New entry process for chat rooms
August 29, 2007 on 9:32 am | In Features |
Hi everyone,
To help reduce the number of automated bots, we’ve implemented a new process for entering the Yahoo! Messenger chat rooms known as Captcha. Captcha is used elsewhere on Yahoo! in places like Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Games to help verify that a user is in fact human rather than an automated bot. Here’s how it works in the Yahoo! Messenger chat rooms…
Once you’ve chosen a Yahoo! Messenger chat room, you’ll be put into an empty room (no text, no list of chatters) and see a chat message in the room from a user named “Messenger Chat Admin”. The message will contain a link that says: “Please click here to verify your account. This step is required before you can begin chatting”. Click the link and a new window entitled “Chat Room Verification” will open. Then enter the characters that match the letters and/or numbers in the Captcha test graphic. After successfully completing the Captcha test, you’ll be returned to the chat room and see a confirmation message: “Congratulations! Your account is verified and you now have access to chat rooms”. Then just start chatting!
A Captcha test is required each time you enter a room, not just when you start a session in the chat rooms. While we realize this may slow down your ability to switch rooms quickly, this extra security is needed to help reduce the number of bots.
This new process for entering chat rooms was introduced specifically to ward off the automated bots that have become frequent, unwelcome visitors in our chat rooms. We appreciate your patience as we implement this new feature and hope that it will result in a fun (and less bot-filled) chat experience.
Thanks,
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
Thanks for the update Sarah.
Comment by Infinite Luta — August 29, 2007 #
Hurrah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you all for finally tackling the bots! It works great!!!!!!!!
I see that Seattle now only has 2 rooms and doesn’t need 50 or 100 just to handle the bots. We had only 2 bots in the room.
I bet your chat server load is nil now.
Well done!
Comment by Steve — August 29, 2007 #
well it works.. but not with ytunnel…
Comment by unhappy — August 29, 2007 #
Captcha works just fine with Ytunnel. I use Ytunnel all the time and don’t have any problems signing in.
Comment by Storm Watcher — August 29, 2007 #
Thanks for finally addressing the bot issue. How great it is to finally see a room without all the porn garbage!!
I only found one problem……the live idiots that send an IM or cam invitation the minute they enter a room can now get thru because the ….”Ignore anyone not on my friends list” doesn’t work as it once did. Selecting that option also blocks text in the room for anyone not on my list. In the past it only blocked IM’s from people not on your friends list.
I’ve changed many preferences and so far haven’t found a solution to block unwanted IM’s and cam invitations from those not on my friends list and still see text in a room.
If anyone has the solution, please post!
Comment by Bravo Yahoo! — August 29, 2007 #
Well I see most of the bots are gone, for now. There’s still a few and more entering as the hours go by. Captcha’s can be defeated so it won’t be long before the rooms are pretty much back to the same.
Of course I have seen a few comments on forums from sight impaired. The captcha’s have done a great job of eliminating them from the chat rooms, but then there’s very few of them using the voice features in chat rooms so who cares right ?
I wish more companies would think of the average person more when they design or modify programs/features. It be a lot nicer world if they did.
That’s just my 2 cents before taxes.
Comment by KBSoftware — August 29, 2007 #
Yahoo Inc,
CAPTCHA is really good idea to implement. Im really that this day came and many thanks for this new system of verification.
Only thing that upset me a bit is the time I get DISCONNECTED in the room
which hopefully you Yahoo Engineers can solve this issues for us.
When this DISCONNECTION happens, I get this and its really annoying, Im sure some dont want this kind of issues. Obviously we have to re-enter the room and do the verification again.
“You have been signed out of Chat. If you want to sign in again, please join a room.(8/29/2007 6:02 PM)”
Comment by Dave (Yahoo Chat Fanatic) — August 29, 2007 #
Well done Sarah …
A thumbs up from me
Comment by Ian — August 29, 2007 #
Im really happy that is.
If we get DISCONNECTED can you guys make Yahoo Messenger to auto-reconnect the room we were in?
Comment by Dave (Yahoo Chat Fanatic) — August 29, 2007 #
The captcha idea seems like a nice fix. However, I still was denied entry into the chat rooms. Thanks for nothing! Beside, I am not satisfied that this will really stop these bots. When can I use IM? Since the day after I downloaded the program your servers went down and I have been unable to use it since. This includes your claim that the problem is fixed, “Just enter the letters that you see on the screen and then go and chat”, NO I CAN’T! This still doesn’t work. I get the same error messages that I have been getting for a week. I’m ready to junk yahoo and find an IM that really works.
Comment by Michael — August 29, 2007 #
I’m happy that bots are gone.
But God I wish there was a different solution.
Comment by Jaunty Mellifluous — August 29, 2007 #
my messenger is disconnected whenever im back at the pc. i find it quite annoying. I hope yahoo offer a premium service soon to remove CAPTCHA
Comment by vb_packets — August 29, 2007 #
wow i’m loving the new captcha chat…it’s just crazy to chat with out bots..i’m so not used to it! i haven’t experienced chat like this since i first started to chat back in 04..and even then there was still a few bots..this is so nice. thank you yahoo.
Comment by Justin — August 29, 2007 #
This is a GREAT temporary solution!
Comment by Mart — August 29, 2007 #
THANK YOU!!!! The system is working great so far. The only issue I see right now, is that there are two sets of the same rooms in the “Romance/By Location” rooms. All of the states are listed twice. The first set lists all of the ACTUAL rooms that are available, whereas the second set lists ALL rooms, but the ones not listed in the 1st set aren’t actually available to join. Simply because the other rooms haven’t filled up yet & they don’t really ‘exist’.
In the future will we be able to join say… “Your State:5″ even if the room is empty? Because as of right now it’s not possible. Just a “User Refused Join” error.
Comment by Parry Hotter — August 29, 2007 #
Hey people don’t be so fast to celebrate. The capthca has been already cracked I see a bot in the room im in right now. They are slowly making their way back in. The hackers are busy rewriting the bot programs to crack the captcha.
Comment by Ray — August 29, 2007 #
Bravo
Comment by Ian Kenefick — August 29, 2007 #
Captcha works fine. But I have a suggestion. Bots can still obtain voice chat without being verified. It’d be nice if you change it that nobody can obtain voice chat UNTIL they are verified. =)
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
Ray, a single bot probably means a bot maker input the code for the bot to enter chat. Personally, I haven’t seen a single bot yet. =)
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
we should not be forced to use want you want us to it should be our choice if we want to use it or not this is supposed to be america the land of the free just leave yahoo the hell alone
Comment by wildchild — August 29, 2007 #
Bravo!
Comment by zx — August 29, 2007 #
Yes I agree with Venom. The captcha verification although is doing its job there are some flaws already discovered.
Its a Big Chat Exploit already in the making. Bots can login to voice chat without actually joining chatroom through captcha verification and can mass ignore the user already on voice in that chatroom and hence give that user who is running these bots power to step on the user who was previously on voice and was being ignored by these bots in mass.
Yahoo has to fix this sooner rather than later
Comment by Rick — August 29, 2007 #
i see a bot in the room LOL so much for CAPTCHA cam_sheena62 seems to get through LOL ROFL
Comment by miranda — August 29, 2007 #
Thank You !!
Now we just need some functionality that allows us to move between rooms with no need for additional’verification’.
@unhappy>>ytunnel does appear to work,with the proviso that Some functions Currently do not..check their website for further info
a small price to pay??
Comment by tom — August 29, 2007 #
KBSoftware:
You’re being unreasonable. Either we use the CAPTCHA and we chat.. or we don’t and let the bots ruin it all. Which choice will it be?
Don’t ruin chat just because a few can’t see the CAPTCHA. Your best bet is to ask for an audio CAPTCHA as an option rather than complain and try to ruin it for the rest of us.
Comment by bots-b-gone — August 29, 2007 #
Yahoo needs a new Captcha generator or rooms will be filled with bots in 1 week.
Watch and see.
Comment by Mike — August 29, 2007 #
well things are better now but some odd problems as if some times when users leave the the room then come back lots of the times you cant see them or hear them then your walking over them some times to see them you will have to leave the room and come back then you can see them it don’t do it all the time but most of the time we did testing in Yahoo! Chat Help:1 last night and we had nothing but problems with that other then that things are good
now as for bots yeah its true the bots cant get in the room but now what ppl are doing is trying to fill up a room but it cant get in to the room but now they get voice bots as before you still enter in a room with clicking on the link they still get voice and they key up in the chat room you can still hear them just key up for a sec then off but they go throw each one for the sec then it cuts it off , so wont it be better to have it if you enter in a room you cant get voice to load tell you click on the link and enter the code in then you can get voice when you enter in the room i think that would be better also note when users try to bring there bots in a room and cant heres 1 other thing in a room when they leave you see this all the time
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
left the room
other then that things are good so yous need to fix some things its getting there
Comment by Cisco — August 29, 2007 #
lol they finally get something done about the bots and to some its still not good enough…… how about the ones that dont like what yahoo is doing .. DONT GO TO YAHOO!! it wasnt that hard to understand lol
Comment by Wolf — August 29, 2007 #
Thank you so Much for getting rid of the bots, the CAPTCHA is a piece of cake and well worth the small amount of time to enter the rooms for the sake of no bots to speak of. Finally we can chat, imagine that actually chatting in a chat room!!!!
Comment by Dave — August 29, 2007 #
The “left the room” issue is because the servers are sending empty room leave packets, without the ID.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
Thank you, Sarah… thumbs up
Comment by Missy — August 29, 2007 #
ok i can deal with the code … it is a bit annoying when your sick of one room and want to bounch to another… but i can live with it. My question …. Is yahoo going to only have a few rooms per catagory and then when those get filled open another, I think they should just have x amount per catagory. Let people have the choice of what room they want to go into and chat. Also are the rooms under the Voice Chat Catagory ever going to open back up ??????? There were good room to go to !!!!!!! Since Yahoo has decided to do this drastic update none of those rooms have been open. It would get a lot of unwanted people out of other rooms and back where they want to be.
Does any one want to take bets on how long it will be before a program is written to get the bots back into the rooms? Either way open up all of the other rooms and let us enjoy them while we can
Comment by rebel — August 29, 2007 #
some bots are in rooms I’ve seen like 5. but as venom said owners probably testing bot in room and typed code for em. thus why 5 vs 5000.
I also noticed the bugs with join and others not getting voice or text from all other users in room. probably an out of sync error from the waiting room. this is a huge bug needing fix
same with voice without verification is a huge exploit glitch.
audio captchas would be nice too
but a step in right direction. bravo
Comment by mysticalos — August 29, 2007 #
Sarah, thanks for all your recent efforts in trying to fix Chat! Without bots, you’ve probably eliminated about 99% of your server load… so could you please start adding more rooms from which to choose, now that you’ve got plenty of server space on which to host them? I’ve been trying to get the deleted X-Files room reinstated for over a year now, but all I get in return is frustrating (and usually irrelevant) computer-generated form-letter replies. Just in the last couple of days, Yahoo has deleted the two other rooms we XF “refugees” have been using, and the dozens of other possible replacement rooms I’ve tried reaching have been deleted too; since Yahoo long ago took away user-created rooms, I don’t know where else to turn. My apologies if this isn’t the proper venue for making this request, but it seems like the only chance I’ll ever have of getting a “live person” at Yahoo to read it, and you seem dedicated to actively improving Chat. Thanks.
Comment by Julie — August 29, 2007 #
Also the issues with the only able to chat once per session needs to be addressed, along with IDs being stuck in rooms, and the communication error issue, not to mention other issues.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
it may have some bugs….but this is SO MUCH better than what it was…thanks for working on it yahoo….maybe people will start coming back now….thumbs up…
Comment by Chatter — August 29, 2007 #
Thanks Sara and staff. Its great to not see all those bots and the porn they send.
thanks again for the good job
Comment by ck — August 29, 2007 #
This is great, but it would be VERY nice to be able to change rooms without having to go through the verification process every time. Once you’re in chat, you should be able to change rooms without the CAPTCHA test every time!
Comment by mw00db — August 29, 2007 #
I really Appriciated Yahoo’s this step that is against bots with captcha Yahoo is doing just in right way.
Well whatever Lets see whats the yahoo next step I thinl yahoo will also try to Reduce this time comsuming methord with more easy methord
Thanks to yahoo This is need of Time and situation
Hope yahoo will soon become like Early times free from bots
But What to those who are human being and they use to abuses in rooms ?????
By Captcha yahoo can stop Bots ( mainly abusive bots as i am a regular Hinduism and Indian rooms chatter and always use to see abusive bots) but how to stop those who are real human but abusers.
Yahoo should also work in this field.
Comment by Abhishek Anand — August 29, 2007 #
A discussion I had earlier about “bots” obtaining voice therefore bypassing the Captcha system altogether:
Mass ignoring is still alive regardless of this captcha system. The reason why is because when the pseudo-room list (partial | 2 user) is sent to you with the Yahoo id & captcha link all the necessary fields are in place for voice logins without even having to verify through the captcha system. Verifying through the captcha is just for chatting (sending text) and receiving it (even though at the moment you can “ghost” and receive joins, leaves and room messages without even having been verified/joined into the room).
The voice cookie is sent to you along with the room space # and room name in the first “pseudo”-room list and this is all it takes for mass ignore bots to log into voice, receive the entire voice user list and mass ignore new voice arrivals and/or broadcaster keyups on the mic. This can easily be verified by:
A> Voicing in Messenger prior to authenticating through the captcha (which you CAN do).
B> Sniffing the YMSG and voice packets yourself for evidence.
Comment by Adam [Torseq Tech] — August 29, 2007 #
Wow the fix is great, it’s crazy how amazing it is…
Is there Any way that once you verified you wouldn’t have to verify again..or maybe you just have to verify every 2nd room change or so?
Comment by MissKim — August 29, 2007 #
Bravo!!!! well done yahoo team i always knew u guys will come up of something!!!! nOw whose the BOOSS???!!! eat that!!! yahoo terrorist ur day of fun is over!!!! lol….yahoo rules the chat room!!!!
someone said its a temporary solution lol i don’t think so! the method is known way back a couple of months ago craig knows this and im sure other 3rd party programers as well and guess what? they have not develop a program that could bypass the captcha!!!! sorry to blow ur bubble dude!!!!
and im pretty sure right now yahoo has another trick just in case this method is bypassed! that’s it yahoo show them whose the boss when it comes to yahoo CHAT!!!!!
…im still looking for the day that no 3rd party client can log-in and all of us will be using yahoo messenger but for the time being this update is enough!!!!
Comment by araham lincoln — August 29, 2007 #
so ur point ADAM is that mass iggy still works flawlessly? i haven’t use that program but i thought u can’t get the mic user list if ur master boot is not in chat room…but yah maybe if they come up with something maybe they can bypass the captcha…..anyways i know yahoo will deal with these morons soon…..just wait and see…
Comment by araham lincoln — August 29, 2007 #
Thanks for this fix. I am legally blind, and can still access flawlessly. Its VERY nice to not have the bots en mass in the rooms, Please continue work to … a: prosecute those stealing advertising dollars by using bots b: keep researching to close security exploits before this situation is undone.and the rooms are flooded again.
Comment by Julie — August 29, 2007 #
NICE JOB CLEANING UP THE ROOMS. I really didn’t think you were going to do it.
Pity there has to be a Captcha on every room change. Seems there should be one to get into chat and from there you can roam freely. Small price to pay I guess and far less annoying than the bots.
Will be interesting to see how long it takes them to hack their way back in.
Seems the /join function no longer works so I have to pick rooms from the list, which isn’t always populated.
Comment by paddler — August 29, 2007 #
all you asking for one verification and that’s it are missing the point. if the captcha was easy. bots would still flood the rooms. remember. you go through one captcha when you created an account already. but if you only have to do it once clearlt bot makers are willing to go that far since once its done and over with they can have that bot stay in chat all day spamming automated. but if you get bugged every time you join chat or change rooms it can’t be left automated after initial captcha. see point now? it has to be complicated if its going to be useful. so either learn to get used to it or keep whining and yahoo can let the bots come back in.
Comment by mysticalos — August 29, 2007 #
thank you thankyou thank you.
you guys a great
Comment by bruce — August 29, 2007 #
paddler. join works. its just case senseitive. you Must type it exactly as room name is with caps. if you get user refused join then your room isn’t open yet use a lower number. if your room is room 1 then join without number to reopen the room
Comment by mysticalos — August 29, 2007 #
This is nuts I still bots on the room. .I knew the catptcha wouldnt work that well.
Comment by Ray — August 29, 2007 #
well that was obvious. see the bot makers can still type a captcha in then park bot in one room. long as it posts once in a while it’ll stay in room. think that was idea behind 65 min disconnect timer. someone may have patience to type a few codes out and just not have their bots change rooms if they will stay in them. however from my testing last night the 65 min timer went away. that needs to be brought back as well as much of a pain it is…thatll make the bots have to redo captcha every hour too. it really won’t be worth it to be a spammer then.
Comment by mysticalos — August 29, 2007 #
I get the verification message after entering the code and nothing happens period other then close the browser and start chatting and I can’t. Also I have not had text for days. I could talk on the mic and hear others but that was the extent of it up until today. Today nadda.
Comment by piece — August 29, 2007 #
Piece, do you have “Ignore anyone who is not on my Messenger List” selected under Yahoo’s Preferences > Ignore List?
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
ITS SO STUPID DOING CHAT ROOM VERIFICATION EVERY TIME CHANGING ROOM, THIS SHOULD BE CHANGED
Comment by padric — August 29, 2007 #
No Venom I don’t but ty. I do appreciate it.
Comment by piece — August 29, 2007 #
Venom- just to let you know - not since version 7.0437 has the “ignore anyone who is not on my Messenger list” have you been able to use that option and still see the rest of the text in the room..sometimes you cannot even hear those who are not on your lists voices, so having that option does not solve the issue of needing to leave your IM’s completely open to see all the text — and yes the bots may be gone but booters sadly are not.. nor are the “lovelorn” so it seems..
My second comment is one I posted on the other blog - I DO have two friends who due to a handicap cannot read the text no matter the size– they know when I usually come on-line and wait for me to invite them into a room, at which time they use the voice option to chat — how can we work around this Captcha system to enable those like them who need assistance??
Thanks for your hard work — be chatting at ya!
Comment by Charged — August 29, 2007 #
Not that this will help, piece, but I had to download 7.5 messenger… then I could see text in rooms. I had 6.0 and it worked for voice, but not text.
Comment by n0vice — August 29, 2007 #
hey Sarah, I like this idea but will or when will the higher number rooms be open can you let us know about this ???
I’m in a higher number chat room and would hope it will be open again .
Comment by Julianna — August 29, 2007 #
Just to remind some whiners: the captcha has to be on room join otherwise it won’t be effective. Bot owners would just sign them in once and let them run wild all day or until their connection dropped.
With a captcha check on room join, the bot owner is forced to keep the bot in one room. When it stays in one room, I CAN IGNORE IT. The reason you couldn’t ignore them before is because they kept moving around. They wold join, spam the room, and then leave.
I just WISH there was an option to ignore ALL PMs from users not in the room and a second option to ignore ALL PMs from users in the room. Both of those options would give us control over who can private message us.
It would also be nice to have an option to ignore ALL communication from a user’s IP address. So, if I want to ignore Bob_01, it will automatically ignore Bob_boot_bot_01, Bob_boot_bot_02, Bob_boot_bot_03, etc because they’re all coming from the same IP address. This could be done server-side to hide IP addresses of chatters. That would solve most booting.
The ignore everyone not on my Friend list is USELESS to me. How do you make new chat friends if you’re ignoring everyone?
Comment by bots-b-gone — August 29, 2007 #
Welldone guys…
You have taken something that worked a little, and completly screwed it up..
This is on top of IM software thats as buggy as anything.
So now I get verified, but there is nobody in the room when I get there.
Also verifying for each time you change room, get real. I am guessing that you won’t have many users left if you don’t get you act together.
So 9/10 for intent, 0/10 for implementation. You get my dippers of the year award.
Comment by solarguy — August 29, 2007 #
I love that we have no bots ! But last night some of the regs from a 50’s room were forced to go to a lower numbered room , we were playing music as we had always done in our room , then the rooms regs came in , they had been there for years apparently as we had been in ours , we were playing music , having a grand time , and they came in like a mounted posse spewing obscenities , stepped on our music , we were told in vile ways to leave their room if we didn’t like their behavior . It was their room . We did all leave and went to another room because we are a peace loving bunch . I would like to have our rooms back please as they were . I don’t mind the verification part . even tho within 1 hour i was bounced 5 times , and find myself having to re-verify myself so many times only to sit in a blank chatroom looking at the four white walls with a yahoo admin staring back at me lol
Please Yahoo , fix it all .
Patiently awaiting and only partially impressed
~.shine.~
Comment by shine — August 29, 2007 #
Hello & thank you for the update. Y’all are doing a fine job with chat rooms. I really like it ! Thanks again & keep up the good work.
Comment by One — August 29, 2007 #
I think Yahoo has made a good move to deploy the CAPTCHA system. However, it should have been made such that no voice cookies can be obtained until the user has correctly entered the CAPTCHA code. Otherwise, mass iggy bots will still be plenty and filling up rooms like before.
Comment by Lu Chin — August 29, 2007 #
hey guys at ytk mind your own business ok thanks.
Comment by chats back — August 29, 2007 #
Works great so far. No bots at all!! Hope it stays that way.
Comment by allanmn — August 29, 2007 #
Charged, thanks for the tip but I already knew that.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
chats back, nobody from YTK is saying anything here, nor was it mentioned until you said it.
Me, I’m here to see what’s going on, and see if I can help with any issues people post. =)
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
bots-b-gone
You would not think I was being unreasonable if you were the one who just lost the ability to use yahoo chat because of your disability. If this had happened anywhere else other then on the internet the * would hit the fan as it should.
There are other very effective ways to deal with bots without denying (or making it nearly impossible) anyone else access to yahoo chat rooms. Just check out many other chat programs that offer chat rooms to see how they have dealt with bots.
Captcha’s won’t solve the bot problem either. There’s a ton of bot id maker programs that don’t require you to enter the captcha when creating a yahoo id, the program deals with it, and so forth so it is just a matter of time before the programmers who make the bot programs just add the needed already available code to their programs and boom the bots are back.
Comment by kbsoftware — August 29, 2007 #
You’ve made a good start. Unfortunately the new procedures kill all 3rd party clients which locks out all non windows users. I hope you can find the time to add chat room support to the other messenger ports, especially Mac
Comment by Bob — August 29, 2007 #
The CAPTCHA is alright, have to get used to putting the code but some bots still get in, Are you going to get the fight rooms back up with this new system of yours. When are you going to open up more rooms in the Games, Yahoo Fighter rooms, because 2 rooms are not enough. You need to make more rooms.
Comment by Kari — August 29, 2007 #
well venom you tell adam not to be writing any room fillers. his failing business is not our problem
Comment by ok — August 29, 2007 #
Venom — thought you did…
Comment by Charged — August 29, 2007 #
rooms are automatically created when previous is full. so saying “2 isn’t enough” is just silly. when room 2 fills 3 will open and so on. get used to that it always worked that way. also get used to their not beeing 300+ rooms in one category. without bots that many rooms won’t fill so get used to being a reg in a lower room.
Comment by mysticalos — August 29, 2007 #
Yahoo has finally done something right! Shocking!! I was in a room earlier and dont even think I saw a bot. I hate to say this, but how long before the bots show up and the rooms are crowded again?
Comment by Alex — August 29, 2007 #
verifying each time is getting really annoying. yahoo just made chat worse, smart move
Comment by verifyingeachtimeisannoying — August 29, 2007 #
Sarah,
Thank you and the staff for seriously addressing the problem and taking measurable action. While I hate having to use the captcha I realize it is a necessary measure to minimize or eliminate bots. I’m sure there are still kinks to be worked out but on the whole there has been a dramatic improvement in chat. I think you have silenced most of the skeptics. Your efforts are greatly appreciated by this yahoo chat user.
Comment by jabadoobie — August 29, 2007 #
Sarah,
While it is a good and appreciated solution to a problem that has been waiting to be solved for well over 5 years now.
It has been less then 24 hours since the implementation of the “Captcha” verification strategy and bots are steadily increasing with frequency. I reckon it will be only a matter of a few days 4-5 days before the issue becomes near epidemic again.
I do hope that you and your team continue to investigate added measures to implement and keep up with this ever evolving plague of technological abuse upon your chatting infrastructure.
Thanks,
Alan
Network Specialist
Comment by alan — August 29, 2007 #
rest assured the bot guys are working hard to develop an automated way to beat the captchas- and once a solution is perfected the bots will be back. So lets hope yahoo continuously improves their captcha algorithms and does not let the chatrooms go to seed like last time..
Comment by ByteKnight — August 29, 2007 #
With this we can celebrate the definitive Death of Italian rooms (the last one that remained)
R.I.P.
Comment by ItalyBoy — August 29, 2007 #
Even tho im verifying my id, i still dont get put into any rooms, and when i try to i get asked to verify all over again and still not get anywhere.
Comment by bluebell — August 29, 2007 #
I really like how things have changed and what not. I do have a request…which I hope is not asking for too much. I only frequent the Games section, and there are only five rooms per sub group. Is it possible to add an extra room or two, or is that too much?
Comment by Dan — August 29, 2007 #
i am so happy that yahoo got rid of all of the booters it works great
Comment by e.p — August 29, 2007 #
Yes yes yes yes yes it works!!!! Hands the Yahoo team a bottle of Champane…..enjoy you deserve it
Comment by kssnuggle — August 29, 2007 #
Why don’t you let us create user rooms using the set of categories you already got?
Seems like a happy medium compared to the user rooms you used to have and the lock down on rooms you currently have.
This is how it’d work. You got a list of categories and sub-categories such as Games, Regional, Religion, Romance, Groups, Countries and Culture, Canada, etc. If I took those, I could mix and match categories to open a new user specified room.
Examples:
Games -> Romance
Romance -> Canada -> Friends -> Games
Friends -> Religion -> USA
At least we could specify our own rooms again if you did that.
Comment by Elbo — August 29, 2007 #
I just visited two trivia rooms that are full of bots. It looks like there is already some capsha defeating code being used. Oh well…
Comment by DavidN — August 29, 2007 #
When are you going to release a decent YM client for Linux? One at least as good as the Mac version
Comment by AGT — August 29, 2007 #
DavidN wrote I just visited two trivia rooms that are full of bots. It looks like there is already some capsha defeating code being used. Oh well
yea thats just someone using a program called room destroy. yahoo go ahead and patch that silly program. anyway, room destroy will not be as wide spread is what we have just dealt with.
Comment by hi — August 29, 2007 #
nice, to see the new updates.
hey sarah, is there a feedback site for yahoo messenger? i much rather post something directly to the yahoo messenger group, rahter in the blog, where i could get critzied for my ideas and then my idea get burried in all the comments.
Comment by Chris — August 29, 2007 #
the capsha thing is very cool i must say
but it’s very annoying to verify every time i join a new room
and i also know that i must do this or the bot’s commander will write the code once and allow the bot to play all day long in the room
but i have an idea, it’s not mine
back when MSN chat was around there was a way to block users who use scripts from joining the user-made rooms
maybe this was possible coz MSN chat was based on IRC and there was a way that u can identfy the IRC client that the script uses so it can be blocked
i don’t know if yahoo could use some technique like that,like blocking all the users that don’t use the yahoo messenger to join the chat, by doing so we can block both bots and booters
what other think of this method
Comment by BigRadi0Head — August 29, 2007 #
Thanks for the timely improvements to Yahoo! Chat. You all have shown that you are concerned about it and thankyou very much for that. God Bless You and i’m glad the bots are out!
Comment by Jeff — August 29, 2007 #
good job.
Yahoo! gets a cookie.
Comment by fat-head — August 29, 2007 #
In my humble opinion,If yahoo! has created a way to eliminate 99% or so of the bots everyone said was their first concearn in chat and was making it unworthy of loging into,I say hats off to them.
Comment by zx — August 29, 2007 #
I DO NOT LIKE THE FACT WE GET DISCONNECTED!!! PLEASE FIX THIS NUISANCE!
Comment by Blah — August 29, 2007 #
Good job getting rid of the bots for now. I sometimes get a message that the image is unavailable at this time, please try again later.
Comment by Zeus — August 29, 2007 #
I think the disconnections every 45 to 90 minutes is a good deterrent to keep any bots that do get into the room, out.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
This is all fine and good, but Yahoo has effectively kicked millions of linux users from chat.
Yahoos own chat client for Unix is about 8th gral level lab class work with no voice or cam support so yo can not use it. The one Linux program that used to work now gets error 999 when clicking on the verification link.
If this is thebest work Yahoo can do as a corporation they are screwed.
Comment by Dom Billings — August 29, 2007 #
You people give it a REST already!!! so what if you have to verify each time!! like you have anything better to do , dam!!! Thanks Sarah and Yahoo staff , its sooo much better
Comment by candy — August 29, 2007 #
Thank god,,, this is a good idea to verify the humans to bots,,,I would rather do it this way,,,acct. verification than to put up with the bots.
Comment by Ladysportster06 — August 29, 2007 #
hmmm…..the new log in is not fool proof. The room I’m there there were no bots for a few hours. Now that it’s later, here come the bots. It’s not fool proof. Give thime two weeks and all the bots will be back!
Comment by dhrflfo — August 29, 2007 #
I just serioiusly looked at the verification screen, there is no audio prompt to help the visually impaired, and this CAN (and should) be done, press a button, hear a media file read the letters to the impaired, it still wont help a bot sign in, but a visually impaired person would. Yes, this is a special interest group request, but, its the right thing to do.
Comment by Julie — August 29, 2007 #
don’t be too paranoid guys of course u will see some bots coz the bot owner can always do a manual login lolz bots are still controlled by human in case u u forgot!!!! but the fact is that its harder for them to log their bots coz they have to do it manually…as far as i’m concern their are fewer boots right now so thats it…
Comment by oh well — August 29, 2007 #
well still cant get ytunnel to work in new login system
Comment by unhappy — August 29, 2007 #
Y!Tunnel does work with the new login system, as does YTK Pro.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
A automated bot program got in windows:1 10 came in at the same time and i know the person doing it she need to be banded. She needs to be stoped they broke captcha i think this is against the law.
Comment by Rob Madden — August 29, 2007 #
room buster keeps saying rooms are full but when i drop ytunnel i get in with no problem???
Comment by unhappy — August 29, 2007 #
Disable the room buster.
Better yet, go to the Y!Tunnel forums and post about your problem there (I believe it may be a slight incompatibility with the captcha, I don’t have that problem with YTK). Hummm. I may test this later. =)
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
the link does NOT open a new window. it does NOTHING, and no where on the web is there any help to get over this problem.
any ideas on what to do?
Comment by lovesixfingers — August 29, 2007 #
what ADAM has said is very accurate voice bots can still do their nasty stuff in yahoo chat!!! their abuse of yahoo voice continue if only yahoo can do something about this they must not allow voice login until the user do the captcha im not sure if at present yahoo system its hard to implement but i hope yahoo will do it.
if it is not much to ask for yahoo team please take a look at this problem and deal with these morons….
i think the site of the person doing this progran is http://www.asrprogs.com take a look at this yahoo
thanks.
Comment by oh well — August 29, 2007 #
I did everything and when I get into a room theres no one there but me. The room does not open what do I do know? HELP!
Comment by Doc — August 29, 2007 #
lovesixfingers, make sure whatever browser you use is set as the default browser.
Comment by Venom — August 29, 2007 #
Thanks Yahoo for making Chat possible for us decent folks. I’m happy to see my favorite rooms full of real people instead of those pesky porn bots. Keep up the good work. If at all possible, can you give me some info as to when the voice feature on Chat will be available for Windows Vista ?
Comment by Jose — August 29, 2007 #
what the hell does not anyone care that captcha was hacked with damn bots. read my last posting
Comment by Rob Madden — August 29, 2007 #
the given link does not opens the window and this does not works
Comment by sagar — August 29, 2007 #
people who are complining must be bots them selfs
Comment by Chris — August 29, 2007 #
I still can’t get into rooms, I have the older yahoo 6.0 I never did an upgrade because everything was fine until now. I get user refused join notice on most of the rooms and the rooms I can get in are empty. after I do captcha to get in the room nothing happens. I also tryed yahelite to get in I get a error message. I guess its chat detox for me. anyone else getting this problem?
Comment by Doc — August 29, 2007 #
i know if your account is regestererd under the age 18 or younger (that being, 1990 or later) you wont be able to log in since they made yahoo chat for people 18 and up
Comment by Chris — August 29, 2007 #
Hi, while i do feel this will benifit the community you fail to realize that blind users are now totally barred from the chat experience
Comment by tj — August 29, 2007 #
hey please we wanna get rid of the continously verifying part while switchin rooms pleaseeee i think ill be brain dead soon do sumthin about it
i think i luv bots now
Comment by guttsy — August 30, 2007 #
bring back the bots just nomore verifications pleaseeeeeeeee omg why are u playing with us its not funny anymore Yahoo u need to ok fine u can come down here n kill me with ur bare digital hands……….
Comment by guttsy — August 30, 2007 #
[…] Yahoo! Messenger Chat is bot-free (for now) with the addition of capcha confirmation before joining rooms. It’s a bit bothersome on changing rooms because there is a captcha whenever you enter a […]
Pingback by ONAT LOPERA » Bot-Free Yahoo! Messenger Chat — August 30, 2007 #
Venom why do you feel the need to post your ytk link on EVERY POST you are as bad as the bots yahoo works = no ytk pro GOOD don’t spam this blog we have had enough of it as it is good god
Comment by Geez — August 30, 2007 #
i wanna say only one thing that u have made room joining very difficult so plz find other way to reduce bots
to verify every time is so dificult
Comment by DAMAN — August 30, 2007 #
yahoo team please stop allowing voice login b4 captcha verification becoz it is being exploited by voice bot……….pleaseeeee yahoo team thats the only flaw left right now please stop them.
thanks
Comment by hey its me — August 30, 2007 #
cool
Comment by name — August 30, 2007 #
pretty sad thats all they have to do at ymlite and ytk bunch of losers
Comment by more reasons to stay away from ymlite and ytk pro — August 30, 2007 #
0.12456
Comment by name — August 30, 2007 #
Grrrrrrrr…the bots are trickling back in.
LOVEPROFUSIONwno373 , who’s profile links to webcam-lounge.com
And when did CAPs begin appearing in IDs (not nicknames,) on the list and why did we need that “enhancement”?
Comment by mourn4chat — August 30, 2007 #
Hey,
When will voice be part of yahoo messenger for mac.
I need that to be able to use Yahoo Phone Out.
I like the Yahoo phone out, but I think one can only wait so long before moving to other services.
Thanks,
Imran
Comment by Imran Ahmed — August 30, 2007 #
for years booter’s have been unable to bypass the code when making a bot. in other words they make the bots one by one, all the bot maker does is fill in all the information in advance to make it a little faster. well same thing with the new room filler thing. each bot has no choice but to enter that code before it logs in. that means if a person wants to put 40 bots in a room he must enter 40 seperate codes. see what im getting at?? that takes to much time and buy the time they get all 40 bots in the room yahoo will have more than likely disconnected them. if you see someone trying this time consuming process in your room inform room admin and yahoo will clear them. so no need to worry friends we are safe.
Comment by happy user — August 30, 2007 #
Congradulations yahoo team!!!The room verification is a great idea!Although it did not stop a voice booter and a couple room booters it still great!The ones who don’t like it are either too lazy to type in the code ,or the bot makers themselves.I had absolutly no problem in the chat rooms last night except for the one voice lagger that locked up the room.I guess some people live their lives to make others miserable instead of putting their energy toward making something of their self.Some don’t realize the older messengers do not work with the new chat,some have still got windows 98 which also doesnt work that well,and some dont realize that you can get disconnected by other things besides yahoo.Anyway thank you for your hard work and the new improvements!!!
Comment by BJ — August 30, 2007 #
To those complaining about having to enter a code every time they change rooms…SO WHAT? You complain about Yahoo not doing anything about the bots and now that they have you’re complaining about that??!!! Granted it took them too long to finally address the issue, but now that its done be at least a little grateful that they did something. Just hope they can keep ahead of the scum sucking bot makers.
From my perspective I say, “Congrats and thank you to Yahoo for finally doing something that appears to be working…at least for now.”
Comment by Gary — August 30, 2007 #
no body is complaining so what are you talking about?
Comment by huh — August 30, 2007 #
Julie, It is interresting that you made the comment about the visually impared.I was thinking the same thing yesterday.It surely is an idea that probably slipped by Yahoo! My thinking was more along the lines of dyslexic users.Ill bet there are a few that went cross-eyed over that one. Thanks for the thinking of the often neglected users of yahoo! chat. These are the ones that Chat has a huge impact on primarily because of their disabilities.
Comment by zx — August 30, 2007 #
nice try zx. the security word is large and bold. if a person cant see that they shouldn’t use a computer.stop looking for exploits.
Comment by oh well — August 30, 2007 #
oh well, you’re a callous moron. The security word isn’t that big and no matter how big, some people would still need audio output.
By your reasoning, someone paralyzed who can’t type shouldn’t use a computer either. Tell that to Stephen Hawking.
Comment by mourn4chat — August 30, 2007 #
just don’t use yahoo chat then ok. problem solved
Comment by yoo — August 30, 2007 #
whenever you enter a secure site (i.e banking account, pharmacy sites list goes on and on) you must enter a security word. this is nothing new folks so stop trying to manipulate yahoo into making it easier for you to fill rooms faster sickos”” .
Comment by use your head — August 30, 2007 #
Doesn’t matter anyway. Adam over at ytk pro will do everything in his power to screw up yahoo to keep his FRAUDULENT site up and running. I guess he is to afraid of getting a real job.
Comment by short lived — August 30, 2007 #
There isnt really a problem with voice bots…Its fairly simple to ignore the botmaster hogging the mike & continue talking….chat works with the consensus of the room…if people want to iggy the person with the voice bots they can continue to talk normally.
Using CAPTCHA has stopped room fillers & thats far more important than stopping voice bots.
Comment by Timothy — August 30, 2007 #
well if there where bots in that room they are gone now. all that work for nothing roger
Comment by yawn — August 30, 2007 #
you want to do something, remove the hands free option from voice, period, it is annoying and allows rude people to completely dominate voice chat. force them to push a button instead of being lazy since we CANT choose our rooms as we once could, which is a major annoyance for most users who have built small communities in specific rooms…
Comment by gapdragon — August 30, 2007 #
people quit bitching, iof you hack your way though yahoo chat, yahoo will find you and WILL arest you. hell, the FBI may arivie at your door in less then 5 minuntes to arest you for hacking yahoo’s server.
you people who are complining are bots your self and are real idiots and its sad that you dont have a life…
james kane lol
Comment by Chris — August 30, 2007 #
yah u can ignore those who use mass iggy but the point is if yahoo is addressing bot issue i think voice bots should be included, if it is not very hard for them to do.
i want to see this exploit defeated by yahoo so that once and for all all these people will know that yahoo is in control. Besides this bots are consuming yahoo resources coz b4 i once saw 1000 voice bots in a room
so yahoo team again, if its not that hard for u guys… stop this voice bots from getting voice b4 the captcha or stop socks proxy in joining voice chat
thanks for the wonderful update. “Yahoo Rules”
Comment by john — August 30, 2007 #
About the complainers complaining about the CAPTCHA being hard to see.
Umm. If you can’t see the letters in the CAPTCHA which uses a rather large font (about 20pt), then how the heck do you use the rest of chat? Such as selecting rooms, selecting which profile to use, reading chat in the room, viewing the userlist, finding the TALK button, etc. Oh, and how the heck did you use this blog forum? The fonts here are much smaller.
If you can’t see the CAPTCHA, then you can’t see anything else on Messenger. You guys sound like trolls. I think you’re full of it.
Comment by Elbo — August 30, 2007 #
It seems that many people can not see all the text in rooms unless they un-check the “ignore anyone who is not on my messenger list” option.
While this may not be a big deal in some rooms, in others it is a total menace.
It seems that many of the gentlemen (and I use that term loosely) who live in Pervert-istan miss the porn bots terribly. As a result people are being relentlessly PMd with sexual requests, inuendos and assorted “want to see my penis” invites.
Granted we can click the ignore button- but every time these idiots PM, it interrupts what ever you are typing in the main room.
And yes, before all you really cool people and suck ups tell me to get a life off yahoo- let me assure you I do have one, but I do enjoy catching up with my internet friends occasionally.
Without constructive criticism and feedback from yahoo users the “project managers” will not be aware of problems with the program.
Comment by anneticipationnnnn — August 30, 2007 #
thanks sarah we have our rooms back…but dont fall asleep and loose every thing you worked for
Comment by den — August 30, 2007 #
My ignore anyone who is not on my messenger list is unchecked and I follow all the steps. The list of people in the chat room does’nt show up and it shows only me and captcha on the list. I get im’s though and cam invites. I have not had any text in any of the rooms for over a week now. Its getting very frustrating. Thank gosh I still have at least another month of warm weather to drive my 1969 Impala cause this sure sucks.
Comment by piece — August 30, 2007 #
to Oh Well In spite of you arrogant and I might add unenlightened point of view,the world doesn’t center around you.This may be a shock to your ego, but everyone needs a heads-up now and again even if it falls on blind eyes .(pun intended)..you can find me in 40,s romance rooms if you would like to discuss this like a gentleman.
Comment by zx — August 30, 2007 #
i can see text just fine with seeting s set to friends only. hope these posts se not from adam trying to get people to buy his trash companion. lets face it. there are no bots to filter, no spam, and booters are far and few between. just keep those settings pm’s from friends only and you wont get booted. adam go bug msn or aol or something just leave us alone with all your booters and inti boot programs. just bug off.
Comment by what — August 30, 2007 #
Well done, Yahoo. Thanks!
Comment by Ryan B — August 30, 2007 #
OH MY GOSH. I tryed and thought I was going into romance 50’s room 1 even though I have no text and IMAGINE after I get an IM to be told you do know your in a self pleasure room. I’m a lady. Is yahoo trying to make a bot out of me? lol. See now if after I enter the STUPID CAPTCHA CODE IT WOULD PUT ME IN THE DAMN ROOM I would have known that but NOOOO. ARGGG MATEYS Lets all have a mutiny and abandon the ship. Oh I forgot, its free.
Comment by piece — August 30, 2007 #
check out craig over at ymlite forum giving step by step instructions on how to bypass captcha. btw it’s a long process that is pointless really. notice the guy who sticks up for yahoo in the forum is labled idiot user lol
Comment by what — August 30, 2007 #
Never heard of a Screen Reader, huh?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader
Turns text on the screen into voice output, for the blind and visually impaired, but surely can’t read and translate the distorted characters of the verification code.
But you’re right, Sherlock: anyone dissatisfied and left out by captcha MUST be a booter, p0rn advertiser, or troll.
Comment by mourn4chat — August 30, 2007 #
Great job, sarah and team!
As far as visually impared users, since you can do voice chat without doing the captcha, there is a way.
I am sure yahoo will have a voice alternative captcha eventually, since screen reader and braille converters are not able to access.
Comment by disco-legend-zeke — August 30, 2007 #
Not entirely true moum4chat, I use Mac OS, Linux, and Beos and I am left out. I have no ill intentions but would like to be able to chat with friends from around the world the same as Windows users. With the lack of support from Yahoo! thus far, 3rd party chat clients were our most viable options.
http://www.geocities.com/bad_bad_sloar
Comment by Sloar — August 30, 2007 #
Ok Yahoo … Can you please open the fight rooms back up so the people that visit them can go back to them. We use to never have the problem of them invading our other rooms until i was informed last night that the rooms are still closed and looks to remain that way. I don’t see a problem if they are open … at least that would keep them out of our rooms. Some of us like to visit romance rooms, someof us like political rooms…well this bunch of people made it very clear that they like the fight rooms. I would just like to see everyone happy and would like to see them out of the rooms that i and many others enjoy. so please yahoo for the sake of others give them their fight rooms back so we can have our rooms. Thank You !!!!
Comment by Rhonda — August 30, 2007 #
I concur a VAST improvement in the chat rooms.
I wonder how long the Bot programmers will take to circumvent CAPTCHA? The Bots that seem to be getting through must have been logged in by a real person, then left to thier own device. The others may or may not be Yahoo inspired , but at least they are benign compared to the Porn bots!
Thank you for some respite Yahoo team. It’s a postive step. Lets hope that all the hackers and spammers you have just thrown down the gauntlet to take a LOOONG time to find a crack to wriggle back in through
I had one problem today… I was talk in alaska regional chatroom #1 when someone launched a denial of service attack on me. I had made a comment in the room that I was gald the hackers have been thwarted…. and some fool says oh yeah you really thing so? Suddenly I was bombarded by a propigating bot series . Must have had 100 windows pop up in 20 seconds. I had to disconnect my cable modem to stop it.
After I logged back in the same guy tried it again. but I was too fast and iggied him…. still a scary thought. This guy bragged that in less than 48 hours he would have the “crack ” in hand and the bots and spamming would start again…. I wish I’d have remembered his ID…. hmmmm
Comment by ANONYmoose — August 30, 2007 #
Thanks for the heads up!
Comment by The Dog Clothing Company — August 30, 2007 #
just so you folks know
1: pm bomb booters still work so dont complain yahoo has not worked on them yet.
2: yes you can fill a room but you have to enter security code for each bot you join which is time consuming. plus yahoo will d/c them within one hour.
3:enjoy chat.
4: dont use y!mlite or ytk until you research them first. most of us already know the story on them though so i wont go into detail. have a good day in chat folks.
Comment by get it yet — August 30, 2007 #
Good progress. It’s nice to have no bots but I know a lot of people who would’ve preferred other improvements first (the tiny text limit is irritating, for example, and it’s unclear whether profile pictures will change to accommodate Yahoo Photos closing, or just go away entirely, which is bad). Are those in the works at all?
Comment by Jamie — August 30, 2007 #
how does this help yahoo chat craig (author ymlite) anyway that method would take ages to complete and by the time u finish your bots will be disconnected.
Comment by im a believer — August 30, 2007 #
Well looks like some one cracked the code, a local idiot in our local room has now worked out a way to bring his bots in, flooding the room AGAIN !!!!! im verry upset with yahoo
Comment by markj — August 30, 2007 #
yeah thanks for the fix even though it worked for a couple of hours only the effort is appreciated..the same guy who has been flooding all the trivia rooms didn’t take a day even before he has figured out a way to bypass this little system and continue flooding the rooms like he usually does. I realize it’s the internet and a lot of people are going to be booting, trying to bypass security features, and stealing accounts. This has been going on since I have been using yahoo(going on 5 years now). I think it would be good for yahoo to somehow lock out the ip addresses or even take away these guys accounts who make all the bots after all isn’t the issue here? the bots?
Comment by someonewithanopinion — August 30, 2007 #
uh…that was my point, bad_bad_sloar: not everyone who’s dissatisfied is a booter, spammer, or troll with ill intentions. you missed the sarcasm.
Comment by mourn4chat — August 30, 2007 #
You know, I heard from someone that Yahoo employs 12,000 people, but only 5 are dedicated to Yahoo! Chat.
I bet those 5 are junior developers straight out of college… given the sloppiness of their implementation.
Comment by bots-b-gone — August 30, 2007 #
Chat works great now, now quit changing stuff before you break it again.
Comment by Banger — August 30, 2007 #
Moderator: I know u deleted my post and a few others. Heh. I only hope you pass it along to the developers so they can fix that CAPTCHA. It’s a VERY simple fix.
On every CAPTCHA submit do:
$_SESSION[’captcha’] = null;
Otherwise, you’re just an ostrich with your head in the sand. You really think no one knows about it?
Comment by bots-b-gone — August 30, 2007 #
Finally, voice works under MS Vista, since release 416 of Messenger. Note a small inconvenience for some that at least under Vista, the new room entry procedure does not work with the Firefox browser; I needed to open Internet Explorer and paste the web link to Captcha into it.
Comment by Gary K — August 30, 2007 #
I have been useing the older yahoo for a long time, when i try to get into a room I use the catcha then it tells me to go chat but the room don’t open , and I some rooms I get error message or user rufesed chat. I am 58 years old so it can”t be my age. do I have to upgrade now.
Comment by montie — August 30, 2007 #
Thanks Sarah & the Yahoo team. Unlike a lot of lazy whingers, I have no probs with typing a couple more keystrokes when entering chat rooms. It’s great to be able to chat properly again.
It also seems to me that it is the 3rd party users who have been having the most trouble, whereas those of us who stay with Yahoo have for months now wondered why anyone would bother with the other servers at all.
Q: Is it true that Yahoo has now the ONLY rooms where free speech is NOT moderated? If so, hang in there guys n gals. Some of us appreciate you.
Again, thank-you.
Comment by cheek_peas — August 30, 2007 #
I get the empty message box but there is no message with a link for me to click on. It just sits there. any fixes?
Comment by Michael — August 30, 2007 #
Well congratulations yahoo chat team, job well done !!!!!!
Comment by mark — August 30, 2007 #
yes… congratulation, good job sarah and your team, chat room now clean, no more spam bots, porn bots, this is nice and cool…. very happy with that.. but the problems and make me confused when we want changes to the other room why must verification agains, but that’s ok sarah
i appreciate you and you’re team….
viva yahoo chat room
Comment by serdadunakal — August 30, 2007 #
Bots are back in fine spamming form in UK:1, and Australia:3 & 7 at the moment. So what happens next if the bots screw chat up *again*?
Comment by Rob Madden — August 30, 2007 #
Jolly good show, old chaps, and chappettes! Pip, Pip and all that rot, eh, what? Wouldn’t want some nasty bot with homicidal tendencies such as that old HAL 9000 unit that tried to do that fine David Bowman fellow in, trying to get up to some sort of mischief. Perhaps by having its way with our virtual selves, would we now? All kidding aside, thanks for all the hard work, Sarah and team! Dadz
Comment by Dadzbluz — August 30, 2007 #
WELL DIDNT TAKE LONG FR THE BOTS TO GET BACK IN,(UK ROOM 19) FULL OF THEM.SO MUCH FR YAHELL HAVING A WONDERFULL SYSTEM OF VERIVICATION.
GET YR FINGER OUT YAHOO, U COULD NOT ORGANIZE A PISS UP IN A BREWERY.
Comment by andy — August 30, 2007 #
i can’t believe that stupid idiots are allowed to join this blog!!!….they saw one room with plenty of bots and the say yahoo sytem is hacked! how stupid can u get? r u on drugs or something?
of course u can still see bots coz bots can still join manually! who knows the bot owner decided to join his bots manually in that room? get the point? but unlike b4 bots are very rampant in every yahoo rooms right now the number of bots in yhaoo rooms is dramatically reduced! try to visit rooms 1-10 and im sure ul have 8 rooms with plenty of space lolz.
So b4 u post ur comments in this blog be sure ur taking ur medication ok? STUPID
Comment by james — August 30, 2007 #
^ Good one lol
Comment by Rob Madden — August 30, 2007 #
lol i only seen 2 bots in that room and both where booted.
Comment by lol — August 30, 2007 #
Bots are flooding the rooms? Where? Since Yahoo implemented captcha I may have seen only 5 bots total and they were pretty easy to put on ignore. The bots that do make it into the room have to do it manually…an automated program won’t let you flood the rooms like the bots where able to before. Maybe some rooms might have a lot of bots in them but they are probably not from the same person anymore. Chat has been nice with hardly any bots in the room.
Comment by John — August 30, 2007 #
Hmm…I would have no problem constantly entering the captcha stuff IF it actually put me into a room. Once I do the verification..NOTHING happens. It just sits there. Doesn’t matter what room I click on..zilch. Nada. Kaput! lol. My perferences are NOT set to block people on my list because i’ve had it set for ytun pref. I’ve tried it with ytun on and with ytun off. Same deal. Nothing happens after i’ve been verified.
Comment by Jay — August 30, 2007 #
ok bots are almost away, that’s a good thing buth how about the damn booters????
when you gonna do something about that???
i hope it will not take long for you gonna do something about it
Comment by eddy — August 30, 2007 #
dont worry about the booters
Comment by nemented — August 31, 2007 #
now the only problem is the idiots that have thier supposed regular rooms trying to control those of us that have been misplaced by your upgrade..alot of good chatters have left and wont come back…I have been in your chat program since yahoo came out..I have seen it go from a super program to a booter haven..even with the upgrade there are still booters and I for one would like to know what will you at yahoo intend to do about the booters online
Comment by Patti — August 31, 2007 #
Haaaaaaaa, that work good for about 2 days
Comment by elecman22003 — August 31, 2007 #
looks like we traded the smileys for the bots being gone…sounds like a fair trade i guesswas just wondering if there was a reason the smiley codes dont work in chat no more
Comment by dont wanna say — August 31, 2007 #
There are a lot fewer bots except for the ones entered manually I suppose. There are techniques for defeating character recognition captcha in the literature. How about moving to question captchas if bots start to defeat character ones? Political rooms could ask political questions, trivia rooms could ask general trivia, science rooms about science or math, regional rooms region specific trivia, etc.
I don’t mind entering captchas. The rooms are more like they were in the 90s now. It is very nice not to see rooms completely filled up by bots. Thank you Yahoo team.
Comment by DavidN — August 31, 2007 #
Thank you so much, Yahoo! Chat is finally an enjoyable experience again. Many people were driven away by the inability to enter rooms due to the flood of bots. Hopefully, when they see the magnificent job you’ve done eliminating the bot problem, they will come back. Now if you would only address the antiquated Television rooms list… We want our Big Brother room back!
Comment by Wayne Harke — August 31, 2007 #
well all this anti bot measures are good but two things of importance one the process of verification everytime u enter a chat toom is not only tedious but very very frustrating as it takes precious time we go to chat rooms for fun enjoyment and serious business as the case may be now if we have to verify everytime it becomes really very frustrating especially when simple solutions can be found out of this tardy process too like for example the verification process must be limited to a group of rooms only like say romance now instead of verifying everytime for 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s moonlight asian connections interacial gay lesbian disco inferno etc it would be better if the verification process is done only fro the romance group of rooms as a whole and secondly despite all these commendable measures some bots are still slipping through so the process is not yet fool proof and kindly address this verification process issue quickly its very frustrating and time consuming and irritating i hope all these issues are resolved quickly
regards
Comment by kiran — August 31, 2007 #
@ Geez, because the link is the homepage you put in when you make comments (optional of course). What about those who post here with other client/companion links in their name, eh?
@ get it yet, you obviously judge YTK as something “bad” since it seems you don’t like Y!mLite. Don’t judge one because you don’t like the other, as it speaks for itself. Craig is a friend of the developers, and that’s it. Judging unfairly because of Y!mLite, that’s not very nice.
Other than that, chats are working nicely, but, there are still small problems with the servers. Sarah, they are going to be addressed, right?
Comment by Venom — August 31, 2007 #
hey there is a new problem here, the rooms result to be full when there are only 20 nicknames… anyone has this problem?
Comment by ItalyBoy — August 31, 2007 #
AND, the room list is not properly refreshed… many rooms are told to be filled with 50… and they are almoust empty instead…
Comment by ItalyBoy — August 31, 2007 #
Could you PLEASE PLEASE explain to me why you changed the ignore feature on version 8? You have left MANy of us open to booters.
On messenger 7 when you change the ignore everyone not on my list, you are protected from pm boots. But on messenger 8 when you do that you are yes, protected from booters, but you can not see any of the people not on your list typing in a chatroom. PLEASE put it back to the way 7 was. i like a lot of the features from 8 and WANT to use it, but I can not because i get booted at least 5 times a day and it’s so bad for my computer. Thank you.
Comment by stacey — August 31, 2007 #
People still complaining. I’m not having any problem, which is surprising, considering past performance, and the fact I’m using a recent, but not the latest YM and the free “Basic” YTunnel.
Have the roughly hourly disconnects ceased? If so, I’ll gladly put up with having to verify for every room change.
Comment by mourn4chat_no_more — August 31, 2007 #
Sarah, I’m having trouble with when I’m in a room and someone new comes in they have no ears to me till I refresh mine is this going to be tweek ??
I like the new way to go into a room, (here is my but)
I’m in a rm that is in the higher numbers so with the rooms opening slowly and one at a time it seems like its gonna be forever to get back in there.
Comment by Julianna — August 31, 2007 #
great to see a decent approach and attempt to deal with the bot issue sad to see there are still so many whiners that cant get over a tiny inconvience which is worse 5000 bots or taking 30 secs extra to get in chat some people need to grow up and stop complaining of course thatll never happen
Comment by Magoo — August 31, 2007 #
kudos, sarah, on a job well done with the rooms open again & the bot captcha….a question, though…why are the rooms not all there anymore? the room that i frequented is no longer accessible.
Comment by irate user — August 31, 2007 #
stacey, the issue with not seeing anyone in chats while the “Ignore anyone who is not on your Messenger List” is really a Yahoo! Messenger bug.
Comment by Venom — August 31, 2007 #
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD
IDEA THIS IS INTERNATIONAL CHAT FOR ALL WORLD NOT FOR A SMALL COMPANY OR FAMILLY
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD
Comment by ME — August 31, 2007 #
I am being kept out of the chat rooms. I am filling out the code needed, and I am taken to a page where it says my account has been verified. However, I am not being put into the actual rooms. Only started a couple hours ago. HELP.
Comment by Professor Farnsworth — August 31, 2007 #
close the page that says congratulations and you will see the room behid it — hehe
Comment by Charged — August 31, 2007 #
As the famous saying from the movie “Poltergeist” goes ………”They’re here!!!!!!!!!” and the porn bots are stronger than ever. A real fix would have been nice rather than this band-aid for a bullet wound and is still possible if the people at Yahoo actually try. CAPTCHA is very easily bypassed and was only a temp way to block them in my opinion.
Comment by 6Six6 — August 31, 2007 #
ty for taking sugestions good job
Comment by tony — August 31, 2007 #
Hi Sarah, great work!
I knew we could count on you to fix things. Our hats are off to you and your crew. Not been a single bot in the room. A few claim to have been “voice booted” but who knows, for all I know they may have just been disconnected by other causes.
Anyways, this beer’s for you! Good job!
Comment by Kaziglu_Bey — August 31, 2007 #
Not impressed, myself. I don’t understand why we have to reverify when we move from room to room. No answer on that, yet. Only just in the last little while has the verification actually worked consistently, as well. Earlier today I wasn’t getting through more than half of the time.
As far as the bots? Well, yeah.. the rooms were chock full of bots the last week or so. But compared to 3 months ago, there isn’t much difference it seems; still a fair number of bots with spam messages or conversation invites. Unfortunately, our only recourse is to ignore them. (I’d hate to see my iggy list!)
Then there’s the matter with the number of people in a room. Just visited a couple of rooms advertised at 35 to 40 people; there were only 8-12 when I got there. Not THAT many left in 15 seconds!
Done with chat. Not worth the time, trouble, effort.
Comment by Rick — August 31, 2007 #
There’s a serious problem. The user room limit is progressively dropping as time goes by. Right now it’s about 17 users per room, but for the last couple days since the captcha was implemented, the room user limit keeps dropping.
Please make note of this problem, before nobody can get into Yahoo chats at all when it gets stuck on 1.
Comment by Venom — August 31, 2007 #
I have followed the new instructions for getting into chat - typed in the code & received the Congratulations window. I close the window as instructed and still see no user list and no text. People can see me however as I start to receive pm’s…. This has been happening since the new captcha was begun and I can’t seem to figure out why, or how to change it…
Any suggestions?
Comment by caity — August 31, 2007 #
Caity-you sound like you have your IM’s closed to those not on your friends list and you are running a version higher than 7.5 — you might try opening your IMs in preferences - ignore - set it to only ignore the list below –
Comment by Charged — August 31, 2007 #
Captcha for YM not work in LINUX.
With Gyachi, captcha does not appear, link can not be clicked.
With Pidgin/Gaim, just silence …
Can you fix this A.S.A.P?
tx
Comment by Sam — August 31, 2007 #
too hard to chat
Comment by teresa — August 31, 2007 #
are you guys seriously complaining? join any room there are like 0.05% as many bots as there used to be.
100% bot elimination is never going to happen (as long as there are chat rooms to join) but yahoo did their best to implement methods to screw up the ease of automation for botters & it friggin works.
its a way of life with chat, just like your “bulk mail” folder in email.
for gods sake this is a free service and all you people do is complain, if you don’t like yahoo chat there are other alternatives that you can pay for… quit demanding things, be happy with what they’ve done so far & be patient… maybe they’ll figure out how to smooth out the process based on CONSTRUCTIVE feedback
Comment by jason — August 31, 2007 #
So, the bots are starting to defeat the captcha. What’s the next step? Is reporting someone as spam going to start doing something?
Comment by robert — August 31, 2007 #
Hello Yahoo Plz Fix the user Rooms id stuck in rooms and plus some of the rooms only 10 user lol, plz update all the rooms to 50 users Max fix them Thanx
Comment by Prince — September 1, 2007 #
Sarah & Team - Bravo!
The rest of you ungrateful twits…disappear.
Comment by Paul — September 1, 2007 #
thank u yahoo, its about time, the bots are gone, and the chatroom are back.
Comment by richel619 — September 1, 2007 #
This a a good first step. but what good does alienating the sight impaired users of your chat services do for you? If you can’t read what the captcha code, then you are out of luck?
Comment by TMDK421 — September 1, 2007 #
fgyfgyfgf
Comment by shine — September 1, 2007 #
I choose a room to go into and click the tlink, but Captcha does not appear, any advice on this.
Comment by goldsworthypaul — September 1, 2007 #
well that doesn’t work. some rooms still have bots in them… kinda bums me out. i think yahoo should wipe out the in-messenger chat and get up the web server chats back up. the only way a bot would get in there is if the server itself has the bots, not messengers. i hope that’s one of the updates with the new messenger
Comment by Homer — September 1, 2007 #
I use to be a yahoo chat user but when all the problems started I got rid of everything to do with yahoo messenger and started using Talk City, the rooms there don’t have voice but it is a nice place to chat and it is Java based so no bots at all since the rooms are moderated.
Comment by Sandy — September 1, 2007 #
Since yesterday, Aug. 31, @ around noontime PST, I have been unable to get into the chat rooms to chat. The room comes up and the link for the Captcha which i am able to do but then when it says that my account has been validated and i can go chat, the chat room looks the same as before i did the validation. I reinstalled messenger thinking maybe that would help but i am still unable to get in. Any news/information about what may be happening would be appreciated. Thanks…
Comment by JenD — September 1, 2007 #
Are all of you who are saying “if you don’t like it you can leave” so arrogant as to really believe that will happen? Yahoo is a public place. What you are doing is the same as saying if you don’t like the door to the store, don’t shop there. Insanity! What you do not recognise is that the door is locked for some, but not others. That is why what Yahoo has done makes no sense, and Yahoo thinks this is how to run a business?
WAKE UP YAHOO AND STOP LOCKING OUT YOUR CUSTOMERS WHO ARE REAL PEOPLE - FOR EXAMPLE THE BLIND!
Comment by Cathie — September 1, 2007 #
It seems to me if you don’t have to verify between rooms then the Bot masters can put bots into a room manually by entering the visual code and let them start propagating to other rooms automatically. With the check between rooms there is a barrier to this.
Comment by Chazz — September 1, 2007 #
every time I try to verify my account there is no code in the box…does any one know how to hepl me…God Bless Thank You Judy
Comment by Judy — September 1, 2007 #
Sarah
What is the reason behind switching the photo accounts over to other groups. I find this very inconvient when trying to update my photo’s and also when I am checking other individuals profiles out. Not sure who made this decision but it is only going to encourage more individuals NOT TO FIIL OUT the profile info. Whats the use when ya have to go to a second site to see the photo of the individual.
Three cheers for using a method to control the bots. So far have only had a few problems getting into the room after using the pass letters, and that is because the room is full. by the time ya get the ok from Captcha.
Comment by kssnuggle — September 1, 2007 #
i tried to get in my fab room..i kept trying for 15 mins. when i finally got in..there were only 25 users…i din understand why i was getting ‘room is full’ messages.
Comment by plzexplain — September 1, 2007 #
To Yahoo: Thanks for finally getting us some form of chat back. Now the pigs have landed again and I’ve finished rainbow digging I can at least use some of it again.
To a lot of the people posting here:
Whoa, stop, halt, desist, freeze or be fired on! All the inane, inarticulate, illiterate or even just the plain bloody nit-pickers zip it up for a while.
If you have information to post here, whether to point out bits that still don’t work, possible future problems etc. then for God’s sake make it clear and to the point.
If you just want to tell us what a bad day you’re having, or you hate JoeBlogs4, or to continue a verbal flaming war with someone, or any other piece of inane “filler” take it somewhere else. How the hell do you expect any of the Yahoo people to pick up the good stuff from a sea of dross?
I’m not trying to come over all pro-Yahoo: Check my previous posts: none of them could be described as “Yahoo enamoured” in describing this shambles we’ve all had to wade/wait through, but a lot of the postings on here have been way too similar to the gibberish/personality clashes and plain verbal garbage that have dogged the chatrooms for years.
Yahoo had a major problem here, albeit some of which could have been avoided/managed in a better way and WE HAD NO CHAT! Let’s try and remember that.
The rollout of Captcha has at least returned a lot of functionality to most of us (even if only for the time being) even if the price is the slight inconvenience of having to log in again when changing rooms. I’m a regular room surfer and I can live with it. Those complaining about difficulties reading the actual Captcha text have my sympathies, since I have trouble deciding things like upper/lower case in the “bendy” Captcha characters sometimes too, but be bloody patient.
They’ve patched most of the big hole in the hull for the moment, but there will still be some water getting in ’till they get everything fixed. You may have to wait until they get her to dry dock. This was an emergency and they have at least (slowly, painfully and with some lamentable lack of communication at times) come up with something that has got chat working again for a large number of people. If they don’t sort it for the others within a reasonable time then you’ve got reason to bleat loud and clear, but a little patience first please. Those with special needs have got a bit too used to being able to bleat and in these PC correct times having instant attention delivered to their problem, whether major or minor.
For those listing all sorts of odd problems it might pay to have a good look and recheck of your own various settings re chat etc, I’m running Windows98SE, IE6 with sp1 and messenger 8.1.0.209 and they seem to work fine and that’s on a very low spec AMD machine with a 500Mhz processor of some seven years vintage.
Obviously only time will tell. Rest assured I’ll be one of the first to report if it all goes pear-shaped and/or if they don’t iron out all the remaining niggles.
One thing that really worries me: Previously I’ve not paid too much attention to problems with chatrooms e.g. such as rooms declaring full even though they’d shown as half-empty or less when I tried to access them, to getting booted etc and simply put it down to problems with Yahoo and/or my machine/software. Now with all the comment about booters and room lockers I’ve done a bit of searching and found way too easily sites that allowed me to register and download these nasties, inc a latest version that claims to be able to overcome the Captcha sign-in.
Does Yahoo know of this as I’m pretty sure the actions these programmes are designed to allow breach an awful lot of telecomms/computer laws? If Yahoo would like to drop me an email I’ll post the offending URL’s back to them, I’m certainly not publishing them here (though who knows they may well be widely known already.
Comment by James and Kay — September 1, 2007 #
One final thing while you Yahoo guys are ( I hope) working to finalise this chat sortout:
Yahoo can we have “user defined rooms” back please so like-minded groups of chatters can congregate together again without treading all over the chat of other folk?
You website has been implying they would be returned for so long now that seeing the statement still there (apparently forever) makes a bad impression on viewing the relevant page.
You pan