhill FAST

     and i don’t think they really care about this. If they did something ,would of been done by now. I think they have been slowly phasing the Chats and Groups out. Just as MSN did at least MSN chats

     Comment by Mikey Jones27 — March 19, 2007 #

272. i wish yahoo would get there stuff strightened out this is getting to be very old every day u cant get in rooms u cant this an cant that..an i beleave every one is really tired of it all either get it to geather or find some one to do it for u

     Comment by pita — March 20, 2007 #

273. Hey yahoo, you should really get your chatrooms fixed. This is really getting old.Seems like everytime i sign on to yahoo it gets worse.Sometimes it won’t even let people go to chatrooms.This has been a problem for at least a month or more & it only gets worse. Everyone i know that uses yahoo is having this problem.Could you please see what the problem is ? Thank you

     Comment by Tony Myers — March 20, 2007 #

274. hi again, well thjis will be my last post , it is getting old even to post .. i do think that bringing back Yahoo! chat rooms would be nice , but we dont need to bells and whistles that come with all new Yahoo! mesengers, just the rooms and the bots. spammers and booters gone, i can tell you that if they did come back, there would be more ppl back and more pay off to those concerned…I think bringing back user rooms you can create to mkae private or public is good, then if it is private , no child can get exploited, it will be adult chat room and with the person that created it, the person in charge.. thanks to Chet and his program Ytunnel, it makes it easier to block and iggy not wanted influeneces in to A ROOM, so thank Mr.Simpson… take care one and all
     have a nice day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Comment by ladymo56 — March 20, 2007 #

275. bro ladymo we all feel ur pain!!! ytk 4 life!

     Comment by yoh — March 20, 2007 #

276. Yoh, please don’t post here again. Now, the chat room list is back, but the rooms are still unbearable to get into.

     Can you give us an explanation Yahoo? If not, I move that we boycott.

     Comment by Venom — March 20, 2007 #

277. Marcus’ STB and Neo’s Room Destroyer are the problems with Yahoo! Chat. $10 and you can be a Yahoo! Somebody by locking a room so people can’t enter. Then after that you get other programs at a discount so you can be an “Uber Yahoo! Somebody”. Where exactly is everyone seeing these porn bots at, I might see 20 a night and they don’t come near the annoyance of the 50 to 1000+ iggy bots I see every dam day!

     Comment by polar — March 20, 2007 #

278. does anyone know what the term”invalid user”means , just got it after a few attempts to get into 30s2 , i got in eventulley althought after a switching yahoo off and on again- yet as always the room was full of someones “hack central “room filler bots.- will yahoo ever be a nice place to chat again.

     Comment by michael knight — March 20, 2007 #

279. Hello I will have to agree with ladymo, this is getting old, all these postings are doing no good and it seems that Yahoo! dont give a monkeys behind,, so if anyone thinks this is doing any good, well at least I will sleep better tonite, the bot, spammers and booters wont lessen my rest.. good bye and good nite to all
     hope all your posting do some good… ciao!!!

     Comment by tata — March 20, 2007 #

280. Perhaps AT&T taking over has led to such NEGLEGENCE in the chat upkeep and the ability to create a halfway decent build of Yahoo! Messenger, I’m not sure. You guys have done next to NOTHING to fix the random boots your server gives, the hardship it is just to use your chatrooms, the ability to connect to your voice servers. I know you don’t care Yahoo!, it shows, but maybe you’ll care when everyone goes to say AOL or some other competitor and your stock falters. This is RIDICULOUS, fix it! I’m done being nice, you guys never do anything, your chat just keeps getting worse and worse. Fix it or I ASSURE you, you will see your pocket books wither.

     Unsincerely, Travis

     Comment by Travis — March 20, 2007 #

281. Hi everyone A big thank you for this wonderful site, it has helped me immensely

     Comment by in florida — March 21, 2007 #

282. Well! Well! Well!…another day of battling malicious bots to join rooms. then join chat and get booted by some Yahoo! Gangbanger. I’m about sick and tired of being a test dummy for some pencil necked no life having geek! Yahoo! isn’t giving anyone much choice, either buy a program that doesn’t do much of anything, leave Yahoo! or buy a program to become a malicious bot running idiot like the other half. I’m not buying a thing that relates to Yahoo! again(have Y!Tunnel-not impressed) so now I’m left with leaving Yahoo! or cracking some of these paid programs. Which way do you think I’m going to go? I’m already out $17 for Y!Tunnel and $50/month for high speed internet for the past 5 years straight just to come on Yahoo! So…$3,017.00 it has cost me for 5 years of Yahoo! chatability.

     Comment by polar — March 21, 2007 #

283. “Hello I will have to agree with ladymo, this is getting old, all these postings are doing no good”

     HMMMM its better trying that doing nothing at all! i would say so what if its falling on deaf ears speaking this is showing that the general public are sick of this and are moving away from there chat system i for one have i go on messenger but i am done with chat its boring and full of none exsistant people and with the removal of the java proticol and chat 2.0 chat sucks ass to be frank yes i know there is ytk ,ytunnel pro BLAH BLAH BLAH we shouldnt have to have a 3rd party alg,client to fix what a multi billion dollar company could fix with simple meassures put in place even with y tunnel ytk wtf ever lol 1 bot will replace one real person so either way you can not win the room will be empty if you ignored all the bots if that was possible nothing is 100% effective or ever will be it will still be id say a good 60% of the room list ids stuck online or spam bots so either way chat still blows i hope yahoo can see how awful its chat service has become though yes its freeware but it reflects on other products and services such as there yahoo dsl.,geocities im in a chat room now there is 2 people there and the room was full lmao this is beyond a joke seriously!

     Comment by Karl — March 21, 2007 #

284. I applaud Yahoo for not taking any action regarding the degradation of the Yahoo Chat experience. They are doing many of you a favor. Perhaps now you will get a life and evolve past your sedentary chat room lifestyle.

     Comment by Get Over Yourselves Chat Addicts — March 21, 2007 #

285. i want to gripe about all the bots in chat rooms. it makes it real hard to get into the rooms and to chat once you are there. so how bout stopping them from bein there?

     Comment by kathy — March 21, 2007 #

286. Please, get rid of the bots. Yahoo used to be so much fun. Maybe even go as far as getting room monitors……… I don’t know how you can but I am sure you smart women and men can figure away. Thanks for letting me have my say.

     Comment by Spanky — March 21, 2007 #

287. I applaud Yahoo for not taking any action regarding the degradation of the Yahoo Chat experience. They are doing many of you a favor. Perhaps now you will get a life and evolve past your sedentary chat room lifestyle.

     LOL and your here posting… always one born every min i swear we do not live on yahoo geez lmao we do not want to be swamped with spam either damn moron.

     Comment by Karl — March 21, 2007 #

288. Sedentary is sitting then Get Over Yourselves Chat Addicts must be a standing chat addict. I’m thinking a stubby legged too short to sit kinda guy that had love on Yahoo! once and found out his Yahoo! lover was a girl and now looks at Yahoo! like it let him down Take the mirrored doors off your shower, sex doesn’t look like that. amp;

     Comment by polar — March 21, 2007 #

289. If you are spending an hour or more trying to get into a chat room, as MANY of these posts claim, that is pretty freakin’ sad. You have bigger problems to deal with than anything Yahoo related.

     Comment by Haha — March 21, 2007 #

290. The irony of all this is the majority of you are spamming this blog to complain about spam. I would not be surprised if comments get disabled some time in the future. Aside from the first few insightful posts from third-party developers, I imagine most of you are the same collection of intellectually barren chat-zombies that spend 10 hours/day in a chat room and spam the chat rooms with trivial “____ is ignored #984895603″ routine.

     Stop whining because your social lives have been crippled. Yahoo is providing you a service free-of-charge. They do not owe you whiners anything. If you dislike it, tough luck, learn to socialize offline or pick up a real hobby.

     Personally, I hope Yahoo Messenger for Vista is top priority. It looks promising and is a much improved UI if anything.

     Comment by Haha — March 21, 2007 #

291. Attention: Karl

     Yea, thats fine Karl. Some people used to enjoy the Yahoo Chat experience, but now its gone downhill.
     It was something we enjoyed in our free time.

     Do you mean to tell us that ALL of your time online is spent on productive endeavors? As far as being sedentary, in the time it took you to formulate your derogatory post to this blog, you could have taken a walk around the block, or mopped the kitchen floor.

     How will you feel when your beloved multitude of “MySpace” accounts suffer the same kind of lag Yahoo Chat suffers from lately? Or mabe it will take you four hours to view a YouTube video.

     I think, that if they were taking bets in Vegas, you would turn out to be some guy that was using Yahoo Chat for immoral purposes, and that now your worried that “13 year old girl” you used to “cyber” with is going to come a’ knockin at your door with a warrant and a team of Federal Agents. Am I right?

     So now you think your post to this blog will gain you some leniancy at your sentancing hearing.

     Comment by anti karl — March 21, 2007 #

292. Attention: Haha

     A hobby? Why are YOU wasting time posting to this blog, if your so intellectually refined? Does not your stamp collection beckon you?

     As far as social lives, some of us actually CAN multi-task. Oh, and by the way? If camping out for three days waiting for the latest game console or Star Trek movie is considered a social life, then I’m glad I don’t live in your world.

     Comment by anti karl — March 21, 2007 #

293. Amazing that people think Yahoo is providing a free service, I did not know they were a non-profit organization. Get real ! Yahoo is in business to make money (ask the shareholders), while you do not pay directly, the advertisers do. Now where do you think the advertisers get the money to pay Yahoo ? Our pockets, we pay for it in the cost of the products or service we purchase, NOTHING IS FOR NOTHING!
     Whiners, maybe but I think YAHOO owes it users a safe chat room enviroment, free from malicious attacks and hackers, it’s not just the porn bots you have to worry about. How can Yahoo continue to knowingly subject inocent un-knowing users to this unsafe enviroment and allow bots to advertise potentially dangerous sites.
     Sounds like somone’s social life is crippled because yahoo doesn’t work with vista, wa wa wa, well tough luck learn to socialize in person or get a real hobby, haha

     Comment by John — March 21, 2007 #

294. Whether or not one spends 2 or 20 hours in the chatroom is irrelevent to the issue at hand. So bashing those who are doing so is not a wise approach to this problem. Additionally, whether or not you do not think someone should spend a lot of time in a chatroom bears no weight here.

     The pornographic spam bots in the rooms are real. The long delay to get into a chatroom is real. The frustration this issue causes on fans is real. It is evident that yahoo needs to do something about the problem. There shouldn’t be a need to buy or use a third party software to help decrease the frustration caused by spammers with yahoo’s “approval.” I say yahoo’s approval because it is clear that yahoo can do something about the problem if and when they decide to do so.

     Comment by Aloufa — March 21, 2007 #

295. I think it’s a great service that Yahoo! provides by not working every so often. Every time this happens, at least a few chatting mouth breathers kill themselves.

     Yahoo! is a wonderful company doing such great things for our environment, as well as our quality of life!

     Comment by Darren — March 21, 2007 #

296. Go to marcus’ forum and read all the crying when Yahoo does a patch, you wanna see piss and whine. haha and darren are probably one of the many bot runners on Yahoo! and when patches happen they crumble. I suppose their posts are all text messages from their cell phones on their way to or from work or maybe their hobbies are ruining chat with malicious programs, regardless they are idiots!

     Comment by polar — March 21, 2007 #

297. I run a very lucrative and legit business sir! Don’t put me down just because my job as a porn bot makes more money than your job at McDonald’s

     Comment by Yahoo Porn Bot — March 21, 2007 #

298. I have been a user of Yahoo chat for many years now and I have to agree with Chet Simpson the Chat SPAM bots are out of hand way out of hand. It would do yahoo well to get rid of that problem they are causing a serious overload of the servers which has become obvious over the last few months. Symtoms have been anything from incorect room counts, trouble loging in, chat room being unavailable . . .etc . . .It almost looks like it is time for yahoo to start from scratch on the server end those are overloaded the server software has become a patchwork of patches which has cascaded into more problems which are becoming more and more obvious it would do them real well to invest in new servers and rewrite the server side of the software from scratch. Yahoo should really think about hireing Chet Simpson to do that I have seen his work and been using Y!tunnel since it came out, it is a great software program done by someone who really knows what they are doing.

     Comment by Scott — March 21, 2007 #

299. Yea, thats fine Karl. Some people used to enjoy the Yahoo Chat experience, but now its gone downhill.
     It was something we enjoyed in our free time.

     Do you mean to tell us that ALL of your time online is spent on productive endeavors? As far as being sedentary, in the time it took you to formulate your derogatory post to this blog, you could have taken a walk around the block, or mopped the kitchen floor.

     How will you feel when your beloved multitude of “MySpace” accounts suffer the same kind of lag Yahoo Chat suffers from lately? Or maybe it will take you four hours to view a YouTube video.

     I think, that if they were taking bets in Vegas, you would turn out to be some guy that was using Yahoo Chat for immoral purposes, and that now your worried that “13 year old girl” you used to “cyber” with is going to come a’ knockin at your door with a warrant and a team of Federal Agents. Am I right?

     So now you think your post to this blog will gain you some leniancy at your sentancing hearing.

     Comment by anti karl — March 21, 2007 #

     LOL i really pissed you off this much with a single comment? and im the one with issues? get real Jesus christ lmao

     of course not all the time i spend online is productive i do other things (when im online) such as develop software and update my site etc i do not even go in yahoo chat in genral anymore it sucks and this is the frigin issue not about your sick fantasies.

     hmm never had myspace ever don’t use you tube either (you must to have mentioned those) next.

     you would not find me in Vegas i live in Wales

     damn who let the idiots in any ways i don’t see how this is related to yahoos spam issue lol any ways i will not respond to your future “outbursts” i will give you some advice though how about you stop taking the mind bending drugs and get out of your darkened basement before you go a paler shade of white and your brain turns to much and drips all over your keyboard ok thas better

     IF and its a very big if the authors of this blog are reading these comments can you open another topic related to this? it clearly needs it this is by far the most bitched on blog lol we are all sick to death of this issue it has seriously gone to far and when we the general user do go in chat (if we can get in lol) we want to chat not be flooded with spam constantly yahoo removed the user rooms due to a lawsuit that deemed them inapropriate yet all the other rooms including the teens rooms not that i go in there but no room is bot free are spamed with xxx rated links etc i really do belive a big part of the user rooms being removed was the fact there was no spam and an automated spamming prog would not be able to get these room lists as they change so often and were often invite only. perhaps on the next build of messenger fix the bugs and delete all the unused recources such as parental controls,swift login,tab options,download ringtone options ( all these can not be viewed) there is MANY MANY more i think they will be in future builds and actually fix it software is suposed to improve not get worse geez.

     Comment by Karl — March 22, 2007 #

300. Boys… Ok, let’s all just agree to disagree, and not argue about things here. The one thing ALL of us can agree on is that Yahoo chats have gone completely out of control, and it has to stop. No more spam bots. No more booting. No more script kiddies using voice dominance programs. No script kiddies using mass ignore programs. No more power to the malicious users in these chats, disrupting our chat experiences.

     If Yahoo doesn’t address these problems once and for all, what else are we going to do? It’s hitting the fan. Don’t you all want your freedom from this?

     Thank you.

     Comment by Venom — March 22, 2007 #

301. To anyone who goes into 30s2 or wants to beware of the user whos real name is john edwards- he openley boasts he can steal accounts , boots peaple,brings in room flooder bots - and openley says he switch off your computer and still yahoo do nothing about him .

     Comment by billy c — March 22, 2007 #

302. I agree with you there venom, lets get chat back for the chatters who want to chat and have fun. What used to be great about Yahoo! was that we were all equal. Well…except for me because I’m smarter, better looking and richer than everyone else…lolj/k

     Comment by polar — March 22, 2007 #

303. Billy, he’s just a script kiddie. I’d advise you (and your friends) change your password to something strong, get a anti-boot/anti-flood bot solution like YTK Pro, and install a good firewall. =) I guarantee you his “power” would disappear instantly if you did.

     Comment by Venom — March 22, 2007 #

304. yea i know venom thats why i said i wont bother responding if it posts again lol and Billy do not worry he can not do anything if he could he would not be messing with yahoo booters there simply retarded just another yahoo h4×0r lol and he would not be wasting his time in chat threatening people but on another note
     yea venom i agree with you i do not think we need to do anything though about this issue its happening all on its own the rooms are full of bots and one day esp if they increase like this no one will be able to get in rooms yahoos own lazyness is killing there chat service and you can ignore all the bots you like for everyone you ignore two join and also take up the room space that 2 real people could have had.. Yahoo chat is now a Mecca for spam its funny because aol chat, pal talk hell even msn chat when it was about had spam issues but to this degree hell no yahoo is in a league of its own like if there was measures put in place and no one could see links at least no links = no money for spammers its not rocket science you would have thought after all these years yahoo would have implemented anti spam prevention yes its free but isn’t that what the ads (by default) although 90% remove these are for? if they were implanted into the ypager.exe as in the new ymsgr 8.0 buddy list advertisement (a new one yes lol) than in windows registry it would be much more difficult to remove them id accept ads if chat was improved but o well can not see it happening in the foreseeable future.

     Comment by Karl — March 22, 2007 #

305. That YTK Pro sales pitch is as bad as a porn bot. lol You should have told him about Norton or Mcafee for firewalls and anti virus, maybe even Y!Tunnel too and take away the spam affect your post has and make it more like a helpful hint!

     Comment by polar — March 22, 2007 #

306. This trying to join a room with the new 8.1 is B.S. Every room I go to join says I’m already in it yet I have no chat screen and this B.S. has been going on since I updated today. Is Yahoo! affiliated witn Menu Foods because this chat sh!t is poisoned too!

     Comment by polar — March 22, 2007 #

307. I right clicked on my Yahoo! shortcut and hit properties and in the “target” I replaced “C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe” with C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s and all my chat problems are fixed! it worked.

     Comment by polar — March 22, 2007 #

308. It has taken a while out of my evening to read all of these complaints. Everyone has made an argument for a better program. One that will do what it was intended for. I think the blush is off the rose and the entertainment factor has gone. Like all of you I am losing interest in Yahoo. Not only chat but all of it. If it isn’t crashing every 20 minutes it is bouncing you from room to room. If you are lucky to get into a room you are faced with 60% spam bot attendance, booters laying in wait and the ever increasing hackers. When sending a complaint to Yahoo I know it is all in vain as I receive the usual generic form letter telling me to iggy these people. Yahoo wake up. I think that the bottom line is the almighty dollar. I am now waiting for Yahoo to offer a membership, with of course a fee in order to have a uninterrupted program. Some might pay for that, but if a program such as that can be made why hasn’t it ?
     Note to Chet Simpson.
     I bought your program the 1st week you released the first build and I’ve never looked back. I thank you for trying to make it easier on us, the lowly Yahoo user. I feel your frustration as I share it. Can someone give me the name of a good program that gives a flying frog about it’s users !

     Comment by Pixie — March 22, 2007 #

309. Very simple people, if you are tired of all the porno bots flooding the rooms you and your family/friends frequent, do something about it, especially if you have children who use yahoo to chat with their friends.

     Yahoo, as the service provider, has an obligation to protect children from encountering material which is deemed “ADULT” in nature. Their facilitation of the material through THEIR chat servers is their obligation to control, and if they want to keep overlooking the problem, I’m sure a nice fat, class action suit against them will undoubtedly get them to either block the material, or shut down the chats completely.

     It’s not only in the chat rooms though, spam IM’s full of porn reach minors as well. Again, yahoo has an obligation to prevent this material from reaching minors, and if their position on this is “well, use another chat client/service” then they should remove any and all content that a minor would be interested in using. (such as chat, IM’s, Games, etc..you get my point)

     So for all those out there with family who have minors who use the services, start logging all the material that gets to your kids, start saving all the spam and messages, etc.. that make it into a chat designated for minors. Start saving all the Im’s that were not solicited containing porn and other objectionable material, that your children receive on a daily basis. Each individual user on Yahoo who has a profile has a check-box to use that designates their profiles as “ADULT” or not. Start saving all of the ones you see advertised to your children and other minors. Then what?

     Get on board with all the others who have done the same and file a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against yahoo for facilitating the distribution of this material to minors. Then watch how fast the chat-rooms are cleaned up or shut down all together. Either way, it’s better then what there is now, as yahoo seems to ignore it’s own TOS that EVERY user must agree to in the name of the almighty dollar.

     I’m sure the they won’t be happy to dump millions out of their pockets to the families and children that have been lead to believe the YAHOO service is a safe place to use.

     Come on yahoo, time to get off your collective asses up there in the main offices and realize it’s just not about people getting annoyed because they can’t speak to their friends… It’s also about keeping the service clean so that no one is forced to deal with material they shouldn’t legally be seeing… I think it’s time to implement a cleanup of the service, or shut it down to users under the age of 18, end of story.

     P.S. Watch how fast this comment gets removed, because yahoo won’t allow it to stay, but, they will continue to allow minors to be exposed to adult material, even though that in itself is illegal in most states/countries.

     Comment by PJ — March 23, 2007 #

310. I also wanted to add this..

     If yahoo won’t do anything about cleaning up their act, then maybe we all need to start sending e-mails and letters off to their advertisers, informing them of the lack of responsibility on yahoo’s part.

     I’m sure major advertisers don’t want to be associated with a company that allows the unsolicited distribution of adult material to minors.

     Basically, Instead of letting our complaints fall on deaf ears, start letting them fall on the ears of those who fund the service responsible for allowing it to happen.

     1 voice won’t do it… EVERYONE who has something to say, MUST open their mouth to the people who CAN do something about it.

     Just imagine what would happen if just a few MAJOR advertisers pull their adds and funding….

     Comment by PJ — March 23, 2007 #

311. LOL Polar that will fix it hell pj i dont think they even care to delete the posts they did before took them a few hours lol the responce to this has been huge and prob a good few hundred posts have been deleted

     Comment by Karl — March 23, 2007 #

312. There has to be at least one geek working for Yahoo! that can fix this crap. Messenger version 8,1,0,244 is an absolute piece of crap! Keeps telling me I am already in the room and still no chat screen. I’m just wondering now who is more of the idiot, me for sitting here still trying Yahoo! or Yahoo! staff for sitting there with their thumbs up their bums avoiding all the issues. It’s like Yahoo! is offering a “free” service to exploit us users to the “big bad programmers” that call Yahoo! their way to money.

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

313. Just to let you guys know, Adam [Torseq Technologies] (co-developer of YTK Pro/YTK Lite/VC Sync) is giving away 5 keys to VC Sync on BigBlueBall (which is regularly $14.95) and includes all updates free for the lifetime of the program.

     VC Sync is the ultimate protection from voice laggers, for any clients including Yahoo! Messenger, YMLite, YahELite, YaZak, etc, as well as ALGs like YTK Pro, YTK Lite, and Y!TunnelPro.

     http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/yahoo-add-ons-utilities/39826-vc-sync-released.html

     Good luck to anyone whom tries to get VC Sync, the 100% anti-lag protection.

     Comment by Venom — March 23, 2007 #

314. Didn’t I post something about 100% anti-lagg in another blog you were spamming. Just out of curiousity, do you guys that sell these Yahoo! add-ons pay taxes on the money you make from these programs? I’m just curious because I have to pay tax on every dollar I make.

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

315. hey thought was a site to post our problems about Yahoo?
     not an advertising link for different things , well in my opion, alot of these ppl that posting are ppl that work for Yahoo! or just ppl who want attention, sry but this all crap, and for our grieveances to be taken seriously , then more REAL ppl; should post their problems too, not the same ppl who are doing all the posts here
     anyway , Yahoo! has been good, but now its like another site where ppl can look at porn and so on
     bye

     Comment by discussed — March 23, 2007 #

316. discussed…it’s people like you that make Yahoo! a fun place to be! I want attention brought to the bot problems as much as anybody, but if you read all the Yahoo! Blogs you’d see there isn’t any feed back from Yahoo! concerning the bots. So…post your complaint and piss off, we can make our own assumtions of what people that post comments are looking for. BTW…I was a real “ppl” last time I changed my betteries.

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

317. excuse me polar, i will not p.o. as u gracely told me to
     i am concerned about the bot issue and i do like chatting minus the fowl language… i do not use profaney in a chat room, we r there to have fun and make new friends, if u dont like what i have to say , so sue make hun!, this a blog to complain about bots , spammers and what not, not to “BITCH ” at ppl who r doing the complaining about Yahoo!, so hun, taker a chill pill, life is tooo short to be griping at me, lol

     Comment by discussed — March 23, 2007 #

318. and BTW, betteries are spelt BATTERIES, so stay in school hun, u will learn more and yes i am concerned of the bot issue and i know maybe these postings are not being looked at by YAHOO
     so sweetie , get a life and not ruin others with ur miss spelt words and knowledge

     Comment by discussed — March 23, 2007 #

319. Hello all, well now this is something I like a place where I can have a say about Yahoo!
     Firstly ,polar , I have read what you have been typing here and it seems to me , that maybe you a person who mkaes money buy people watching you n cam , so therefore it seems like yopu are selling youseldf , in which decent people have nop desire to see,
     Secondly , I do agree with most og the complaints here about the BOTs, the Spammers and the Booters, plus the people that sell themsleves to make money. thats when children get on a computer and thats where trouble starts. so if Yahoo has any regrads about children being on , then its not thier fault its the fault of the parent,, and yes Yahoo needs to make some adjustments in their programming. Yahoo you are a great program but a little slack on making it like it use to be
     yours truly…. thoughful

     Comment by thoughtful — March 23, 2007 #

320. 1 word…lol and are you a chick? How You Doin’?

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

321. BTW…mis·spell (ms-spl) KEY

     TRANSITIVE VERB:
     mis·spelled or mis·spelt (-splt) KEY , mis·spell·ing , mis·spells
     To spell incorrectly…
     You can’t even correct me correctly…lol

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

322. You saying you wanna see me on cam thoughful? I don’t even have a cam and I don’t want a cam and if I had a cam I wouldn’t charge to make all you women hate your men or all you men to hate yourselves discussed is gonna have a field day spell checking your post thoughtful (thoughful) “idiot” whatever.

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

323. discusses…your first post was calling most of us in this blog area either Yahoo! employees or attention seekers. It’s bad enough to look like an idiot and even worse to look like a hippocritical idiot! Freakin’ bible thumpers!

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

324. i didnt say i want to see u on cam. i didnt say maybe u do cams to make money
     please read well
     and thank you for ur rudenes
     i dont need to have my words spell checked, and no i am not a woman… and i dont need a woman , i am very happied married… and i do apologise,, i am amn enough to do that, which i rarely do when i am correct.

     Comment by thoughtful — March 23, 2007 #

325. sry man not amn….

     Comment by thoughtful — March 23, 2007 #

326. ahh i feel the love i agree though venom you are not here to complain you are ytk staff and you are biased lol you are trying to steer people over to the ytk site you can not complain about spam with spam! lol and btw if yahoo did fix the booting and spam issue who would want ytk then?

     Comment by LOL — March 23, 2007 #

327. I see a lot of you talking about this “content” reaching minors… I may be wrong but don’t yahoo give everyone a fair warning? and dont they now say that chat is not for minors? Parents like myself do have some responsibility there. Either way, i still think something SHOULD be done about the bots, now my primary concern is them bogging down the servers to the point where it’s lagging everything out… You would expect yahoo to realise they won’t make too much money when the advertising companies realise there are fewer and fewer people using yahoo each day. Like they said in the simpsons, just dont look, stay off yahoo, eventually the ads will be the only thing on there anyway

     Comment by Yahoo Hates Me — March 23, 2007 #

328. any one have this sarah bacon email addy at the office of Yahoo???????????????????

     Comment by den — March 23, 2007 #

329. I think someone at Yahoo! has to put their head against their computer screen, someone needs a Yah-Slap!
     This is absolutely B.S. trying to join rooms, this dam “You are already in this room” message pops up when I’m looking at the messenger on my desktop. No chat screen, no voices, just messenger and this stupid message. I’m gonna open this up and change that message to “You’re an idiot!” to remind me of the question I ask myself every dam day, WHY?

     Comment by polar — March 23, 2007 #

330. This is starting to look more and more like chat with all the bickering. The topic is, if I’m correct, Yahoo and finding a solution for the on going problems associated with the program and in particular Yahoo Chat. There has been some constructive ideas, including a law suit for allowing porn etc, to be readily available to minors. I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that I will be looking into different programs that offer security and monitoring in rooms.

     I was just wondering if anyone else is having issues with 360 and posting ? I wish Yahoo could get 1 thing right before stepping off and making new toys to frustrate us more……Cheers!

     Comment by Pixie — March 23, 2007 #

331. LOL wrote: “lol and btw if yahoo did fix the booting and spam issue who would want ytk then?”

     Well “smart guy”, let’s say Yahoo! completely ‘fixed’ booting and spam (impossible but hey let’s play along). Voice lagging (which isn’t booting) would still exist. Now, lets suppose that they miraculously ‘fixed’ that too. YTK Pro would still offer what, 100+ if not more chat enhancements? Let’s see what we’ve got here…

     How about full group-based management of ALL IM service functionality, custom ignore message creation, full media player support (”Now Playing” broadcast advertisements in chat rooms), unlimited ignore bin, unlimited safe list, deny-a-buddy (for ALL cross-im networks as well as for Yahoo!’s own), file type transfer screening (stopping malicious programs, viruses and worms from spreading), recently joined rooms list (for easy access to frequently joined rooms), complete ad killing, friend’s status change notifications in chat, font resizing, font effect stripping (fades and alternating colors), e-mail blocking, IP blocking and URL blocking (as well as catching), id AND nickname chat room auto-complete, duplicate message detection and blocking, chat message flood filtering (doesn’t have to be booting), full activity logging of all network events, full PM zone management, full invitations management, PC-2-PC call management (based on groups again), full peer-to-peer file transfer configuration (for getting around NAT), full Socks4a/5 proxy support, lots of “privacy” settings, friends online status checking, webcam scanning, archive message decoder & viewer (perfect parsing and high performance)… chat and voice chat enhancements, dubious amounts of integration via added custom menus and menu options, numerous cosmetic improvements etc.

     Yep, if Yahoo! completely ‘fixed’ all booting and spam issues I definitely wouldn’t want such a POS if it can ONLY do the above on top of offering the BEST in anti-spam and anti-boot protection schemes. Rofl. Your argument is shattered Mr. “LOL”. Good day though.

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 24, 2007 #

332. That custom ignore message stuff is just not right for anything. That sending back a message has gotten more people in trouble than good as far as I’m concerned because as soon as you reply to an instant message you are creating a connection from the one sending it and the one receiving it. Yahoo! automatically ignores too many chat room messages and some of the other bells and whistles wouldn’t be needed if Yahoo! fixed their vulnerabilities. I’d suggest putting time into custom emotes and banner killing because with a fix nothing but messenger would be needed…

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

333. Whoops! I forgot to say “Have A Nice Day!” and I see Yahoo! didn’t read my post from last night as it is still their and their filter isn’t catching it either…

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

334. Since I have more posts than any one single person can we change this blog to “The Polar Minute”? Watch me get rejected for spam. lol

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

335. I fully concur with Chet’s remarks, Yahoo has now become Yahell.

     Lose the spam BOTS, Yahoo is NOT the olny game in town.

     Comment by aroad_rarely_traveled — March 24, 2007 #

336. o god i knew that arrgoant idiot adam would show his face some time

     Comment by blah — March 24, 2007 #

337. Alrighty then folks, enough of the childish bantor amongst a few of you who have chosen to use this for your amusement rather than to get a message to Yahoo that we users are simply sick of the problems with the program.
     The porn bots are outrageous! The lag and inability to enter chat is rediculous! The ability for others in a chat room to hack or boot users makes chat more like an S&M session.
     I’m sure Yahoo had intention to make chatting fun and simple in the beginning, however, someone dropped the ball a long time ago and ignored maintaining the program.
     I too have complained only to get a form letter saying I should ignore all offensive users. Ha Ha Ha! Seriously Yahoo, you are losing your minds if you think people are going to continue to use your program. I hear it all the time, people are leaving Yahoo. Most of the 360 users are dropping off as well. Posting is at times very difficult and again the lag and inefficiency which Yahoo is now famous for is prevelant.
     I agree there should be a Class Action Suit against Yahoo for allowing the porn bots and the spammers to get to our children. Maybe it is indeed time to act on that folks!
     Yahoo may be a free program for users but Yahoo makes a killing off it’s sponsers therefore, without an audience, Yahoo is toast.
     Get your act together Yahoo or your 15 minutes of fame is going to end and all that money is going elsewhere to program makers who care about their users.

     Comment by Laura — March 24, 2007 #

338. All my first blog posts were about the chat experience and they don’t respond so why waste my time typing to them or waste my time trying to enter a room to get botted off the mic or out of the room if I get in a room when I can come here and interact with others with the exception of the YTK guys there is no spam and never a boot. I pay an amusement tax on my internet, so I guess as soon as I turn on my computer I’m to be amused.

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

339. I just had a brain storm…Yahoo! should drop down to just one room for a week then all the bot running pussies will self destruct and we can have chat back again.

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

340. Another day of trying to join chat and can’t and when I do I’m stuck with voice from 1 room and no font. All the voice bots and voice dominance programs are still working though. Yahoo! staff should be ashamed of themselves for taking a pay.

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

341. hi,i just come across this,via,my friends blog,were she posted link.I read a lot of comments and complaints here,and all very real,as my self,have come across them,being a yahoo user,it has come to a stage now,,were i wud,nt even be bothered with the rooms,,were at one stage i loved them!Something seriuosly has to be done,,big time,as why have yahoo if its not a 100%,especially in this day and age,,surely its not that hard,maybe if they stopped making the new versions etc,,and sorting out the problems that are there now,,maybe that wud be better.,as to me,,they r making the problem a lot bigger,,yahoo do us all a favour plz and get it sorted..pretty plzzzzzzzz:-)))

     Comment by kate — March 24, 2007 #

342. HELLO ONE AND ALL. IT SEEMS NOT ONLY ME IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE ROOMS AND THE BOTS , SPAMMERS AND BOOTERS, I TOO, HAVE TROUBLE GETTING INTO A ROOM, AND ONCE I AM THERE, I GET THE BOX COME UP SAYING I ALREADY HAVE JOIN CHAT OR USER INVALID, ETC , ETC, ETC… NOW WHAT IS YAHOO ! DOING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM? I SEE THEY KEEP MAKING NEW VERSIONS FOR PEOPLE TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL, NOW THAT SEEMS VERY STRANGE, CAUSE IF THEY INSTALL , THEN HOW IN GODS NAME DO THEYUSE THE ROOMS? NOW CAN ANYONE ANSWER THAT? AND CHET CREATED YTUNNEL WHICH A IS A VERY GOOD PROGRAM IN ITSELF, NOW IF ONLY YAHOO! CAN DO SOMEHTING THAT IS GOOD OR BETTER, THEN ALOT OF PEOPLE WOULD RETURN , NOW I KNOW ALOT OF PEOPLE AND THEY TOO , HAVE GONE BY THE WAYSIDE… THEY , LIKE ME USE TO ENJOY RELAXING AFTER A HARD DAY AT WORK AND JUST HAVE FUN CHATTING , CATCHING UP , ETC… SO IF YAHOO! DECIDES TO READ THESE COMMENTS AND COMPLAINTS , MAYBE THEY COULD GET OFF THEIR MONEY BAGS AND FIX THIS SITUATION.. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT MAKING MONEY IS A PLUS, BUT IT SEEMS THAT WHEN A BUSINES IS SLIDING THEN THE COMPANY WOULD NOT WANT TO OLOSE A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY FR THEIR INVESTERS.. SO YAHOO! WHAT DO YOU SAY? FIX IT OR LOSE?
     IT ISNT A WIN WIN SITUATION FOR YOU ANYMORE…

     Comment by JENNIE — March 24, 2007 #

343. Dear Yahoo,

     This page has been making the rounds on various communities. Its comments, specifically the voracious desperation of its users for you to resolve your networks issues are the object of much amusement.

     On a quasi-serious note, I am leaving this comment as a member of another online chat community on behalf of all the communities online.

     You and many of your users may or may not be aware that your micro-society is widely considered to be the trailer park of the Internet. A cesspool of pedophiles, uneducated degenerates (look the majority of these people struggle to spell even fundamental words and punctuate every other sentence with “lol”), chat addicts, middle-aged burnouts, sexually frustrated freaks, et cetera.

     Therefore, I implore you to resolve the aforementioned chat room issues before these slobbering oafs give up on your product and begin propagating into other online chat communities.

     You created this monster by spawning their sanctuary, now your duty is to fix it. Do it for the good of the Internet!

     Thanks,
     Catherine

     Comment by Catherine @ NYU — March 24, 2007 #

344. Catherine… exactly what is middle aged?;)
     Look at all them fancy words, if we knocked that book out of your hands you’d have a reaction similar to dropping off hellen keller in the middle of central park. So…which is it Catherine; are you the fat 40 year old virgin of NYU or are you the study queen with a life skill of using your big words to sound as much like an alien as you look?
     Take your time, I don’t need the answer I already know!

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

345. What chat community do you belong to Catherine and what communities do you represent? Post your internet hangout so we can see how you uber smart over educated idiots interact with one another.

     Comment by polar — March 24, 2007 #

346. Sounds to me like this Catherine is a bit frustrated reading everything here, probably because she buries her head in to many books looking for all the right words to say, and leaves no time for herself to get laid. If she is getting some, then I’d suggest turning over and trying the other hole, that will fix her “holier than thou” attitude, real quick!

     Speaking of which… That is what most people who sit in a chat room all day (no matter what services are used) are looking for anyways. A piece of ass… If this were not true, and yahoo was meant simply to chat, there is no reason for cams… Who needs a cam to just chat?

     Yahoo is just a cesspool of easy women and horny men, and everyone knows it. That is why there is SO MUCH PORN inundating the service, because it’s what yahoo is all about, it’s what attracted all the porn advertisers in the first place. The “other” services where the obviously higher class of people gather (such as Catherine), have the same thing going on as well, it’s just the fat,ugly and otherwise undesirable people in those communities don’t know it, because no one bothers to give them the time of day…poor Catherine… leave your pay-pal address if you have one, I’ll send you a few bucks to go buy more batteries…

     I can’t even count how many times I’ve chatted in ANY given room on ANY service, and within a few days, meet up with some yahoo-slut, AOwhore, Pal-talk skank, etc… and within an hour of that (if even that much), they were doing things that even “Girls Gone Wild” wouldn’t put on a DVD… Now don’t go ripping into me for what I said, almost everyone is guilty of it, and almost everyone on yahoo (and other services) has done it.

     So get used to the porn people, Yahoo isn’t going to get rid of their money-train. I will however, agree that yahoo needs to keep all that crap away from kids by incorporating some form of age validation into the sign up (like a credit card) to prove how old the person is when registering. That would definitely allow the software and/or service to limit exactly what and who can reach any child (17 and under, although it should be 21 and under) It will also place the full control on the parents who allow their kids to sign up, seeing that they would need to set everything up for them, which would include their age, then the software can do the rest depending upon the age entered. Then, and only then, can yahoo be completely free of any responsibility/liability over the content kids will see.

     Right now, yahoo is open to one hell of a nasty lawsuit, worse than the one that supposedly shut down the private rooms. I would jump on it as soon as possible (for anyone who has kids using yahoo) because yahoo doesn’t prevent access to any area based on age, (except their flimsy profile crap, which doesn’t stop the chat porn, or instant messages).

     Comment by D-MoN — March 25, 2007 #

347. Polar wrote: “That sending back a message has gotten more people in trouble than good as far as I’m concerned because as soon as you reply to an instant message you are creating a connection from the one sending it and the one receiving it.”

     Actually Messenger itself decides whether or not a PM session (through Yahoo!’s servers) should go P2P and it first would need to receive the encoded ip address of the other party via a “PEERTOPEER” packet before that was possible. Messenger won’t send out PEERTOPEER PM request packets unless the person you’ve PM’d (or received the PM from) is on your buddy list. Don’t take my word for it though.. just ask Yahoo! Inc.

     Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Yahoo! only keeps P2P PMing around to take load off their chat servers. It’s not near as common of a happening as your everyday indirect PM sessions through Yahoo! I hope you’ve learned something today friend.

     Polar wrote: “I’d suggest putting time into custom emotes and banner killing because with a fix nothing but messenger would be needed…”

     Custom emotes in Messenger can be created by even a two year old if they were to stumble upon emote.dat/emote_user.dat. I have more challenging goals to tackle than editing a text file to spam rooms with purple messages.

     About the banner killing… this can be accomplished quite easily by using even the Windows HOSTS file and can in fact rid Messenger of all advertisements. Again, I don’t find simply editing a text file “challenging”… do you?

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 25, 2007 #

348. Well done Adam, you posted a comment and didn’t even solicit your programs.
     As far as a 2 year old making an emote, then it should be easy for a guy like you to rip off a bunch real quick.
     If you are so smart Adam, why don’t you start your own chat and get people to pay you for the chat service instead of using Yahoo’s vulnerabilities for an income.
     Editing a text file is quite easy, especially if you save it the same way you found it, .txt not .dat or .exe etc…
     I do like your “ask Yahoo! Inc.” that would be quite an achievement to get a response from Yahoo!.

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

349. Your pm return message is only good for dummies, I know quite a few that can grab an ip from an instant message even without voice. Do you remember the old ways of doing a voice request then a netstat command gave you the rest.
     None-the-less I don’t hack, crack or run malicious programs. To befriend a person puts all those fancy programs out the window, the programs are only as good as the ones using them.

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

350. I’m thinking if it weren’t for the internet McDonalds would be overwhelmed with resumes. I’m betting that when the power goes out most of these uber elite programmers sit and read about programming. I have a plan though, turn off your computers once a day for 1 hour and read a book about something else other than computers and programming. Quote: “I don’t know everything about 1 thing but I know a little about everything!”. I can fix my car, my house (electrical, structural, etc.), my yard (my grass, my plants, etc.), my dinner (Kraft Dinner and cool aid to some chicken dish I can’t even pronounce with a nice red wine to wash it down), my computer (the components that make it a computer), my solar power system (right from collection to distribution), my furniture (dressers, beds, tables and chairs, fridge and stove, washer and dryer, etc.), BUT!…I can’t fix anything that doesn’t want to be fixed, as is Yahoo! and alot of people don’t want to be fixed either because they are afraid of change, even if change is better they prefer normal. So…why don’t all these people trying to improve Yahoo! just try making it normal instead of better because better is different and different is strange and strange is unknowing and unknowing is lost…are we lost looking for something that will never be? It’s starting to look that way.

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

351. Another brain storm and Adam will like this one…
     Why don’t you guys at Torseq Technologies make a program to auto refresh our browsers and we can use the blogs as a chat room since getting into a room is such a pain in the butt. If I said I am working on it with VB Express would you believe me?

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

352. My e-mail is fake!

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

353. Explain this Adam..
     VC Sync puts Markus out of business in the voice lagger department.

     Comment by Venom — March 24, 2007
     Is YTK having a power struggle with romanware?
     Is neo a factor?
     Are you all buddies just trying to outdo each other and using Yahoo! as your playground?
     Thank You!
     Polar

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

354. I also agree with chet and I don’t have much more to add to what’s already said. The point has been well made. Some of you seem to think this blog is not the place to post our displeasure with Yahoo chat. Let me say, if this is the only way we can be heard, so be it. My experience with emailing problems has and continues to be futile.

     Comment by personagrata — March 25, 2007 #

355. I am anable to connect to yahoo messanger

     Comment by sanket — March 25, 2007 #

356. I agree wholeheartedly, Chet. In fact, I posted this question in “Yahoo Answers” just six days ago:

     ———————————————————–
     When will Yahoo get it’s act together regarding their chat service?
     I have been using Yahoo Messenger for several years and have seen the service degrade rapidly. The chat rooms are flooded with bots. The rooms lists are horribly outdated. The rooms lists won’t load. It takes forever to join a chatroom. Once you get in, you are often sent to another room involuntarily. Chatting used to be an enjoyable experience and I’ve made many good friends there. Any correspondence to Yahoo seems to fall on deaf ears. They seem to be in the mindset that because it’s a free service, fixing it is low priority. Even chat features have been de-emphasized. How often are new audibles released? The IMvironments are nothing more than glorified advertisments. Booters are still a problem. It does NOT have to be like this. Yahoo could easily add a small step to the login process that would get rid of 90% of the bots. I’m sure you’ve seen login screens where you have to enter in a series of letters to login. “Bots” could not do this step. Buy Yahoo chooses to do NOTHING. Why?
     ———————————————————-

     I was hoping that someone at Yahoo would comment on it. Not a chance. It’s hard to believe they will fix this problem when they won’t even acknowledge there is a problem to begin with. They dumped the user rooms over the illicit behavior there. Maybe they need to “feel the heat” about this situation because the only reason I can think of that it continues is that Yahoo is making money from it. I think it’s outstanding that someone that has developed a third party application to help with this bot problem has come to you on behalf of all of us to ask you to fix it, especially considering that if you do fix it, it would most likely cut into the business of his own product. At least someone cares!

     Comment by Wayne Harke — March 25, 2007 #

357. hello,i have to agree what Wayne Harke has commented here, he seems to have hit the nail on the head and isnt advertising some other stuff… his real issue is yahoo and the problems we all are facing. not trying to sell VC Sync or anything else
     or griping about someone and how they use their words, he is just concerned with the issue at hand, bravo Wayne. If only alot of others felt the same as you do.. I enjoyed my chatting on Yahoo! but lately it is the pits… and i do think Yahoo is turning a blind eye and a deaF ear to this problem… and with the bots maybe they are making more money than be4. who knows??? but at least good ppl. are not paying into the bots scam and paying for that kind of crap.. we all just want our chat back with out all the bots, spammers, bells and whistles, just PLAIN chat rooms and no more new versions!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Comment by JENNIE — March 25, 2007 #

358. At last im not the only one getting discourage about chat room. the bots are taking 90%of the room and the comments they make are very offensive specialy to us ladies.
     Please do something it would be a shame to lose contact with all the m,any friends we made.I have been going to room 3 in romance for over 6 yrs and we are ,mostly over 60 and we enjoy the music and the comments all regulars make but already some are leaving they cannot stand those bots.Are we to see changes soon?

     thank you

     daisie

     Comment by daisie — March 25, 2007 #

359. I’ve been chatting on YaHoo! for 6 years. I’m sure I must be one of the society dregs that Catherine was speaking of earlier.

     I’ve watched the various changes YaHoo has made, some good, some bad. My biggest complaint is though YaHoo makes chages, the changes never really reflect what the actual users request.

     Yes, we have lame little avatars that we can dress up, and it’s cool that we have 360 blogs now… but we’ve been asking them to police the wankers that make the chat experience crap for years!

     Yet, let some parents randomly complain about pedofiles in the users rooms that might be speaking to their little Johnny or Bobby Sue and YaHoo is all over that like a chicken on a junebug… erm.. hello? it’s the internet, the anonymity of it is what gives to everyone that allows the pedofiles the security to roam around. Let parents police their children, let members police one another.

     Even YouTube allows members to police themselves.

     YAHOO! LISTEN TO THE FOLKS THAT ACTUALLY USE YOUR SEVICE!!

     The constant bombardment by porn bots in the chat channel *and offlines* makes it feel like you’re hanging out on the sleazy side of Vegas. YaHoo has tried to pacify us by allowing us to block random SPAM PMs with an ‘ignore and report as SPAM’ option, but what REALLY happens when you report?? I’ve never gotten anything back about the thousands of bots that I’ve sent to the Land of Iggy.

     If a startup like MySpace can figure out a way to get rid of spammers, then it’s pretty lame that YaHoo! cant.

     C’mon YaHoo!… do you really wanna be labled the ‘trailer trash of chat clients’?? Pick yourself up, brush off that Spam, Kool Aid and Old Navy, and start shopping at Kohls!

     Let’s be more like AOL or MSN, obviously that’s where the COOL kids hang out!

     Comment by Magen M. — March 25, 2007 #

360. lmao you people stop crying about spams bots yahoo makes money on them spam bots, and i make money to selling booters,crackers, and polar get a life you are all ways whinning yahoo is not going to fix the problem us programmers got to make our money and by the way i do sell yahoo illys names do you want to buy a name i been cracking names for 3 years now, so get over it polar this is a free chat,so quit crying

     Comment by yahoo name cracker — March 25, 2007 #

361. HI AGAIN, I WANT TO COMMENT ON WHAT MAGEN HAS SAID/ WHY THE HECK DO WE NEED THE AVITARS AND SUCH WITH YAHOO? WE ONLY WANT TO CHAT?
     MAYBE SOME PPL THINK ITS COOL BUT FOR ME I ONLY WANT A GOOD PLACE TO CHAT AND HAVE FUN, AND YES , THERE ARE ALOT OF PEDIFILES OUT THERE, BUT WE , AS A WHOLE, CAN PUT THEM TOO IN THE IGGY OR JUST NOT HAVE KIDS INTO THE ROOMS WHERE ADULTS CHAT, YAHOO IS NOT AT FAULT FOR KIDS GETTING INTO TROUBLE NI THOSE ROOMS ITS THE PARENTS FAULT FOR NOT WATCHING WHERE THEIR CHILDREN ARE DOING,, YAHOO NEEDS TO PULL UP THEIR SOCKS AND YES, DO SOMETHING, TO GET BACK TO REGULAR CHATTING AND MAKE THEIR CUSTOMERS HAPPY, LIKE MAGEN SAID, U CAN IGGY TO DEATH, BUT AS U IGGY 4 BOTS ,. 10 MORE COME IN… SO THIS IS ALL WE ARE TRYING TO GET ACROSS.. GET RID OF THE BOTS , SPAMMERS, BOOTERS , ETC, NO MORE BELLS AND WHISTLES WITH NEW VERSIONS… WE DONT NEED ALL THAT . JUST BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE CHAT ROOMS AS WE SEE FIT…

     Comment by JENNIE — March 25, 2007 #

362. The name still logs in! Anyone of you “I can crack a name” idiots want to try it… “chat.filter” is the name and flushing out idiots is my game.

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

363. Still logs in!
     Awww muffin… does a password other than 123456 stump you idiots! One of you idiots make a bot maker and give the info to another idiot who in turn makes an info cracker and you guys call yourselves programmers and crackers/hackers. I call you idiots and I will continue to do so…IDIOTS!
     Once again I’m the one that should get a life…haha!

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

364. Yahoo needs to wake up! The chat experience is becoming very unpleasant. No, chatters means no ads to sell. You have intelligent programmers, put them to use and figure this problem out. It cannot be that hard!

     Comment by Get a clue Yahoo — March 25, 2007 #

365. Another night of not being able to join a room and when I do join it’s voice from 1 room and no font…Congrats. to the Yahoo! Team for another great version that is junk.

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

366. Let’s get beyond the filters and have a few Yahoo! staff start answering some of the questions in this blog and their other blogs too!

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

367. What is going on with Yahoo! is what happens when you stump a nerd. They just sit there all quiet and dumb because they don’t know how to react to a negative or a false for you geeks.
     God Dam Joke!

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

368. This will be the last time I post here, or even visit this page for that matter. It is really sad to see that what started as a group venture to get the attention of Yahoo! and get a problem taken care of has turned into a stupid pissing contest.

     Comment by bigmama — March 25, 2007 #

369. We need to do something to Get Rid of the Bots that are blocking out the Chat Rooms. It souldn’t be this hard to get into chat rooms that are for Popular TV Shows like Survivor. Most nights its full of Bots and the Regulars can’t get in. What is the Problem??????

     Comment by Richard — March 25, 2007 #

370. No need respomding to bigmama, she’s not coming back and is just gonna spend her days trying to join a chat room.
     Good Luck on that!

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

371. Polar wrote: “Your pm return message is only good for dummies, I know quite a few that can grab an ip from an instant message even without voice.”

     Impossible. The ip is encoded within a “PEERTOPEER” packet (P2P packets are type 0×00 0×4D & 0×00 0×4F) and NOT within a PM packet (type 0×00 0×06) itself.

     Polar wrote: “Do you remember the old ways of doing a voice request then a netstat command gave you the rest.”

     The old voice conference invitation “ip snag” trick, yes, I remember it quite well. The ip address of the person that received the invitation, whether they accepted/declined or not, would be sent to you via the RTCP server in the format yahoo_id@ip_address:port. Messenger users were affected by this (Messenger 5.6 and below I believe). Netstat or an ip sniffer was used to grab user’s ip addresses from the voice conference.

     I’ve been around Yahoo! for years so I’ve seen a lot of things…

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 25, 2007 #

372. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXSPLAIN WHAT THE HECK “BOTS” ARE????

     PUPPY MILLS BREED MISERY AND DEATH

     Comment by rachodavis — March 25, 2007 #

373. In a sense all of us are bots, they are just Yahoo! Accounts. The accounts (bots) are loaded into a program in a fashion similar to logging into messenger but they are used for whatever the program is…Booter, Mass Ignore, Porn Bot, etc…

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

374. So…Adam, are you saying that P2P is bad and straight im’s are ok?

     Comment by polar — March 25, 2007 #

375. i used to go to the rooms a lot, but is impossible to get in any more. when 48 to a room, 30 of them are bots,, and really>> 60’s rooms is not the place for them to be hanging their hats,,,,or what ever else they are throwing around,,,
     true>> we have the ignore button and i thank you for that, as well as some others . that use it >> a lot!!
     but the bots.. keep us out as the rooms are too full,,
     maybe you could cut down >> how many can attend a room>> (bots only) at one time,, like to 5 maybe >> hahaha ty keep up the good work……

     Comment by sherry — March 25, 2007 #

376. The fight continues with the launching of the website for The Fight Against Yahoo! Chat Spam. This website is intended as repository of information and commentary regarding how we as a community can force Yahoo! to take action against this significant chat annoyance. It is also a gathering place for those third party software developers and active web based community members that wish to take part in eliminating Spam from Yahoo! chatrooms.

     So visit the new home of The First Against Chat Spam and see what you can do to help eliminate this problem!

     http://www.chatspam.org

     Comment by Chet Simpson — March 25, 2007 #

377. We all need to understand that YAHOO CHAT is free. Having said that…do you really think that YAHOO is threatened by any of us or our complaints? They don’t care, they’ve never cared and they never will care. It’s all about money and as long as ANYONE goes into chat, then nothing will be done. If we all just come to the conclusion that the only thing that will bring YAHOO to their knees is a total boycott of their chatrooms. We all complain and whine but yet we still keep pluggin’ along and sit for hours at a time trying to get into a room. If no one goes into chat, then those bots are doing YAHOO no good. Please! We can all give up chat for a week. I’m sure they’ll notice. We might even find out that we don’t need YAHOO CHAT anymore anyway. There are too many other chats on the internet to go to without letting Yahoo hold us hostage to their pathetic bots. Give Yahoo a taste of what they’re giving to us… Then maybe, just maybe they’ll do something about it. We’re playing into their hands. They know we’re hooked and they’re not concerned at all. Yes, admit it people, we’re addicted to YAHOO CHAT and that’s so sad on our parts. YAHOO has us at an idiot level. We’re stronger than this. We all know that YAHOO CHAT has been on a steady decline for years. Do any of you remember back in the day…when there was no audio? There were also no bots, booting or hacking. Sad that it’s come to this but I think you all know, deep down, that this is the begining of the end of YAHOO CHAT. YAHOO doesn’t need chat to keep in business. It’s more of a hassel for them than anything. In my opinion and it’s just my opinion…I think YAHOO is in the process of phasing out the chat program.

     Comment by antiyahoo — March 26, 2007 #

378. Polar, of course not. This isn’t a “bad” thing but I personally prefer that the PM session stay relayed through the servers rather than direct. These days with almost everyone being behind a firewall (windows firewall/sygate/kerio etc) or a NAT router a conventional p2p direct connection (router UPNP port-forwarding config isn’t supported by Messenger for p2p PMs) isn’t normally very successful (and never if BOTH parties are behind these).

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — March 26, 2007 #

379. AntiYahoo, you have it all wrong. In your statement, you said that Yahoo is free. Its not. We pay for it, one way other another we do by using their search engines, installing their tools,ect… Its all about advertizing. Their sponsors advertize and we buy. If we boycott their sponsors maybe that might help get their attention. ( Doubt it though). Yahoo could give a flying rats arse about us chatters, as long as we keep coming back to messenager. Ever since Yahoo was sold many years ago, its has gone down hill. I agree with Chet, we do have to be heard sooner or later. I just hope its soon. BTW. Yahoo aka Yahell… I want my damn original screen name back.:|

     Comment by Pleasure VS. Pain — March 26, 2007 #

380. What is happening to Yahoo Chat, I find it so difficult to get into my favourite room or any of the rooms for that matter. When I do get into the rooms I find there are always more bots than people. I have been going to the same room for over 3 years and I know a lot of the people I have made friends with there have been in the room for years longer than me. I am on my own in the evennings and look forward to being able to chat with my friends online but most of the time I am trying to get rid of the bots. Thank goodness I have Ytunnel too so that helps but the bots still keep coming. If I didn’t have ytunnel I would not be going into the room so I would not need to go into yahoo at all and I know there are a lot of people who don’t use Yahoo anymore too so all the ads companies are paying for are not being seen. There are times when there are so many bots in the room that I cannot get in at all. Surely something can be done…………….. please

     Comment by Annette — March 26, 2007 #

381. One of the other things I forgot to say is that when I do get onto Yahoo Messenger and the chat rooms I keep getting booted not just once or twice but a lot. I have watched other people trying to get into the room too it will take 10 - 12 times and even then they don’t get in. There have been times when I just have not been able to get into the rooms at all no matter how many times I try. It is sooooooooo annoying. Every one are coming up with new names for Yahoo, some of which I am sure you have seen e.g. yahell, yahcrap yah who and the one I use is Yahpoooooooooooo Is this really what you want people to be saying.

     Comment by Annette — March 26, 2007 #

382. Heres a few things I done to keep my kid off of Yahoo!…
     1-I made a fake Yahoo! sortcut on my desktop and put the windows logoff code in the target.
     2-The real messenger is in a zipped folder with a password.
     3-I blocked Yahoo.com with my firewall.
     4-I enabled my parental controls with a custom setting.
     5-I don’t leave my child alone on the computer…
     6-I enabled a password to get to the desktop.
     6 easy steps to discourage my child from using Yahoo! and having access to only the sites I have allowed, as a parent there are steps we must take to protect our children from things we don’t want them seeing…
     As for Adam of YTK and Chet of Y!Tunnel… I want the same things you guys want, I already use Y!Tunnel and will continue to do so until I can’t or don’t need to anymore. I can’t afford nor do I use credit cards, so another purchase of a program is out of the question…Good Luck! with your programs and I do hear only good about YTK and Y!Tunnel.
     People like marcus and neo make malicious programs to be used against us Yahoo! users and people like Adam and Chet make programs to help us, it’s too bad Yahoo! lets the malicious programs go on.

     Comment by polar — March 26, 2007 #

383. here here , polar, i agree, and what u said about doing all thaT TO protect ur children is great idea , too bad many more parents wouldnt think like that and then their children wouldnt be hurt or used… i tooo use ytunnel and it is great… that is the only pROGRAM I HAVE and only msn is where i do private chats.. i miss my yahoo and what it hasd representes in the past, i havent bene on yahoo for over a week or more now
     so lets hope yahoo fixes their porblem.. it isnt ours any more !!!!!

     Comment by JENNIE — March 26, 2007 #

384. All the problems with Yahoo! Chat are 1 of 2 things, either Yahoo! is attempting to fix their stuff or the bots are crashing Yahoo!. The bot programs give 1 single person the ability to be 1000 people in chat and that is not fair to the 1000’s of legitimate chat users that are having these login and room join issues. In a funny kind of way Yahoo! is discriminating against all who can’t afford to buy protection for their “safe” chat client. Maybe all of us “Broke Dicks” should file a grievance against Yahoo! for discrimination.

     Comment by polar — March 26, 2007 #

385. I must say i have to agree with chet i hate these spam bots and the porn bots as well. I don’t like waiting forever to get in a room and to find it all being chat spam bots and porn bots advertising there sick crap. yahoo get off your high horse and fix this please thank you for your time.

     Comment by why yahoo — March 26, 2007 #

386. MMM is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the mediator/helper that used to give advice on this site is no longer ‘helping’ or for that matter it does not seem that anyone from Yahoo has commented one time about anyones comments on here? Makes you wonder doesnt it. They can take the time to make new messengers with everything they can think of to put on there in the hope that ‘we’ will use it but if you cant get into any rooms to meet people or find friends then why bother making a new messenger? Isnt that the purpose of messenger? To use it to talk to friends? Well if there are no people using it because they are tired of the mess yahoo is in now then they are paying people useless money to make and improve messenger. Why not fix whats broken befor you improve on the bigger better broken stuff?? MMMM a little common sense there Yahoo? Is that even in Yahoo anymore? I for one dont think so. Thank you Chet for doing what you can.

     Comment by Pam — March 26, 2007 #

387. yea pam great point they blog about usless crap and how inovative yahoo messenger is when in reality its a joke of a chat service and they avoid the issues thatface the general public they seriously can never go in chat i sen a blog about a blind man no offence but i sympathise with him i can not see a chat room either and i have good vision lmao

     Comment by Yep — March 26, 2007 #

388. i say we post on every blog they publish lmao im gona start

     Comment by Yep — March 26, 2007 #

389. Isay knock yourself out Yep because I dont think after Yahoo posts a blog about their new and improved broken stuff that they ever go back and see if anyone comented on it. If they did that someone would see what we are saying on here an actually DO something about it.

     Comment by Pam — March 26, 2007 #

390. I have found it almost impossible at times to get in a chat room and stay there..either sound goes or the room is divided..What is the problem and why can’t yahoo fix this?? Why do you let bots use names almost identical to real people’s names???Why does it show 50 people in a chat room and when you do get there maybe 5 people are there??Why when I leave chat does my name continue to stay in there??? Thanks for listening!!

     Comment by Trish — March 26, 2007 #

391. Sarah Bacon has responded to me when I asked why my post got deleted. She even explained why my post got deleted yet didn’t bother to aknowledge the reason for my post in the first place…

     Comment by polar — March 26, 2007 #

392. Trish…Bots are Yahoo! Accounts just like any name you make for Yahoo!. Everything else you can blame the person running the bots (Yahoo! Accounts). As for Yahoo! fixing anything, a security word to join chat has been mentioned too many times to recall and they won’t even respond to those suggestions either. Yahoo! is asleep at the wheel and theres a sharp turn just ahead!…
     Wake Up!….ahhhhhhhhh, and now we are all just sitting and spinning!

     Comment by polar — March 26, 2007 #

393. start posting on the newer blogs this one will be buried soon people it might not get us anywhere but it shure as hell will piss them off rotflmao

     Comment by LOL — March 26, 2007 #

394. I went to a few blogs and Yahoo! deleted my posts, now can you imagine they will take the time to delete my post but don’t have the guts to answer 1 simple question relating to the chat rooms…go figure!

     Comment by polar — March 26, 2007 #

395. I have to agree with Chet……….however……….do we really think that they will do anything……….after all…….I have sent over 100 abuse reports about 1 individual over the last 2 years……giving out my personal information in a chat room…….and threatening to kill me in graphic detail………..the response was to ignore the individual……..worse yet…….in recent reports to them…..their reply was to give me detailed instructions on how to ignore someone. I am not stupid………and it won’t stop him from giving out my name address phone number………and oh yes…….he also got a hold of my ss #………….so you think they will listen to us about the spam bots? Highly unlikely…..but hey……..I support you 100%

     Comment by Beth — March 26, 2007 #

396. As a 6 year on-going Yahoo Messenger user and music room participant, I am amazed at the decline of Yahoo user ‘friendliness’.. over the past months. Many sound problems in Messenger, room lists often non-existant, room participant numbers ‘frozen’, often 10-12 tries to enter a room, and then 1. sound doesn’t work if you do ‘luck out’2. rooms often appear ’split’ with dual sound servers, in one room,3.after all the time and work to get in, ‘you are logged out.’ message flashed, and away you go, to start again 4.another tortuous attempt to re-connect. This appears to happen to all participants, no matter the Yahoo version they use 5. tremendous number of ‘bots’ luckily handled very well by using Y tunnel, (my Iggy Bin overfloweth) 6. ‘timed’ Yahoo boots, (for me 15 minutes after each hour in evenings, Eastern Time Zone, after all the work it was to get there. What are we/they doing wrong here? I am finding myself getting angry at the sponsors, (adverts)..wondering why they will put their names to such bad service advertising, and am tending to avoid their products..
     Perhaps Mr Simpson, given his expertise, may be able to attract the attention of the “Yahoo..powers that be,” with the rationale.. if you have dissatisfied users, your advertisers are losing the audience they pay to reach. Bots aren’t the ‘purchase power,’ real people are!!
     Are we alone here?

     Comment by missmuffet96 — March 27, 2007 #

397. Well i was just looking over the other blogs if you can call them that there a waste of web space the project manager has nothing better to post about than a smiley tattoo on someone leg????? how about all the usless plug ins that are so inovative lmao more like a waste of system recources adding to yahoos bulky messenger why cant they have a light version of messenger icq light,msn,aim all have lighter versions but not Yahoo in general it has a lot of usless features how many people use the voip and get CHARGED for it when services like google talk are free and much better quality and the yahoo web search people do have browsers you know… and i doubt anyone would use yahoos anyway google is far more efficant and accurate and to wade out older versions file transfer etc was stopped from sending to the new versions simple things like the join chat button in 8.0 WHY is it in such an awkward place its obviously going to be used a lot well folks it seems yahoo messenger is getting worse with every version

     Comment by Karl — March 27, 2007 #

398. If a person could stick their head in their bum they would undoubtably have a job at Yahoo!. I’m getting sick of being sick and tired and Yahoo! is making me sick and tired! I have met many people in the chat rooms over the past 5 years and for some punk to be able to ruin my Yahoo! Experience because his mommy gave him the credit card # to buy a program to do that really ticks me off. I’m fed up with Yahoo! turning their heads to such actions and yet taking the time to delete my posts from these stupid blogs.

     Comment by polar — March 27, 2007 #

399. As for Chet’s post, and the comments. I have a great respect for you Chet. BUT you make money off the problems yahoo refuses to fix and yet you complain NOW? those bots yahoo did not deal with, ytunnel charges around 30 dollars to view bot free. I think along with yahoo you also are part of the problem. Booters give Chet his daily income, so do spam bots. I think it a bit silly for a man who has made a great deal off yahoo’s FREE CHAT to say a word. My advice is this TELL CHET TO FIX IT.

     Comment by Todl — March 27, 2007 #

400. Its all very well adding new services and addons to messenger, i suppose it keeps the advertisers happy that you’re seen to be doing “stuff” but why cant some resource be put into putting the basics right… Having read through some of the comments above, Especially “missmuffet96 — March 27, 2007″ which reflects the problems that I have been experiencing for the last 2 or 3 weeks… lag in room is now getting a joke, type in a message and others dont see it for up to 2 minutes later… that if it appears at all.

     Come on Yahoo! get the basics right and resolved before bolting on additional services.

     Comment by Dave Lamb — March 27, 2007 #

401. YAHOO why is your service going to the dogs have you got the guts to answer that one- or will u hide behind the silence.

     Comment by HAMISH MACBETH — March 27, 2007 #

402. Maybe the person in charge of the Yahoo! Chatrooms is deaf, drunk and blind. Would that be enough to not notice what’s going on?

     Comment by polar — March 27, 2007 #

403. Time to start from the bottom and work our way to the top. I believe e-mails to the local papers, local news stations and the Corp news stations such as NBC would help us out a lot. Think about it…all the news organizations doing stories on Yahoo not working on their core problems, and interviewing people like Chet Simpson, who programs a tool to fight spam.

     I can see this in the news. It could be a sure-fire way to start some controversy. . .to get the web developers and program developers to start working on a more sound product again. Got to get people in a negative spot-light to get things done.

     I’ll leave this for ponder: CBS 60 Minutes vs RJ Renyolds

     Comment by Ken — March 27, 2007 #

404. I agree..send it in to Dateline, they are working so diligently on the predators of online chat..why not work on the spamming of porn to children. Yahoo has gotten so many complaints on this, and they honestly do not give a rats you know what. They should be concerned that young kids on here are seeing the filth that yahoo allows the spammers to peddle. I agree whole-heartedly with Chet, and I own Ytunnell to block all the spam bots and make sure I dont see them again…thank the gods and tunnell for that…Its a problem, thats falling on deaf ears. As I sit here and try to get into a room, which has been impossible for the last 3 hours how…which most likely will be filled with bots of which I’ll have to ignore my 1000 for the day, then on to dealing with the leet wannabe’s who think they own yahoo. Hmmm maybe I can ask one of them to fix the problem. Ha.!

     Comment by Vamp — March 28, 2007 #

405. Haha, I can’t believe my post got deleted, you guys are weak.

     Again I say; You as parents should be more concerned about pedophiles hittin’ on your kids instead of spam bots posting porn. You have a responsibility as a parent to not subject your children to something you know is dangerous. Heck, the Internet itself is a dangerous place, not just chat rooms. The internet is full of spam, malware, spyware, adware, and free porn with a simple google search. Chat rooms are just an added danger.

     I’ve met people in chat who I know are younger than they make (fake) their age on their yahoo account. It’s not hard to do so, you have the option to put in ANY year of birth you like.

     Either monitor your kids, or pay a babysitter to do so or get a family member to do it.

     Yahoo! does not have hidden cameras in your house. They DO NOT know that your child is faking their age on their account.

     And if you really think your kids are that trustworthy, you’re kidding yourself.. The things kids see on TV, even Free-to-Air TV, I’m telling you guys.. It’s a worrying thing.

     Either take some responsibility for your children, or stop whining about spam bots posting porn.

     Comment by Xenophobic Sage — March 28, 2007 #

406. OK, Let me get this straight. yahoo is free to chat on. Booters begin to act up and send small amounts of boots. So Chet and others make 3rd party chat clients. THAT YOU NOW PAY FOR,,,,,,,,, SO!!!! booters make better boots which make more bots filling up rooms and the fight goes on and on UNTIL one day a booter floods a room making yahoo say it is filled. AND this is yahoo FAULT. Read up everyone. This was a fight against booters and programers who made chat clients. YOU ARE PAYING for there fight. Sorry but I see it that way. I am not saying programers were wrong but yahoo is not at fault.

     Comment by Todl — March 28, 2007 #

407. Hmm todi no disrespect but you have no clue what you are talking about y tunnel is not a client its an alg that hooks into yahoos dlls… yahoo are to blaim because the ymsgr12 login has been working for over a year now while they used to be pathed regularly this in turn would stop at least 95% of booters they could use wap etc to boot but not half as many would bother or have the bandwidth to unless they were executing it from a server. if yahoo patched the ymsgr12 login ALL booters would not work period some would after a while when somone broke the new ymsgr encription and released it to the public unltil then NO booters (in genral!) will work that would be a good start them patching the login.

     Comment by Blah — March 28, 2007 #

408. Here’s food for thought if yahoo charges advertisers based on how many users are in chat and 70 to 80% of users are bots isn’t that kind of like FRAUD think about it and you advertisers should be thinking about it as well

     Comment by sniper — March 28, 2007 #

409. it just gets worse and worse … yahoo is dying …they dont care about the user ,,,they will get paid by the advertisers as long as the bots fill the rooms and all the whining in the world aint gonna get to the shiny bums that call the shots ..they are getting paid ..mabee an email campaign to advertisers isnt such a bad idea ..hit yahoo where it hurts

     Comment by blair spalding — March 29, 2007 #

410. Dont know if this will be seen by yahoo but im rather annoyed. A lot of us cant get into chat by going through messenger we have to pm someone thats online and ask them to invite us to the room. Also yahoo is eating what we type ie it doesnt go into the room we go invisible. Also there is a great deal of lag, we can be talking about something and a sentence comes up from 10 minutes before.

     Comment by Yorky — March 29, 2007 #

411. You are at an all time low when you have to reach up to touch rock bottom…Yahoo! better get a ladder!

     Comment by polar — March 29, 2007 #

412. B.S. is all Yahoo! is these days!

     Comment by polar — March 29, 2007 #

413. Couldn’t agree with you more Sniper…question is, how do you get a hold of the big wigs of the sponsors? It’d be a great step along with talking with the media about the problems with Yahoo! chat.

     Comment by Ken — March 29, 2007 #

414. Well it would be how many hits they get not on how many people are in chat LOL you can not help click the links once in a while unless you kill the ads! when they stop making a profit they will pull out and that will never happen to many use messenger with ads

     Comment by Hmm — March 29, 2007 #

415. How many people use messenger and don’t use the chat rooms? I don’t know of anyone.

     Comment by polar — March 29, 2007 #

416. umm i use messenger but not the chat rooms i gave up trying to get in them so now i do not bother its pointless you spend at least 15 mins trying to get in one then when you do its all bots waste of time

     Comment by Karl — March 30, 2007 #

417. Porn bots make up a small percentage of the chatters list, maybe 5 at one time. The room filler bots and iggy bots are what stuff a room and make all Yahoo’s servers act up. Remember about 4 years ago a guy attacked the Yahoo! servers and the chat rooms were down for quite a few days maybe weeks. Nonetheless that is what needs to happen again because these little gimps that run the bots in rooms need a head shake and realise they don’t own the rooms they fill with bots.

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

418. That Yahoo! is recording ip’s is useless unless their own emplyees are dos attacking ip’s for poops and giggles. Actually that wouldn’t surprise me any from what I hear about Yahoo! employees being part of the malicious programs that are around anyway. I think Yahoo! has to clean house first then fix their chat services. No use making a patch when one of the employees is sneaking the exploits out the back door.

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

419. Porn bots make up at least 50% of the room at a time. Just yesterday I was in a room and sat there literally for 10 minutes just iggy’ing bots, and when I did, another would come in. And they were NOT booter bots. You can tell the difference. Yahoo will do nothing to fix the problems. Its not just bots, its voice lagging, no voice at all, can’t get in rooms, eating of crayon, logging you off an on, not being able to sign on at all. ITS LOTS OF THINGS. Yet they come out with more and more new messangers..but don’t fix the internal issues. As for Tunnell..they are not to blame…yes they make money on the yahoo problems…why shouldn’t they…yahoo won’t fix it..and i’ll pay the little funds for making the bots go away..not just ignored. Don’t blame the 3rd parties…BLAME YAHOO…
     Oh…and I am a parent..of which watches what my child does online..I wasnt blaming yahoo for the pedofiles and porn..but more people should be aware of whats going on in the chat rooms…I as a mother am constantly “advising” the young ones…not to give their a/s/l or webcams or whatnot….YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOUR REALLY TALKING TO…be smarter!!

     Comment by Vamp — March 30, 2007 #

420. Are you the Vamp from room 2 or 3?

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

421. Hopefully not the same Vamp that stood up for the cmb while they run their useless booters and fruity voice bots on me. Yahoo! Gangs are a joke and Yahoo! Love is a joke, as far as that goes…Yahoo! is a JOKE!

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

422. Another post removed…you people amaze me at the speed to remove a post and the inability to answer one.

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

423. Why not just fix your chat rooms so I can go back to doing what I liked doing. I hate this blog BS and everything that goes with it including the typing exercise.

     Comment by polar — March 30, 2007 #

424. I personally gave up on Yahoo messenger because of the problems in its program last year. I was thinking about downloading the newest version, but from what I can tell its still the same. The program doesn’t work well, and Yahoo simple does not care about the users of its program.

     Comment by txwishmaster — March 30, 2007 #

425. In strength their are numbers and if we the disgruntled and fed up with this Porn bot crap maybe somehow banding together we can at least reduce the number of Spam bots. Seems as soon as MSN shut down their chat rooms in Oct 2006 its became so bad on Yahoo . Chet you have a great program and like someone said when i first got it it took care of most of the junk bots now they keep evolving and changing and there is only so much Ytunnel can do. Nice how yahoo has made sure no one can complain to them anymore. Sounds like a pretty shady company who does not want to be bothered .

     Comment by Doc — March 30, 2007 #

426. Lol no Polar, im not the Vamp for 2 or 3…and im not a Yahoo Gang..ha-ha. Its just a nickname. Just annoyed at all the Yahoo BS, and felt the need to vent. I’ve been on for about 2 years now, and have alot of friends I talk to on a daily basis, it a good means to chat with people from everywhere..when were all friends..just frustrating as hell when you have no voice, no crayon..or can’t get on at all. Just soooo considering another option.

     Comment by Vamp — March 31, 2007 #

427. I wish google would come up with a chatroom. Since google is so good at everything so far, I am sure if they came up with a chatroom it would absolutely be much better than yahoo.

     Comment by Aloufa — March 31, 2007 #

428. I asked a simple question awhile back and nobody will answer it. It was directed towards the programmers that make and sell their programs for a profit; do they pay taxes on the money they make from the programs? They make programs to try and impress people with their knowledge of computers. Geeks don’t impress me, I’m more impressed by the people that make all the little components that make a computer. Make a vehicle that will run on the same principle as an Air Hog (compressed air) then you will have impressed me.

     Comment by polar — March 31, 2007 #

429. Serious question… since there are 50 billion people upset with Yahoo…How come no one has created their own “Yahoo type program” ?? Chet ? Im a licensed owner of your YT program. You have the smarts with writing programs … go 4 it if you have time..I know I’d buy it. - Daryl

     Comment by Daryl — April 1, 2007 #

430. All the add-ons like tunnel are having a hard time working when messenger is so messed up. Yahelite is working flawlessly along with yahoo lagg killer and they couldn’t boot or lagg me last night. Y!Tunnel needs to be a stand-alone program to work on Yahoo! because messenger is all fudged up.

     Comment by polar — April 1, 2007 #

431. All it takes is a few days of all of us to boycott using Yahoo and give Paltalk our services. Maybe even the advertisers will notice and stop sponsoring Yahoo until they can get their “act” together. It seems the spammers/bots are more important than having REAL LIVE PEOPLE chat in yahoo rooms

     Comment by Rhonda — April 1, 2007 #

432. HEY RHONDA, I AGREE WITH YOU.. IF EVERYONE DID BOYCOT YAHOO AND DID GO TO PALTALK THEN JUST MAYBE.. I KNOW ALOT OF MY FRIENDS HAVE GOT PALTALK NOW AND USING IT, I KNOW IT ISNT YAHOO BUT AT LEAST WE CAN HAVE A DECENT WITH OUT ALL THE CRAP! AND YES THERE ARE ALOT OF “REAL ‘ PEOPLE USE YAHOO! CHAT ROOMS … SO I SECOND IT , THAT YAHOO GET THEIR ACT IN GEAR AND FIX THE PROBLEMS NOT MAKING NEW VERSIONS..

     Comment by blanche54 — April 1, 2007 #

433. Well paltalk is a pretty nice application it is a messenger and chat application which runs pretty nice you can create your own rooms and admin them or you can have your friend admin your room while you are away so you can run them however you want and has lots of nice people on it,no bots,booters,lots of people from yahoo have come over to paltalk

     Comment by paltalk user — April 1, 2007 #

434. I tried paltalk a while back and I did not really like it. I’ll give it another try and see how it goes.

     Comment by Aloufa — April 1, 2007 #

435. How can y tunnel be a stand alone prog all it does is hook onto messenger .dlls lol its an alg not a client if yahoos screwed so is y tunnel :l

     Comment by LOL — April 1, 2007 #

436. Yes it’s bad to c how yahoo is letting us down pls do some about

     Comment by hewluis — April 1, 2007 #

437. Y!Tunnel could be stand alone the same way yahelite is. The 3rd party client basically with the options of Y!Tunnel

     Comment by polar — April 1, 2007 #

438. I fail to comprehend why yahoo continues
     to worsen an destroy yahoo chat and the
     experiece.
     The bots have become a running annoyance and
     joke in chat………..
     I for one for the last month or so cannot even get
     into chat which wold be a waste of time
     because most rooms are nothing but bots….

     Comment by Shoemake — April 1, 2007 #

439. You guys are still going at it? Nobody cares that the only outlet you have for social activity is broken half the time. You live in chat. You cannot function without it. This is where it’s time to either blow your brains out, or go outside.

     Comment by Guy Smiley — April 2, 2007 #

440. I don’t have a gun and the sun burns my skin, so I got Yahelite and now I can join chat as I used to. The messenger is all buggered up and won’t work, other 3rd party clients work fine and even join rooms quickly.

     Comment by polar — April 2, 2007 #

441. …I have/had been a yahoo chatter since 1999. My avenue for chatting was a users room where like-minded individuals gathered in order to share within our realm of expertise. This room was never vulgar or distasteful but rather focused on the arts and everyone was welcome. Then do the misfortunate events of parents allowing their children to run amuck within an ‘adult entertainment’ realm, we (the users/chatters) of yahooland suffered the blow of all user rooms being removed from the programming. So then we utilized our ‘group chatroom format’ only to have that taken away as well. Now when Yahoo has thought to lick their problem, those who once created their own rooms have just gone and taken over some other yahoo chatroom and what the developers of Yahoo thought they had eliminated, actually never went away.

     …Now with the increase of the SPAM bots, nothing in Yahoo chat is pleasant. I know of the members that use to grace our users room are no longer in chat and few even use their messengers either. So with the continued non-effort to help those users/chatters who have hung tough throughout this dilemma from Yahoo, the word is spreading like wildfire to Paltalk, and any other venue that may spring-up.

     …I have seen some comments here about the possibility of Yahoo charging for chat and quite frankly since I was willing to purchase Chet Simpson program to rid myself of the insidious SPAM bots and/or disgusting unwanted PM/IM’s (I am especially fond of the use of the “Wildcard” within YTunnel) the only way I would be even remotely interested would first be in seeing that Yahoo actually gave a hoot about its returning customers because we all know in cyber space numbers=money- and that they actually cleaned house. I think just offering a basic program WITH all the insanity and then having different options with a paid program which would INCLUDE having users rooms offered once again WITH the old code that allowed room developers to remove unwanted/or less than desirables within those rooms.

     …I have grown weary Yahoo as to IF you will EVER come to your business sense and actually DO SOMEthing about your total lack of commitment; compassion; understanding. It’s just too bad none of you have to go through this process in order to “get to your work” every day … THEN! Possibly you might …. just maybe … truly do something about the disgruntle masses who use to sing your praises.

     Comment by Julia — April 2, 2007 #

442. …and as an added side note .. i just went into chat and though the room listed 41 chatters, i immediately ignored 24 bots of those possible 41, and within 5 minutes i continued to ignore a total 50 ( which is suppose to be a rooms limit as to the amount of allowed chatters before it is listed as being full according to Yahoo’s chat program) SPAM bots. O yeah .. what a delightful chat experience! and thats WITH using YTunnel so who knows how many other bots were already eliminated due to the use of that program?

     Comment by Julia — April 2, 2007 #

443. Why isn’t Yahoo addressing the problems (i.e. porn bots, booters, etc.)? If you are going to put an option to chat through Yahoo Messenger, then I would think you would fix these issues! Yahoo should be ashamed of themselves for allowing such nonsense in their chat rooms. Also I would like to add, since I am a subscriber to Yahoo Premium Services, why not make an ‘ad-free’ Yahoo Messenger for people who are paying for ATT broadband or SBC Dialup? Please listen to all of us when we say that the spam bots, porn bots and booters and hackers are taking over Yahoo Chat.

     Comment by Lucky Charms — April 2, 2007 #

444. I think most of the problems we all experience on Yahoo! starts and stops at Yahoo!. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch! If Yahoo! has double dealing workers they should get rid of them.

     Comment by polar — April 2, 2007 #

445. I’ve rarely used Yahoo! Chat in over two years but I want to address the readers of this blog anyway.

     Implementing the needed changes to create a functional Yahoo! Chat is not high on the list of priorities for Yahoo! Inc. because it is not profitable. If Yahoo! Chat was a lucrative business venture there would have been innovative improvements to sustain and increase its user base rather than indifference and disabled features (user rooms).

     I wouldn’t be surprised if Yahoo! Chat goes the way of the dodo bird and MSN Chat. As it is now, there’s not enough money in this, especially when there’s already a free tried-tested-and-true model like the IRC protocol and various social networking sites that have more to offer than archaic chat rooms (and the chat rooms they do offer provide Flash based rooms with streaming A/V sans spam, bots, or exploits).

     Besides, it’s spring now. All of you in the northern hemisphere should be out enjoying the weather rather than chatting in Yahoo

     Comment by DW — April 2, 2007 #

446. i got to agree with lucky charms if you are a subscriber to Yahoo Premium Services it should be ad free,like paltalk no ads at the bottom when you are in a chat room

     Comment by paltalk user — April 3, 2007 #

447. I just joined a room and it was full of filler bots and you would not believe who was running the bots, you would be right if you guessed some dried up old hag that either has nothing better to do or can’t do nothing better than to fill a room with bots all day long while she watches her gut go from squatting on her lap to sitting on her knees. We have everything for everybody including tons of stuff for retarded people to do and we give all you fat, ugly no-lifers a piece of Yahoo!. You people approach chat the same way you approach a dinner table, you pull up a chair and hog it all.

     Comment by polar — April 3, 2007 #

448. hello, as of this afternoon, i have heard fr a friend that yahoo is going to fix the problem, it was in her ytunnel news

     Comment by blanche54 — April 3, 2007 #

449. http://www.helpbytes.co.uk/yahoo.php
     check out that site

     Comment by blanche54 — April 3, 2007 #

450. http://www.chatspam.org/
     here is another site to check out

     Comment by blanche54 — April 3, 2007 #

451. wildchild…………….good news from tunnel pro….yahoo is finally listening to our compliants and will hope to resolve the issue by May 14th

     Comment by blanche54 — April 3, 2007 #

452. Yahoo deleted my account for no apperent reason! They fail to return email and correct my problem, Yahoo can really suck at times!

     Comment by Litht(sam) — April 3, 2007 #

453. r u sure yahoo deleted ur account?
     well maybe they will give it back once they fix the problems, u never know , give it time
     thats all we can do now…

     Comment by blanche54 — April 3, 2007 #

454. I’m thinking Yahoo! is figuring if marcus, neo and a few other idiots are making $10 - $25 for programs to bugger Yahoo! up then maybe Yahoo! can charge $10 - $25 to fix it. I keep hearing talk about Yahoo! becoming a pay chat and maybe this is the way they are going to do it.

     Comment by polar — April 3, 2007 #

455. Yes, according to Yahoo! Customer Care they expect the problem to be fixed on or around May 14th. Here is a copy of the email I and others have recently received concerning the issue of joining chat:

     Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Messenger.

     We understand that you are unable to enter chat rooms through Yahoo! Messenger. We do realize the inconvenience and empathize for your present situation.

     We are currently aware users may experience slow load times when trying to access or communicate in Yahoo! Chat. These issues may be intermittent, allowing access to Yahoo! Chat on some occasions, and on others return the message “Signing into Chat took longer than expected” or “request refused.” Our engineering teams are currently investigating an issue with the Yahoo! Chat servers and working on a resolution.

     Unfortunately, we do not expect that this issue will be resolved until 14 May 2007. We are aware Yahoo! Chat is important to you, and we want to make sure this issue is resolved correctly.

     We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused and appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to resolve this issue.

     Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Messenger.

     Comment by Chet Simpson — April 3, 2007 #

456. You know like most other memebers im finding this a little preturbing. The fact remains that when we try to log into chat not only is about 60% of the populous in chat a spambot, but also it is near impossible to get into chat. there is always a problem connecting to the server it takes about 20 attempts to even get the server to connect to chat and then due to the rising amount of spam bots, it is almost impossible to get into the rooms. I have ytunnel pro and i have over 34,000 bots in my ignore bin. yahoo doesnt give anywhere near that amount of ignore space. you need to do something about the worsening condition of yahoo chat before we all start going back to aol or msn. i have been on yahoo for some number of years and this is completely discouraging that when i try to get into chat to be with my cyber friends that i cant even get a connection to the chat server. then when i get in, i get logged out right away. or get flooded by bots. once again i say something needs to be done! i am at my wits end with all of this crap!

     Comment by donna — April 4, 2007 #

457. When are you going to bring user chat rooms back? I miss being able to be with my friends in an area that we know. not the user rooms which are full of spam bots.

     Comment by donna — April 4, 2007 #

458. I posted in a blog (http://blog.messenger.yahoo.com/blog/2007/04/03/security-update-in-latest-version/) last night with just a tidbit of information regarding certain programs from 2 sites that are out to do nothing but disrupt chat for everyone including a direct bash towards YTK Pro and a booter made especially for YTK. These programmers need to be taken off the net all together for both cracking and redistributing microsoft programs and making malicious programs to interfere with the public communications we call Yahoo!. Everybody loses with people like that around.

     Comment by polar — April 4, 2007 #

459. I have to agree with all that has been said and said agan and again … True we pay nothing . But you (yahoo) started this and at the time it was started it was fantastic and a wonderful …
     If I was ther CEO of yahoo and i am sure at the time the CEO was very proud of what yahoo had accomplished, but now it seem Yahoo has thrown its royal chatters out in favor of Bots . The way yahoo is now a lot of the chatters that have been with yahoo for years are going to other chats , like Paltalk where it good and clean chat , the sound is good .. I know we pay nothing and I for one would pay for the chat service if it meant i wouldn’t have to put up with the BOTS and could get into a room when i wanted too …
     Come on Yahoo give us back our chat .. And why the date of May 14 before the problem will be addressed … You know what the problem is you created over 300 rooms , take a look out of 300 , 250 are all bot rooms … 2 and 3 bots in a room …. show us we are important .. step up to the plate and take chat back from the kids that proclaim they are over 18 …
     Patmistyblue

     Comment by Pat — April 4, 2007 #

460. I notice Yahoo’s letter states nothing of the bot problem, just the entering of chat. Well thats all well and good, so now you’ll be able to get into a chat room full of bots..whooppeee..They need to address alot more then that. Read the whole blog YAHOO, thats not our only complaint. How about
     bots, booters, losing voice, disconnecting, losing text, BOTS BOTS BOTS. And as for bot makers, if you cannot find them, thats sad…just sit in a “crew” room and listen to the leet wanna’bes and they tell you whos got the best booters, where the booters are, is where the bot makers are.!!
     Most of the time they are one in the same. 16 year old kids who know their computer stuff, wasting their lives on crap like this…who will probably go out into the real world get a real job..(maybe) and make over $100K a year as a programmer…but for now..its entertainment.

     Comment by Vamp — April 5, 2007 #

461. Is it possible for yahoo to tell us how many bots are in chat - as against real users -bet they wont.

     Comment by pissed off chat user — April 6, 2007 #

462. I figure about 20 bots for every real person in a room. That is based on a single person running 100 bots with only 5 real people in the room. That would be pretty close to what I’m seeing in the rooms lately.

     Comment by polar — April 6, 2007 #

463. This guy named “zeus” in The Fight Room:1 told the room that he works for neo as a program tester and neo works for Yahoo! in administration. Any truth to Yahoo! Emplyees being half the problem with Yahoo! Chat these days? If you don’t know neo he is a guy that sells malicious programs to be used on Yahoo! Chatters.

     Comment by polar — April 6, 2007 #

464. Polar wrote: “certain programs from 2 sites that are out to do nothing but disrupt chat for everyone including a direct bash towards YTK Pro and a booter made especially for YTK.”

     We (the YTK staff) are aware of a few programs that are and have in the past been touted to “destroy YTK Pro” or “hammer it” etc, directly suggesting that these programs would be the end of it. Well, the good news is that each and every one of these YTK Pro “booters” that were claimed to “boot” YTK Pro were tested by not just our staff but others too and conclusive evidence proves far beyond a reasonable doubt (I made videos demonstrating these programs ineffectivness!) that they’re nothing more than a desperate cry for attention in the booting underground and more of a ploy to coax lesser knowledgeable potential buyers into purchasing. These programs are listed as follows (tested and all fail to even make YTK Pro wince):

     1) Spanked & Spanked Reloaded
     2) YTK WTF Ever
     3) YTK WhiteOut

     All of these booters are simply nothing more than simple PM bombers which are easily defeated by:

     1) Gawd Mode (can’t be booted)
     2) C-Mode (shielding mode renders PM bombing useless)
     3) A fast internet connection + blocking PMs (PM bombers rely on sending out massive amounts of PMs and are only effective if the attacker’s connection is almost equal to, equal to or exceeding the “victim’s” or target’s internet connection in terms of available downstream bandwidth)

     For the record, YTK Pro was released late last year on November 12th (at night EST) and to this day (April 7th, 2007) there has yet to be a single malicious program (booter, voice lagger etc) to specifically penetrate (exploit a vulnerability/weakness) it.

     While this has only been about a week shy of 5 months availability for YTK Pro it does demonstrate how serious Brock and I (the developers) take security and protection as a whole. I’ve written up several tech articles providing an assortment of information regarding some of the protection systems and technologies embedded into YTK Pro (and VC Sync - our complete voice anti-lag solution). You’ll find that these technologies that empower YTK Pro range from packet tracking (Stateful Packet Inspection - a technology used at the network & transport protocol layers by firewalls) to packet profiling to flood protection. The booters aren’t able to beat it at it’s own game and with the advent of these 2 new and powerful anti-boot modes (C-Mode & Gawd Mode) they’re probably pretty bored by now even trying to circumvent programs that have implementations for each.

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — April 7, 2007 #

465. Ya i saw the letter too
     It’s been screwed for over 3 months now and it’s going to take another 6 weeks to fix
     Why bother fixing it just shut it down and be done with it by the time you fix it there won’t be anybody left to chat with
     There is also a rumor going around that yahoo is closing chat by the end of the year
     Anyone else hear this

     Comment by sniper — April 7, 2007 #

466. And by the way if you do close chat, I don’t know about the rest of you, I will have no use for yahoo messenger I only use it to get into chat messenger isn’t secure enough for anything else so when chat goes so does messenger

     Comment by sniper — April 7, 2007 #

467. Another ytk sales pitch lets make this a buy ytk thread :l pathetic

     Comment by HMM — April 7, 2007 #

468. i would like to agree with adam with the post he made on the other blog,and this is so true.

     As far as the availability of the Kakadu webcam JPEG2000 implementation on other platforms… on Kakadu’s site there are some examples for both Solaris and Linux.

     I’m glad that remotely exploitable vulnerabilities in your libraries (ie. yacscom.dll) are taken serious and fixes are pushed out immediately upon awareness of such issues. I don’t, however, see why such issues are taken seriously by Yahoo! but cleaning up your chat network from booters, cracking, voice lagging and spam are “afterthoughts”. You have kids, day in and day out, going around freezing up entire rooms of voice chatters and booting them off your network.. treating them like they’re yo-yos until they just lose hope and stay off Yahoo! Chat until the attacks cease. I find it completely unacceptable that these problems have existed for so long (YEARS) and the root of the problems haven’t been addressed. As far as I’m concerned, in order of priority, denial-of-service issues should be fixed first and then the serious spam-related problems next.

     Since programs such as Chet Simpson’s Y!TunnelPro and my program (YTK Pro) already address both issues and resolve them (to an extent) the denial-of-service issues can wait until after the spam issues are rectified. At this point in time the chat network performance is out the window and is so poor that even die-hard chatters completely obsessed with Yahoo! chat are turning away. I think that having to wait (stall or whatever..) until the middle of May is pretty pathetic. We’re talking another month and a week up until this date and it’s already been going on hardcore for many months now (less or worse each day and fluxuating).

     Your help pages support for Yahoo! Messenger 6.0 (uses YMSG12) was recently dropped and even more recently help page support for Messenger 7.0/7.02/7.5 (uses YMSG13/YMSG14) has been thrown out too. What exactly is keeping you guys (@ Yahoo!) from scrapping login support for YMSG14 and below? Interoperability is only possible with your newer protocol version YMSG15 and this login hasn’t been “cracked” yet so rationally considering a forced upgrade for everybody to use Messenger v8.0+ would be a move that would not only promote your IM service provider interoperability support more (WLM, LCS and Sametalk) but would also kill both birds with a single stone (conventional booters/booting & chat room spam). While the move wouldn’t totally remove these two hefty problems it would without a doubt be a noticeable and very welcomed change. What’s the hold up?

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — April 7, 2007 #

     Comment by paltalk user — April 7, 2007 #

469. I for one have stopped going to any chatrooms.I have switched to a commercial chat program so do NOT NEED yahoo messenger.
     I”m sure more will follow my path.Yahoo be warned ,we are leaving and WILL NOT BE BACK!!!!!!!!!!

     Comment by mrbuyout — April 7, 2007 #

470. I hate to be a bug in Chet’s butt, but my Y!Tunnel gets booted as easy as messenger alone. Now that messenger is all screwed up Y!Tunnel is not worth loading because I only get partial voice in a room and get absolutely no font. Yahelite gives me voice and font but what is it worth when you are getting botted off voice and booted from the rooms. The sad part is that the losers are paying up to $35 for a malicious program to be a Yahoo! Somebody.

     Comment by polar — April 7, 2007 #

471. LMAO ytunnel can be booted with a single bot ytunnel = has been was good for a while ytk= new so no one cares to boot it YET they are both alg and work on the same princerpal both will be become obselete dont waste your cash and get back to the real issue SPAM

     Comment by Yahoo User — April 8, 2007 #

472. Not only can y tunnel be booted easy ,but theres also some nasty little programs that can switch it off as well- they way things are going yahoo chat is soon going to implode on itsself and no one will care at all when it SHUTS DOWN!

     Comment by hamish macbeth — April 8, 2007 #

473. Whilst I agree with the “we get what we pay for” fact, I also feel that it reflects very badly on Yahoo as a company if one of their services is bad, people will assume they are all bad. As it happens I like Yahoo Mail a lot, especially the wonderful version us brits get for nothing (cheers for that guys!) but please pull your socks up when it comes to messenger. Oh and as a final suggestion am sure there are lots of old ids deserted why not start deleting some of them? Say if they haven’t logged in in 2 years? Also I think it is time you cleaned your black list, my friend is trying to get an id back she had back 5 years ago and it’s not free still

     Comment by John — April 8, 2007 #

474. Hey “Hmm” don’t get all mad at talk of YTK here because your childish programs are useless against it. Time to grow up and find another hobby that you’ll be able to progress in.

     Yahoo User wrote: “LMAO ytunnel can be booted with a single bot ytunnel = has been was good for a while ytk= new so no one cares to boot it YET they are both alg and work on the same princerpal both will be become obselete dont waste your cash and get back to the real issue SPAM”

     You’re using my acronyms now so apparently you must hang on every word I (or my staff) say. ALG/Application-Layer Gateway wasn’t even used around Yahoo! until I had to educate geniuses like you with articles available on my website to explain certain technologies (which happen to empower my software).

     Now, getting back to your statement here. You do realize that “ytk= new so no one cares to boot it YET” is an absolute lie that you’re trying to pass off as fact. YTK Pro has been available since November 12th and you mean to tell me that nobody cares to boot it YET?! Everyday kids are praying and trying to exploit a weakness in it, look around the internet on all the Yahoo!-related forums and it’s clear as day. The fact is that it hasn’t been made an example by these ‘underground’ uber boot coders because it’s coded extremely well with heavy security in mind (not egocentric, it’s verifiable). All the crying in the world isn’t going to unveil a weakness in it so unless you’re extremely lucky don’t count on it being booted around now or in the future buddy. I’m no new kid on the block I’ve been around Yahoo! (and other IM service providers) researching and developing software for many years whether you knew it or not.

     Each day tykes like you (Yahoo User) try and fail miserably at denting our software. Make some progress or don’t run the mouth, that simple. It’s really lame to sit here and pretend like people aren’t trying to “own” YTK Pro day in and day out when they are trying like hell and getting NOWHERE, lmao. Good luck in your endeavors though, you’ll need it! {~_~}

     PS: Chat ALGs becoming “obsolete”? You’re thinking of 3rd party chat clients after login changes are made by Yahoo!. YTK and Y!Tunnel aren’t affected by these changes but since you seem to think you know what an ALG is you should already know that.

     Comment by Adam [Torseq Technologies] — April 9, 2007 #

475. Come on KEEP TO THE TOPIC!!! If you want to adviertize your product do it on your site.
     I had not checked my email on one of my ID’s for about 2 weeks,I went to check it today and it had 427 bulk emails and 67 inbox emails.Everyone of them was spam.Well all but one it was from yahoo wanting me to fill out a survey on a question I had answered and here is what I got when I clicked to take the servey>>
     We’re very sorry, but the survey you are attempting to reach is no longer active.

     If you are interested in participating in other Yahoo! survey opportunities, please join the Yahoo! Network User Panel.

     If you would like to participate in Yahoo! User Research, please click here.

     No thanks. Return me to http://www.yahoo.com

     So I guess yahoo has even shut down there servey deptment too.And who here believes yahoo will have things fixed by May 14.? They can’t even stop the spam sent to your mail box,I thought thats why they started the new yahoo mail.

     Comment by OWP — April 9, 2007 #

476. Had to have a read of all this and it took me a long time, nope I am not a slow reader, just there are a lot of complaints here about spam on Yahoo,
     I gave up yahoo about 6 months ago, and so have most of my friends, most of us have been with yahoo for around ten years, now its what we call bots country, a great way to advertise and not be seen unless you are a dill and want to see porn sites or cams of sexualy explicit girls that want your money,

     I am waiting on the day that there will be a mass legal fight with Yahoo for allowing underage persons a immeadiate tool to get to sex sites so easy with there spam that Yahoo allow so easily into there chat rooms,

     My 12 year old Son was able to download a porn movie of a very young girl age about 11 to 12 and it was my wife that saw it on the computer, she deleted it immeadiately. I didnt get that opportunity to see it.
     When I asked him where he got it from he told me it was from a room in Yahoo he clicked on a bot advertising,
     Now I consider yahoo totaly banned from all computers in this house hold. I have tightened up security for my son where he is locked out from surfing the web,
     I was pretty cheesed off with yahoo and my son as well,
     so untill Yahoo stop the spam bots, yahoo can go to hell

     Comment by jackatwo — April 9, 2007 #

477. seems like someone has lock the lower fight rooms with there rooms lockers,this sucks these people need to grow up and get a life instead of locking up rooms for days,get rid of ymsg14 and below problem fix,and they wont be able to used them programs

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 10, 2007 #

478. The ones making the room locking programs have the fix before the patches are out, just a waste of time.

     Comment by polar — April 10, 2007 #

479. You want to know about room lockers , just ask john edwards in 30s2- who seems to want to destroy rooms - he is the cause of most of the problems in there and - and still yahoo wont do a thing about him and his so called ilegial names.

     I doubt if yahoo will do anything about the “sex bots” why should they so long as they get payed who gives a flying whatsit

     Comment by neil morrissey — April 10, 2007 #

480. With everyone being able to download a malicious program just shows how weak and vulnerable Yahoo! makes each and everyone of us by not fixing the problems.

     Comment by polar — April 10, 2007 #

481. Well i posted my gripe here a month ago and it was a problem for 2 months previous and it’ll take 6 more weeks to rectify the problem
     Hmmmmmmmmmmm
     All i can say is yahoo’s chat service is shit and i am done with it you folks can wait around for them to put a band aid on it but it’ll still be shit
     Enough of the bs
     I have removed yahoo from my system and won’t be back as a user and will not use any yahoo services I hope you all do the same or just deal with the shit service
     I am frustrated and give up

     Comment by mancam — April 10, 2007 #

482. hmmmm aonther day has gone by where these bot runners locking rooms again,i guess i have to wait 2 weeks before i can get in the room where i been hanging for 6 years now, this sucks, them dam bot runners

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 10, 2007 #

483. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Bots/signatures.html

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 11, 2007 #

484. IF yahoo want to also clean up why dont they put a ban on all nicks that contain swear words , or raceist words in- sureley that coudl be possible- every little thing helps perhaps.

     Comment by BILLY CONNOLLY — April 12, 2007 #

485. another fun night - chat is impossible to get into again the usually signing into chat took longer then expected please try again-0 i give up chats going to the wall .
     Yet it was ok early - as my usually room let me in- mind u the usually idiot was in there filling it with his bots mostley with sweat words in there name.

     Comment by billy connolly — April 13, 2007 #

486. I’ve just spent over an hour fighting to get into a yahoo chat room. What used to be an enjoyable visit has now become a chore. I use to visit every day - now its twice a week. Soon it will be not at all. After I fought to get into a chat room for an hour - when I finally got in, I was the only human in the room. Room listed 48 people , most were spam bots or ghosts of users caught in yahoo chat limbo. This has been going on for months and progressively gets worse, not better at all. I get constant solicitation from yahoo for DSL etc. But why would I purchase any product or service from a company that seems to be unable/unwilling to fix a problem thats been going on for over a year at best? People are just giving up and joining other chat/messenger services. What a shame to let yahoo just fade away.

     Comment by Karen — April 13, 2007 #

487. why doesent yahoo just do the decent thing and make chat impossible to boot - sureley it could be done - if they put there minds to it.

     Comment by billy connolly — April 13, 2007 #

488. i come to think that yahoo is doing this to run ppl off and then make a new version to have you pay for it. frist off no one will pay for the garbage yahoo has now. and like most here yahoo isnt going to stop now of this. and what do you think about the name band they also have now . yahoo just sucks now and isnt going to get any better. YAHOO DONT CARE

     Comment by roy — April 13, 2007 #

489. well i got to say shame on you yahoo for allowing people to make names again that were baned like the n word,and all them exploits programs that are out why have you not gotten rid of ymsg14 and below

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 14, 2007 #

490. i have to say how disgusted i am with yahoo and the way it is at the moment,rooms full of bots offering sex and camming,you cant see any real people when you first enter these rooms,lots of friends and family are now resorting to going to either paltalk or inspeak,where at least you can see what you are typing,instead of the oversized writing that takes up half the screen by bots,i loved comming onto yahoo to talk to my extended family from around the world,but i got to say that yahoo is now making it more of a task that a joy…by the way,it just took me 20 minutes to get into a room….come on yahoo…..sort it out please

     Comment by liz — April 14, 2007 #

491. I LEFT YAHOO, BECAUSE OF ALL THE BULL AND IT SUCKS BIG TIME NOW!!!!!

     Comment by KicK — April 14, 2007 #

492. well today yahoo has gone a bit 2 far in my book its been with holding offliners ive sent to a friend whos not a friend now its done both our heads in.-
     yahoo i hope you relise the damage your problems have caused for us all.

     Comment by routemater — April 17, 2007 #

493. Ok, here is a long blog of text that yahell just don’t care to read and take heed. It is time for another chat progam THAT WORKS THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

     Comment by wendyandwolfy — April 17, 2007 #

494. Well its been a few weeks, and I see that nothings changed. Tried to sign on today, was told chat is down, didn’t get any of my offlines, and lost text when i was typing a PM to my friend. Hmmmm…why bother, I have given up all hope of yahoo actually caring about chat, or even that they might fix the problems at hand. THEY DONT GIVE A RATS ASS…Time to move on and find a new chat program. I’m so over being frustrated.

     PS…oh and for the people that bitched at us for typing our gripes, saying all we do is sit on yahoo chat all day..I for one work a 40 hour week , take care of 2 children, take care of my home, and my husband. I take time to chat on yahoo to talk to friends all over the world in one spot without having to pay astrinomical phone bills. Forgive me for having friends…FRIENDS…look that up in the dictionary..sorry if you don’t have any. Then again..why are you posting on a yahoo blog if you don’t use yahoo? Or are you a closet yahoo user.? Seek therapy and keep your venomous comments to yourself.

     Comment by Vamp — April 17, 2007 #

495. way to go Vamp. i too, work and have children and grandchildren, they too also take alot of m,y time , plus my hubby too
     we both work hard and i like to chat to family and friends,, with out(like u said) paying high phone bills.
     and no , i too, dont spend all day on my pc…i do alot of work on my pc. work related stuff.. and now that Yahoo has finally gone tits up ….. i have found another chat program. PALTALK, at least there isnt any bots , booters , sex spammers etc.. so vamp i whole hardly agree with u…
     yahoo fix the problem. ppl r begining to boycot u
     bye

     Comment by tata — April 18, 2007 #

496. Way to go Chet! Chet never asked anyone to post here but I thought I would because I wanted to add my voice to the dissatisfaction of yahoo users The bots have become far more then annoying. I have used yahoo chat for over 6 years now and it is at a all time high bot to user ratio. This should never have been allowed to happen.

     Comment by wayne — April 19, 2007 #

497. I’m really getting sick of this slow log in and spam on yahoo chat. yahoo please fix this log in problem i sit there for hours sometimes wating to get into chat with the overwhelming number of bots makes me sick. and the amount of time it takes me to log into chat is rediculous i mean 15 min that sad. please fix.

     Comment by Tony — April 20, 2007 #

498. Yahoo will not release the amout of stress and damage its caused me in the last few days - but they wont even care they will just relise msg version 9 that will be as perfect as the rest perhaps if there old versions would let offliners throught to peaple and not hide them when yoru trying to talk- things might better -
     But i have a theary no one from yahoo ever bothers to read this thing.

     Comment by routemaster6 — April 20, 2007 #

499. I have to agree with you routemaster. I think we are flogging a dead horse here. If not then I pity the poor person who’s job it is to read all Yahoo! users grievances. I posted here 3 months ago and every week since and the same problems are still there. SPAM !! I know Yahoo! has to make money somehow and as users we are getting what we paid for, but please give us back the good old days when we didn’t have to put up with the Spam, advertising, Bots and booters, When we could find skins to amuse our little minds and where chat was something we did. So many good people have left Yahoo and gone to other programs out of frustration…They were the smart ones. With all the brilliant minds at work I’m sure you can come up with a product that works…

     Comment by Pix — April 21, 2007 #

500. all i want is an answer to why yahoo msg blocked my offliners to a person of scottish descent whove ive know for over a year,
     and because of this shes told me to get lost,

     And ive not done a thing wrong- all i did was talk to her yet yahoo did not let my words through to her yet i coudl see hers live - and it greatley upset her - but at least i can prove what ive said- yahoo have done me and my stress levals no good at all.

     Comment by routemater6 — April 21, 2007 #

501. Just had proof that its happenign to others , a simelear thiong happened to a friend i was conversing with thew other nightr who suddengley vanished- she also thought i had vanished - then she got a load of offliners from me
     well yahoo do u have an idea!

     Comment by routemaster6 — April 22, 2007 #

502. In addition to all the garbage we must plow through to enter a room to chat, what is so difficult to program the room list in numerical order? It’s been years since the room list has been in order! It wasn’t so bad when there were only 20 or 30 rooms to each category, but now they’re into the 400’s and only a few are in consecutive order.

     This is minor compared to the log-in problems, getting booted if you finally get into a room, and all the porn bots, but it seems like such a small programming task that could be addressed.

     Since it takes SO long to get into a room in the first place and all you find are bots, then you must scroll thru hundreds of rooms, each containing one bot to find an alternative room to attempt entering.

     Comment by emma — April 22, 2007 #

503. :)) All these blog postings, and not a thing has changed since the first one, LOL. Give it up folks.. Lets face it, yahoo chat is dying. That is not making money for yahoo. 10 years ago..the internet was only meant for a very few things, that is surfing the internet, and checking email. Looks like it’s headed in that direction again. Yah,, I liked yahoo chat, and I miss the way it used to be.. But, in about 5 years from now or so.. there will be no public chat around. There might be messenger’s for 1 on 1 chat. But, that’s all there will be.

     Comment by Kevin — April 23, 2007 #

504. Yahoo Chat sucks sick of porn and slut bags is this what Yahoo promotes.Legislation ought to be introduced to stop this infraction of user rights to be free of this tyranny by Yahoo.

     Comment by wayne — April 23, 2007 #

505. Yahoo has gotten so bad i hardly ever chat anymore as i can never get into a room. I just wish msn chat never went pay service i would go there but with it pay im stuck here. yahoo please fix this for me and others i mean i hate porn i condone it with a pashion.But yet is all i see in the rooms is porn sluts bots if you may say advertising for a good time thats sick please stop it. thanks

     Comment by Tony — April 24, 2007 #

506. as i was saying before.. yahoo is going to shut down and you ppl are right.. yahoo does not care.. they will make your visits harder then ever before.. just to get you to leave .. shut down and build a new yahoo that you will have to pay for.. and the crap wont change with booters as well as the porn bots.. mark my words on this.. yahoo was the best now the worce

     Comment by thunder — April 24, 2007 #

507. I agree with ytunnel people…the reason i got their program was because of the issues that go on in chat…but not only do we experience difficulty getting into the chat rooms…their are the perv’s and their disrespectful pm’s, there are the booters,…i appreciate ytunnel and very thankful to have it but yahoo is very disconcerned about addressing those issues in chat…paltalk is such a refresing chage and a welcome one as far as I am concerend…and paltalk is defiantly picking up on yahoo inability to take care of their issues……although I am more familiar with yahoo chat and know many people i am not without the ability to learn paltalk…..it will take time….but unless yahoo gets off their lard arse and do something their employee’s will be waiting in the unemployement lines….

     Comment by S Newton — April 25, 2007 #

508. YAHOO….please sort yourselves out….i am sick of seeing my friends bounced around rooms,get knocked offline,then have trouble getting back on…..you was a good site…but if you are proud to just be one big advertisment for selling cam sites and collage girls offering their services,and you are not interested in the ordinary people who want to talk to each other,play music in chat rooms and get to know each other(some even get together)…then maybe it is time the people started to look elsewhere for a decent chat,that doesnt involve us getting bombarded with unwanted pm,s offering the smut and filth as soon as we enter a room

     Comment by liz — April 25, 2007 #

509. you know you complain to yahoo> about yahoo. the ones you need to complain to is there sponcers who pay yahoo big bucks to advertise. like wal mart. not these porn ppl. i dont get there advertisting so cnt rally who they are. but you get there attention. and yahoo will clean this crap up.

     Comment by thunder — April 25, 2007 #

510. I had chatted on yahoo for over 12 years,I now chat on PalTalk,We can open our own room and chat like you use to on yahoo,so come on over and have some fun forget yahell!

     Comment by OWP — April 25, 2007 #

511. paltalk rocks,what so nice about it you can own your own room for free not porn bots,not booters and its very secure

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 25, 2007 #

512. Hi all.i came in here after a very frustrating night in yahoo chat i wanted to go ino a mil 30 room and kept getting booted which forced my yahoo to give up and close down.so i started it back up and immediatly the booters came back i tried to press ignore but they were coming thick and fast.this whole process kept going on until they stopped and i thought id ignored them all.then went back into the room i was previously in and one chatter said if you dont leave this room we shall boot you.and so they did and i decided once yahoo had closed down i wasnt going to go into chat but chat to those on my buddylist and the booters kept booting me yet again forcing my computer to go nuts.what cant yahoo sort this problem out,im glad in a sence im not the only one who has trouble firstly getting into the rooms it takes forever but 9 times out of ten i give up.when in the rooms pornsites are frequently advertised which also i guess we all get the ims saying view me at such and such a website.then you get perverts asking u to view there cam and sometimes if u dont look at what ur doing u press yes instead of no and see some freak playing with themselves.or in rooms you get some angry person yelling abuse and vulgar comments at some innocent by stander.or as i go into military rooms you get anti americans or anti whatever in an attempt to anger people.ok so in chat not everyone can get along and people will argue but some of the conversations that goes on is awful and no wonder yahoo has stopped attracting so many “normal” people and now is host to more pervs,bots,advertisers and booters instead of those who just like to chat.why cant yahoo have chat hosts in everyroom or one for each catagory that floats amongst the rooms.so they can maybe monitor what goes on and see the problems for themselves and instead of just having people ignore the trouble makers and then they change there name they could block there ip.or maybe people can only create 3 names in one year.sorry for my rant its just chat can play host to some great people its a shame it isnt run the best.

     Comment by jen — April 25, 2007 #

513. jen if you want the best protection try ytkpro,it blocks 99 percent of the spam bots,it has a built in anti-lagger and the best part you wont get booted,you can try out the free ytklite http://www.ytkpro.com

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 25, 2007 #

514. I wrote to yahoo about the spam bots and how they let porn come up in the chat rooms.. There is children in many homes that see all the dirty porno crap that the spam bots put into the rooms.. Yahoo wrote back that I should click ignore every time I see that stuff. The problem is they come in so fast it’s impossible to click ignore on all of them.Does Yahoo think children can not read?Do they care at all? I can keep children in my house from reading it, I can keep yahoo chat rooms off when children are present.. But how many children gets to read that crap behind the parents shoulders, or when parent steps away from their PC’s for a while?

     Comment by Carol — April 26, 2007 #

515. carol all yahoo has to do is get rid of ymsg14 and below and that will kill them spam bots,and the booters,and the laggers,how hard is it for them to drop ymsg14 and below,because they are not going to do it for the simple reason that make money on them sex bots

     Comment by i hate room lockers — April 26, 2007 #

516. all i want to know is , is why my offliners to her and why my msgs when she was on line did not work - yahoo youve know idea of the pain youve caused me ive a hurt i cant get rid of

     Comment by routemaster6 — April 26, 2007 #

517. I have to agree and stand up & Applaud a lot of these comments here about the ongoing problem with spam, porn, (attack or boot bots) lag bots & the list keeps going on yahoo. I can remember when we (a lot of my friends I met through yahoo chat) and I could go into a chat room and just have a blast. We told jokes, laughed, played music and so on. Some of us were called the room clowns cause we could make everybody laugh and have a good time. Then the power hungry room controllers started invading. Programs started to be developed to make bots for the fun of booting people out. Then a few very concerned software programmers showed up.
     Adam & Brock [Torseq Technologies]
     Chet Simpson [Author of Y!TunnelPro]
     and a few others which I don’t know. These people decided to write their own software to try and slow down or stop these bots. These are third party programs designed to work along side yahoo messenger & chat.

     As the problem increased with spam bots (porn) coming in these programmers had to beef up their software with each new way the bot programmers were coming up with new ways to bypass being blocked. Then the pm boomers & voice laggers showed up and bam it was back to square one in rewriting to try and block these new threats.

     After several years and the people (real) started leaving 1 by 1 cause of all the bots taking over each chat room I guess Yahoo! got overloaded or just didn’t care anymore from all the abuse reports. I went as far as calling Yahoo! to try and find out what was going on. Only cause I missed the days where everybody actually had fun on chat. I plainly asked Customer Service what the heck was going on with the overload of bots and porn spam. The answer I got was something I already knew but couldn’t agree on with them. I was told that the say advertising (porn bot) servers were pay advertisers and on paid servers. That Messenger & Chat was a free service provided to everyone.

     I understand that Messenger & chat is a free service, but Yahoo! also needs to understand that there is small children that comes on & it be behind their parents back or learning computers themselves in school. I met a police officer on chat 1 night & come to find out he and others were undercover looking for Child Predators. Even he told me that the spam was so bad it was hard to get in rooms to try and catch these bad people.

     I understand that Yahoo! makes most their money through advertisers but lets be real here. The path they have taken with so much porn spam advertisers is really in the wrong direction. (It’s Called Greed from lust) Ok lets say this, here’s something for Yahoo! to think about. Lets say the porn bots take complete control over all the chat rooms. Every Chatroom filled with nothing but bots (no real people) What or who will the spam bots try and get to visit their sites, themselves? Cause everybody (real people) got sick & tired of bots everywhere they can’t even get in the rooms so they just leave yahoo period?

     It’s 1 thing to make money through advertisers but yet it’s another thing when you run real people off cause then you have nobody to advertise to in the first place. Yahoo! servers have been overloaded before cause so many bots logging in, but when they have to replace those servers from a few meltdowns, then they might see the cost in rebuilding and getting back online. Don’t think a server meltdown can’t happen cause it can. They might have limiters to only allow so many log-ins at once, but when a bottleneck happens and it just don’t stop & the bots keep trying to log in BAM, guess what. The server couldn’t handle it and either shutsdown, overloads, or a meltdown as some call it happens. This happened at the Chicago HUB when over 5 million people tried to log in this 1 website at once. They kept trying to log in and a bottleneck happened. The Chicago HUB servers couldn’t handle the overload. This is a fact and happened on Sept. 7th 1999. A total meltdown of their servers. People do need to take a stand and from what i have read in all the post there is only a hand full that want the bots. You know what that tells you about those people don’t you. Let’s get rid of these overloading spam bots and get back to having fun & laughing in chat. It’s funny Chet, Adam and others know what to do and how to block most these bots but Yahoo! don’t or won’t. Shows you who is smarter at programming software.

     Comment by Kelly (aKa ViPeR1) — April 27, 2007 #

518. would anyone like to tell me what causes the problem, of offliners and msgs when a person is on or offliner not get through - yet this persons text can get throught to me - all i want is an answer to that question can someone give it to me please- ive lost a good friend because of this

     Comment by knight rider — April 27, 2007 #

519. look, as long as there is chat there will be idiot booters and bots, its just part of chat and Yahoo knows this so STOP crying about it and deal with it, if it is too much for you to handle then dont use Yahoo!

     Comment by ozzmann — April 28, 2007 #

520. Ya know, I’m sitting here reading these blogs, and despite the fact that everyone is complaining about yahoo chat. ME INCLUDED, it seems like no one on the other end is listening. What? Since you have your “baby” yahoo 360, group communication doesn’t need to exist? Maybe you’re payin for the bill for 360 by renting out chat space??? C’mon people, I’ve been a yahoo user for 7 years, and I hate to say it but places like MySpace are lookin super inviting lately. I’ve seen a drastic drop off in users in the chat room that I usually go in, because everyone’s sick of getting booted, and even sicker of the bots. NOW, I go to find the other two rooms that I ususally use on my list, only to find that they don’t exist. WHAT the heck is going on. I’m severely disappointed with the lack of action on this issue.

     Comment by wiccanrose — May 1, 2007 #

521. I am also beginning to wonder if we will ever see a final OS X release. The beta 1 version was released a year ago. Seems like Yahoo could devote a bit more money and manpower to the Mac market Beta 1 works o.k., but not being able to receive files from PC’s, no audio, and all the other limitations is frustrating. BTW, is the Yahoo video between two PC’s any better/ because compared to iChat or Skype, Yahoo video is piss poor quality and doesn’t even have audio for real video conferencing or allow multiple chats . I realize you cannot tell us an exact date, but will there even be a beta 2, or beta 3, or will the next version just be a final release? Please light a fire or do something to give the Mac, Linux, and Unix crowd some feature parity.

     Comment by Alan — May 2, 2007 #

522. i will like to know more about ytkpro.com

     Comment by carlos — May 2, 2007 #

523. just a word of warning to all about buying ytunnel . i was a ytunnel user for over 5 years but not any more . the treatment you get on the site forum is disrespectful . the site forum administrator trys to tell you what you can do and not do outside of ytunnel which for 1 think is none of her business. she tells ytunnel users one thing and turns around and does another . if you dont agree with her you get banned , so out goes your help for ytunnel . i join the team of ytk pro and found the program better and the help you will get there is wonderful

     Comment by mmf401960 — May 3, 2007 #

524. i been using ytkpro since november and the tech support is so great,and the product is #1 and i never get booted,and they are allways updating there product.ytkpro rules.

     Comment by ytkpro user — May 3, 2007 #

525. I agree with mmf401960 about the forum administrator of YTP… I still use ytunnel, however I would like to see the forum administrator of YTunnel replaced.

     Comment by madu_tiga — May 3, 2007 #

526. i agree about y yunnels forums- i object to haveing to post my system details on there - also the latest version of y tunnel 478 is a pile of rubbish!-

     Comment by knight rider — May 4, 2007 #

527. So when you are having problems with your car and you call in you don’t tell them what kind of car you have,but yet you want them to tell you what is wrong with it. Same with any program on your computer,if they don’t know what you have how can they say what is wrong with it? Can we say get a life here!!!

     Comment by OWP — May 7, 2007 #

528. Lets all get a life , yahoo wont do a thing its gone past that.- still the problem with msgs not getting through is now sorted

     Comment by knight_rider — May 8, 2007 #

529. The last time Yahoo did anything, it was because the caught heat from Newsweek for the Married and Flirting rooms, it would seem to me that if similar heat was brought to bear that yahoo chat was accessible to children and was 80% porn bots, that it might force their hand, granted, they would probably just shut the service down entirely, however, they would risk alienating an installed userbase (along with a good deal of 360 users)

     Comment by Bill S — May 9, 2007 #

530. I totally agree with everything that has been said.. about the uselessness of the chat rooms.. because of the bots

     Comment by gene taylor — May 14, 2007 #

531. this is unbelievable I’ve not been able to get in yahoo chat for three months now.. I agree with alot of the comments here.. YAHOO will just ignore what we have to say.. has been in yahoo chat for almost 10 yrs now , this is the worse Ive ever had to deal with.. come on yahoo step up to the plate either fix the problems or completely close down yahoo chat rooms.. we are all tired of this as we are with the booters in yahoo chat.. actually very frustraing to all of us..

     Comment by summer — May 15, 2007 #

532. Sarah, With as many complaints that there have been with the porn bots and the booting that goes on in the rooms, WHY was nothing done about them when all the other work was done to chat?? The rooms are so much easier to get into now Thank You!!! You deserve credit where credit is due.But Please tell us why nothing was done to get rid of the bots and stopping the booters in the rooms??We loyal yahoo chatters would really like to know!! Please reply…..Thanks

     Comment by madchatter — May 16, 2007 #

533. I used to love yahoo 5-6-7 years ago, it was a great chat prog. But every update- the program slips back more. What with bots, booters , trouble getting into rooms, then when you do -you get signed out of chat!not one-maybe 3-4 times. All those techs you have need to get thier act together, Cam frog has drawn a lot of my old chat friends-its how yahoo was when I first joined. So please re-focus and get it together or you will find yourself with just spam bot rooms. Plus what ever happened to “join user in chat” another casualty of the upgrades!

     Comment by angel_dessert — May 16, 2007 #

534. i used to reguarly go into the same chat room ,now for several months i have not been able to get into any chat room and to say i’m getting hacked off with the situation is putting it mildly . come on yahoo sort out this problem with all the sex bots and booters . i want to catch up with people i don’t have e-mail addresses or have on my friends lists

     Comment by gemi_monkeyboys_mom — May 17, 2007 #

535. I miss the many people I have met over the years on Yahoo!. Yahoo! at it’s worse is still better than any other chat but… we don’t need all the porn and filler bots in a room.

     Comment by Polar — May 17, 2007 #

536. The conferences made for singing purposes is totally underfire by booters. They talk all kind of crap and boot people. Yahoo please sit up and do something about the booters. Else you will lose all you patronage

     Comment by Raven — May 18, 2007 #

537. Sarah,

     I’ll try to be short and sweet -

     One thing I notice not mentioned, besides all the space the bots take is the Yahoo server bandwidth the booters usurp - Besides making chat aggravating -

     I understand the phones are ringing, the blogs are over-flowing, the abuse compaint forms are soaring - if the bot/booter problems were solved, think of how quiet life would be -

     I find it odd that Yahoo doesn’t openly address the issue and solve it -

     I love Yahoo chat, I think it’s a great forum for a lot of folks all over the world - it’s a shame that Yahoo doesn’t solve what appears to me to be the number 1 problem -

     The best to you and your team,

     Larry Holbrook

     Comment by Laurence Holbrook — May 18, 2007 #

538. Like thousands of other Yahoo! people, I have been using the messenger system since it was java-based and I have also come to the breaking point with the spam bots.

     At this point, it is clear that unless there is an imminent threat to their customer base (i.e. a boycott), there will be absolutely nothing done about this issue.

     Yahoo! answers to nothing and their negligent ways of handling this very frustrating and very REAL issue, only shows that they are incompassionate about their users.

     Sarah, I have been using Yahoo! chat for 14 years and today I’m calling it quits. I can only hope that the rest of you will do the same until they are FORCED to fix it!

     P.S. SpamGuard doesn’t work.

     **All cuss words aimed at the company or directly at Sarah Whatshername have been omitted by the poster.**

     Comment by Thomas Terzi — May 21, 2007 #

539. My wakeup call came via Chet Simpsons posts. I have the utmost respect for Chet Simpson and what he has accomplished and the work that he has been doing to keep Yahoo alive and well in spite of the ill advised decisions and actions of Yahoo’s management. So today I am coming back out of the shadows and voicing my opinions and those of others around me.

     On 11.12.98 I migrated as “AuthorsPen” from AOL to Yahoo. My reasons were pure and simple. I was tired of being booted every 15 minutes and spending a half hour to log back into chat. Over the years as a writer of short D/s and erotica storys I had amassed a large following of both friends and acquaintances in the AOL rooms that I inhabited. In the first three months that I was using Yahoo on a daily basis I was able to bring with me well over 300 AOL chat room users to become regulars on Yahoo. Over time those numbers increased. My friends and acquaintances switched to Yahoo chat and Yahoo mail.

     Note:

     Woe is me. Today Yahoo’s service is no better than what I ran from on AOL in November of 1998. It takes as long as a half hour to get into a room because of the bots and non working Messenger software. Booting by Yahoo is now a regular problem that is no different than the booting problem I encountered in AOL.

     Over the years in Yahoo chat I had established several user rooms with close friends. Two of those rooms were in the top five rooms being visited 24/7 and in one of those rooms we had to open two auxilliary rooms on weekends. We were successful, made new friends and acquaintances and had fun each and every day. Running a room is not all fun. It takes hard work and yes in the user rooms we had our fair share of booters who we had to deal with in our own way. We also had our fair share of underage children. Some were nice kids who I admit we let stay and protected from any aggressive males/females. To answer your question yes we reported them all to Yahoo who took no action against these children who did not belong in the adult rooms. I would like to also make note that we also reported the booters and hackers who likewise were ignored by Yahoo.

     I have no doubts in My mind that the management of Yahoo sits in its “Ivory Tower” and has no contact with the day to day operations of the company. As an example. About a year prior to the launching of YouTube I had sent Yahoo a “Master Plan” to deal with the underage children in Yahoo Chat and a source of new advertising revenue for Yahoo. It was like the YouTube as we know it today and was almost a carbon copy of what I had proposed to Yahoo. I had received back a very nice letter saying thank you but no thank you. Your plan will never work its not feasible for a company the size of Yahoo to entertain.

     Wall streeters have said more than once that within the Yahoo organization the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I still have faith in Yahoo that someone in COMMAND will awaken and leave that “Ivory Tower” to meet with and talk to people like Chet Simpson and myself.
     Even be daring enough to retain people like us (actual users of the service) as advisors.

     Over the last six months I have been asked by many of the 1,200+ Yahoo chatters who frequented my old user rooms and my group homes, all of which were eliminated by Yahoo, to start a petition and have me take that petition to a Yahoo competitor in the hope that they will add chat rooms to their already highly successful Email and IM systems. I still have not lost all hope that Yahoo’s management will resolve the problems that they have created in the chat rooms.

     After reading Chet Simpsons numbers on the number of rooms and the quantity of bots in the rooms I decided to check it out for myself to see. Room after room was filled with nothing but advertising bots. I thought it was funny to see room after room where I was the only male. The not so funny part was with Ytunnel turned off my screen was flooded with the advertising bots PMs. That gave me a better understanding of the complaints that I hear each and every minute I am online in a chat room. I must also admit that since upgrading from Messenger 7.0 to 8.1 my messenger tends to become a revolving door of boots and I have to turn off messenger and use either Yazak or Yahelite to remain in a conversation or in a room. That does not speak well of the Yahoo Messenger’s 8.1 software.

     I still have not lost all faith in Yahoo yet and do support Chet Simpsons idea that each and every Yahoo user add his or her “two cents” to the blog site. If those in the “Ivory Tower” do not read and take action to reverse the problems that their underlings created Yahoo chat rooms will continue to decline until the only IDs that will be found in the rooms are !00% BOTS.

     Yahoo has to realize that its users are tired of hearing the same canned speech. “We understand your problem and are working to resolve it” For the record, the number of problems is increasing not decreasing. Each new version of Messenger brings with it a large amount of new problems without the old problems being resolved.

     Thank you for giving me the opportunity to voice my opinion.

     Author

     Comment by Author — May 22, 2007 #

540. guess what my faverite room is once again full of bots on cams,well almost full have yahoo done a thing about it all?- it seems not! - do they care -not.

     Comment by knight rider — May 23, 2007 #

541. Spam BOTS, Booters… everywhere… EVEN in my Yahoo Groups… A little help please? Chet has the right of it… I live by YTunnel Pro. Thanks Chet… Yahoo needs to take a look at their entire program, Messenger, Chat, and Groups… I waste a great deal of time removing fake members and spam…
     I’ve reported spam abuse to no avail… Is anyone really listening?
     Are we talking to a ‘Customer Service Reply BOT’? One often wonders…
     PLEASE give this issue a serious look…
     Thanks for your attention in this matter,
     A die-hard Yahoo User.

     Comment by Joseph — May 24, 2007 #

542. Yahoo has yet hit another new low. When going mobile I am receiving messages from the porn bots in the rooms that I frequent. Turning it off does not work the bots still send text messages. Today I had to change my cellphone number

     Comment by Author — May 24, 2007 #

543. Please notice! Too much spam bots in chat rooms.

     Comment by Accident — May 26, 2007 #

544. why cant yahoo do something that can stop the flooder /room locker bots comeing in and filling the room if they care at all that us.

     Comment by knight_rider — May 29, 2007 #

545. I agree that the bots in chat are a major pain in the …. behind….. not being that savy on how everything works, would their removal require the monitoring of rooms ie AOL chat? just wondering….

     Comment by stinkybarbie — June 3, 2007 #

546. Maybe if Messenger users took these “Issues” to Rogers Internet, (at least in Canada), there might be a better response, since they married into Yahoo for email and messenger a few years ago. Follow the money!!!!!!!!!

     Comment by Steve Hunter — June 3, 2007 #

547. get your download needs for yahoo anti booters/booters /skins and more http://www.yahvengeance.net just sign up for a free account

     Comment by gh_ads — June 3, 2007 #

548. again yahoo is back to not openning rooms. are you going to fix chat or are we all just wasting our time here

     Comment by me — June 5, 2007 #

549. I have been using yahoo messenger and yahoo caht rooms as a means of comunication with worldwide clients for well over 5 years now, I have never sean in my entire time using messenger the delays in loggign into a room, the theft of Id’s, booting, and especially spam. I has become a requierment that i run a 3rd party software to even get into a Yahoo Chat room. And once there to block the Influx of messages and Chat room text spam. I find it exreamly redundant that yahoo dosent offer a detection algorythm in their software, possable one simulare to what YTunnel or Other 3rd party Clients offer, most of these software’s are avail free of charge, and if a single developer can do it why can yahoo, or is yahoo makin money off our inconvience. The “Bots” fill the room and make it nearly impossable to log into a room without “knocking” or “bumping” (Repeated Join Requests, or loging attempts). Either Yahoo needs to Increase server capasity, or I fear a smart software developer will Start simulare services, and Yahoo Chat will eventually looze its popularity. I can tell you from my own standpoint that I use very few other yahoo services other then chat an messenger, perhalps 360, and flicker, but other then that I use no other yahoo services. I am a roger’s Internet customer, who has parntnered up with yahoo, and i have expressed my consern with the above issues directly to my ISP, how can they condone this type of content, spam and Exploitability, and have been told I’m not the oly one with this consern. I am quite sure that companies like Rogers, SBC Global, and other partners are fed up with the Spam, the booting, the theft of their users Id’s, and the long wait time to log into chat, that I will remind you was supposed to be addressed bye May, 14 / 07, It is now June and still no resolution, I may soon switch to Sympatico, who is parners with MSN, atleast my MSN acount has been secure, and their chat seams to be relitivly spam free. Just an Idea, fix the problem before you looze more customers, and before your “Partners” get fed up.

     Comment by B Gilbert — June 6, 2007 #

550. Seems to me I remember you had a date of May15, 2007 to clean up your server problem. For a very short while I noticed a dramatic improvement in getting in chat rooms. However, in the last few weeks the problem came back and is worse now than ever. What in the world are you folks at Yahoo thinking. (I know, you are aware of this and have your engineers working on it) Sorry, but I just had to pass along my frustration about a never ending problem.

     Comment by persona — June 6, 2007 #

551. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR are the yahoo servers down again or have the spam bots totally takin over the rooms????? I can’t get into chat AND I can’t pm with anyone cause I can’t see their text replies…..talk about ANNOYING !!!!!!!!
     Come one yahoo team lets get the lead out and fix this!!!

     Comment by mad chatter — June 6, 2007 #

552. Perhaps ( although I doubt the community could become united enough to do it) if a majority of the chat users closed down their use of yahoo for 48 hours on the same time schedule, Yahoo might get the point that their lack efforts to address the chat /Bot/porn URLs is not healthy or appreciated. Nothing speaks louder than silence at times!

     Comment by Robert — June 7, 2007 #

553. Well guess what, i have been trying to get into the chat rooms for the last 2+ hrs and all I get is NO RESPONCE FROM SERVERS. ~x( suprise suprise
     Will this nightmare ever end???? Why don’t y’all just tell the truth and say your setting around with yer thumbs up yer butts haveing a good ol laughabout people complaining and yer NOT going to do anything about chat.

     Comment by mad chatter — June 8, 2007 #

554. What’s up with not being able to get into Yahoo! Chat??? I bet I sit here and try 20 times before the “server” finally allows me to get in! And then once I’m in there, well the booters see to it that I go right back out again!! Come on Yahoo! When you enter a room it says ISP’s are being recorded…why can’t you record these idiot booters and ban them from Chat??? I’ve been coming into Yahoo! Chat for 8 years now and have NEVER had these problems until this past year. Now if I were to use obscene language or use too many different nics, I bet you’d find a way to get me outta there! Most of us are just normal people that enjoy socializing with others in Chat and it’s getting to where we can’t even do that!
     OK, I’ve blown off my steam…now PLEASEEEEEE do something about those GD booters and the server problems…Thx

     Comment by Jan — June 9, 2007 #

555. I can’t count how many people that I have seen in these rooms that have complained of this same issue. Yes, it is a major problem, and Yes, it is bogging down the rooms, and YES, WE THE USERS ARE UP TO OUR EYEBALLS WITH IT! Good god, DO SOMETHING! You’re lack of action is only proven to us, that you are not out to help the users or even support them and their needs. I have been on and off Yahoo on various accounts for almost 13 years now, and I have NEVER seen this many bots and spammed im’s in my entire time in yahoo until today. Just today alone in four hours, I have collected a count of 86 bots in just ONE ROOM! Come on ONE ROOM! I had 27 im’s from bots at the time after entering a room and watching the bots talking to one another for that time, but only after attempting to enter the room 32 times.

     The lack of action on Yahoo!’s part is only going to prove that they fail in acting against the breakers of the TOS, and allowing prostitution to occure RIGHT UNDER their noses. What type of company is that?? You claim this company is for the people, and fun, and all these wonderful things, these wonderful programs, so helpful, yet when it comes to the rooms, it gets swept under the rug. ENOUGH OF HIDING THE TRUTH! ENOUGH OF HIDING THE PROBLEMS! Chet and “Venom” have spoken the truth and presented the problem as admirably as any business owner would. Yes, they make money off of your lack of attention to the users, but they at least care about what WE USERS want and need in our online lives.

     To those of you that wish to berate and make fun of the users being so upset, no doubt you are supporting these bot makers and booters/hacker/lamers. If you ever have sat in a room for even a minute, you would see exactly why the majority, YES I SAID MAJORITY of yahoo’s own users are avoiding even entering the rooms these days. You, hecklers, have no idea how most of us depend on messenger for our jobs, businesses, loves, friends, family crossed the globe world wide. Yes, some of us even chat with our friends, and family in the chat rooms themselves, but only because too many for a conference to be held in. I personally have numerous friends on yahoo alone, and I talk with my fiancee in the army since he is overseas in Iraq, and my sisters back in Arkansas, and my friends in Oklahoma, California, Nebraska, Canada, Alaska, Michigan, Rode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Virginia, Washington, literally world wide. You, Hecklers, think that we need to get lives, yet you don’t realize the majority of the users, are deaf, handicapped, elderly, stranded without travel, lacking in a phone, lacking in company due to distance, and lacking in any form of other entertainment. We users, out weigh the hecklers by numbers, and need. We users, out weigh the majority of the paid accounts on Yahoo!, by necessity and need in our daily lives, as the first ad’s on television for Yahoo! broadcasted in the nintys up to the recent online ad’s, Be there. This is our portal to the world, by word, and imagination, and by the vocal examples here in this thread alone.

     We the users, demand a change in Yahoo! Chat against the spam and bots that are taking up the space of the living breathing users. We demand the change to allow us back the fun place we once socialized with our friends and enjoyed a voice chat with our family’s. We the users, as you see today, HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF NOT BEING HEARD AND HELPED! We the users, have spoken.

     Thank you,
     Melisa
     -logged on 1st time 1996 and still chatting with all the people I love and know through Yahoo Messenger and Chat, INSPITE of fighting to get in the rooms.-

     Comment by Mel — June 9, 2007 #

556. Well i agree on one thing they do think about the high mighty dollar bill and not people and i do know this for fact we all have to make a liveing in life to make end meet in everyday life common sense is the key issue, i think yahoo can learn from paltalk how they keep thier messenger and chat rooms non-bootable and yahoo is trying thier best to fix everything just be patience and pray God doses answers prayers. for about ytunnelpro i do like it and it works i have no problem with it. sometimes it like forum administrator she was the only one doing the help thier. She doses have Help now if you dont like the help you get take it up with them not others, nor complain about it, thats like with yahoo i have told them in the past and ask them to fix something and never got a responds from them oh well i pray they do fix it. i do agree about keeping thing on the topic and let chet and yahoo fix the bugs for thier it would be a better program to injoy.

     Comment by Pastor rex — June 10, 2007 #

557. It appears that over the months since I last posted complaints in here nothing has changed. Sorry, that is wrong. Yahoo! has gotten worse. Now people can barely get into chat rooms
     , when you do manage, the spam is beyond terrible and the bots are starting to talk back…some even join in the conversations. It is totally laughable at how Yahoo! has for all intensive purposes lowered themselves even more. So much for security, to hell with the entertainment factor. As a reg user I am in full agreement with Chet Simpson…Fix it or at least tell the public what the hell you are doing. Frustration does’t cover what I’m feeling.

     Comment by Pix — June 10, 2007 #

558. The chat servers do not work, thats an accepted fact, One hour and fifteen minutes ago I sent out Emails…It now appears that your MAIL server has failed to perform as not one of those Emails was received by the partys that they were sent to.

     My big questions are this….is Sarah just another BOT. Does anyone in the Yahoo upper chain of command ever read these postings or is this just a pacifier for users to vent their ill treatment by Yahoo. One of these days someone is going to send these posting to your advertisers and then Yahoo’s stock can drop again.

     I am thankful that my sisters and I sold our Yahoo stock when we did.

     Author

     Comment by Author — June 10, 2007 #

559. Every day we get spam in our emails, I get over 100 each day and thats with the so called spam guard. The chat rooms are full of bots. It use to be fun to be on chat and now its a hassle just getting in. I have been avoiding chat due to the frustration of being bombarded with bots. WHY DOESN’T YAHOO DO MORE TO STOP IT???

     Comment by cc — June 10, 2007 #

560. To add to this, I can put up specifics. It is Monday, at 1:22pm EST. I attempted for 15 minutes to get into a chat room. Once in, the room lists 25 users in the chat room. 16 of those are bots. That is 64% bots in one room. Yahoo must be gaining monetarily… the bots get worse, and nothing gets done? Yahoo better watch out, or their advertisers will leave them… what’s the point of paying a website to advertise in their chatrooms when everyone’s too fed up with the website to go chat?

     Comment by Jessica — June 11, 2007 #

561. ok, here’s a new one….. what the heck does “05:49:22 am: Checking to uncontact users” mean??? I know this is a Ytunnel message but its caused by the Yahoo servers. I’ve tried to get into chat and I don’t get connected….. time after time after time. Then when I finally do get connected and I don’t see the room on my screen, it says “you’re already in this room”. There are very few times when I’m actually able to get into a chat room, actually see the screen and interact with my friends. But I don’t celebrate because I know its not long before I’ll be “disconnected by the Yahoo server”. I give up! I’m tired of wasting my time trying to get into chat rooms. You people run an entire internet empire but yet you can’t even figure out how to run a chat program.

     Comment by FedUp — June 12, 2007 #

562. when will yahoo get itself together?
     ur pm’s disconnect us right off the internet. what’s the point in pm’s if they aren’t gonna work?
     when are u gonna stop the porn slut ads in the chat rooms?
     they flood the rooms. u can’t see anyone’s typing for 4 to a dozen porn slut ads all at once.
     the more u “upgrade” the worse u r getting. what is up with that? i won’t even download ur latest version of msgr. anyone who has hates it.
     ???
     u guys need to come into the real world and see how things are not working the way u “think” they are.

     Comment by kethry — June 14, 2007 #

563. the reason your getting booted when replyin to pms is,most likley because you have y tunnel and it seems -yahoo msgenger no longer likes the old versions!

     Comment by knight — June 19, 2007 #

564. Okay … I grow increasingly disgusted with Yahoo with each passing day. I have LITERALLY spent HOURS!! HOURS!! Trying to get into chat. When I am on my PC I run XP Pro & @ home it is Vista - neither work. I have been a user of Yahoo, Inc since 1999 but I grow increasingly disgusted with the continued dissatisfaction of your product and actually Wish! that the bot companies would start making available to us their software that allows them to thwart over any and all users of Yahoo chat. It’s gone W-A-Y beyond the ridiculous. I too, after many many many attempts FINALLY enter into a room that will MAYBE have 15-16 ACTUAL legit yahoo chatters but the room list will be at maximum and so therefore Yahoo server does not allow anyone else because the room is deemed as being ” Full” - please try another or at a later time! .. Now there are the mystery chatters or their ‘ghosts’ that even though they left chat hours previously - their chatnames remain in the rooms for hours on end. My nick has suffered this increasingly disturbing phenomenon which results in un-wanted offline msg.’s. I do not run YTunnel and yet it would appear that I suffer the same abuse as the rest of these chatters posting their remarks! Also … for over a YEAR!!!!! Because of a hacker into my sons messenger I have continued to receive unwanted Spam porn bots that I have DAILY and I Do Mean D-A-I-L-Y ignore AND report to you people but it still goes unnoticed or something because I still continue to receive these unwanted offlines and they are not to my regular or default nick but ones used sparingly during different holidays, so I know it is not a bot sending msg.’s to me because my ‘ghost’ has been once again left in the room. More and more I speak with longtime chat pals who have left yahoo indefinitely and are using other means and measures to stay in contact with their friends and/or business associates due to the lack on Yahoo, Inc. part to maintain a vital/reliable communication apparatus that serves the world.

     The other issue that I am also frustrated with was Yahoo, Inc. promise to address the issue of the incompatablity with Microsofts OS Vista and Yahoo. Your promise was to have this taken care of ” in June” were your words. Well .. it’s now the 19th OF June and nothing to-date has materialized. Go figure! … just another long line of empty promises that has this user starting to look elsewhere and refer her friends as well in order to maintain communication on a reliable source, no longer having to wonder whether or not they have recieved my offlines to them or reply’s as well.

     ~signed …
     “The best advertisement is word of mouth & guess what is being said about you?”

     Comment by Bleu — June 19, 2007 #

565. why is it that the people from YTK Pro advertise there stuff on here i mean come on this is not a advertising board its a place to discuse yahoo messenger not ytk pro. i dont see yahoo in that name or messenger in it eather.

     Comment by tony — June 20, 2007 #

566. Most of the SpamBots in the chats cannot be Placed on ignore with the basic yahoo messenger . They have a way of bypassing this feature . Only ytunnle and ymlite has successfully been able to filter out the bots and allow us to stick them on ignore . Yahelite doesnt even accomplish this task as effectively as ytunnel does . I wish I still had my ytunnle I loved it but lost all my infomation from my purchase and my key had long since been disabled . Yahoo knows about these bots Yahoo is making tons of $$$ from these #’s they get to log as clients connected when they use this information to up their ads prices for advertising sales . Their stock in reality without all the fraud bot #’s is actual maybe 1/3 the actual value than whats posted on the stock market . They will not chop their own $$$ flow off anytime in the future , The best solution is to find a new chat service and avoid yahoo chats and yahoo messenger until they start to feel the sting of lost profits then and only then will they care or bother to do anything about this annoying problem real people have to live with currently ..

     thank you

     GOOGLE SUPPORTER .

     Comment by FG — June 27, 2007 #

567. really they wont feel any lost profit come on man yahoo chat is free do you think there going to care if we all leave no. they will just shut it down lol. and as far a ytunnel goes its a great program i like it and if you need your key back just e-mail donna she will get it for you smile have fun peace

     Comment by tony — June 28, 2007 #

568. hey all, well i see all you Yahoo users are getting no where. sry to hear about your problems , i too, had the same, so I went and d/l Paltalk and its super.. maybe it is what I needed, to get the Yahoo bull out of my system, but i have noticed that there are certain ppl here posting and not too many others
     the same few ppl posting, now this seems a be weird, maybe they are , ( not saying they are) employees of said Yahoo. trying to get a rise out of yahoo users?
     mmmm? makes me wonder, but to get to the point. if disgrutled yahoo users are so upset, why dont d/l paltalk and give it a hook, never know, you may like it again…seriously, guys, i am NOt a pal talk employee i am a concerned party wanting to have fun and chat.. with out the bots , spammers, booters, children whose parents dont care what or where they are going. but just an individual who cares..i had INSPEAK too at one time , but that was NO GOOD!!!! but like all you say… a chat client is as good as what ppl and the company make it.so thaTis all I have to say, CIAO and good luck Yahoo users ., hugs

     Comment by paltalk queen — June 29, 2007 #

569. Well after 45 min of trying to get in the room tonite I FINALLY made it but true to the MANY problems yahoo is having I lost ink after only being there for no more than 10 mins. logged out of the room and its now been 37 mins and still cant get back in , all I get is “NO RESPONCE FROM SERVER” GEE why dont that suprise me!!!!!!
     Will yahoo EVER get thier $h!t together??? somehow I feel its VERY doubtful!!!!!

     Comment by mad chatter — July 1, 2007 #

570. I have to agree with Chet and a few others.I mean really the promotional bots are the least of my concerns but still a small concern.My concerns are the perps they seem to have more rights in yahoo chat than the rest.They are allowed to perpatrate our young boot people when they are cought.Now I beleive that the solicitave bots have got to be stopped or slowed down but more importantly the perps need to be brought down with yahoo’s help.Yahoo I understand this is a free site but arent you a bit embarassed that you have let these perps over run your chat services and over run your web site?Wasnt being sued over the rape and the death of that young girl enough.I wanna know why you dont help those of us who are trying to catch these perps and get them out of chat with children.Why is it these perps have more pull in yahoo then the regular chatters who are here for fun and entertainment.You advertise that Yahoo is a free and safe chat.We all know that is not true and so do you but you are doing nothing to help us fix that.Now I am one of those people who try thier hardest to make chat safe for all.I am not just talking about children being safe either.You have other kinds of perps that boot because they dont like something someone said they threaten them with bodily harm. As we all know SOME have made good on thier threats.So in saying all that WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO HELP US MAKE THIS A BETTER CHAT AND SITE!! We are helping you now get off your bums and help us help you.Sorry all but perps just make me very angry.I see at least 4 to 8 a day hitting on my decoys.There are somethings they say to them that just send me to the restroom.
     I think this issue needed to be adressed.
     Tracy aka Bratty

     Comment by Bratty — July 4, 2007 #

571. Gday Yahoo,

     1stly I’d like to compliment you on inventing such a great tool to communicate with others…Yahoo messenger is an amazing and affective form of communication for the 21st century.

     I’v been a messenger user now for 5 years…and have enjoyed all of those years until the past few months.

     I have noticed a massive drop in friends coming online because of the problems that have been presenting itself.

     I personally do not enjoy Yahoo anymore because these problems are affecting my form of communications with my friends and families.

     What was once a fun place to be in…has now become a disappointment…I rarely go into chat rooms anymore…simply because I’m unable to get in…Sometimes I have waited up to 45 minutes just to be able to get into my favorite room…only to be followed by me loosing my ink in text type.

     Below is a list of problems that needs to be addressed:

     Period to get into a chat room needs to be faster.
     Automated Bots taking over the room.
     People loosing ink in there text typing.
     People being able to boot others.

     Look my advice is…get someone from your office to hang out in yahoo for the next week and you will see what it is I’m talking about.

     I’m sure you have read all these peoples complaints…and I’m sure you are trying to do something about it…So if you are trying to fix the problems…then maybe it might be a good idea – to maybe send out a notice or advertise it on your homepage that you are aware of the problems and you are trying to fix them…that way blogs like this wont need to be created.

     Look I understand it’s a huge job you have ahead of you…Just let the loyal yahoo customers know what your doing about it…so we can at least feel a little hope that we are going to go back to normal.

     Yours Truly,

     Loyal customer
     Zatty

     Comment by Zatty — July 4, 2007 #

572. i cant get into chat at all now. havent been able to for a few days now. message stuck on waiting on yahoo servers. yahoo chat has become a miserable experience.

     Comment by jim james — July 5, 2007 #

573. Any truth in the rumear that yahoo are going to switch off the chat servers soon????????????-quite a few have been saying that in rooms- althought it did take me over 40 mins to get into one.
     YAHOO DO U CARE AT ALL- I THINK NOT.

     Comment by knight rider — July 5, 2007 #

574. MMMM I have blogged and blogged on this site reported and reported… has it done any good? NOPE well Yahoo wants to sell this to me and have me buy that…Sorry but gettin into chat has become impossible and I am no longer worried about even bein on Yahoo or trying their services. I am beginning to see some truth in the Yahoo is shutting down chat rumor… fine by me why even worry about shutting down something that dont work? I say shut it down because im done Yahoo is only concerned with $$$ and I am contacting every advertiser on here and letting them know they are wasting their money.. Pal Talk here i come!!

     Comment by rkymtncowgrl65 — July 6, 2007 #

575. OO and heres another thing… when a big corporation puts something in writing.. like a date that something is going to be fixed… and doesnt do it. Is that not a breach of promise and someone could be sued for that?? MMM just a thought there for any of you that REALLY care that Yahoo has not held up its promise that it put in writing with not one but TWO different fix dates.Maybe a class action lawsuit is whats called for mmmmm? Then maybe Yahoo would be hit somewhere that would hurt, like their pocket books.

     Comment by rkymtncowgrl65 — July 6, 2007 #

576. They are to busy tring to make new things like avatars to worry about chat,I think they need someone that knows something about yahoo messenger working and reporting on it,This Sarah sure don’t know anything about it.

     Comment by JOY — July 7, 2007 #

577. Would anyone from yahoo like to confirm that , the chat rooms are being closed down in 8 weeks as its been said in room - due to some legal fight in the usa.
     WELL YAHOO HAVE YOU GOT THE GUTS TO ANSWER OR NOT.

     Comment by knight_rider — July 7, 2007 #

578. Here are some interesting facts from CNET…. Total downloads for camfrog from date added 7/08/07 , 18,348,024…….Total downloads for yahoo messenger 8.1 from date added 6-08-07 , 7,343,279…. Kinda looks like people are getting tired of all the Porn Bots and the Booters and NOT being able to get into Chat!!!! OPEN your eyes yahoo, you are loseing your chatters left and right because of your LACK of responce to us in your forums and your inability to fix the debilitating issues in chat rooms!!! Oh and here is another SAD fact out of the 577 comments here in this forum NOT a single reply by Sarah or anyone else from yahoo!!! I would say concerns for chat rooms and it’s users are NONE existant!!!!

     Comment by mad chatter — July 13, 2007 #

579. I’M also complete agreement with Chet tha chat rooms are almost impossible to get into and when you do get into a room there all spam bots if your lucky there might be one real chatter in room.Surely Yahoo has the knowhow to fix this and it is too mucho spam and boot on chat the server get over lodinng and server disconect you from yahoo …….. thank you
     pacopaco32000@yahoo.com

     Comment by Paco — July 14, 2007 #

580. OK whats the deal here, when i click on the chat button to open up the window to show all the rooms, there is also a button like the good old days for makeing my own room ie: “create new room” but it won’t let me all I get is a chat error. So what’s the deal are we going to get to make our own rooms again ??or is this another fubar on yer part???? if this is something you are going to bring back then KUDOS to you , it’s about dang time !!! Just a little suggestion though, if you are going to bring back user rooms PLEASE give us the ability to monitor ie: ban/kick out the bad elements!!!!

     Comment by mad chatter — July 17, 2007 #

581. Yahoo has some serious issues with chat this morning, everytime i click on the smily icon to select one i get TOTALLY kicked out of yahoo. I just updated to the newest version(8.1.0.401) of yahoo messenger also from an older version and this CRAP starts happening!!!! Also if i click on the options button for my plugins on my friends list I get knocked out of yahoo also.What the heck is going on????? These are some serious BUGS that need to be fixed ASAP !!! Guess I will be going back to my OLD 7.0.2.120 version of messenger, at least i didn’t have any problems with it!!

     Comment by mad chatter — July 21, 2007 #

582. where can we complain to yahoo if they dont even answer the blogs - once again the service is a joke and its impossible to get into rooms at the moment.
     And is it just me or is someone on here pruneing the msgs that are ask for answers.

     Comment by michael smith — August 1, 2007 #

583. chat still lags, no font sometimes great, often times not, yazak gets me through better than ytunnel, chet is right on, all the above. thank you.

     Comment by David Horst — August 8, 2007 #

584. Pleasssssssssse kill the bots. Is everyone asleep or dont you care. Chat rooms that were enjoyable 2 months ago are now so packed with bots, even bots that tallk back that is it impossible to get in or impossible to tolerate once in the room.
     After I read the blog I am wondering if you actually even care what we think ????? Ihave heard you are paid for allowing bots so is that now teh mainstay of your service….making bot money ?
     Many of your regular users are leaveing to go to PalTalk.

     Comment by VikingQueen41 — August 18, 2007 #

585. dear yahoo - give us back our room choice please and stop editing the posts you dont like please , the service was bad before but now its worse do you care at all i think not, but at least its nice to see the bots are in there theyve taken over - do u care i doubt it.

     Comment by knight — August 20, 2007 #

586. i also agree with chet .. yahoo (at one time) used to be a place to meet up and “Chat” with friends now its just a place where you must fight your way into a roomand not the one you chose to be in i been a chatter for over 8 years and never has my experience in chat been this upsetting the only choice i have is to sit in a room hoping someone im waiting to talk to appears ? in the same room by chance? please put a little more effort into making the “chat experience” like it used to be botless and usable

     Comment by Po — August 20, 2007 #

587. I’ve been in chats for years and i never have seen chats go to hell like they have in the past week or 2 .Something needs to be done. Myspace chats dont have voice and they have more people i know going in there to talk to there friends. The bots are out of control in yahoo chat and it looks like noone is doing anything about it. Ive met alot of wonderful people in yahoo chat and everyone i know is getting tired of the bull. Something needs to be done or your going to loose everyone . is that what you want?

     Comment by unsatified yahoo chatter — August 21, 2007 #

588. Yahoo give us back freedom of choice please its not much to ask , if u dont i recken in a short space of time the only things let in yahoo will be the bots.

     Comment by knight — August 21, 2007 #

589. they must be a way to get rid of the bots other than us having to verify our id everytime we change rooms come on yahoo do something to make it easier than having to use a damm code everytime for a room it sucks when u just can’t be bothered finding more than one way

     Comment by sir_kic_azz — August 29, 2007 #

590. oh by the way the changes have srewed my chat screen name plz sort that out

     Comment by sir_kick_azz — August 29, 2007 #

591. thinking instead of stopping the bots coming in the room it might be best stopping the one’s that own the bots…be it booting bots or spam bots…new yahoo version seems not to be working that well as i counted 8 bots in one room that just reopened yesterday.

     Comment by roaddancr — September 10, 2007 #

592. I am very disgusted with yahoo and the bots.. One minute you get in the rooms and think everything is going good and all of a sudden here comes some bots in the room. Everybody is saying I thought that is why we have to sign in. The signing in is fine but why all the scrambled letters. I have heard some people say that they have signed in 3 or 4 times because you guys have put those extra lines in it. Think of the older people when you are working on this as this is some of the older peoples enjoyment. Also the new versions of messenger don’t work right. It is so sad because a while ago it was work some what good and now nothing works. Pretty soon everyone is going to be gone from yahoo and going to paltalk. what is nice about paltalk they do have tech support rooms there (live) and they do help. Yahoo need to first start out with the help among themselves and get together to fix problems not just one person trying to get something done. Hope it will be changed soon. Yahoo is a nice place to chat and meet people.

     Comment by guardianangel_46 — September 15, 2007 #

593. Anyone remember the good ole IRC days.. Well I think its about time I just gave up and parted my ways with Yahoo, I wish I could of left ahead, but I guess I like so many other users have just put too much trust in Yahoo. Back to nickserv, chanserv and whatever else has changed in the last 10 years…. Peace all ill be on DALNET, Yahoo, good luck. I think you might need it.

     Comment by Travis — December 7, 2007 #

594. Honestly what yahoo needs to do, since they do not have the resources to do it themselves, is to adapt a more IRC approach towards their channels. Instead of having fifty locational rooms, they need maybe one or two. A chatting volunteer (or volunteers) should be given operator permissions to patrol these rooms and k,i,g line the whole lot of them. They either need to do that or just do away with the chat rooms because they are severely vacant of real people.

     Comment by napalm — June 29, 2008 #

595. Now that they closed room botts have gotten even worse. (Who terrible idea was that anyway?). It would be nice for yahoo to do something about out of control botts. No one talks anymore, and the iggi storage gets FULL like over night. The verification is crap must have a HUGE loophole in it because it doesn’t do anything to stop the botts. I agree with chat by the way. i have noticed getting help from yahoo about abuse or Harassment get you no where. Where the hell is the custumer service?

     Comment by james — August 26, 2008 #

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