Friday, December 23, 2011

Yahoo groups

I've found Yahoo Groups very useful over the years. Probably greatly aided by using ad-blocking software in my browser!

But I'm told that these days to sign up for a yahoo group, one needs to provide a zip code, birth date, and needs to get a yahoo email address.
Can anybody confirm this?
(And can it be fake ones? Surely they can't check?)
(It seems one can add other email addresses to use, later, but it still seems a bit silly that one has to get a yahoo one (although I'm sure it boosts their prestige to advertisers).

Some people hate all this, but considering what I hear from professionals of the difficulties of running mailing lists with tens of thousands of addresses, and the spectacular cost of professional services (Lyris which I'd been using, just boosted their *minimum* fee to $1250 per month!), there must be some downside to the highly flexible and free service Yahoo provides. I've been a member of several groups for many years, and find them very useful and even comparatively user-friendly, and with an ad-blocker in place, I'm not bothered. (I had actually expected ads to appear in the emails themselves, but I don't seem to get that. I think that shows restraint.)

7 comments:

andrea sfiligoi said...

I've been using one for over 4 years as my sole means of distribution list. It's a fact that some people will never sign up but it is certainly a useful tool. I spend at least one hour a day reading my group, replying to posts etc. It helps my business and keeps me in touch with the fanbase. For free.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thank you, good info.

I agree that a forum like that can be great for a business.
It's a bit tricky for mine, because many people would come in and be in a sex mentality only.
I've considered starting a Simple Nudes forum site. Generic, but sponsored by Domai.

~ cheryl said...

Have had eight different yahoogroups over the past decade. The price is right - and it is easy to operate as a group owner and easy for users to subscribe to. If subscribers wish to use the website they do have to have a Yahoo ID, requiring them to "state" birthdate - but they can be a subscribing member without a Yahoo ID and still receive all emails from the group. There are a lot of options available on how to run a group which can either increase or limit member participation. You can use html, which I find to be a great option. None of my groups are tied into a business, they are for volunteers, information, study of horses, and a peer group of people with similar jobs. There isn't another service I would rather use. There are also lots of other yahoogroups that I subscribe to, that help with queries and information on how to run your own yahoogroups. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any of this further.

The Dissonance said...

Having subscribed to your DOMAI group on Yahoo, I have one suggestion. While I appreciate and understand why no one but you can post a message to the message board, it might be nice to allow moderated posts where you cherry pick the most interesting ones periodically.

Happy holidays Eolake.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thanks, Cheryl.

TD, good point, I might consider it if I one day feel up to more to handle.

Miserere said...

I signed up for my first Yahoo group over a decade ago, and as far as I can remember I had to get a Yahoo ID, which automatically gave you an e-mail address (that I've NEVER used, by the way, but unlike Hotmail, Yahoo doesn't delete your e-mail if you don't use it...I think! :-)

They seem to work just fine, though I've never liked that people can see your e-mail address, at least in the ones I've belonged to.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Me neither. Fortunately that could be turned off by the administrator, me.