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Changes to your Yahoo! profile

October 17, 2008 on 6:53 pm | In Features, News | 199 Comments

Yesterday Yahoo! launched a new beta profile service that will serve as a control panel for your identity, interests and connections across Yahoo!. This new profile experience has lots of great features that can help you stay connected with your friends and family. When you create a new profile page, you’ll be able to add photos, information about yourself and invite your friends to connect with you.

We realize that many Yahoo! Messenger users, especially those that use our chat rooms, were frequent users of the old profiles site. We hope that you’ll take the time to create a new profile to share with your Messenger friends. Just click the link below to start creating your new Yahoo! profile:

http://profiles.yahoo.com/intro/

(Unlike the previous profiles site, going to http://profiles.yahoo.com/youryahooid will no longer take you to your original profile.)

One thing to note is that if you currently use multiple aliases in Yahoo! Messenger chat rooms, you will only have one main profile. You can, however, choose to merge your aliases with your main ID, which will allow users to search for you and view your full profile details. Please note that if you do not do this, users will not be able to see your profile details when they search for your alias. You must link your alias with your Yahoo! ID to enable users to see your profile.

The new profile features a lot of changes that help make your profile on Yahoo! easier to use and manage. Please visit the Yahoo! Profile News blog to learn how to merge your aliases with your main Yahoo! ID, and to learn more about what you can do with your new profile.



Trying to get to someone’s profile from Yahoo! Messenger 9.0? To view a friend’s profile, click on them in your list and then click the “View Profile” link on their contact card. Or just right click on them and choose “View Profile” from the menu. To access your own profile, click on your display image the top of your main Yahoo! Messenger window. Then click the “My Profile” link on your contact card. If you’re not seeing these links in your Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, be sure you’re on the latest version (9.0.0.1912). If you are, try signing out of Messenger, quitting the application completely, then starting it again and signing in.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

199 Comments

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  1. This new profile thing is by far the worst thing I have seen from Yahoo.

    Comment by Trap — October 17, 2008 #

  2. I personally don’t care for it, i’ve seen them filled out, looks more like a personal ad, and the connect thing, that probably sucks the most, better not to have 1 at this time

    Comment by D — October 17, 2008 #

  3. Just another example of Yahoo’s “superb” customer service. A surprise change in profiles with no real notice. Data lost. The usual Yahoo “To heck with the user” attitude. How do you folks stay in business? Maybe it’s idiots like me that stick around despite your antics. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment.

    Comment by Bill Simpson — October 17, 2008 #

  4. Since you folks really are NOT going to change anything back, why bother having this area open for comment, just close it like you did the chat blog a year ago,

    Comment by Julie West — October 17, 2008 #

  5. Blah you guys killed the hole profile thing it looks horrible the profiles just suck now

    Comment by Cisco — October 17, 2008 #

  6. change it back to the old way

    Comment by Cisco — October 17, 2008 #

  7. Once again you dolts down at Yahoo Chat! have forced another change on us that was not sought by any of the users, is far too difficult for the basic user to get into and adjust, and like your upgrades to Yahoo Chat last year is another round of crap that proves you all should be drug out to the street and horse whipped for being so out of touch with the users, no wander even microsoft isn’t interested in buying you out anymore, you’re too stupid to have a clue!

    Comment by Roamer — October 17, 2008 #

  8. well since you guys decided to delete my last post expressing my dislike for the new profile, ill just ask one question, how do we edit the nick names that show up in the chat room?

    Comment by Dave — October 17, 2008 #

  9. not only can I NOT get an updated version of messenger downloaded..I saw that my profile changed but I cant CHANGE MY PICTURE!
    AND the other thing that i have noticed in chat is even WITH THE CAPTCHA thing THE BOTS STILL GET IN AND THE BOOTING STILL CONTINUES!
    WAY TO GO YAHOO FOR SCREWIN IT UP EVEN MORE THAN IT WAS ALREADY!

    Comment by Malia — October 18, 2008 #

  10. Wow well done yahoo, yet another foul up, when are you goion to learn, STOP doing this sort of rubbish to your users WITHOUT asking us 1st, and FIX what needs to be fixed , NOT things that dont. This new profile has to be as good as Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Do us all a favor and CHANGE it back NOW.

    Comment by No New Profile — October 18, 2008 #

  11. yes please put the old profiles back

    Comment by   — October 18, 2008 #

  12. I disagree with the above Yahoo Chat addicts.

    I doubt I will use my profile but, the recent profiles have been the same since the late 90’s as far as I remember. The new profiles obviously have a social networking influence ala Facebook, Myspace, 360. The revamped profiles are an improvement definitely.

    The UI could use some work though. The masking tape over the sides of user photo is tacky.

    Put back the option for COOL LINKS!

    Comment by i — October 18, 2008 #

  13. When I click to sign and so to change things I am re-directed to a chinese page.

    That’s because I am in Taiwan. But, I don’t speak chinese.

    Yahoo should assume someone is from the actual country they are currently staying in. AND… make it easy to switch language.

    Comment by Loz — October 18, 2008 #

  14. [...] toata lumea e multumita cu noul profil de la Yahoo Octombrie 18, 2008 Scris de Andrei De abia a fost postata stirea despre noul profil de la Yahoo si multa lume a sarit sa critice acest nou serviciu. [...]

    Pingback by Nu toata lumea e multumita cu noul profil de la Yahoo | Zambesc — October 18, 2008 #

  15. Why won’t you dingbats at yahoo chat come on here and answer us, you remember us, the users, the folks that still visit the web pages, the ads, have purchased services from you (that also didn’t work out too well did it?) come on answer us, why did you force this screw up on us? Wasn’t it bad enough that you ruined the yahoo chat! overall? Did you have to go kill the only part of it that still worked right?

    Comment by Roamer — October 18, 2008 #

  16. you folks are as consistent as ex-lax smooth move on the new profiles yahoo!!!!

    Comment by twist.17_rules — October 18, 2008 #

  17. Why change something that obviously wasn’t broken… I am slowly bringing all my friends to other chat clients. I am tired of dealing with people who fix the unbroken instead of dealing with the stuff that has been broken for ages. Yep I liked to chat in chat rooms with people. The booting is still bad and the bots are worse but don’t deal with the overloaded stuff go ahead and finally allow us to change our pictures and then decide hey lets revamp so we don’t have to deal with the real issues.. Ever think about going into politics.. It would suit you.

    Comment by Neece — October 18, 2008 #

  18. please put the old profile look back. this one just sucks.

    Comment by syst3m — October 18, 2008 #

  19. This change is by far the worst thing I’ve ever seen on Yahoo. I may just have to consider going over to MSN.

    The old profiles worked and worked well, were easy to update. It wasn’t broken before but it is now.

    What happened to the cool links. It was always good seeing what others liked and you’d get to go to some really interesting places.

    Put it all back the way it was

    Comment by Kelly — October 18, 2008 #

  20. I don’t have a profile didn’t have one of the old style and I sure as hell don’t intend to make one in the new system. They looked ok before, but now they really suck.

    Who decides these things. Obviously a first class idiot who just wants to drive away users, Google & GMail are starting to look really great.

    Comment by Jeff — October 18, 2008 #

  21. i really like the new Yahoo! Profile. it looks so nice i don’t know why these sick people dislike change and prefer to that boring useless old profile.
    the same thing happened of facebook. those ancient humans hates the new look, yet facebook is still popular

    Comment by Kiki — October 18, 2008 #

  22. why didn’t u give us the choice to pick if we wanted the new beta or keep the old. that would have been nice. besides u all have made a mess of everything here in the last 3 yrs of the messanger. haven’t u heard the old saying…if it works leave it work..leave it alone? I refuse to run the new yahoo messangers. they screw up all the time and the profiles the way they were, were fine. pls go back to them. we already have the 360 page. thats enough. change is good but this one really sux! ty Mzz.Jess

    Comment by Mzz.Jess — October 18, 2008 #

  23. It seems that Yahoo is stepping towards a more “myspace” feel with the new profiles. One missing feature seems to be the ability to post web links in the new profiles. IF a similarity to myspace is the goal, why not add a playlist feature and the option to add more than one photo? I’m a serious chatter AND 360 user. I LOVE yahoo chat (it’s the best anywhere in my opinion) and I love 360 too. If I wanted myspace, I’d be THERE and not here. I’m not impressed with the new profiles. The old ones were fine. This isn’t one of yahoo’s better “improvements.”

    Comment by Rachel M — October 18, 2008 #

  24. Just as I suspected and wrote in here yesterday,,, Yahoo wouldn’t answer us and instead keep pushing this NEW UNWANTED profile unto us..

    Guess Melissa and Robin had enough negative comments that they could not handle and they don’t want any other Yahoo chatters to see the comments…..They eliminated the 900 or more comments sent on the 16th and 17th…

    Oh and now it’s Sarah Bacon who is pushing this on us…Guess Melissa couldn’t stand the heat!!

    SARAH OPEN YOUR EYES and EARS….WE DO NOT WANT THIS NEW PROFILE..

    GET off your high pedestal and listen to us yahoo chatters… Have you never heard the comment..THE CLIENT IS ALWAYS RIGHT.. and in this case millions of Yahoo chatters are right and YOU are SO WRONG for pushing this on us..

    Have been on Yahoo since 7 years…if I did not have a very special friend on here I would delete my name from Yahoo…

    Hopefully I can convince all my friends to try PALTALK and INSPEAK….NO BOTS OR BOOTERS there…the sounds in chat rooms are so much better also..

    You’ll probably delete these comments again as you did yesterday..

    Is it any wonder peeps are calling Yahoo the appropriate name YAHELL…

    I DON”T WANT ANYONE KNOWING MY FULL NAME..and if I make a new profile as I tried…my full given and family name show up…Have you not heard of anonimity…..Isn’t this what we are told to never enter our real name for SECURITY purposes..

    Another screw up from Yahoo…..It wasn’t broken so it did not need any fixing..

    Hey Yahoo why don’t u do a survey ..see who likes it and who doesn’t…Then if the majority hates it(Like i’m sure they will) GO back to the old format and return all our original info and picture..

    Am challenging u Yahoo to do this..

    Comment by AnnaMaria — October 18, 2008 #

  25. I love the idea of being able to comment on others pages!
    And the new page is ok. But why there was no warning that such a thing was going to happen. That is the only issue I see. Many groups require a completed profile in hopes of keeping online to a more honest level. Now when going in all they find are blanks and that rule is more or less out the window,
    And I agree…the choice would have been a great option.
    My biggest question is…why before logging into my profile in wanting to change it was the new messenger brought up..as if it was a YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE NEW ONE? I had a heck of a time just getting to my profile because of this.
    Denise

    Comment by Denise — October 18, 2008 #

  26. I think the new profile pages look fine. But what I don’t like at all is the fact that each individual alias cannot have it’s own unique profile. I think this is important to remain anonymous to other users yet tell certain limited things about who we are. What is the point of having an alias if when they click on our profile, it is directed to our main ID profile? This defeats the whole purpose of even having an alias.

    Comment by Jeff Suttles — October 18, 2008 #

  27. The new profiles really suck. Why do you mess with stuff that’s not broke. A year ago you messed with the chat rooms and made them worse than what they were. You displaced many people that congregated to a regular room and than……poof…….they were gone. Now, you have the new profiles that are harder than hell to figure out so that other’s can see them. I tried it and went and did what I was supposed…..or thought I did everything I was supposed to…….but to no avail. It still says there is no profile to be found when other’s try to view it. What the hell! Why don’t you ask us what we think first? Or………HEY….HERE’S A NOVEL IDEA……AT LEAST WARN US THAT YOUR THINKING OF MAKING SOME CHANGES!!!! Or even give us an option as to the new or the old. Geesh! I’m thinking Paltalk sounds really good right now….even if I have to pay for it. At least they seem to give a crap what the users think unlike Yahoo.
    And Jeff has a point about the alias…….sometimes it’s nice to be incognito. What’s the point if it takes someone to your main ID.

    Comment by Kellygirl — October 18, 2008 #

  28. Oh and I forgot…….I asked for help with the new profile from yahoo…….THANKS FOR NOTHING! All I got was an email of BS that didn’t help at all.

    Comment by Kellygirl — October 18, 2008 #

  29. At the very least Yahoo should have migrated everybody’s profile information over to the new sucky profiles. If I wanted to join a “social network” I would have joined one. At we know for sure now why the real issues that plague Yahoo’s fast disappearing user base never get corrected. Yahoo squanders the available resources on “improving” things that work (Some improvement, HA!) or adding useless features, which is like adding gold plated fixtures to an outhouse. I’ve been using Yahoo for over 10 years under various user names, I think maybe its time for me to move on to other services.

    Comment by Gary — October 18, 2008 #

  30. I think it’s great that everytime Yahoo makes a change and that it turns out to be common-senseless, it just helps reinforce how the people they use to think up and implement these changes just must be hardwired not to think of user interface issues or interests sensibly. This new setup is extremely visually unattractive, confusing beyond being a simply a change, and seemingly very constraining. Search? How can one add friends, or wanna-be friends or family to their lists, when it seems impossible to search for them? How?

    Yahoo no longer supports member networking well, clearly, or empathetically. Only positive posts, probably prompted especially in this case by in-house workers or connections, will be ever addressed. It’s sad. Yahoo and its techs seem so disconnected from what their users need, want, and can understand from a non-computer techno mind perspective.

    Comment by Italo9 — October 18, 2008 #

  31. I do not like the new profile plog

    Comment by Craig Pinson — October 18, 2008 #

  32. hate it and even though i built one no one can see it and i have 9.0

    Comment by redgee3 — October 18, 2008 #

  33. Tthis is by far the biggest blunder yahoo has ever done. Boy Id sure like to know who thought this was a good idea.

    Comment by nancy — October 18, 2008 #

  34. Ya know, now i feel like an idiot. i have been telling people all bout how wonderful i thoough the new ‘universal platform’ was going to be. Yahoo you have let us dow. What little investors you have left are gonna bail when they see your consumer base flee like rats on a sinking ship.

    this was a terrible transformation. I am so very disappointed. on whose opinion did you rely when you decided imitate facebook and multilpy…what i always liked about yahoo was it uniqueness. I can believe i have waited all this time and been so patient for 2 years … for his piece of crap.

    Comment by nancy — October 18, 2008 #

  35. Ok..as they say, if it ain’t broke..don’t fix it. I like the old yahoo profiles. If you wanted this, you should have kept Yahoo Mash.. this is almost identical to that, except we had a choice with Mash. While I’m at it.. give us our user rooms back! Thanks

    Comment by Song — October 18, 2008 #

  36. Whoever’s idea it was at the Yahoo Work place to even change the profiles like this should be FIRED , Change it back how it use to be this is really UGLY the Profiles now ewww

    Comment by Cisco — October 18, 2008 #

  37. What is the first thing Microsoft should do after acquiring Yahoo for peanuts? Look for backups before this nonsense was implemented.

    - Yahoo user since when I could download it from a Stanford FTP site.

    Comment by Leonid S. Knyshov — October 18, 2008 #

  38. Well, another mess up @ yahoo… Yahoo cmon you tried this b4 with your dumb 360 pro’s…Look how that went… not to many made 360’s pro’s why? because they sucked, now that you failed on the 360 pro’s you force the user to guess what make a similar lookin peace of crap 360 pro with your new beta pro, just a modified 360 pro, again I cant even began to express my thoughts on it other than my dog takin a dump looks better than your new pros’

    Comment by Blackened system32 — October 18, 2008 #

  39. I already have a 360, a MySpace, a Facebook and Bebo … why would I want something similar just for chatrooms?

    One of ther main features of chat for me was to be able to create multiple nics with different links and profile pix – depending on how I felt – it was a bit of fun. Now you’ve taken even that away.

    I appreciate that this is a free site and we, therefore, should have to put up with a certain amount of being mucked about but after losing the user rooms and having to put up with bot after bot (which we thought you were getting rid of btw) you could have, at least, given us the option of switching to the new profile format!

    Thanks, yet again, those at Yahoo for not considering your chatter before making unnecessary changes.

    Comment by catbaloo — October 18, 2008 #

  40. [...] comments from users were unambiguous – they were pissed [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo’s Profile Mess — October 18, 2008 #

  41. [...] comments from users were unambiguous – they were pissed [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo’s Profile Mess : VCsAndAngels - Venture Capital / VCs, Angel Investors, Startup News, Etc — October 18, 2008 #

  42. bring back old profiles plssssssss this new way is terrible

    Comment by oddball1012002 — October 18, 2008 #

  43. bring back old profile. the new one stinks

    Comment by longjohn-longjohn2000 — October 18, 2008 #

  44. Really do not like this, If I wanted the whole world to know my name I would put it on here myself! No thanks I think I will avoid making a profile.

    Comment by L — October 18, 2008 #

  45. Well, the voice of the people is loud and clear. And, I have no doubt that yahoo will do what it has always done…. ignore it!

    Why we users put up with this second rate company is beyond me. And even more surprising, why would advertisers? Are they unaware of the general discontent of the users? Frankly, any company with an ad on yahoo may have to consider whether that ad helps them or hurts them through association.

    Yes Yahoo, you have done it again. And I am certain that you will, yet again, prove your almost unbelievable ability to ignore the opinions and complaints of your users. Time to dump the stock. In this economy this nonsense makes yahoo WAY too risky.

    Comment by Bill Simpson — October 18, 2008 #

  46. I also do not want to download the new Beta version, but to make a profile you are forcing me to do so. Being informed might have been nice…now I have lost what was on my profile and I liked it thanks. If we had known we could have backed up the info.

    Comment by L — October 18, 2008 #

  47. WOW Why didn’t I think of this before. The perfect analogy…… NEW COKE! Remember that one?

    What, some people like Pepsi better then coke? Let’s change the formula for coke to make it taste more like Pepsi! Brand loyalty was destroyed? QUICK! BACK TO THE OLD RECIPE!

    I wonder if Yahell has the common sense that coke did. Doubt it!

    Comment by Bill Simpson — October 18, 2008 #

  48. This has been the lamest thing you guys have ever done! Hurry and change it back before anyone notices! Hurry!!

    Comment by Trevor Brown — October 18, 2008 #

  49. ic you guys have not even changed it back yet im not even going to make a profile with this crape look and also i lost everything from when i had my profile before and also this way it looks it just plane sucks as i said before

    Comment by Cisco — October 18, 2008 #

  50. This only continues to support that fact that yahoo has only gone downhill since 1997.

    Comment by Paul — October 18, 2008 #

  51. MORONS…. ALL OF YOU

    Stop using Yahoo services they suck anyway. Im tired of uninstalling the GARBAGE that they make from customer computers. They are poorly coded and full of bugs.

    Cry Cry,…. my profile is missing. Get a life and go out. You think the give a poo about you. You dont make them any money unless you stupidly click on the THOUSANDS of ads they SPAM you with. Oh yeah on the topic of spam. Wonder where it comes from. Thank YAHOO they sell your contact information and emails to make money.

    STOP USING YAHOO GARBAGE

    Comment by itguy — October 18, 2008 #

  52. I understand that progress is something that needs to inevitably happen…

    but there is such a thing called MIGRATION OF DATA.

    “Heh, what’s this thing?”

    “Let me check sir. The label says ‘COMMON SENSE: Use At Your Own Risk’”

    “Ah, well, toss that aside. It’s our job to be INNOVATIVE!”

    Comment by * — October 18, 2008 #

  53. Thanks a lot, nothing like losing a profile page that I’ve had since 1997

    Comment by Jarrett — October 18, 2008 #

  54. Dear Yahoo,

    Is there ANYTHING you guys CAN’T screw up?Seriously.

    Maybe take into consideration your customer’s well being, and naturally success will follow.

    PS, nice how you guys f***ed up Music Match. Way to go on that one also!

    Comment by Bill — October 18, 2008 #

  55. You’re not stupid, but whoever made the decision was definitely stupid. I feel sad for you, Yahoo, because you’re slipping, and you don’t even know it. You should drop the “!”, because you suck now.

    Comment by Brendan — October 18, 2008 #

  56. What a company full of morons! How can you delete the profiles without given notice in advance? Any serious company would at least provide the old data directly to the user and provide some kind of migration path (even if it is copy&paste). IDIOTS!
    Yahoo should be bought by Google and the managers should be fired immediately!

    Comment by Andy — October 18, 2008 #

  57. Perhaps monkeys randomly pressing buttons are actually running yahoo?

    Morons, last time I will be using yahoo services.

    Comment by what? — October 19, 2008 #

  58. With this new profile system,, the only profile that you have is your main id,, most of the people that actually go into the chat rooms do not use their main id,, therefore this new profile crap is useless,,what if we want to make a profile for the aliases? If I wanted to use my main id in chat this wouldn’t be a problem, however, i’ve NEVER gone into chat with it, so why start now? sheesh

    Comment by Reesie — October 19, 2008 #

  59. PLEASE BRING BACK YHE OLD PROFILES

    Comment by  Dave — October 19, 2008 #

  60. WoW… talk about being evicted from my profile. No notice or anything.. BAD Yahoo.. no cookie for you.

    Seriously… No different when u switched from your crap to flickr/whatever its called.. At least you gave me a notice beforehand. This is plain out horrible..

    enjoy your days

    Comment by ncc — October 19, 2008 #

  61. [...] If you want to read more, this and other user comments are here. [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo Does Imposes Unilateral Profile Changes : Beyond Search — October 19, 2008 #

  62. OLD PROFILES R BETTER THEN NEW 1 SO—CHANGE IT AND DONT LET UR YAHOO DOWN–
    “Sarah Bacon” and i think u have 2 remove captcha code from chat room….nothin happens room are Full wid bots so remove all this things and make ur yahoo better then other ones…

    Comment by micky — October 19, 2008 #

  63. HEHEHEH

    I don’t have a problem with this at all ! I realized over a year ago that I was not going to use Yahoo ever again, in any form whatsoever. So I removed myself from this wasteland of self-serving mediocrity.

    Good luck to those of you who stay, you will need it !

    Comment by Richard — October 19, 2008 #

  64. Did anyone stop to think about the female chatters and the possibility of using real names with stalkers online??? Its incredible that personal information would be used and subject to violations. There are tons of mentally ill and other persons who can and would use others personal information against others for malicious reasons. We should have the right to keep our profiles as we had them. We aren’t all in our 20’s and 30’s and want to participate in social networking. Us in our 40’s and 50’s and long time yahoo users prefer sharing our personal information with whom we choose. There was a choice for all users, no longer do we have a choice. Did you stop to think of the user base as being older? And that we don’t like blogs and social networking??? We liked the simpleness of our profiles. We liked having aliases with differant profiles. Sometimes LESS is better. Yahoo please consider your users wishes and be responsible company to let us make our own choices. Bring back the old profile options at the very least. ,,,,,,, A discontented chatter

    Comment by Louieee — October 19, 2008 #

  65. Most organizations make changes to their services as a result of working with customer feedback. When Yahoo! first started out, it was a fun organization run by a bunch of college kids.

    You have completely lost your sense of purpose. You have no feedback on anything you do and no one in your organization is accountable.

    This is a screw-up that is going to cost you millions of dollars at a time when the economy is collapsing. Your customer service has deteriorated almost exponentially.

    For my part, I’m voting with my feet – goodbye to you and all the morons that run the company.

    Comment by Darryll — October 19, 2008 #

  66. What happened, did one of your geeks run a spell-check on the profiles??

    Comment by XB-70 — October 19, 2008 #

  67. This is just f—ing terrific.

    First, yahoo starts to get flooded with bots.

    Then, you guys take away the user rooms, so were all crammed in generic rooms together…with even more bots.

    Then you force us to enter captchas to make sure were human, and the bots stay out for all of two days before flooding back in.

    Now you mess with our profiles and take away our aliases so we cant chat anonymously. Not that theres anyone to chat with since everyone there is a BOT anyway.

    Oh, and the bots keep spamming our names so we have to tick “ignore anyone not on my list” if we dont want to get spammed every few minutes, which just happens to mean real people can no longer contact us.

    I have two sets of letters for anyone who wants a good chat and instant messaging experience on the internet: IRC and MSN.

    Yahoo, you SUCK.

    Comment by Luke — October 19, 2008 #

  68. Crap like this is my my.yahoo is no longer my home page.

    Comment by Loydb — October 19, 2008 #

  69. Congrats, you just killed my profile.

    I am not going to create another one.

    Comment by Christian — October 19, 2008 #

  70. i had same yahoo 360 for what 3 years now sence it started i wont be makeing another one to much to repost

    bye 360

    Comment by m0zone — October 19, 2008 #

  71. I’ve transitioned 30+ friends and family members to gmail and other chat room over the last two years. (My exit started when they screwed up the message boards in 2006). The last 3 holdouts I know are now leaving W! (Wahoo!).

    Comment by Johan — October 19, 2008 #

  72. Currently moving to Gmail…by Yahoo !

    Comment by YahooSucks — October 19, 2008 #

  73. Well, I wish there had been notice, as I would have liked to save the data from my old profile. Im hoping some of your suggested links will help me understand how this profile is accessed by others,etc… because so far, when I try to look at some friends it says ” Oops nothing to see here” and other times it goes through….. Its a little confusing to use and access and frankly, I didnt come to Yahoo thinking I needed to be a computer whiz! I just wanted to have a little fun and entertainment! If I had a vote, the older and simpler version, please!

    Comment by Lori — October 19, 2008 #

  74. Thanks, now I have no reason to even bother using YIM any longer. All the contacts I had for it just left for MSN and Skype. Thanks again for saving me the time and effort of having to check your messaging service to talk to them.

    : D

    Comment by Anon — October 19, 2008 #

  75. It forced the user to look for another chatting messenger because of all these craps happening in yahoo…dissapoinment is the word

    Comment by Shaker — October 19, 2008 #

  76. wtf……at least add some color to it, looks like an ad in a paper….

    Comment by candy — October 19, 2008 #

  77. I’ve been a Yahoo! user since the 90’s, and I was happy with my profile as it was.

    Please restore the original.

    Comment by Will — October 19, 2008 #

  78. I think its funny that people actually believe yahoo is going to change anything. The new profiles are here to stay. Learn how to use it and we’ll all get used to it.

    I didn’t care one way or another, but I did think that releasing the new profile system without any kind of instructions, or information was a little unprofessional.

    I see that they NOW have posted a little more information and a tutorial about how it works, but it was a little late.

    I’m sure we’ll all get used to it.

    Comment by Netti — October 19, 2008 #

  79. Yapoo screwed up MusicMatch. Now, they’ve screwed the pooch here too with the profiles thing.

    Why does Yahoo hate their customers so much?

    Comment by Bob C — October 19, 2008 #

  80. @AnnaMaria — I’m not sure what you’re referring to- the 800+ comments are still there on the profiles news blog, and I’m still there answering questions.

    Sorry, you haven’t scared me off.

    As far as why Sarah Bacon is posting this on the Messenger blog? it’s because we all work together as a team and are trying to communicate the new changes to all of our users through various channels. I’m sorry you’re frustrated with the changes, and as I mentioned over on the other blog, we are all working to help improve the system, and your feedback (as well as other users’) helps us improve our products.

    Thank you for taking the time.

    -Melissa Daniels

    Comment by mdaniels — October 19, 2008 #

  81. @i
    Thanks for the feedback about Cool Links– I’ve passed this along and the team is aware this is a feature you all would like restored.

    Thanks for taking the time to share your comments with us.

    -Melissa Daniels

    Comment by mdaniels — October 19, 2008 #

  82. @Jeff
    I understand your concern with the alias issue. You can tackle this one of two ways–

    1. Disassociate your alias with your primary profile– this means you won’t come up in search results and people will see the “oops” page or the empty smiley face/profile page when they search for you.
    2. Create a separate Yahoo! ID for your chat life/aliases. This will enable you to create an entirely new profile just for this behavior/chatting.

    I know many users feel as though these are insufficient options but currently, they’re your best bet.

    Thanks for voicing your opinion.

    -Melissa Daniels

    Comment by mdaniels — October 19, 2008 #

  83. @Kellygirl

    What’s your issue? Reach out to me here, or leave me a comment on the yprofiles blog at http://www.yprofileblog.com and I’ll be sure to help you out.

    -Melissa Daniels

    Comment by mdaniels — October 19, 2008 #

  84. Yahoo is the best chat messenger congratulation for the new profiles update

    Good….. Better…..Best

    To Melissa and Robin &Sarah bacon and all other Yahoo Stuff :

    dont listen to the rude comments perhaps theyre angry because they used so many fake yahoo ID’S & disguised under many multi personality

    imagine how they talk to yahoo stuff with all rude and hatespeech kinda alike they do to another yahoo chat users in a chat room..

    thus who posted the rude comments have no respect even to themselves

    To all rude chatters:

    Stop wasting your time in negavite comments.. leave Yahoo Stuff alone…they have the right to edit & updagrade

    Go yahoo.. You Rule

    Comment by salim — October 19, 2008 #

  85. Salim, learn to spell and write sentences properly. By the looks of your sentence and grammar structure, you must be a manager at Yahoo!

    Comment by madhu — October 19, 2008 #

  86. I agree with a lot of posters here. Yahoo, instead of just killing all profiles, please just migrate the old profiles to the new system. We have no problems with the new system — just that you killed all of our profiles.

    Comment by me — October 19, 2008 #

  87. This shows the complete lack of respect of Yahoo for its customers. They think they can just wipe out data for thousands of people without any notice. Maybe it’s time you understand that a website on the internet needs to build a community, the administrators need to be honest, and show humility. They should be prepared to give power to their users, or let their customers go away.

    Comment by El Re — October 19, 2008 #

  88. EPIC FAIL!

    Comment by kyoko — October 19, 2008 #

  89. Way to alienate the people using your service Yahoo. I, like others I know will not be back. I’m going to Google Chat.
    If you treat people who use your service like crap, don’t be surprised when they leave.

    And then ask yourself; “How come no one is using us?”
    (See above)

    Comment by Mister E. — October 19, 2008 #

  90. like ols way the profiles were but you could not change pictures on it use to have adukt profiles
    think i will try a new chat place

    Comment by dodge — October 19, 2008 #

  91. Well that’s a typical Yahoo! answer. It’s our data and we can do whatever we want with it.

    Maybe all the smart people left and there was no one left to think of the ramifications such a change would make. I’m surprised Sarah bought into it, she’s been there for a while so she should’ve known what this would mean.

    Clearly a sign that the company is headed down a spiral.

    Comment by madhu — October 19, 2008 #

  92. Wow. Guess I won’t be using Yahoo anymore.

    Comment by Doug — October 19, 2008 #

  93. i believe perhap it’s going be more crucial pulling arguments all over sometimes,why not relent to reprimand concern on what is achieved.blogs are good, archives are better,but option when nurtured oftenly become adherent to most character depict on usuals.

    Comment by princewill=george wallace — October 19, 2008 #

  94. It’s business. Yahoo profits off your pain. Get used to it.

    Comment by . — October 19, 2008 #

  95. Get rid of the pornographic advertising in the chat rooms and I’ll be happy.

    Comment by j_c — October 19, 2008 #

  96. bring back old profiles pleas this new way is terrible !!!

    Comment by Gabriel — October 19, 2008 #

  97. NEW PROFILE SUCKS SO BAD,BRING THE OLD ONE

    Comment by kryssa — October 20, 2008 #

  98. Did a real, live person actually think this was an “upgrade?” If so, he/she should be fired. How much more can Yahoo suck?

    Comment by Mel — October 20, 2008 #

  99. I have been very loyal to yahoo for many years now but I must say their new IM feature has pushed me over the line. I had a paid account untill a year ago when it became noticably not worth the cost and now that I can’t simply display my handle ONLY and now it is not possible to view profiles of anyone unless added to your “connections” list, I see very little reason to continue using this IM service. Can anyone recommend another service that I can try that will allow me to use my webcam, view profiles without inviting the world onto my connections/friends list?

    Comment by Greg — October 20, 2008 #

  100. Thank you Melissa for the reply.
    I now understand the idea and the direction to where the new profiles wanted to be taken.
    With the 3 Yahoo accounts including the aliases, that would be a total of 12 aliases and 3 ID user-names. It is quite extensive and it makes sense to use the other 2 IDs as discreet profiles and it will just take a while to get used to it and adapt. That being said, I have to agree with a few issues that Roamer mentioned. The booter problem of being disconnected server-side due to a person using their main chat ID is still a serious exploit issue, even with the new MUD servers. The way the servers are currently set up, by using an alias profile it is more difficult to be booted than it is with the main chat ID. Also another concern is that many people use their main account ID as their Yahoo! e-mail address. Using a main account ID to chat with in this case opens up the e-mail address to spammers and mail with malicious attachments.

    Comment by Jeff Suttles — October 20, 2008 #

  101. It is utterly astounding that you saw fit to change to a new version of your users’ profiles WITHOUT notification, discussion or consultation. That said, it is in keeping with the contempt that you seem to have to the remaining mere mortals that, for some reason, continue to use your ’services’. Did no one in your organisation put their hand up and say that this may be a bad idea? no one think it could perhaps be phrased in? no one saw that MASSIVE big security lapse in having users’ real names being displayed, not one person think that perhaps you could actually put the effort into fixing what the MAJORITY of users posting around here actually want, namely the chat rooms cleared of bots and booters? Probably the biggest mystery is why Yahoo and its ‘innovations’ are not being more widely derided in the press.

    Comment by alim — October 20, 2008 #

  102. I don’t like the new way of doing profiles. You have to add anyone to allow them to see it. Sometimes I like to look at profiles if I get a pm before I even consider answering it. Now I can’t do that. It really sucks. Go back to the old way or make it easier to use.

    Comment by Cactus — October 20, 2008 #

  103. Nice to see one group of users embracing the new change, namely the spammer scum behind the pornbots. They seem to be quickly changing over and updating their profiles, allowing them to continue scamming yahoo’s users, and infesting all chat rooms.

    Comment by alim — October 20, 2008 #

  104. The original is still the best! Will you please restore my profile pic @ 360 it still sucks.

    Thank you for your prompt action.

    Comment by ladypenelope — October 20, 2008 #

  105. You folks are really too c/s to allow a real voice on here to point out the flaws and give the readers and those posting complaints a chance to get to you and voice their complaints, nice to know communism is still alive and well in the Yahoo world.

    Comment by Roamer — October 20, 2008 #

  106. Here we go again, Yahoo make a BIG fowl up and uses tell yahoo on here , and what do yahoo do, Cut user comments cuz they can’t deal with the TRUTH… AND NOT fix the problem

    Comment by No New Profile — October 20, 2008 #

  107. In all things “follow the money”. Concentration of bots into smaller number of rooms must mean higher click$ rate.

    But not sure where the profile change generates more money.

    Been a downhill slide for several years now and picking up momentum.

    Comment by who cares — October 20, 2008 #

  108. this is the last straw…no notice, u just decide to remove my profile…do u not realize that i spent time and effort puting it together? Personally, i’m fed up with your uncareing attitude. I’m paying for phone service but can’t get my messages forwarded. Service…what service? Your co. deserves to fail and not be rescued. I no longer care about having a profile..u took care of that, and i have no intention of putting another together. Flickr, another joke, you can upload pics, but not download…i had to go find a prog on the net in order to download my own pics from my flickr account. btw, ur also doing a great job of preventing bots from the chat rooms.

    Comment by ginger bennett — October 20, 2008 #

  109. OMG to see someone’s profile they have to be a connection on my page??????????????? Do I have that right??? I do not want all my friends to be all chatting to each other I am not 12………………

    Comment by L — October 20, 2008 #

  110. Comment by kara — October 20, 2008 #

  111. YAHOO STOP SCREWING WITH OUT STUFF! You had no right to change the profiles without asking us first. We the users are what keeps you in business. Listen to us! The users, and bring back the old profiles! This new one sucks!

    Comment by Jeremy Brooks — October 20, 2008 #

  112. What is wrong with Yahoo?….Every step they seem to be making is in the WRONG direction. We need not only the old profiles back but also the old chat rooms that were accessible from the yahoo website.

    Comment by Burton — October 20, 2008 #

  113. And you wonder why you your company is tanking?
    You wonder why you’re losing customers/users?
    Hahaha It’s gonna be funny when Microsoft finally takes you guys over.

    Comment by Tristan — October 20, 2008 #

  114. I think Yahoo should have better things to do than mess around user profiles. Everytime I log into Yahoo msgr, there are bots offering me cam shows. Obviously all that captcha-waptcha isnt working. While signing in into msgr is complicated for a genuine user, the bots seem to have no problem in bypassing Yahoo’s useless security features.

    Comment by Shreelesh Kumar — October 21, 2008 #

  115. it goes without saying, the implications this new system of profiles has created!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what crap!

    Comment by dont matter — October 21, 2008 #

  116. why are you all complaining you can still chat with your friends and it is FREE. they could start charging you and then maybe you would have the right to complain…

    Comment by heather — October 21, 2008 #

  117. Some of us do pay – there are serious security issues – People who want to belong to Social Networking and have a totally open profile also have the option to find those sites – to force chat users to conform to someones idea of what I or anyone else likes is wrong – and as I said I pay for SBCYahoo –and I can stop paying for the service – however I choose at this point to give them a chance to listen to reason and roll the profiles back. There has to be a better way! It doesn’t matter how long this was in the works – a bad product will not sell.

    Comment by Charged — October 21, 2008 #

  118. The new profile system is clean and well-implemented so far, and is for me a welcome change from the tardy, badly-laid-out, table-led implementation you guys had been running for years previously. Having had a sniff around my own profile, and also those of others, I’m optimistic and am looking forward to seeing your product evolve as your engineers refine existing features and integrate new ones.

    Having read the frustrated posts above, it’s plain that some people are never satisfied, but they’re everywhere and I just ignore them. You’ll be onto a winner, here — cohesive look, good integration of various functions, clean lines and an easily-navigable user interface.

    KEEP IT COMING!

    Regards,
    —J. D. Morden

    Comment by John D. Morden — October 21, 2008 #

  119. Hi guys:

    Look I know change is difficult. It’s part of my job to manage change and so you have my sympathy. But really, this is not working at all, and I have a feeling that users were not properly prepared for it. Do you think you might hear some of the real feedback behind the anger, and reconsider?

    Comment by Margaret — October 21, 2008 #

  120. Well, I don’t know about PAYING for Yahoo Messenger as a service…that has been a rumor ever since it began. Because yahoo is popular and has been OUT used…most people wouldn’t be supportive on paying to use it..(due to the fact that most people already pay for services like internet and cell phone) We don’t need extra bills.

    Comment by Burton — October 21, 2008 #

  121. No wonder Yahoo is failing with brain-surgeon decisions like this. Maybe there’s a reason the stock price has declined way more than the overall market has? I don’t even know why I’m posting a comment that they won’t read in the first place.

    Comment by YahooSucks — October 21, 2008 #

  122. Yahoo Profile !
    I cant believe that you have screwed up a no problems basic profile…it was nice and simple and now its a durn mess…and i don’t like it at all.
    Plus i have had Yahoo Im 9.0 and it would not show things right and my picture on my display would not show up..so i went back to Yahoo IM 8.0

    Some times older is better them a durn Beta Stuff.
    Glenn.

    Comment by Glenn — October 21, 2008 #

  123. WHY! did you people do this. Myself and many others worked hard on the information that were in our profiles and then all of sudden Yahoo goes and changes it without any notice and the only thing you all have to say for yourselves is “We Apologize” screw that! Give us back our old profiles. The new layout is garbage at its best. I hate it with every fiber of my being! Yahoo has gone down hill ever since you all decided to punish ALL yahoo users by banning user created rooms. Now, its just been one screw up after the other and this is the final straw for me. I have had it!

    I hope to god Yahoo loses subtantial amount of users because this move doesn’t help anyone. Did we as Users ask for this change? No we didn’t. So why push something like this onto us? We liked our profiles the way they were before all the stupid cropping images and other cheap gimmicks you all have introduced. Please, Please, Please, I am begging you on my hands and knees to go back to what made the profiles so great. do not do this to us.

    Comment by jokersdame — October 21, 2008 #

  124. I really did upset to find out my old profile is gone without any advance notice! Yahoo, you guys are really terrible! You should know what you really have to improve and what you shouldn’t.

    Comment by mayu — October 21, 2008 #

  125. Ive been reading all the info about enabling people to view this new profile and im sorry but the info u have down is incorrect. it states that teenagers profiles are only visible to their connections but if you would do some research you would find that the adult profiles are not able to be viewed either. im 28 and every bit of info on my profile is useless because no one can view it. whats the point in changing something that was fine when it only resulted in problems and loss of clientelle? i filled out my yahoo account when i was a teenager but that was more than 10 years ago and now because you havent set anything to update account info im screwed and stuck with an inaccessible profile. how is this fair or even wise? do you really believe that teenagers are so daft that they cant enter fake info? and what about those of us who have been loyal to yahoo all this time and now have to suffer from this stupidity? how can i go about changing this so that my profile can be viewed? when i originally set up a yahoo account i entered my birth year so if you were to look at my account you would see that it states 1980 and yet im stuck with options for teenagers. please do something to fix this. it isnt fair to have my options listed only for connections as “connections” would already know background info and it makes the whole purpose of a profile useless.

    Comment by luna — October 22, 2008 #

  126. What a waste of time. Leave it there if you want, I just cant see it being used for all of the above reasons.

    I suspect this profile change was a way of getting advertising revenue. Well, I wont be filling mine in or reading others, not with yieldmanager ads on them.

    Do you even care what your users want Sarah? You never seem to put your neck on the line by answering the serious issues raised here.

    Yahoo! Made by 13yr olds for 13 yr olds.

    Comment by Art — October 22, 2008 #

  127. i agree with mayu..

    i also didnt find my old id…and want to some changes in my this id too
    but i cant

    any way yahoo is the best….for chaters

    thnaks

    Comment by sanjay — October 22, 2008 #

  128. The social scene is where the marketing dollars are being spent. I think it was a stable product that served a purpose for the majority of the public, but direction of resources at Yahoo! is now headed to the more social scene where higher return for the dollar can be had.
    With this new evolution comes increased risk as the makers attempt to make the software do more, opening more doors leading to additional vulnerabilities. The user base will change as more computers fall prey to the growing infection rate as they have at other social networking sites.
    I also believe Yahoo! has miscalculated once again and will slipslide further away from being a leading starting point for so many internet users. The KISS Theory is not taught at Yahoo! anymore

    Comment by Oldphart — October 22, 2008 #

  129. I liked the older look, but I really don’t care much either way because a profile is a profile. I am more interested in communicating with folks in chat rooms, but that is very frustrating since they’re flooded with bots. I know you guys recently implemented a way to make it difficult for bots to get into the rooms by having everyone type in some code, but it turns out that it just make it harder for us to get into the rooms when the bots seem to be getting in without any problems.

    Please, for the love of all that is holy, fix it!

    Comment by Shannon — October 22, 2008 #

  130. Well YAHOO I think you did it this time!!!

    What a load of CRAP!!!!!!!!!

    This PROFILE thing is a Great Big Heap of Crap!

    I think its time we all said Bye to Yahoo.

    Sad Sad Sad….

    Screwed it up AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

    Whoever decided this needs the BOOT!!

    Comment by Kian Wadewright — October 22, 2008 #

  131. yahoo for some unknown reason loves breaking things and messing things up they better fix the profiles to the old good way before my laywer gets on this and believe me my laywer has friend laywers that will make yahoo change back to the old profiles

    come on yahoo no one wants the whole world snoopin in on there private name i sure dont need some yahoo chat loser tracking me down and killing me just because yahoo desided to make new prifiles that gives every one your first and last names shame on you yahoo learn for christ sakes people need there privacy !!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by Jessica123765 — October 22, 2008 #

  132. Hmm…alienating so far 3 products worth of users:
    Messenger, Groups, Profiles, possibly mail users…pretty much everyone who got saddled with this. I hope it is a lesson to your new VP of Communities in what not to do. Jim owes Yahoo users an apology if this was his doing. If it wasn’t, I’d like to enlist his help in soliciting one from whomever developed the rollout “strategy”. I know Melissa and Robyn have already taken the sword, and even apologized, but it seems prudent for someone from the upper echelons to explain themselves at this point. This is a pretty monumental “oops”, even for Yahoo. Could you seriously say that any other product would survive if over half its functionality just went away with no notice and so little concern evidenced for users online safety? Tacky folks, reallly tacky. Jim, as youa re new to Yahoo, you need to know this is a common practice various users have seen over the years. A lot of us are sick of being effectively spit on by Yahoo. I’ve personally bailed on several Yahoo products now because of how their changes were presented or the fact that the new was inferior to the old. I hope you can work to clean up this process. Start with Yahoo Groups. They figured it out and are actually going about development WITH their users, not in spite of them. It feels really good. So does bailing on a bad product. Seeing people get it right feels better. I keep hoping, and keep getting disappointed. The sad part is, my expectations are pretty low at this point…

    Comment by Floyd — October 22, 2008 #

  133. i’m a yahoo chatter and i love creating designs on my chat id by using special letters but now on NEW YAHOO PROFILE all designs don’t show up when i enter the chatroom -_-…. i prefer the old profile …old yahoo profile brings out the creativity that a chatter have….

    Comment by red — October 22, 2008 #

  134. I Don’t like the new profile page either. I think, Instead of going back to the old style way that it was, they should put their heads together, (not too close we don’t want more brain injuries) And redesign the profile page with a more rich, easier to use, graphical interface, As well as giving the yahoo users their old and original features back. Maybe even design it using Microsoft Silverlight. Of course a lot of people are afraid of change, But it’s when you change something to an extent, beyond the direction it was meant to go, without any notice or warning, that you start having problems. Let me give you some helpful advise that may lead you in the right direction and possibly bring back some of the customers you scared off. Listen to them. Notify users before you make changes before assuming that’s what the users want. And if you must make changes to a certain thing, do in small steps, and ask for feed-back. Ask users what they would like to see and experience in your product, and use that to your advantage. Its better to make changes to something that 50% of the users want, then to change it to something that 99.9% of the users didn’t want. Makes me wish I was team manager at yahoo, I would definitely lead yahoo in a whole new direction the right way, Then I would give you a taste of your own medicine and change things around there without notice, starting off with a few people going home and not coming back.

    Comment by Silverwolf — October 23, 2008 #

  135. i noticed if you have a @sbcglobal.net yahoo name it doesn’t merge

    Comment by Richard — October 23, 2008 #

  136. I myself, am an RP user of Yahoo! Chats. When it was the user-made chat rooms, it was one thing, but this is truly out of the blue. It’s almost as bad as those complaining IMs that are chained together. “Yahoo! will soon make us pay…” at this rate… how Yahoo! never gives a head up… I would expect it.

    First, put Yahoo Profiles back to the way there were and everything else with the secondary profiles back too.

    Second, Take away that god damned awful “Anti-bot” program that does work… I type in random letters and it lets me in.

    Third, Put back the User Chat-rooms

    Fourth, Acutally listen and check when we send a SPAM message or a report!

    DAMN! ITS NO HARD, LIKE GOING OUT AND BUYING A FLOPPY DISK, COSTS NOTHING AND EASILY RECOVERED!

    Comment by Seth — October 23, 2008 #

  137. I swear to god (sorry for double posting) If Yahoo! changes the Mail.. I’m going to msn or gmail. This is getting bad.

    Comment by Seth — October 23, 2008 #

  138. I cannot put a profile photo on.Keep getting a javascript void ,when are you going to fix that

    Comment by ginger — October 23, 2008 #

  139. Your product manager should be shot, hung, and fired. This is the worst case of stupidity I have seen in ages. Stop trying to be all the OTHER sites and stick to what Yahoo does best. No wonder your stock is falling through the floor. This has ruined my privacy. I am sure stalkers love the new systems and when yahoo is sued for accesory to murder I wont be a bit surprised. The whole idea of aliases is that if they dont KNOW your log in name they cant STEAL your log in name and your personal information. I have used yahoo for years but this is about the last straw. CHANGE IT BACK.

    Comment by Curves — October 23, 2008 #

  140. You guys have REALLY SCREWED THINGS UP for everyone! As group moderators, we now have lost nearly all our member profiles due to your new “IMPROVED” (HA!) system.

    THIS IS NOT “MYSPACE”! IT IS YAHOO.

    I’m sure we can speak for other group moderators who also require a viewable profile for each and every member to see. NOW…we’re nothing but a bunch of blanks…! Sorry, but VERY FEW have converted and probably won’t. As far as new members….our request to join list just sits….and grows.

    What you’ve created is nothing short of a mess and we’re certain we ALL of us want it back the way it was!

    Was it Broken? NO! So WHY did you go and “Fix” it..?

    Comment by Yahoo Profile...WHAT A MESS! — October 23, 2008 #

  141. i want to chant my yahoo messenger name,the name tht appears in every1s list when i chat with her/him…

    plz reply

    Comment by anil swain — October 23, 2008 #

  142. Before making changes to Yahoo services why not set-up a preview, voting poll, survey something….

    Comment by Trap — October 23, 2008 #

  143. Finally, new yahoo profiles that discourage the use of porn bots.

    Comment by winsock.kernel — October 23, 2008 #

  144. This is how you celebrate Evel Knievel birthday..? WITH A STUNT OF YOUR OWN????

    Comment by jeremy — October 23, 2008 #

  145. Jessica123765 ur lawyer will just laugh in ur face and Curves if u say that to yahoo product manager ..like that ill report u so leave yahoo along ty and i hope they turn u in and jessica123765 in to hehe

    Comment by wd — October 23, 2008 #

  146. hey JESSICA123765 WHY DONT U LET YAHOO ALONE.THEY DIDNT DO ANYTHING TO U DID THEY..AND WHAT WILL UR LAWYER DO TO YAHOO..THEY WONT DO ANYTHING BUT THEY MIGHT LAUGH IN UR FACE…SO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE……WHEN I READ UR COMMENT I STARTED TO LAUGH AT U….IF IT WASNT FOR YAHOO U WOULDNT BE ON HERE I REALLY LIKE YAHOO.THEY ARE THE BEST THING THAT HAPPEN FOR THE COMPUTERS…..

    Comment by tf — October 23, 2008 #

  147. i dont get it! i cant see my blog?

    Comment by ronald — October 23, 2008 #

  148. U ALL KNOW THAT THIS ISNT YAHOO ITS YAHELL. AS USUALL YAHELL DECIDES WHAT’S GOOD FOR US, HEY YAHOO WE ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN !!!!!!! I READ THAT YOU WANT US TO BE US , WELL GUESS WHAT? WE WERE, DEPENDING ON THE MOOD WE WERE IN THAT DAY. THERE ARE PPL THAT ARE SHUT INS AND THIS IS THEIR ONLY WAY OF BEGIN WHO EVER THEY WANT TO BE BECAUSE OF THEIR DIFFERENT ID’S AND PROFILES….HOW DARE YOU STEAL FROM US YES YAHOO YOU HAVE STOLEN FROM ALL OF US. AND SINCE WHEN WAS YAHOO A COMMUNIST COMPANY CAUSE IN COMMUNISM U HAVE NO CHOICE!!!!!!!

    Comment by cole — October 24, 2008 #

  149. I have used Yahoo Messenger for 8 years and chatted for 8 years.

    When you dingbats closed the user rooms I couldn’t believe in my wildest dreams, that a company could be so pathetically stupid to wipe out an entire web based society of chat communities because of a few pervs in a few obscure rooms among thousands.

    The shere stupidity and ignorance of that decision was so mind boggling to me, that I stopped using Yahoo for a year.

    I came back to say hi to friends and saw how chatting in these bot-infested generic yahoo rooms had totally destroyed the pleasure of chatting, which ofcourse evryone but you, apparently, knew from the moment user rooms were no more.

    Lo and behold, now you go and do it again! What on Earth is going on in your dev dept? Do you even know who your users are? Or do you just fantasize about being big and popular like MySpace and Facebook?
    If you do, go make something like that and leave Yahoo chat, Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo profiles ALONE!

    NO ONE I know want this new profile! NO ONE want their connections to be visible to other connections! NO ONE want their alias ID’s merged with their MAIN ID!

    Most of my friends CHOOSE to keep their profiles SECRET now, because they don’t want this transparency. They know this is exploitation waiting to happen. Already the spam has begun!

    Are you so hell bent on destroying your own company that you’ll stop at nothing to undermine and deteriorate the services you provide? Do you WANT to go bankrupt?

    Strike that! You already are bankrupt!

    Those few people I know who didn’t leave after Yahoo shut down user rooms have had enough now. They are leaving for good. And I’m gonna turn off the light and close the door after them!

    Bye bye you incompetent amateurs!

    Comment by Abigail — October 24, 2008 #

  150. Just terrible. Wow.

    The old profiles at least would tell someone how long a person had been a member.

    The new profiles now make it easier for spammers and scammers to take on new IDs that look thesame as long established IDs. That means the websites I admin will probably no longer take yahoo addresses for registration.

    Besides the fact that it just totally is lame. If I wanted that style of page, I would get a MySpace or facebook, or a 360 page.

    It seems with each improvement over the past few years the services have become harder to use, with features I hate but tare unable to turn off; and removing more and more of the features I do use.

    This is almost like the movie “The Producers” – it seems like they are trying to make the products worse. Obviously I know that can’t be and obviously they did a lot of work to make these changes. I just don’t get why they keep fixing stuff that worked fine and had greater utility?

    Comment by Al — October 24, 2008 #

  151. Why do I want to make my Yahoo profile look like a MySpace / Facebook profile? Anoynimity and privacy + New Yahoo Profiles = FAIL.

    Comment by Suzy — October 24, 2008 #

  152. Nice move Netti, im sure yahoo will patch it now that you made it public…stupid move

    Comment by   — October 25, 2008 #

  153. hello
    I cant chat whit my yahoo

    Comment by Esmail Salehzadeh — October 25, 2008 #

  154. How is one expected to play safe in Yahoo chatrooms now? One’s full name is automatically displayed. I’m going to delete my yahoo profile and address.

    You had a good thing, and screwed it up. The bots are worse than ever too.

    Comment by David — October 25, 2008 #

  155. Yahoo chats and messenger was meant for fun and million of people joined in to have good time. Now this new yahoo is killing this sprite, I’m sure some one in the top who decide such direction must grew up in a country where fun is bad things for human.

    Comment by Adel Elkabany — October 25, 2008 #

  156. Yahoo, this is the worse thing you have done. This does not fit my needs or seem to fit anyone elses. My question to you: “WHY”.

    Comment by Donna — October 25, 2008 #

  157. would really like to have the old profiles back please.really dont care for this new one at all

    Comment by amy — October 25, 2008 #

  158. Hey Melissa

    I saw your reply to my comment that I sent you…You said that you, Robin and Sarah work as a team… How come we have not heard from you since?

    Why have none of you addressed the issue of security now that if we edit our profile our real name shows up??
    . Why have no one answered any of our concerns except but to tell us how to update our profiles and tell us if we have aliases they will be attached to our main profile and we will no longer be able to remain anonymus,, But then maybe I read that wrong..and the alias profiles will no longer be seen..

    Also Melissa WHY can we no longer view your initial blog of October 16th TELLING us that the old profiles had been deleted…Where did all those messages that angry irate chatters sent you disappear to?
    That was my point then and is still now..WE CAN NO LONGER SEE YOUR BLOG OR REPLIES (800+) sent to you specifically before Sarah posted her blog of October 17th..

    She acknowledges that we don’t like what Yahell has done….But she does not tell us that Yahoo will return our old profiles and give us what the customer wants…INSTEAD she too is pushing this unwanted profile on us…

    What must one do to feel safe and secure on Yahoo now??

    WHEN WILL ANYONE AT YAHOO address our concerns and return the old profiles….

    Betya you again ignore all of our comments because you can’t justify or admit the enormous error you made by deleting the old profiles..

    Will be checking in a few days to see if anyone’s comments have been addressed….But am not holding any hope of seeing you doing that in the near future……

    Comment by AnnaMaria — October 25, 2008 #

  159. This rude unannounced privacy invading ‘enhancement’ of profiles is my last straw with yahoo. I have opened a gmail acount, notified those in my contact list I care about of it, and am about to delete my yahoo account which is the only thing I believe yahoo will listen to since nothing in this blog shows anything but uncaring about what people want. You blew it bad yahoo.

    For those that wish the link to deleting your account here it is.

    https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user

    Comment by Peter — October 25, 2008 #

  160. AnnaMaria,
    Your real name is not displayed on your profile to the public.It will only be visible to your connections

    Comment by eezy.ryder — October 26, 2008 #

  161. please give us back our profiles as they were

    Comment by jeff — October 26, 2008 #

  162. it is really stunning how Yahoo seems so out of touch with what their customers/clients want and value. I sometimes wonder if they have focus group meetings or strategy sessions (Like most customer-service driven companies) in order to carefully evaluate any radical changes to products and service. Cleary by arbitrarily changing the profile scheme without giving any prior warning or soliciting our input, you have needlessly alienated a vast majority of your users. I mean that is Business 101. I think most users wouldn’t have been as angry if the replaced profile pages were a clear improvement over the previous profile pages. However, it is evident that they are not and the enhancements are a bit obtuse and abstract to be of any real benefit. The old profile pages were simple, clear, and straightforward. With this “upgrade” you have added needless layers of complexity and a much lower aesthetic value. Once again, I am stunned that the “design professionals” at Yahoo could have produced such an abomination that 2nd year college web design majors would never dare for risk of getting a D.

    Comment by miro — October 26, 2008 #

  163. new profile is worst kindly keep as it was originally

    Comment by ravi — October 26, 2008 #

  164. new profiles are pretty worthless, besides being crappy. no one i know can see mine even though i filled it out and have permissions set for anyone to see

    Comment by green_eyes_incognito — October 26, 2008 #

  165. This new profile thing sucks completely. I can only echo every other negative comment on here. Maybe it is time to finally delete my yahoo accounts and switch to hotmail or another service. You never listen to what the public wants, just design stupid crap and force it on people as you’ve done over the years. Wouldn’t you think there are valid points made by the numerous complaints and these points made by users need to be addressed? Every time you make these changes, they still suck. Stop screwing things up, or let some company buy you out who knows how to run a website and give users what they want.

    Comment by storms — October 26, 2008 #

  166. well the new profiles is an attempt to *catch up* to myspace and facebook and other networking sites.. but the problem i see is yahoo is like 4 years to late or more. and to think yahoo could have been the leader in this area. with chats with voice and webcams user created rooms etc…usuable groups that were very good but now are useless. all yahoo has become is a bot porn website.. and these new Profiles tell me thier not that intrested in the chatrooms anymore either which has been obvious for some time. bottomline i think yahoo is on the way of closing the chats and be like MSN messenger and a so called networking site well live spaces isn’t doing to well and neither will yahoo trying to be a networking site.. you blew your chance to be the leader Yahoo like i say your 5 years at least to late

    Comment by Rick — October 26, 2008 #

  167. Dear eezy.ryder

    I have a problem… I have been use Yahoo Messenger to connect with my friends… since version 3, in fact… it was the days when I’m still working with my former employee

    Now I just open my own small bussiness, and I’m thinking that I need a yahoo messenger account that show my own store.. not some random Yahoo Messenger ID… but I also don’t want to lose all my contact at my private Yahoo ID

    Is there a legal way so I can have my private yahoo messenger online and my store yahoo messenger online too? I don’t want to have to turn on 2 yahoo messenger and I don’t want to use a web messenger.. it’s too complicated…

    Comment by mocona — October 26, 2008 #

  168. This ’shove new profiles down your throat with no warning and oh by the way we deleted your old profile instead of importing it as any decent company would do’ is the last straw with yahoo. No wonder the company is fading so badly so quickly. Guess that last takeover offer when your stock was so much higher doesn’t look so bad now does it? I pity yahoo users and I pity anyone with stock in them.

    Do the decent thing, bring the old system of profiles back and let people upgrade if they WANT. If I don’t see yahoo really adress this seriously in the next week complete with apology, I am out of here. MAD.

    Comment by Albert — October 26, 2008 #

  169. This is truly a disaster. No warning and a total mess to deal with now. No thank you!

    I already switched to Gmail and now will close all my Yahoo accounts.

    The whole Messenger thing was great 2000-07, before Yahoo messed it up. A lot of us developed great frienships on there and now Yahoo has ruined it for no reason.

    Yahoo just ruined the last reason for anyone to be on Yahoo. This is like New Coke.

    Comment by Days of Broken Arrows — October 27, 2008 #

  170. You people are the biggest idiots around.What was wrong with the way the profiles use to be? What use are the aliases now that you only have 1 profile.If you people really want to mess something up.Mess up the booters that are in the chat rooms and leave the suff that works alone!!

    Comment by Tom — October 27, 2008 #

  171. Comparing the profile screw up to “new coke” isn’t even close. The Coca-Cola Company realized, acknowledged and corrected their error. I’ve seen no sign of yahoo doing the same, let alone responding to their shrinking user base. Also, Coke was trying to go head to head with Pepsi in a market that they share. Yahoo is trying to go head to head with social networking sites that have pretty much a lock on the “market” and a better product than what is being offered(FORCED) by yahoo.

    Comment by Gary — October 27, 2008 #

  172. To whom it may concern:

    Look, you had your chance. Obviously, very few people like the new system. And you know what the number one rule of customer service is? “The customer is always right.” Your customers are telling you that you screwed up, I really suggest you listen to them.

    My suggestion is let your users chose – the ones that want the new “upgrades” should be allowed to have them, while those of us that preferred the old profiles should be allowed to keep them.

    Comment by Rusty — October 27, 2008 #

  173. If only one in 100 ever voice a complaint it seems you have laid a hollow egg here — what does it take to listen to your users – Have you strolled through the chat rooms which rely on profiles to see and get to know who your talking to in order to help determine if you want to continue conversation. OR. have you tried to log into a Yahoo Group with a blank ID and found they do not reply to you. Have you ever wanted to chat with friends yet avoid someone who is causing you trouble by using a different ID – sure you can disassociate your aliases, however, when you had the option to have each ID with their own profile you could do that very thing while keeping your unique characteristic. Lets take your action of removing the aliases out of messenger and set it in a different setting and perhaps you will get what is going on in your (almost FORMER) users. If YOU went into a store – to buy clothes or coffee — you HAD the option previously to choose what you wanted – but now you can see all the options but all you can choose is the ONE PLAIN DULL GREY SUIT – or FREEZE DRIED YEAR OLD UNBLENDED COFFEE – would you be happy? The point is people want choice – we wanted the aliases we created or we would not have created them – Does forcing people to make seperate ID’s in order to use their aliases as stand alone profile options put somekind of bonus in “New User” status? Pretty LAME and you are not fooling anyone.
    I am very dissappointed that your leader (Jerry) is so stuck on himself and his own ideas that he chooses to destroy the whole format — THIS TOPIC IS NOT GOING TO GO AWAY!!!!!

    Comment by Charged — October 28, 2008 #

  174. I want to change my chat nick names again… Am I forever stuck as something else?

    Comment by Ryan — October 28, 2008 #

  175. Well like everyone else has said…….if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it.
    I’m very upset that I worked so so hard to get my old profile just the way I wanted it and now all the information about ME is gone and I have no idea how to get it back.
    The only thing that was saved was my interests.
    The part about ME is gone and I can’t get it back:-(
    GIVE US BACK ARE OLD PROFILE!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by SherryLynn — October 29, 2008 #

  176. [...] Changes to your Yahoo! profile [...]

    Pingback by Cara Baru Ngrubah Nickname Profiles Yahoo Messenger ID Username Account « Suluh Numpang Nulis — October 29, 2008 #

  177. I personal was taught that a beta product was something that someone choose to use to help the company develop the program. This is more like a Alpha program. I have 2 complaint into customer service with the promise of a contact within 24 hrs. that was 6 days ago. AND it is still not working, Some people see my profile, others say it says” has not updated infomation” and others say it says “OPPS, no infomation here, click for your profile”. I agree with alot of the previous users, in charging you have messed up big time.

    Comment by flossyjane15 — October 29, 2008 #

  178. Is there a way to get to the old profile? where is option to optout of new profile. I love yahoo and their products and also have been their paying customer for a while(music and mail), but this is b.s.
    How hard is it to provide a link to old profile (even if its a different url) ?
    Man, you guys are pissing me off today.

    Comment by dairyman — October 29, 2008 #

  179. well once again the users speak and Yahell is NOWHERE to be found to listen.These new profiles are the worst tinhg ever created or thought of by far from this second class operation.There was nothing wrong with the old ones they worked fine and served the purpose.
    I really believe it is your job and destiny to purposely piss of customers and members..and you actaully had the nerve to turn down the buy out from Microsft because you didnt tihnk it was a fair price?if anything it was wayyyyyyyyyy too much for a inferior company,you guys deserve those layoffs and job losses your getting.Getting what you deserve.
    Do all of us a favor and go back to the way it was and save yourself from all this embarassment.

    Comment by Amanda — October 29, 2008 #

  180. I see yahoo has jerked off on all it’s members again. Where do you get off, making changes without the consent of long time users??? If there where any changes that needed to be made?, you could have stopped bots from clogging up all our chat rooms. Tracking and stopping booters would have been a nice change too? I have been a member since 1998. And now you take it on yourself to dump my profile? You made Yahoo worthless about a year ago, and now today you make it impossible to use. Wake up retards!!!

    Comment by the original yahoo user — October 30, 2008 #

  181. this is so cooooooooolllll. i just wish that you would have said that l8r. i live in the bay around where you people have your HQ. cool

    Comment by Isa — November 1, 2008 #

  182. What a mess the people at Yahoo got themselves into. Don’t you even care about your customers? It is a sad day for those of us who always said good things about Yahoo and the ability to talk to family and friends. What a mess! Please fix it before I just delete the whole thing.

    Comment by Sue — November 2, 2008 #

  183. How horrible this idea is; first you refuse to be bought by Microsoft, 2 million offered?

    You’ll be lucky to get anything around that remote area, this PROFILE idea SUCKS.

    You’re becoming more and more of a horribel chat! client, and I’m thinking about going back to AIM and MSN, which doesn’t even support chat-rooms under conditions.

    Yahoo! better wise up, its’ not that talented these days.

    Comment by Kyle — November 2, 2008 #

  184. I cant even get to MY profile to change any info on it. Could someone please tell me how I do that. This is ridiculous……..HELPPPPPP!!!!

    Comment by Gail — November 2, 2008 #

  185. it stinks , can i change it back ??? please help!!! tell me i can change back …

    Comment by Edna — November 2, 2008 #

  186. Let me see… over 185 comments and I dont think I saw ONE that was in favor of the change. If I were you I’d take the hint and CHANGE IT BACK.
    But it is probably too late. Im sure the data that WAS in the profiles is long gone.

    Comment by Otto — November 4, 2008 #

  187. I just updated to the new messenger 9 and hate it, hate the looks which are like msn and hate the new profile..I like the old one much better..and want the old verison back.

    Comment by ash — November 4, 2008 #

  188. THIS sucks. I can’t see any old contact and it wont work with vista. please change it back.

    Comment by AJ — November 6, 2008 #

  189. Man y did yall do dis? ugh u use to be able to see who was online or not when u felt they had u on stealth settings…now u cant! yall could have atleast did like other sites and WARN people on the changes..we know its not up to us but damn dont our views count? remember we are the ones who use it! gosh bring back the old profiles!

    Comment by Treka — November 7, 2008 #

  190. OMG!! Yahoo sux soooooo bad!!! I will be migrating to all things Google as soon as I possibly can….

    Comment by Jenna — November 8, 2008 #

  191. not so kool compared to me and my friends no way u will get in iinvite to my party lol

    Comment by holshperson — November 10, 2008 #

  192. Nice, since the announcement, I’ve actually seen 1 profile where someone has bothered to change it.. thats fine, 99.9% of people now have no profile, which is a great time saver as we can just regard profiles as a historical oddity and don’t bother viewing them…
    Now, can someone fix chat?

    Comment by Shion — November 13, 2008 #

  193. I just checked 200 profiles, to see if that 99.9% crack was accurate.. this is what I found.

    No profile info 72%
    Porno url on profile 20%
    Set to Private 7.5%
    Profile Picture .5%
    Full Profile info 0%

    Comment by Shion — November 13, 2008 #

  194. I cant believe theres no way to get back the old profile format! Even if one re- downloads an old version will the old profile not be shown??

    why arent the yahoo technicians not doing anything about this even after so many writing about it..?

    Comment by khushee — November 15, 2008 #

  195. i despise what you have done to the profiles…as others have said they totally suck now…change it back to the old way….this is horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by nancy — November 17, 2008 #

  196. what a funny job that you have done!
    why dont you give your user a choice to choose beta or old style? i miss my old profile

    Comment by ibnu — November 18, 2008 #

  197. this new beta profile is a piece of crap. you can’t change your nicname that is used and shown in the chat rooms anymore. the simple to use functions of the original profile was much better. in the new one all your links are gone. why did yahoo think this was better anyway?????

    Comment by Benjamin (darkeyed_dominant) — November 19, 2008 #

  198. The new profile sucked and broked billion of hearts is that all you can come up with,i mean this that was the last thing people would love to be the yahoo user was their profile view letting know every one how long they have been member since,atleast if you would hv shown that no guilty we shall feel,but you messed up.

    Comment by goldy — November 21, 2008 #

  199. There is no feature on this new beta profile that will allow you to show online/offline status like with the old/basic member profile did! I have tried MANY times going back to the old/basic member profile to “uncheck” the box to show others that I am online. It will not save it when I uncheck the box it redirects me to my NEW beta profile. When I go back to my old/basic member profile the box has rechecked it’s self!

    With the option of Yahoo 360 I don’t see the purpose in this NEW beta profile!! Also, for some reason when I look at my old/basic member directory page…under my picture where the little Yahoo face is that shows online/offline….when I point my courser at the “face” it says send web_message instead of Yahoo IM??

    Why is that? I had to create a new yahoo instant message ID just to show online to other users..when I look at that profile under the old/basic/member directory EVERYTHING is fine! Shows online, under my photo, and says send Yahoo IM not web_message!! I did not create a BETA profile for that account! I think that has been my problem with my old Yahoo ID!!!

    It would be nice if you added the show online/offline feature to the new BETA profiles……

    NOTE- I am NOT talking about showing online/offline for the people in my Yahoo Instant messenger. I am talking about showing online/offline in other areas of Yahoo!!!!

    Help or feed back would be WONDERFUL since I have only been trying to get answers to this for over a week now!!

    Comment by Don't like it! — December 10, 2008 #

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