Table of Contents

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Description

On August 29th Yahoo Groups posted an announcement, [NEW Changes on Yahoo! Groups], on the [Yahoo Groups Tumblr blog]. From the tone of the announcement one might infer that Neo had been rolled out to all users, but it hasn't (not even close, yet). But it does seem to mean that it has reached a kind of critical mass in Yahoo's eyes: no longer characterized as the "test" it had been presented as in what little Yahoo had said about it previously. (See "History" below.)

In particular, people not signed in to Yahoo at all are now seeing Yahoo Groups in the Neo format, as of some time on August 29th.  There are reports that new Yahoo account users now see Neo when they come to Groups, but as of September 15th this was not always the case.

The blog posting contains a link to a [brief video overview] of the "newly designed" Yahoo Groups. Also available through the [Groups Home] page is a "product tour" pop-up. A [screen capture of that tour] was posted in a Google site for the benefit of those who found the Neo page dysfunctional, Yahoo has updated the tour since that capture.

History

On or about the 7th of August, 2013, some users began noticing something different about their Groups pages [Answers], [YGOG 45315] [GMF 42031]. Shortly after the posting at Answers, that group owner made a [screenshot] available. For comparison, a [screenshot] of her group in the classic interface.

It was soon noticed that certain users (accounts, not groups) were affected, and that "/neo/" had become part of the URL when those users viewed their groups. So the nickname "Neo" has been adopted, as apparently intended by the Groups Team at Yahoo.

Neo was soon recognized as a roll-out of a new format of Yahoo Groups. No official announcement was made by Yahoo until the Blog post, some three weeks later, though in the interim, staff replies in Answers and in the Feedback forum effectively announced it, referring to it as a "test".

At first, all those selected to be "test participants" appeared to be owners of at least one group, though by the time of the blog announcement many Neo users had been identified who are only members of groups, and at least one NEW group member had reported being added upon joining their first Yahoo Group. And there was speculation that it was limited to North America, which turned out to be unfounded but also with some truth, as the preponderance of those hit with it are from there and plenty of anomalies are reported whereby, say, British users hit with Neo still have their British-based groups in the old style, ie with uk.yahoo.com in the domain.

The Groups Neo has nothing to do with the "Neo Yahoo Mail," which is by now old and a done deal.

Controversy

Controversy surrounding Neo centers on a few key "blunders" made by Yahoo in its roll-out. 1) The roll-out began without any notice or warning to users or to group moderators. 2) The roll-out is being made to (apparently) arbitrarily chosen individual accounts, with neither an opt-in nor an opt-out capability. 3) The roll-out is being made despite many obvious deficiencies (failures, bugs, missing functionality and very inadequate pre-release testing) in the Neo product.

Contact Yahoo

The [Feedback forum] has been swamped with demands that Neo be retracted and all users returned to the "classic" format. Sometimes these demands are tempered with "until the new system actually works", sometimes not. The default view of the Feedback forum is sorted by "Hot ideas", and the top of that sort is "Return Groups format to prior format that WORKS!", which has garnered over 57,993 votes and 6,317 comments as of  December 11, 2013.

Contact the Media

Disgruntled users are agitating publicly outside the dialogue with each other and with Yahoo. (Drive down stock prices, drive away advertisers and otherwise affect Y!'s bottom line to push and/or shame them into acknowledging and/or fixing problems.) Also suggested among those interested in this tack are public comments on other (any) media stories on Yahoo fwiw. Whatever! So far not much reporting on Groups problems per se out there in the almost-real world but here are a few:
The Register Sep 3
Digital Journal Sep 4
The Register Sep 17 (update)

How to cope

First of all, skim through the rest of this page. The descriptions of new, missing and changed features will give you some guidance on what to expect in Neo. All of those sections may contain helpful tips and tricks on how to deal with a particular issue. This wiki does not have an index feature, so use your browser's search function to find information by topic, as many topics are covered in more than one section.

Be aware that Yahoo is updating Neo continuously, so some of the information here is bound to get out of date. If you find something out of date please edit this page to correct it, or post a comment so others may benefit from your observations.

Keep your sense of humor, and your sense of proportion. If dealing with the ongoing issues with the Neo rollout makes you feel stressed, perhaps you need a laugh.

• The Twelve weeks of Neo
• Management's new car

Yahoo Resources

You will find links to Yahoo resources near the bottom of the left hand column of Neo pages. These include Terms of Service, Privacy, Guidelines, Feedback, Help, and the Yahoo! Groups Blog.

Yahoo! Groups Feedback forum

The [Feedback forum] has been designated by Yahoo staff as the official place to communicate to the Yahoo Groups Team. Well-written, single-topic bug reports and feature requests there are sometimes commented upon by Yahoo Staff. They use markers such as "Gathering Feedback", "Under Review, "Completed" or "Declined" to indicate the status of items that have caught their attention.
 

Help

A basic, functioning Help access, with FAQs and a Customer Care contact form, has been reported Sep 1. 

Groups about Groups

It's not exactly a Yahoo resource, but they are Yahoo groups. Yes, Yahoo groups whose topic is Yahoo groups. They are moderators helping moderators with advice and tips. One of the best sources around of how-to info. Work with it, work around it, learn from those who have actually tested it in the almost-real world. [Groups about Groups]

Yahoo! Groups Blog

The blog has topical postings describing some of the newly designed features of Neo. [Yahoo Groups on Tumblr]

¿Info?

A Question Mark icon ("?") appears on upper right of all pages, just below the Group Banner image, which is a link to FAQs and basic info ostensibly relevant to the particular page, eg clicking the Files page's ? icon leads to an info page on Files. It is not uncommon that such info is helpful and useful, though when checked in an early stage of its introduction, some pages were wrongly associated.

Work around it

Use another account to access your groups

By the end of August, it began to appear that many, but not all, NEW to Yahoo Members setting up a new Yahoo ID were put into the Neo version for groups. It is speculated that new IDs set up outside the US may still be created on Classic.  Thus, the get-a-new-account approach, formerly touted as a method of retaining access to the Classic format for a Neo-ized moderator, is likely past its use-by date, except for the flip-side use, to acquire a Neo account to complement one not yet Neo-ized and so to learn how to function in Neo.

Use the Firefox Plugin for moderators of Freegle and Freecycle type groups

The original [Firefox Moderation Plugin] tool developed to streamline repetitive tasks, especially in Freegle and Freecycle groups but used by many other owners, does not function in Neo.  The developer of the Firefox plugin, Edward Hibbert, has been working on a new set of tools that will work with Neo, and his [crowdfunder] has reached its goal. An [early trial version of modtools] is available that allows approval/rejection of messages/members, message summaries, standard boilerplate replies, and so on under Neo.  A browser plugin is required for full function, but ModTools can be used without this, including from mobile devices.  These tools require a payment of $5 per group per year, though a trial version is available.

The [latest version] of the original Firefox plugin will disable Neo, ie revert view and functionality to Classic, but that ability is only a temporary measure and is expected to stop working soon. [GMF42662]

To Access the Classic version of MyGroups page:

(NB the old text following is the work-around version, put up before functionality was restored, ~ Oct 9, 2013,  and retained here in the event of glitches, crashes and other disasters. See "Differences from Classic," below, for how the new version works in Neo.) This is a very useful feature to some moderators, the main use being to inspect pending moderatorial tasks at a glance, an ability lost in the Neo version of My Groups. It works like this: Groups based in other countries besides the US are mostly not converted to Neo as of end Sep 2013, so if you go to [one of them], you get the Classic version of MyGroups. From there you cannot go anywhere that will not get converted to Neo but you can at least see what needs attention in all your groups.

For a few days around 20-21 Oct, 2013, it was possible to access a slightly stripped down Classic version of a group by preprending the string "stage." in front of the host name, eg. http://stage.groups.yahoo.com. Some features, like members management, were disabled, but you could moderated the messages in the old way. This loophole was quickly closed by Yahoo!.

And the following alt-country version, based in Australia, of Y Groups has been suggested for creating new groups. Any country that Yahoo has a dedicated url for will do actually, but a) they will all theoretically sooner or later switch to Neo, and b) English-speaking might best serve the needs of already distraught Neo'd users, and c) Yahoo7 is partly owned by an independent Australian outfit, so may hold out longer: Yahoo!7 Groups

Work with it (tricks and tips)

There have been many "rough spots" in the Neo roll-out. These are some techniques that have been found helpful in getting things working.

Use a different browser

There's a claim that the Neo interface works better when seen through Internet Explorer 10 [Answers]. Other reports suggest that other versions of IE may suffice, especially with Win 7 or newer operating systems. Other reports claim success with Firefox or Chrome instead of IE; it is possible that frequent bug-fixing by Yahoo causes the differing results.

During the weekend of August 24th IE10 was observed to be largely functional whereas, on the same computer, signed in to the same account, using the Chrome browser the Neo interface was completely dysfunctional. The Manage My Groups page was empty, and each group's home page appeared as an empty template of a group, with the error message "Sorry, an error occurred while loading the content." at the bottom of the page.

Clear your browser cache

Neo relies heavily on JavaScript, which may or may not be re-loaded by a normal screen refresh. Try reloading the page with cache bypass (Ctrl+F5 in IE, Firefox or Chrome) or clear the entire cache.

Update Flash

Along similar lines as above, Neo relies heavily on Flash, and updating to the latest available Flash version (supported by your browser, which is the latest browser version supported by your aging computer's OS) has been said to improve performance.

People with Disabilities

Multiple problems are reported by people with disabilities. An additional wiki page has been set up to address these issues.

Regarding error messages:

If you are encountering error messages while doing normal group things, look at the address bar in your browser. Chances are good that there will be a // near the end of the URL. This was a common Neo glitch in the early roll-out. Remove one of them, hit <enter> and you may get where you want to go.

When Links lead to 404land:

This has been reported many times toward the end of Sep. A quick fix might be, if "neo/" is in the URL, to remove it and try again. If that works, it may not be because the address was wrong; you may end up redirected to your original URL, but now functioning. For more info, see [Problems].

How to tell if a message was posted by a member using Neo

The messages created by the Groups Message Poster under Neo use the domain YahooGroups.com in their message ID. The classic message poster used eGroups.com. Look in the message header for the following two elements:

Message-ID: <kvh3ol+1itigml@YahooGroups.com>
X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster

(The code to the left of the "@" will be unique to each message.)

How to trim Quoted Material in Replies:

There are 3 little dots at the bottom of the dialogue box where you write your response.  If you click on them, it shows the message history and then you can delete it before you send. (So it is said.)

New Features

Messages

The Groups Message Poster can add an attachment

There is now a paper clip icon in the message composition toolbar of the Groups Message Poster. 

Web Tools

The lists of Files, Links, and Polls are sortable

Strangely, each area seems to have its own options, selected in a drop-down in the tool bar above the list, and none of them includes sort by Creator.

In Files the choices are "Latest first" or "Alphabetical". With either selection folders sort ahead of individual files. Observed September 8th.

In Links the choices are "Latest first", "Oldest first" or "Alphabetical". With either selection folders sort ahead of individual link items. Plus the Links now show their creation date. Observed September 8th.

In Polls the choices are "Latest first", "Oldest first", "Most popular" and "Least popular". Strangely, no alphabetic sort option. Observed September 1st.

Group File Space Enlarged

There is now apparently a significantly larger total space for group Files storage, gone from 100 Mb now to 2 Gb. An unambiguous improvement, Though many (most?) groups still have the lower limit, it seems that the new higher limit has been applied where needed.[GMF 43684] 

Missing Features

A reference page has been created to present all available features in table form, called [Features Chart], comparing Classic and Neo regarding the functionality of the various features. As of Nov 9, 2013, most applicable features have been entered and a rough comparison done. Detailed comparison still to come.

Home Page (1)

What used to be called a group's home page is now its "Info" page, or "About," in links pointing to it.

Almost no HTML allowed in the Description, no images. [Restored!]

The edit box for the Group Description still says "Text or HTML", but it appears to strip out all elements apart from simple font styling. In particular, it is no longer possible to use <IMG> elements to show additional photos or rendered text. For information about the home page photo, see the Differences section below. As of Oct 30, this is no longer the case. HTML capability has been restored.

Monthly Message History is no longer on the Info page.

The month-by-month Archived Messages totals are have been moved to the Conversations page. This feature was formerly available to non-members in informational form (without access to the actual messages) as a way to evaluate group before joining. It is no longer available to non-members unless all messages are available.

Group Options

The Attachments option is described differently

In the classic interface the option to control email attachment processing offering the settings "Store on site", "Include in emails", and "Exclude from site and emails". [Screen shot] In Neo the option is separated into two controls, the first selects "Off" or "On", the second selects "Include Attachments in Email" or "Include Attachments as links in Email". The combined effect is that the same three outcomes are available.

No plain text only option

Prior to September 4th the option to Exclude attachments also had the effect of excluding text/HTML message bodies: this is no longer true. It is no longer possible to exclude text/HTML messages from posting in Groups.

Group Activity Logs [Restored]

NB: More than just missing features, the Logs are also malfunctioning. Details and updates:

Since Jan 23 2014 the logs are searchable through five tabs: Mail, Web, Membership, Moderator Activity and Email Commands.

You have an input field for the query and several filtering options, for example "Photos" (what)+ "Add" (action) + "Any" (time).

It looks like not only this functionality has been restored, but offers more options than the previous one.

Activity by moderators using Neo isn't logged. [Restored]

Now it is (Jan. 2014).

It appears that message approval and other activity by Moderators using the Neo interface isn't being consistently added to the Moderator Activity log. [Feedback] Suggestion ticket Sep 21, Yahoo comment ("We will look into this issue and update status of this feedback") Sep 27, no action yet as of Oct 3.

Search Function Gone in Activity Logs [Restored]

You can now search into the logs (Jan. 2014).

Re Management Activity Logs, it looks like a search function there has been lost. The only way to inspect entries is by scrolling. (reported and observed Sep 1). Using the browser Search function (usually <ctrl F>) when the log is opened has been suggested as a work-around, but this is a severe limitation for larger logs, as they only open in their entirety by continually hovering at page bottom. [Feedback] Suggestion ticket Aug 23, Yahoo comment ("We will look into the ability to add this in future releases") Sep 26, no action yet as of Oct 3.

Information in the Activity Logs is truncated [Fixed]

Fixed (Jan 2014).

The description (third) column of the log is truncated at a width less than the available screen width. It should be word-wrapped to avoid hiding information. [Feedback Sep 8] Feedback ticket is lost, but it looks like it is fixed.

Pending Messages

No handy links to member controls

No link from the pending message to the member's Posting Privilege page. In classic this was a very handy link that could be use to remove the moderation override from a member who posts responsibly.

No link from the pending Edit Membership page. In classic this was a very handy link that could be used to remove or ban a misbehaving member, or change other member settings.

No "View Source" option [restored!]

"View Source" is not offered either in the web interface or in notification emails sent to moderators. This is important to some moderators dealing with spam, spoofs, trolling and other undesirable members.

Since December 12 2013 each message has a View source button (top right), Delete icon (bottom right) and Reply link (bottom left).

No "Delete as spam" ability [restored!]

The pending message view lacks the "Delete as spam" button.

Under the "three dots" menu under each message is where you can find the Delete as spam option.

No "Reject" with a message back to the member [Restored!]

Since November 5 2013 the edit options for a pending message have been moved to the bottom of the frame including the message. Three options are available : a green tick for Approve, a red cross for Reject and three dots which when selected lead to a menu with the following options : Approve with reply, Reject with Reply, Delete as Spam, Edit.

The Reject with Reply will open a new message frame with the To: field set to the sender but can be changed to sender + owner, while the From: field will be set to the moderator email address but can be changed to be the owner address.

Unfortunately the Reject with Reply item does nothing, while Approve with Reply put the message in edit mode and adds an Approve button (and Cancel option).

The pending message view includes an "X" icon which silently deletes the message (same as "Delete" in classic groups), ie does not allow sending of a message as to why a post was refused. Suggested work-around is to reply to notification email -- when that works! -- change address to poster and explain therein why post was declined, or to use Edward Hibbert's ModTools system.

Messages

Missing options

It also lacks the other two "Options" available in classic: "Use Fixed Width Font" and "Unwrap Lines". The latter two may not be important to most users. The sometimes considered important View Source option has been restored.

Differences from "Classic"

Home Page (2)

What used to be called a group's home page is now its "Info" page, or "About," in links pointing to it.

The group's home page photo has changed size and aspect ratio

In the classic view of a group's home page the image is rescaled to fit a 480 x 360 bounding box, or is unscaled if already smaller in both dimensions. In the Neo view the image is rescaled to fit a variable width (from 790 to 1020 pixels, depending on screen width), and cropped vertically to fit a 200 to 250 pixel height. When uploaded the photo can be moved vertically to position the cropping region. This very wide but short format is experienced by many as a new limitation.

The group's home page photo is replaced by a "stock" picture

Possibly because of the change in aspect ratio, groups seen in the Neo interface initially show a stock photograph rather than than the image, if any, that is shown in the classic view. [GMF 43603] A group owner or moderator can replace the stock picture with artwork of their own choosing via the Neo interface by hovering over the photo. A "Change Cover" button will appear near the right side of the image. The uploaded image will thereafter be shown in both the Neo and classic view. Many users have reported trouble uploading a new home page image, see the Problems section below.

Pending Messages

The "Edit" ability is limited

As of September 13th each pending message now has a pencil icon, a check icon, and an X icon, representing Edit, Accept and Delete actions respectively, previously the pencil icon was missing. The Edit function opens a message composition tool comparable to the "New topic" or "Reply" composition in "more" view. Limitations:

• After beginning an edit the only options are to Abandon the changes, Approve the message with changes, or Delete the message. Unlike classic, it is not possible to edit a message and keep it in Pending for further consideration or review by other moderators.
• The edit tool does not allow separate editing of the text/plain and text/HTML parts of the message.
• The edit tool produces only text/HTML message bodies. It is not possible to edit a text/plain message and have it remain text/plain, nor to edit a multipart/mixed message and have it retain both parts.
  

Additionally, there are reports that sometimes the edits do not "take", and the message is approved unaltered.

Reading Messages

Message Searches

To search archives for MESSAGES, put search words into the box next to "Search Groups".  (Never mind that this used to be a way to search for the existence of other groups.) This procedure will now (in Neo) search the archives of whatever group you are currently viewing. This will take you to a new page with all the posts with those search parameters  To narrow your search further, the old "advanced search" button is now on this page. NB MESSAGE SEARCHES ARE FOR NOW CASE SENSITIVE. Thus you may not find what you're looking for if you guess the case wrong.

Monthly Message History Moved

The old month-by-month Archived Messages totals are no longer on the Group Home Page but have been moved. They are now viewable only by members (while in "Conversations," the #/Magnifying Glass/Down Arrow icon leads to "Message History.") This feature, formerly available in info form (without access) to non-members as a way to evaluate group before joining is no longer available to non-members.

Posting Messages

The Groups Message Poster defaults to Rich Text

It is no longer necessary to click a link to a separate "Rich Text Editor".

Member Management

The "Invite to Mailing List" link is now the "Add Members to your group's maling list" checkbox

In the Management menu choose "Manage Members". Click the "Invite" button above the member list, on the right. That will open a pop-up with a box to enter email addresses or Yahoo! IDs, and below that box a "more options" link. That reveals the "Add" checkbox. This modality of what Yahoo is calling "Add" is the same as the invite in classic -- it sends an invitation email to the listed address(es).

The advantage of this alternate form of invitation (in both classic and Neo) is simplicity: it requires of the recipient only a single click to confirm. Its disadvantage is that the recipient becomes an "email-only" member: they can receive and reply to messages by email, but they cannot access the group's members-only web features. By contrast, the standard form of invitation leads the recipient to sign in to their Yahoo account, or create one, so that they will be able to access the web features.

The "Invite people to this group" does not permit pasting multiple email addresses or IDs

More than one email address and/or ID can be entered, but it appears to require that the space bar or enter key be physically typed between each address or ID.

Other

In lists of Files, Links or Polls the "Edit", "Cut", and "Delete" links have been replace by icons

They have been replaced by pop-up icons that appear when you hover over an item.

Polls vote immediately upon choosing a response

There is no longer a "vote" button, nor a need for one. Instead of a separate list of responses the current results are shown on the same rows where one casts ones vote. Observed using Chrome, September 1st.

How to use the new "MyGroups" Facility:

In Neo, it is called "All My Groups," and there are two links to get you there, one in the sidebar that appears in all group pages and one in the header when in "Manage My Groups" mode. Either will get you to a page which now allows a quick glance at all groups to see both recent activity and pending tasks. Groups are sorted alphabetically (NOT according to how they have been sorted under the "Manage My Groups" page maneuvers, they may fix this) but are easily ordered by a click on the "Membership" column header link so that all groups owned come first, then groups moderated.And the activity and pending info is linked to where it should be.

Problems

Note that YahooGroupedia is not official, to get the attention of the Yahoo Groups Team use the [Feedback forum].

The Problems section has been moved to a separate page because this page was getting too big for PBwiki.

Feature Requests

A reference page has been created to present all available features in table form, called [Features Chart], which undertakes in a rudimentary way a comparison between Classic and Neo regarding the functionality of the various features. It can also be thought of as a place for Feature requests, should any arise. As of Nov 9, 2013, it is still a work in progress, with most comparison done in rough and details not much.

temporary solution would be to use an add-on like Linkification for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/linkificatiwhich renders text links clickable.