Noticed the posts on memberships in adult groups. This should answer
a few other questions as well:
This is a FAQ of common yahoo problems (and some not so
Common) that plague group members. Nothing with Yahoo is
ever stable or certain, so this will be updated as it
becomes necessary. Be that as it may, this is true (or at
least as close to it as I can get) as of April 5, 2004
for Yahoo groups US.
1: What is required to join an adult group? You must be
eighteen. Any other requirements are at the discretion of the group
owner and he/she is allowed to impose any
limits they want, as long as they don't violate the
terms of service (hereafter referred to as the TOS).
2: Do I need to have my age, gender, location, etc.
on my profile to join a group? No. This rumor is
especially prevalent among the adult groups. Your
profile information becomes public. If there's anything
you don't want spammers, virus senders, or identity
thieves to know, don't post it to your profile. You're
allowed 5 different profiles (and e-mail accounts)
linked to one Yahoo account. Use this to your
advantage. Make a profile with fake information for
all the groups that require you to have it. You're not
allowed to lie when you set up your account but you're
allowed to do it on your profile. If you are trying
to join an adult group, realize that your profiles age
is meaningless. When you originally create a Yahoo
account, you have to give them your birthday. When
you enter the address for an adult group, you will
first go to the confirmation page (hereafter referred
to as the adult firewall). It will say "You have
entered an adult area of the groups" and has 2 buttons
that say "Accept" and "Don't Accept". If you click
"Accept" to enter the group, the firewall checks your
account information, not your profiles. Many owners
believe that spammers will not have a completed profile.
The theory is that they know the account is disposable
and will be deleted within the week for spamming so
why take the time to fill out a profile? This is true
to some extent but not always. It also doesn't keep
out minors who are persistent. If they lie when they
set up their account, they can get in. Their account
will be deleted if they're caught, but that's not
likely unless they tell someone they're a minor or
their parents catch them. Laws vary but I don't
believe you are legally liable since the firewall is
supposed to keep minors out. Unless you know he's a
minor and let him stay anyway.
3: If I can lie on my profile, can I say I'm underage
when I'm really not? Don't. If your profile's age
says 32 and then you state elsewhere on it that
you're really 12, you'll be deleted. So will any group
that lets you be a member (you have to be at least 13
to have a Yahoo account). This goes double for adult
groups. Any sane owner will ban you and report you
to Yahoo. They risk their own account otherwise.
4: Do I need an adult profile to join an adult group? No.
The only thing adult profiles are for are if you wish
to post adult content to them. That's it.
5: How do I view and edit my profiles? Sign in, go to
http://members.yahoo.com , and click on "View My
Profiles" in the top right corner. Click the "Edit"
button next to the profile you wish to see/edit, click
"Edit Profile Information", make any changes you want
and click "Save Changes". Instead of clicking" Edit",
click "Create New Profile" to make a new one. You can
also sign in and go to
http://www.yahoo.com .
There's a box labeled Personal Assistant in the top
right corner. Click on the "Acct. Info" link in that
box, and re-enter your password when prompted. You
will be shown your Yahoo ID card. Click "Edit/Create
Profiles", and follow instructions similar to the ones
above. The ID card also has 2 other links of interest:
"Change Password" (allows you to change your password),
and "Edit Your Marketing Preferences" (say no to the
questions here to help reduce commercial spam).
6: What does it mean if my account is "Bouncing"? If your
incoming e-mail is consistently returned to Yahoo, you
will be considered "Bouncing". Your account will be
deactivated and you will not be able to send/receive
any e-mail. You may still use other group features.
Usually this happens because your e-mail is full or
some unforeseen problem has rendered you unable to
check it for a while. Once an account is" Bouncing"
Yahoo will send it several test messages. If one of
them doesn't bounce in the next 5 days, your account
will automatically reactivate. Otherwise you'll have
to manually reactivate or get the owner in one of
the groups your in to do so.
7: How do I reset my bouncing account? Go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups . Usually if you're
bouncing there will be a message at the top of the page
saying so. Click on "Email Preferences" (or type in
http://groups.yahoo.com/myprefs ) . Look for the "Bounce
History Link", and click the "Unbounce" link next to it.
Click "Reset", and Yahoo will send you a confirmation
e-mail. Click on the link in that e-mail and your
account will be reactivated.
8: When I go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups some or
all of my groups are missing. How can I fix this? This
is a glitch due to server work Yahoo is doing, and
sometimes it takes forever to fix. In the meantime
you'll have to work around it. Try going to
http://groups.yahoo.com/memwiz and following its
instructions. If this doesn't work, go back to
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and click on" Edit My
Groups". Sometimes that will bring the links up. If
none of these options work, you'll have to use a
foreign version of the mygroups page. Here are a few:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://au.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://asia.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://ar.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://br.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
http://es.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
When you have access to the mygroups page again, copy
and paste it into Microsoft Word, and save it to your
PC. You can click the links in the document to go to
the groups. Or just bookmark every group to your PC
when you next visit it.
9: Why do attachments say "not stored" in the messages
archives? Yahoo no longer stores attachments sent
to the group by e-mail. You have to have your e-mail
set to receive all group mail to receive them.
10: When I try to view a file in the Files section I get
an error page saying I am unauthorized. What's
happening? Each Yahoo group (and each individual
member) has a rolling 4 hour and 24 hour download
limit. Once that limit is up, you get the message
saying you are unauthorized. If a group's limit is
used up, it doesn't matter if you still have some
of your personal limit left. The known criteria for
setting this limit is the groups age, total membership,
activity level, and file size. The older a group is,
the higher the download limit. Age is probably the
biggest contributor to your download limit. The more
members you have, the higher the limit but they don't
contribute much. If you go on a huge membership drive
you won't get enough bandwidth to keep up with demand.
Groups with less than a 100 members are supposed to
get a lot less bandwidth than anyone else. I am
uncertain whether or not high levels of activity is
a positive or negative contributor to the limit.
It helps if you have small Files. If you're using up
all 20 meg with 4 or 5 Files, your download limit
will be used up FAST. Reset time for the limit is
based on these same criteria.
11: When I click on the pictures in the Photos section
the bottom half is all blurry or distorted. What
is this? Photos also have a daily download limit,
but it's rarely ever reached. I usually only see
it happen in groups with a full Photo section and
a huge membership (many thousands). When it's
reached, you get the distortion effect. You'll just
have to wait for it to reset. It's a good idea
for everyone to leave the photos alone while this
is happening. Not leaving them alone makes them take
that much longer to reset.
12: Are there limits to what we can post in the Photos,
Files, Links, and Messages? Yes. Files are limited
to 20 meg, and no file can be more than 5 meg. If
you want to add a text file, edit it before posting.
Yahoo sets a limit of 20K on browsers. Once the
file is above that, you can't edit the text. Photos
are limited to 30 meg. Links used to be limited to
a max of 1000 (folders in the Links section count
toward that limit). I do not know if there is still
a limit as I have vastly exceeded this in my groups.
Messages vary depending on when the group was made.
The limit is now supposed to be 32 meg (which will
take a while since Yahoo no longer archives the
Attachments). Once you reach this, messages get
deleted as new ones come in. Some of the older
groups seem to still have a higher limit (perhaps
they were "grandfathered" in. The Photos have a
counter at the bottom of the page letting you know
how much space you have left. The Files have it at
both the top and bottom of the page. Links and
Messages don't have a counter.
13: When I go to the Photos, they've been replaced by an
error page saying group check error. What is this?
This error means your groups Photos section has
exceeded the 30 meg limit (or may optionally be
right on the limit sometimes). The owner or
moderators will have to delete pictures or place
them in the Files to bring it down under 30 meg to
correct this. Since there's a counter at the
bottom of the page telling you the space available,
Yahoo will not tell the Owner this has happened.
Unless he's not paying attention, he should know.
But since this is usually caused by well-meaning
but overzealous members adding too many photos, you
will probably have to bring it to his attention.
He can still see the Photos just fine (he has to
if he's going to fix this). There are rumors about
groups with small or no Photos section having this
error but I have yet to personally see one.
14: Is it best to post pictures in the Files or Photos?
Depends. Photos has a limit of 30 meg while the
Files only have 20. Photos will only let you post
.jpegs and .gif's. Files will let you post anything.
Files will show the pictures at their full resolution,
Photos will shrink the picture if it's above a
certain size, and they'll have a lower resolution.
Only the Owner/Moderators and the person who
originally uploaded the pic to the Photos will be
able to view the full size version. This full size
version can be deleted to gain back some space.
Click on the Photo, click Full Size, click Delete
Full Size only. Also, if you are doing captioned
photos, realize that placing them in the Photos
Section may obscure the text.
15: Sometimes when I try to open a File or a folder in
the Photos section I get a Briefcase Error saying
this File or Folder doesn't exist. What is this?
This is an occasional problem in the adult groups.
When you logged onto the group, the adult firewall
"hiccupped" and didn't verify your age. Leave the
group and retype it's address into your address
bar. This time, you should see the age verification
page. Click "Accept". When you re-enter the group,
you should be able to see the file/folder just fine.
16: How do I contact Yahoo's customer service? Go to
http://help.yahoo.com and look for the Yahoo
feature you have a problem with (in this case most
likely groups or e-mail). They will have several
questions. Pick the one closest to yours and click on
it. Scroll down and underneath the question you will
see text asking "Is this enough information?" Click
"No"and fill out the form. Yahoo's first response will
be a form letter. Reply to it. Their reply will also
likely be another form letter. Keep replying. At
some point it will occur to someone that these letters
aren't answering your question and an actual person
will e-mail you. It's taken me up to 2 weeks
sometimes. You can also call them, or e-mail them at
support_at_yahoo.com . You can also do a search for
Owner and Moderator groups (Most are listed in the
Directory under the category "Yahoo Groups"). They may
be able to answer your question quicker sometimes. If
you want help with a specific group feature (like
Photos) all of the features in the group now have a
Help link in the top right corner. You can click "No"
To any question there to start the process as well.
17: Where can I find Yahoo's phone number and address?
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/address
18: How do I report abuse or harassment? Go to
http://abuse.yahoo.com and look for the Yahoo feature
where the problem is occurring. Go through the
questions there the way you would with the Help
section, click "No", and fill out the form. Yahoo is
a lot quicker acting on this sort of request but,
other than to ask details, they won't discuss it with
you. If you report a group or Yahoo ID, realize it may
be a week or more before anything happens, as they need
time to investigate. You can also call them, or e-mail
them at abuse_at_yahoo.com . When filling out help or
abuse reports always remember to be CLEAR and concise.
These are corporate office people. Using profanity
and street slang will not endear you to them. It also
drastically shortens the time for them to get things
done if they understand you. For example, do not say:
"Yo, wut U sumbitchnaz gone did to my pickies?"
Instead, say: "I attempted to view the pictures in the
Photos section of my group, and they are gone. What
has happened"? Always remember to be polite. It goes
a long way sometimes. Especially when you need help
from a complete stranger.
19: How do I close a Yahoo account? Fill out the form at
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/acct/cgi_remove
20: Why aren't any of my messages showing up to the groups?
There are 3 possibilities: 1: The group moderates its
messages and yours wasn't accepted, in which case you
need to talk to the Owner. 2: Delays due to a glitch.
You'll just have to wait for it to straighten itself
out. 3: Spamguard. For a while Yahoo expanded
Spamguard to include group messages. They have
since stopped this, but some groups still have the
Spamguard running due to a glitch. The group owner
will have to contact Yahoo to fix things.
21: How do I add a File or Link to the Clipboard? Upload
the File first. You will notice three buttons next
to all Files or Links you upload ("Edit", "Delete",
and "Cut"). Clicking on "Cut" will place the File or
Link on the Clipboard, which will appear at the top
of every page in the Files and Links sections.
But due to abuse by spammers, Yahoo now removes all
Links and Files on the Clipboard after 24 hours.
22: Why do I keep getting this page saying "This page is
unavailable when I go to the groups or the mygroups
page? What is Yahoo's 999 error? For unknown reasons
Yahoo has decided to set an activity limit on the IP
Address of every user. Once this limit is up you will
get the "unavailable" page (known as the 999 error)
until the limit resets. It varies from person to
person. I've heard people say it lasted a few minutes
to 10 hours or more. No one knows why it's been done,
and Yahoo hasn't said anything. Rumors include making
it more difficult for Google and other search engines
to find the unlisted adult groups, stop the spread of
the norvarg virus, block proxy servers that are
bandwidth hogs, rid Yahoo of it's bot infestation,
etc, etc. Rumors always abound whenever there is a
system change. Don't assume what you always hear first
is true. I know I've gotten it whenever I've done
anything repetitive for a while (i.e. looking at photos
or add links). If you're getting this and you aren't a
group owner, you either belong to a lot of groups,
belong to several groups who have a lot of files or
have a household where everyone shares 1 PC and you all
have Yahoo accounts. All you need to get around this
is a new IP. If you're using a router as a hardware
firewall, your using a different IP than usual. You
can disconnect it to use your regular IP (I really
don't recommend this). If you're using a proxy server,
leave the net and log back on without the proxy. If
you have dialup, unplug and reboot your modem, and log
back on to the net. If you have a cable modem with
a static or dynamic IP, you'll have to find another
computer until it resets.
23: You mentioned "bot infestation" in the previous
question. What bot infestation? Some one (or maybe
several people) are using a program to generate random
names, and accounts to go with them. Some of them make
Yahoo groups, and the rest join as members. These
groups only exist to harvest e-mail addresses and cause
trouble. To see a few examples go to
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Government_Politics .
Click on "Government and Politics", click on
"Government and Politics", and then click on
"Government and Politics Groups". You'll get a list of
groups in that category. The last I checked, the first
10 groups on the list were all bot groups. Peek at
their home page to familiarize yourself with them. You
will notice that the name of each group is random
letters, and the group description rarely makes sense.
Once you have an idea of what these groups look like,
avoid them like the plague.
24: Someone is posting viruses in my name. How do I stop
this? There are several causes for this. The first is
that you or someone you know has a virus (it doesn't
need to be a group member). Many of the more modern
viruses can spoof e-mail addresses and send messages
in your name. The first thing to do is notify Yahoo
and the group owner. You are required to notify Yahoo
in the TOS if someone has accessed your account. Make
sure that the group and owner know it's not you sending
the viruses, and tell them to moderate your posts.
Tell them you won't be sending any attachments other
than .jpegs or plain text files. Now you need to get
to work. Update your antivirus software and scan for
viruses. Make sure you have a firewall, and something
to scan for Trojans and spyware. Run them. Or just
take it to a technician. Make sure you save off
everything you want to keep first in case he needs
to
completely reformat your hard drive. Someone may have
slipped you a program that logs your keystrokes or
finds other ways to keep tabs on you as well
especially through filesharing and peer to peer
networks. If you and the tech don't find anything,
then it's possible someone has hacked either your
password, or the answer to the secret question you
made when you started the account (see question 5
about where to fix your password). Password sniffers
will detect your password too easily if it's weak.
People who also know enough about you may be able to
guess your secret questions answer in the password
lookup you can get to from the sign-in page. Make
sure your password is at least 10 characters long,
mix up capitals and lowercase letters, and letters and
numbers. The same for your secret question's answer.
For example. Let's say you want the word "eventually"
to be your password. Replace the e's with threes, and
the L's with one's. Then throw in a few random
capital letters: 3v3nTua11Y. Do your secret questions
answer the same way. You will also want to get the
virus mailer's IP address to send to Yahoo. You can
do this by going to the group's message archive and
clicking on the message he sent. Click "View Source"
at the top of the message and copy off all that
information for Yahoo. If you still have the original
e-mail, click the Full Headers link at the top of the
e-mail. If Yahoo requests you forward them the e-mail
always click "Full Headers" before sending it (same
thing goes for the Law if you've had to involve them).
If your account's been hacked, make a new one
immediately, rejoin all the groups, and cancel the old
Account (definitely have Yahoo or the authorities
Involved at this point). This goes double if you're a
Moderator or an Owner. If you're a mod, step down
immediately before the hacker does too much damage.
The owner can always make you a mod again in your new
account. If you're an owner, always make sure you have
all the groups files and membership list saved off in
case this happens. Because you, your moderators, and
anyone who posts frequently will be the biggest targets
for this sort of thing.
25: Why are e-mails being returned as undeliverable from
addresses I don't know and haven't sent mail to? Odds
are you have a virus (see question above) or someone
you know does. When it's mass-mailing there's a good
chance at least one persons e-mail carrier will reject
the e-mail. This is why you get the return notice.
Or you've sent an e-mail to the group and one of the
members uses an e-mail service (i.e. AOL, Road Runner
and several others) that blocks all Yahoo mail. When
the sobig virus first showed up, it went rampaging
through Yahoo. To halt it's spread many e-mail
carriers simply blocked all Yahoo mail. Some still do.
26: Why don't I receive any mail from the group? If you've
made a change from "No Mail" to any other e-mail
setting it sometimes takes a while for it to
take
effect. Or your e-mail carrier doesn't accept Yahoo
mail, or they have a spam filter that screens out
Yahoo. Contact them to see if this is the case. If
they won't let you receive Yahoo mail this isn't a
problem since you can link 5 e-mail addresses to one
Yahoo account. Just find an e-mail provider that does
Let Yahoo mail go through and use them for group mail.
27: What are the Web Beacons I keep hearing about? Go to
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/pixels/details.html
for Yahoo's explanation about these things. They are
supposed to be page counters. If you truly don't want
them around, there's a link you can click on to opt out
of them on the above page. This opt-out is browser
specific so you'll need to do it for each browser you
may be using. Once you've opted out, type an address
in the address bar to leave. Clicking the link to
leave this page opts you back in. Rumor has it they
are also present in Yahoo mail. If you believe this
little bit of paranoia, just post in plain-text only.
Web Beacons can't be inserted into plain text, only in
HTML.
28: I have received one of the following e-mails: threats
telling me to leave my group, a request from Yahoo
for account information and a poorly written mail
saying Yahoo now requires me to join a White List.
Are these real? These are all scams currently
making the rounds on Yahoo. The first is from a
gentleman who's been hacking into groups to copy
their Membership List. He then sends threats to the
members telling them to leave. Keep the e-mail, click
on "Full Headers", and forward it to Yahoo while making
an abuse complaint (see questions 18 and 24). They
already know about him (and the next people). The
White List e-mail is a poorly worded sham by someone
who obviously has English as a second language. The
link provided in it is only there to steal your
account info. The same goes for any request for
personal or account information. Yahoo will not
contact you by e-mail asking about this. Whenever
Yahoo does contact you they are usually "all business"
and have good grammar and spelling.
29: I've had a lot of weird glitches lately. What's going
on? If it's a weekend or holiday, Yahoo is probably
doing server maintenance and it's causing the glitches.
You'll just have to wait it out. Contact them if it
gets too bad. Or it could be a cookie issue. Yahoo's
cookies are time-sensitive, and if your's are too old,
you'll start to get glitches. If you've just turned
18 and can't get to adult groups, your cookies are
probably old and still identify you as a minor. I
usually delete all my cookies when I log out of Yahoo.
That way they're always "fresh" and it cuts down on
problems. If you experience a lot of slowdown,
Yahoo is either making changes to the system (which
they may or may not inform you about), or doing
server maintenance.
30: I've just gotten a mail claiming to be from Yahoo
saying that the main server is down or my account
is having trouble or something similar. It says
the details are in the accompanying .zip file, and
gives a password. What is this? The creators of
the mydoom, netsky, and bagle viruses are having
a "one-upsmanship" contest according to the news, and
this is one of the e-mails they're sending viruses in.
Yahoo asks that if you receive an e-mail claiming to be
From them with a virus attached, forward it (remember,
click "Full Headers") to spoof_at_yahoo-inc.com . A
good clue is the address. Yahoo always sends from
_at_yahoo-inc.com NOT @yahoo.com. They never send
attachments either.
31: Someone is posting material that I own the
trademark or copyright to. How do I stop this?
Read the information at this address:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html
32: The terms of service say I can be deleted for spam
or off-topic posting. Who decides what's spam or
off-topic? The group owner has final say unless
it violates Yahoo TOS.
Well, that's it for now. If you use a foreign version of
Yahoo all of this may not apply to you. But usually
any changes made to US service work their way around
to you eventually. Whenever I find changes I will
update this FAQ, and add new questions as necessary.
Received on Tue May 25 2004 - 00:21:45 CDT