7 ms·

Yahoo shutting down Message Boards and other services

44 points by hboon 14y ago

general_failure 14y ago
This is great. The lesser the product line the more one can focus.
- JeremyMorgan 14y ago
  Yep. It's about time they shed some some of this Geocities era junk.
  - aw3c2 14y ago
    you are advocating the destruction of historic content, not unlike suggesting that a library should just burn its oldest books. there were tons of fantastic websites on Geocities.
foz 14y ago
Interesting: they are shutting down the Blackberry app. Either the app was terrible and never used, or they see Blackberry as a dying platform.
- kalleboo 14y ago
  Or the new WebKit browser in the recent versions of Blackberry OS mean that it's not as required as it used to be.
- parfe 14y ago
  The yahoo! App on android is simply an embedded browser widget and only provides one actual feature. You can share the current URL on Facebook. Confounding how they could release an app that is both pointless for the user but beneficial to a competitior. I'm surprised they only discontinued the blackberry version.
- ConstantineXVI 14y ago
  The BlackBerry the app was written for _is_ a dying platform: BlackBerry 10 has zero compatibility with the original BlackBerry OS's apps.
tyang 14y ago
What about Yahoo! Answers? Asking for a friend.
- meaty 14y ago
  I hope they do close it - its useless unless you are dredging for comedy. Citation for the downvoters: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110910190628AAfMjpT http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110910190628AA...
  - pavs 14y ago
    It maybe useless to you or me, but its very much active and used by a lot of people. I think this is one of the few Yahoo Services that organically grew over time and started having a name for itself. I do think there is plenty of room to make it much much better. It looks the same for as long as I can remember.
  - robryan 14y ago
    Would be driving tons of traffic to yahoo, it has great SEO on all kinds of questions. If anything they should double down on it and try and attract higher quality answers. Stack exchange is showing there is a pretty big opportunity in questions and answers.
- jaredsohn 14y ago
  I'm guessing it is sticking around. The text in the Yahoo Message Board section says: "We also encourage you to ask and answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, and discuss issues in the comments section on Yahoo! News." However, it looks like the avatar images that everyone is used to will disappear, since Yahoo is getting rid of them generally.
- simonw 14y ago
  I haven't worked at Yahoo in years, but I'd be very surprised if they shut down Answers. It was the most successful new product launch they had in a very long time, and it looks like it's still thriving today (take a look at the Answers homepage - there are several new questions being posted per minute!) Compare to the products mentioned in the blog post, most if which I hadn't even heard of. Why would Yahoo continue to run a message board product when they also have the much more popular Yahoo Groups?
clobber 14y ago
Who at Yahoo decided that a 12px font size was readable? Maybe start by firing that person? http://hn.explodie.org/writings/stop-using-small-font-size.html http://hn.explodie.org/writings/stop-using-small-font-size.h... http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/
- markdown 14y ago
  In case you're too young to remember, 12px was the standard for a very long time. It's only in the last 2-3yrs that font-sizes have grown. I'm sure that if the website was redesigned today, a larger font would be implemented.
  - clobber 14y ago
    > 12px was the standard for a very long time. Yeah, errrr....there is no "standard" on the web. Make your font sizes readable. It's really not hard.
    - markdown 14y ago
      Standard (Adjective): Used or accepted as normal or average. 12px was very readable for a very long time. FYI, screen resolutions weren't always as good as they are now. In fact, if you go further back in time, many "webmasters" (what we called ourselves because you young'uns decided you were "engineers" of usability) even gasp used 11px. Oh the days of the CRT... good times... good times.
      - clobber 14y ago
        Dinosaur (Noun): A person or thing that is outdated or has become obsolete because of failure to adapt to changing circumstances. I'm not sure why you think I'm a "young'un" but, please get over yourself, "old timer." So because 12px font was super readable on 640x480 CRT on Win95, we should continue to use that and never update our blogs? Are you seriously trying to defend shitty readability in 2013? What a weirdo.
zaidrahman 14y ago
Considering that Yahoo has products ranging all the way from horoscopes to web hosting — this does not feel enough.
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  Yahoo is a content company, no matter what label she gives them now. They need content.
  - moe 14y ago
    What content does yahoo have? Other than their "Answers"-garbage polluting my search results I don't think I have been in contact with any yahoo property for about 10 years...
    - OGinparadise 14y ago
      licensed or not they have a News section, finance, weather, travel, sports, shopping, gossip, etc.
- Sujan 14y ago
  You never clean the attic, garage or basement in a day.
meaty 14y ago
good. There is nothing I hate more than having to sign in to yahoo for something such as a support group for a bit of software or freecycle. Its just horrid from end to end.
laurent123456 14y ago
Now if they could shut down Yahoo! Answers so that its useless Q/As stop showing up in Google results that would be perfect.
- kiba 14y ago
  I just use a google extension to block those from my search result.
- parfe 14y ago
  Google search has a built-in tool for filtering sites out of your results. I haven't seen an experts exchange result in years. Just remove answers from your search results.
  - jellicle 14y ago
    ... no it doesn't. It once did, briefly. Lasted about six months if I recall correctly, then was deprecated.
    - parfe 14y ago
      Thanks. I'm surprised. Experts exchange hasn't come up since. Guess that was the only site I ever wanted to blacklist.
      - snarfy 14y ago
        I've been seeing expertsexchange again. That's how I discovered the google blacklist had disappeared. There was as chrome extension, but google removed it. Then it was built into google, and they removed that too.
    - 1123581321 14y ago
      They moved it into Personal Blocklist, a Chrome extension by Google. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist-by-goo/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist...
smegel 14y ago
What a horrible sounding url
inthewoods 14y ago
I'm confused from the announcement - is that Yahoo Groups as well?
- hboon 14y ago
  The release doesn't mention Yahoo! Groups.
- smackfu 14y ago
  Ah, I guess I combined them too? Which one is used for mailing lists like FreeCycle?
anoncow 14y ago
Yahoo has a message board?
xefer 14y ago
Some of the earliest mainstream general discussion of REST took place in the still-active "rest-discuss" board going back to 2002. I hope that history is preserved.
kmfrk 14y ago
Cleaning up the services of Yahoo! as a CEO must feel like going through your parents' stuff in a dusty, derelict attic.
rikacomet 14y ago
The biggest wrong about Yahoo is that they don't have a core business anymore, a one that earns them money, like google search is for google.
- pmarin 14y ago
  The Google's core business is advertising.
  - rikacomet 14y ago
    I believe its search, without search, they would not have anyone to watch their adverts.
- snowwrestler 14y ago
  Yahoo is in the same business Google is--advertising--and is profitable.
spydum 14y ago
I think this is well overdue, if you go out and look at the content on these boards it is basically people trying to sell credit card dumps, and random spam.. Most folks have moved on to the major social networks.

44 points by hboon 14y ago

general_failure 14y ago

This is great. The lesser the product line the more one can focus.

JeremyMorgan 14y ago
Yep. It's about time they shed some some of this Geocities era junk.
- aw3c2 14y ago
  you are advocating the destruction of historic content, not unlike suggesting that a library should just burn its oldest books. there were tons of fantastic websites on Geocities.

foz 14y ago

Interesting: they are shutting down the Blackberry app. Either the app was terrible and never used, or they see Blackberry as a dying platform.

kalleboo 14y ago
Or the new WebKit browser in the recent versions of Blackberry OS mean that it's not as required as it used to be.
parfe 14y ago
The yahoo! App on android is simply an embedded browser widget and only provides one actual feature. You can share the current URL on Facebook. Confounding how they could release an app that is both pointless for the user but beneficial to a competitior. I'm surprised they only discontinued the blackberry version.
ConstantineXVI 14y ago
The BlackBerry the app was written for _is_ a dying platform: BlackBerry 10 has zero compatibility with the original BlackBerry OS's apps.

tyang 14y ago

What about Yahoo! Answers? Asking for a friend.

meaty 14y ago
I hope they do close it - its useless unless you are dredging for comedy. Citation for the downvoters: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110910190628AAfMjpT http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110910190628AA...
- pavs 14y ago
  It maybe useless to you or me, but its very much active and used by a lot of people. I think this is one of the few Yahoo Services that organically grew over time and started having a name for itself. I do think there is plenty of room to make it much much better. It looks the same for as long as I can remember.
- robryan 14y ago
  Would be driving tons of traffic to yahoo, it has great SEO on all kinds of questions. If anything they should double down on it and try and attract higher quality answers. Stack exchange is showing there is a pretty big opportunity in questions and answers.
jaredsohn 14y ago
I'm guessing it is sticking around. The text in the Yahoo Message Board section says: "We also encourage you to ask and answer questions on Yahoo! Answers, and discuss issues in the comments section on Yahoo! News." However, it looks like the avatar images that everyone is used to will disappear, since Yahoo is getting rid of them generally.
simonw 14y ago
I haven't worked at Yahoo in years, but I'd be very surprised if they shut down Answers. It was the most successful new product launch they had in a very long time, and it looks like it's still thriving today (take a look at the Answers homepage - there are several new questions being posted per minute!) Compare to the products mentioned in the blog post, most if which I hadn't even heard of. Why would Yahoo continue to run a message board product when they also have the much more popular Yahoo Groups?

clobber 14y ago

Who at Yahoo decided that a 12px font size was readable? Maybe start by firing that person? http://hn.explodie.org/writings/stop-using-small-font-size.html http://hn.explodie.org/writings/stop-using-small-font-size.h... http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/

markdown 14y ago
In case you're too young to remember, 12px was the standard for a very long time. It's only in the last 2-3yrs that font-sizes have grown. I'm sure that if the website was redesigned today, a larger font would be implemented.
- clobber 14y ago
  > 12px was the standard for a very long time. Yeah, errrr....there is no "standard" on the web. Make your font sizes readable. It's really not hard.
  - markdown 14y ago
    Standard (Adjective): Used or accepted as normal or average. 12px was very readable for a very long time. FYI, screen resolutions weren't always as good as they are now. In fact, if you go further back in time, many "webmasters" (what we called ourselves because you young'uns decided you were "engineers" of usability) even gasp used 11px. Oh the days of the CRT... good times... good times.
    - clobber 14y ago
      Dinosaur (Noun): A person or thing that is outdated or has become obsolete because of failure to adapt to changing circumstances. I'm not sure why you think I'm a "young'un" but, please get over yourself, "old timer." So because 12px font was super readable on 640x480 CRT on Win95, we should continue to use that and never update our blogs? Are you seriously trying to defend shitty readability in 2013? What a weirdo.

zaidrahman 14y ago

Considering that Yahoo has products ranging all the way from horoscopes to web hosting — this does not feel enough.

OGinparadise 14y ago
Yahoo is a content company, no matter what label she gives them now. They need content.
- moe 14y ago
  What content does yahoo have? Other than their "Answers"-garbage polluting my search results I don't think I have been in contact with any yahoo property for about 10 years...
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    licensed or not they have a News section, finance, weather, travel, sports, shopping, gossip, etc.
Sujan 14y ago
You never clean the attic, garage or basement in a day.

meaty 14y ago

good. There is nothing I hate more than having to sign in to yahoo for something such as a support group for a bit of software or freecycle. Its just horrid from end to end.

laurent123456 14y ago

Now if they could shut down Yahoo! Answers so that its useless Q/As stop showing up in Google results that would be perfect.

kiba 14y ago
I just use a google extension to block those from my search result.
parfe 14y ago
Google search has a built-in tool for filtering sites out of your results. I haven't seen an experts exchange result in years. Just remove answers from your search results.
- jellicle 14y ago
  ... no it doesn't. It once did, briefly. Lasted about six months if I recall correctly, then was deprecated.
  - parfe 14y ago
    Thanks. I'm surprised. Experts exchange hasn't come up since. Guess that was the only site I ever wanted to blacklist.
    - snarfy 14y ago
      I've been seeing expertsexchange again. That's how I discovered the google blacklist had disappeared. There was as chrome extension, but google removed it. Then it was built into google, and they removed that too.
  - 1123581321 14y ago
    They moved it into Personal Blocklist, a Chrome extension by Google. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist-by-goo/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/personal-blocklist...

smegel 14y ago

What a horrible sounding url

inthewoods 14y ago

I'm confused from the announcement - is that Yahoo Groups as well?

hboon 14y ago
The release doesn't mention Yahoo! Groups.
smackfu 14y ago
Ah, I guess I combined them too? Which one is used for mailing lists like FreeCycle?

anoncow 14y ago

Yahoo has a message board?

xefer 14y ago

Some of the earliest mainstream general discussion of REST took place in the still-active "rest-discuss" board going back to 2002. I hope that history is preserved.

kmfrk 14y ago

Cleaning up the services of Yahoo! as a CEO must feel like going through your parents' stuff in a dusty, derelict attic.

rikacomet 14y ago

The biggest wrong about Yahoo is that they don't have a core business anymore, a one that earns them money, like google search is for google.

pmarin 14y ago
The Google's core business is advertising.
- rikacomet 14y ago
  I believe its search, without search, they would not have anyone to watch their adverts.
snowwrestler 14y ago
Yahoo is in the same business Google is--advertising--and is profitable.

spydum 14y ago

I think this is well overdue, if you go out and look at the content on these boards it is basically people trying to sell credit card dumps, and random spam.. Most folks have moved on to the major social networks.