Where does Yahoo! head next?

Posted October 16th, 2007 at 3:13 pm by Jerry Yang, CEO & Chief Yahoo

 228 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News

There’s been much curiosity and speculation about what’s been happening here at Yahoo! over the past few months. Roughly 100 days into our business review, I’m ready to start sharing some of the framework for where we see the future of Yahoo!.

After I last posted in July, we gathered senior leaders from across the company to develop a vision that we believe is truly different from that of the past. We conducted an intense review of our business, examining everything from our strategy and culture to our competitive position and how the marketplace is evolving. We knew we had to change not only our business, but also how we prioritize and make decisions. We had to shift from a siloed mentality to a more collaborative organization that marches toward a common horizon. We had to determine which businesses to invest in, and which to begin to exit or de-emphasize.

What we ultimately saw was massive untapped potential and the opportunity to achieve things few companies on the planet could accomplish. As audacious as that sounds, we believe it’s entirely within our reach with a lot of hard work and discipline, greater focus, tough decisions, a shift in culture, and faster execution. And what will drive us? Creating incredible experiences for our customers.

Based on our analysis, we’ve made important decisions. We defined a strategy that revolves around making Yahoo! indispensable to an ecosystem of consumers, advertisers, publishers and developers while tapping into three key differentiators: generating and leveraging insights, deploying open platforms, and becoming partner of choice. While these have long distinguished us, we intend to do more with them going forward. We will do so by measuring how much more “relevant” we can become for each member of our ecosystem. We believe centering around “relevance” will become a unifying focus for us and drive increased value in everything we do.

We’re placing our bets in three big multi-year objectives. Let me walk you through them, what they mean, and what kind of actions support them:

1. Become the starting point for the most consumers: We’re defining “starting point” as being the sites that help you better manage your life and connect you to what matters most to you. Services like our Front Page, My Yahoo!, mail, search, and mobile all fulfill that role, while properties like news, sports, and finance (for example) serve as anchors from those starting points. We’ve made it our mission to provide kick-ass experiences in both of these categories to inspire the most consumers to begin their day with us. It’s critical for us to continue to invest and innovate in these offerings so that we can power and delight these consumers. Recent moves like the new Yahoo! Search, the new Yahoo! Mail, and our acquisitions of Zimbra and BuzzTracker should give you a sense of what we mean. And by tapping into our insights, we think we can significantly increase our relevance (why serve up World Series content to you on our front page when what you’re really interested in is Dancing with the Stars?).
2. Become the must-buy for advertisers: What’s key here is our transformation from selling inventory on primarily the Yahoo! network to becoming an advertising company that delivers comprehensive, integrated, and targeted solutions on Yahoo! and beyond. Through our acquisitions of RightMedia and BlueLithium, we think we’re on track to becoming the industry’s leading open ad network. We’ll provide advertisers with the benefits of more insights, open competition, and scaleable tools and platforms. We think our momentum is building. Panama’s global rollout is nearly complete, our display business is showing signs of growth, we’ve signed on more great publishing partners, and we’re encouraged by the traction we’re seeing in our new strategy.
3. Deliver open, industry-leading platforms that attract the most publishers and developers: We have phenomenal technology platforms and data infrastructure, and it’s time to share. Besides building on open API for critical platforms, we’re looking at many different ways to open Yahoo!. We’re excited about what could happen when a motivated community of publishers and developers starts plugging into our most popular services. Imagine how efficient your Yahoo! Finance experience could be with portfolios integrated from your brokerage. Or how personalized your Yahoo! homepage could be with a cool third-party widget. The possibilities are endless and “open” is all part of a new way of operating at Yahoo!.

Our new decision-making framework also informed what we’d no longer invest in. To start, we’ve de-emphasized our focus on subscription music in favor of ad-supported music, migrated Yahoo! Photos to Flickr, we intend to transition Yahoo! 360 to a more integrated Yahoo! “profile” experience, we’ve closed Yahoo! Podcasts and plan to shut down a number of one-off services, and we’re currently assessing our options for our Kelkoo comparison shopping service in Europe. We’ve identified still more areas and we’ll continue to work through them.

While our recent actions and initiatives provide the breadcrumb trail for Yahoo!’s future direction, you should now have a clearer sense of the new path we’ve charted. We’ve scripted our strategy, sharpened our organization, determined how we’ll prioritize, and zeroed in on our big bets. We’re in the midst of our transformation and seeing some initial progress. There’s hard work ahead, along with a large and growing market opportunity. If we execute as planned, I’m confident we’ll be creating substantial long-term value for our users, advertisers, publishers, and developers – and, of course, for our shareholders.

Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo

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228 Comments Add your own

navin | October 16th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Yahoo! has passionate users, amazing talent, and a big heart.
I guess thats the reason why its a big part of my everyday life.
Thank you, Yahoo!.

gag | October 16th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

yahoo is already a success but has to win everyday. Their is so much more to do, ambition of growth at yahoo should be beyond the potentials of the internet. Thank you, D n J for yahoo.

SEO Consulting | October 16th, 2007 at 9:17 pm

Congratulations on a great third quarter. Look forward to a great rest of the year.

John Furrier | October 16th, 2007 at 10:44 pm

Jerry,
I’m glad to see you as the orginal cofounder and now CEO at the helm. Yahoo was and is still a brand that users and advertisers love and trust. You helped make the Web a reality. I’m glad to see the sharp crisp focus. Silicon Valley was build on the backbone of fostering ideas, technologies, products, creating ventures, and making money. Yahoo’s been there before and I’m looking forward to seeing you guys move to new ground. Best of luck with your sharpened strategy.

- John Furrier
Palo Alto, CA
Founder PodTech

Amit Chowdhry | October 16th, 2007 at 10:57 pm

What would be amazing is if users saw more of a presence of the Yahoo! Music player. We’ve seen Yahoo! Music integrated into Facebook in the form of an application (my favorite application by the way), but it would be awesome to have one’s personalized station embedded into Yahoo! Mail or the Front Page and have it running as users surf through Yahoo!’s various portals (Yahoo! News, Flickr, Del.icio.us, etc).

Those are my $0.02. Great job, Yahoo! Keep innovating!

Krish | October 17th, 2007 at 2:23 am

Congratulations on the positive signals. Good luck in getting Yahoo to a market leader and trend setter.

Matt Cox | October 17th, 2007 at 2:57 am

Finger’s crossed.

I have my own ideas of what Yahoo! should be focusing on, where they should be and what they should be doing with their products… but then, I’m not in a position (and probably never will be) to put those in action.

Fred Oliveira | October 17th, 2007 at 3:16 am

I have been saying this a lot but I feel encouraged by the attention Yahoo! is giving developers - it shows not only a lot of respect but insight into what can actually push Y! forward. Yahoo! is not only bringing the right people in, it is also allowing people on the outside to explore more of its property and collected knowledge. Keep it up.

Mike Abundo | October 17th, 2007 at 3:22 am

There’s a much shorter way to say all that:

1. Portal.
2. Ads.
3. APIs.

King Tom | October 17th, 2007 at 3:26 am

Are you mad? You guys don’t know your arse from your elbow! Your paid search is a mess (despite a lengthy revamp) and your organic listings have absolutely no relevance to what I’m actually searching for. There’s a good reason Google rule the world - because it’s the only true search engine in the world and they bring at nearly all of the best tools.

If Yahoo truly want to move forward they need to start thinking about new ways to push a formerly popualr product back into the spotlight.

Take a look at Nintendo for example, they were nowhere a year or two go and Sony ruled the world. But they came back with a product so pioneering and unique that everyone began to remember why they used to be so great.

Pull your finger out Yahoo, before Google begin to take you down in the places where you still have visitors!

Jackson | October 17th, 2007 at 6:28 am

I do think that Yahoo! has a great set of tools that once integrated and consolidated, will be setting the bar for the competition. However, I am just wondering if the “starting point” goal is just another name for “Yahoo is going to be the best portal”.

How about instead of focusing on being a starting point, focus on being a gateway. For instance, I publish to Flick without ever going to a web page. I post to my link blog directly from my feed reader, I post to my microblog directly from SMS.

I understand that Yahoo! needs web eyes to be a must buy for advertisers, so how about services that reach out and grab my attention a little more. Let someone tag me in a picture and then alert me to that, or even let me “follow” flickr and del.icio.us users in a less passive way than RSS.

BTW, I really like some of the unification of services I have noticed going on in regards to profiles on Yahoo! properties.

Emre Sokullu | October 17th, 2007 at 6:30 am

Sounds great! Congrats!

seekXL | October 17th, 2007 at 7:58 am

Very interesting, i hope this are the right way for the future.

GuillaumeB | October 17th, 2007 at 8:15 am

Please, oh please do pay attention to homogeneity in this draft.
I mean you definitely have to do something with the redundant services (Y!Bookmarks, MyWeb, Delicious) and maintain a coherent UI (New Y!Mail VS old calendar …been more than 2 years now).
I’ve been following Yahoo for ages now and here is a wrapt up of y opinion on the future of Yahoo
http://www.guillaumeb.com/2007/09/urgent-steps-yahoo-needs-to-take.html

I wish you luck with your project and I look forward to see an even more amazing network

Anindya Sharma | October 17th, 2007 at 8:15 am

Yahoo has the base platform and legacy to archive what it wants, and now also has focussed 3 area policy in place also…….Best of Luck Jerry…YAHOO!!

Yahoo! Evangelist | October 17th, 2007 at 8:40 am

Jerry, David and Sue

You people rocked.. Looking for the great come back. Hope you guys offer a formiddable competition to other players out.

Floyd | October 17th, 2007 at 10:05 am

Number 2 won’t happen unless you make number one happen first. Number one has so slim a chance of happening I will be surprised if you can effectively do it. The new Yahoo mail? I switched to a rival service because of it. Yahoo Search? I never use it. Yahoo Groups? Seeking alternatives. Fortunately for Yahoo, Google doesn’t engage in customer interaction really, so you are just starting to gain the edge there. Use what your users tell you they like, and make it happen. Better yet, allow as much customization as possible and you will have relevance, and thus advertising draw. Customers are your bread and butter, and I don’t mean advertisers. The end, Joe-average user makes or breaks you. Right now, Yahoo has little to offer me, and in searching out alternatives, I’ve found others more to my taste. Less cluttered, easier to use, and with more options and less self-hype. Good luck. I hope to see progress.

Doors | October 17th, 2007 at 11:36 am

Well, From a pure implementation perspective, the focus (IMHO) should be on driving people to focus on important projects. There are too many Y! properties..just hanging around..close them.

Most importantly, hire smart people (I know of few employees who have just gone lazy after staying in y! for 3+ yrs).

Marc Grossman | October 17th, 2007 at 11:46 am

Jerry,
Congratulations on the new game plan. Please do not forget to include “accessibility” into all of the business plans.

Alexis Kauffmann | October 17th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

Mission #1 is quickly being achieved as your services keep improving with unparalleled quality. Yes, your 360 space need urgent improvement but, as an average, Yahoo services expand to meet the needs of the average internet users. Hope it stays in that path.

Scott | October 17th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

The mainstream on Yahoo loves the yahoo groups. Other groups have a much different approach but yahoo still seems to win out on that topic. We will see on the other points I guess.

The Dog Clothing Company | October 18th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

Yahoo! once was THE market leader but what’d happened over all these years? It gradually lost its share to Google and others. I love Yahoo and I really hope all these strategies will get it back to where it was.

Jen | October 18th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

i dont get the shutting down of one-off services or de-emphasized focus of subscription music favor of ad-supported music help i wanna understand

Larry Kollar | October 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

You really need to take another look at 360 and how passionate its users are about it. Yahoo!360 somehow became “Myspace for grownups,” perhaps without intent, and certainly without a lot of support or communication from the 360 Team. People are leaving 360 *right now* because they’re expecting it to turn into yet another pre-teen thing come January. Look at the over 900 comments on the latest 360 Product blog post, and you’ll see how many people care deeply about this service.

How many users were on 360? Two million? (minus the thousands that have already left) Can Yahoo really afford to alienate that many people? I don’t really believe Yahoo wants to lose those users, but lose them you will if you don’t start communicating in *detail* about the changes that are coming. How many more users would there have been on 360 had the 360 Team been proactive with bug fixes and communication? How wildly popular might it have been had Yahoo been promoting it? (I started a blog on Blogger about a month after 360 first rolled out, because I didn’t know 360 existed at the time.)

Look into how you can make the passion work for you… because right now, it’s working against you.

gag | October 18th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

i was listening to Infected mushroom -psycho when i happened to check this post. Their are sites i can download flv from, i love music.
I was thinking about this whole drm situation, i mean if i create a awesome music/song i want to make money. At the same time, their is also the analog hole n the fact that everything today is being given free and music is something almost everybody cant be without, so they will reach out n grab.
At this point, i wanted to ask yahoo if they could create a smart menu within the video player itself so videos could move to the toolbar, widget, gadgets, blogs…also if yahoo could somehow get a view which could just act as a music player with a visual when i am just in the mood to listen to music, like when i am working. I guess this also comes in handy when i have a slow connection. I am also trying to read about having multiple Internet session, so my broadband could handle all my media needs and i could use another net access, like from a mobile for my surfing all at the same time. I don’t know if this problem of media access is unique to me, i do use a very old computer.
I think free music to the user is the way forward. If i am creating music and if your gonna use it, i want to be paid. Here again, many revenue generation models are gonna be born. It will mostly involve people like you and me becoming distributors, talent hunters, brand mangers etc., Right now its dollar a song and like i said i am listening to phyce trance…..

GA | October 18th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

What about Yahoo Calendar? Thats at the forefront of my life too, but other than integration with yahoo mail, the calendar itself has evolved little. Any plans for that in the near future?

gag | October 18th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

I visited some y360 a day back and felt the above emotions. I wrote here about how y360 could be striped down of the media n stuff and be presented as a bloggers delight. Giving emphasis to posts, topics/titles, tags, syndication (rss), privacy set at source (both for blogger and commenter) and all this be interconnected and being attached to profiles. I saw screenshots of mash, their is work to do i am also thinking i might not have all the puzzle bits, its a different story when you draw strategies on a paper board, the dots connect better everyday. Meanwhile i would not worry much, i mean even god removed those dino’s and started fresh, except for those roaches, god. I need to stop this music.

Anne Orsi | October 18th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

I’m one of those passionate 360 users the previous commenter mentioned. I have a friends list of over 150 people, a number of whom have friends lists of similar size. We use the service every day.

Because of the way the 360 “transition” was announced, many people assume that it will degenerate into something like that horrible MASH network Yahoo is now beta testing. Despite those among us who advocate waiting to see what the new social networking/blogging/profile platform will look like, people are jumping the 360 ship in droves. Many are heading to Multiply.com, where we can have the same features we love about 360 as well as the ones we’ve asked Yahoo to provide throughout the multi-year beta testing of Yahoo 360.

The users of Yahoo 360 are adults, not teeny-boppers. They want to blog, they want to network with other adults, and they don’t want to be assaulted by MySpace-type graphics and noise. While we do get silly on occasion, we don’t want to be assaulted by silliness as soon as we log into our social networking site.

I think an integrated profile with a blog, RSS feeds, a good search engine, and customizable modules would be a great way to get people to use the service as their first stop - their home page.

Unfortunately, because of the way it was announced, Yahoo is driving away the people who would have been most loyal.

I would like to suggest some damage control.

*Assure the users of Yahoo 360 once again that their blogs will be preserved in their entirety - that means preserving the comments to the posts as well as the posts themselves.

*Explain HOW the changes will affect current Yahoo users. If you want to keep the user base you already have, they need to know that things will be better. For instance, if Yahoo were to say something along the lines of “The ‘MyYahoo’ page will now include your profile, your blog, links to your favorite sites, and improvements to the RSS newsfeeds already available” people would probably say that the transition will be good, not that the sky is falling.

*Start actually responding to technical problems with action rather than the same, tired form letter. I have written Yahoo multiple times about the same ongoing problem with my 360 page and have never gotten any answer other than the “we’re working on it” email. It just does not take 10 months to fix a software glitch when the feature works fine elsewhere.

*Remember that your advertisers want traffic, and the best way to deliver that traffic is to have happy users of your sites. Customer service is critical. Yahoo’s users are its customers, even if the service provided is free. Respond to their concerns and problems in a positive way. Happy users result in more happy users, because word of mouth works for you. Word of mouth also works against you, and has been working against you for some time because of a lack of responsiveness to customer concerns.

*Yahoo Executives who use non-Yahoo products to make public statements do their own products no favors. The blog here on Wordpress.com could be mirrored on Yahoo 360. Doing so would give the Yahoo users more confidence in the product. A big question lately is “Why don’t the Yahoo executives support their own products?” That question is followed closely by “If they don’t believe in their products, why should we?”

I like Yahoo 360 and I want to stay with Yahoo. I have built a strong network of interesting people. Wrecking the platform on which we all stand will disperse us to other places. We don’t want that, and I suspect Yahoo really doesn’t, either.

Please, give us real feedback. The company changes and the changes with Yahoo 360 affect us loyal 360 users in a very real way and on what we feel is a very personal level.

brenda | October 18th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

i think this really sucks. you shouldnt shut yahoo down. it a fun place and i have meet alot of people thought yahoo.

gag | October 18th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

I had a blog….. i think people who comment at blog should be given opportunity to tie up with a brand and maybe let to tag a logo along.

anyway a minute ago while i was transferring files from one folder to another, i was amused to find the animation of single sheets of paper fly up and do a flip mid air and then fly down to the folder on the other side. Imagine ywidgets installed in computers n gadgets and files being flipped at yahoo and then sent to the other end.
In computers are we looking at a operating system within another and will widgets work combination n recombinations to accomplish tasks.

Princess Vicki | October 18th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

I realize that Yahoo!360 is a free site, and I appreciate that. I came to 360 almost 2 years ago, and have put alot of work into my site. It took me a long time to learn how to do alot of things on there.
Then, came the changes…Yahoo Photos closed down, forcing everyone to choose another venue…Flickr which was supposed to be free…but now I come to find out that nope…it was only free for a bit, and now I will have to shut that down because I cannot afford it.
Then the geniuses decided to create MASH and somehow mess everyone over and rip 360 away from us. You asked our opinion…and then do as you please anyhow even though the majority of users said they wanted 360 to stay. Mash, Facebook, and even MySpace is mostly for kids. I am 48 years old…I have no desire to be on a site that is for kids only! 360 has more adults on it than kids now.
So…go ahead & make your new sites, but keep 360 just like it is!!! Or if you really want to do something with 360…HOW ABOUT FIXING THE BUGS ON IT!!!!! Please?

Sandy | October 19th, 2007 at 2:45 am

I have been using Yahoo for 10 years. I’m 22 years old so thats about half my life. It has saddened me to leave. Yahoo was my home page, its where I purchased games, received E-mail, and until recently blogged. After being ignored on the 360 Team blog for so long then insulted and chastised for asking questions over at the Mash board I decided to leave.
As a side note, I hate Mash. If I wanted a My Space account, I’d have one. If I had kids, they would not use Mash. I’d pop them in the mouth if I ever heard them say fugly? What are you trying to teach kids anyway?
Getting back on track, The transition to Flikr was awful. The newest photos don’t show up on our pages. We have other issues with photos, reviews not showing up, groups disappearing from our pages. I stayed even without answers because I had put so much work into my page and my friends. I know 360 is a free service but I also know you get money from advertisers to allow them to try to sell their products to us. I am, or was your customer. I have changed my homepage to iGoogle and have a new gmail account. I now buy games from BigFish, and I chat at IMVU. I am slowly moving my blog to Multiply.com.
I was given this site from another 360 user who wanted me to come over here and beg you guys to read the comments on the 360Team blog. Obviously no one over there is reading the over 2000 comments from the last 2 entries. I don’t know why you can’t read them. I have. I’m not here to beg though, I want you to know you have lost for good at least one customer. Once my blog is moved I don’t ever intend to use Yahoo again. For anything. I have been kept in the dark, ignored and then insulted. I have dealt with bugs and glitches, ending user chat-rooms, closing yahoo photos. So you see I’m not against change or I would have been long gone. I’m against being abused. I won’t beg you to keep 360, I’m moving on. However if you care (which I doubt) about how your “customers” feel it may be wise to take a look over there. Not only are some leaving but others are willing to hang around and be treated like dirt forever if you will just keep their beloved 360. Personally I won’t shed a tear if your company folds up and goes bankrupt, I know it probably won’t happen. I know I won’t have hundreds follow me away from you. I know you don’t care about me or how I feel, but it won’t stop me from telling you about it anyway. Bottom line, I don’t like you anymore.

Hollywood Entertainment Blog | October 19th, 2007 at 4:39 am

introduce something like google adsense

Myscha (Y! ID womankindeternal) | October 19th, 2007 at 5:08 am

As you will see if you check my website link, I have embraced what Yahoo! offers up until now.
Y! was the first place I found that offered an “online briefcase” where I could store important documents and be able to access them from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
The introduction of Y! 360 was the reason I began blogging in the first place, and I believe mine is the only blog that currently offers songs in text-only sheet music format with a link to an online converter.
Y! made all of this possible.
Recently I was offered, and accepted a beta version of Y! Mash profile. After one or two “mashing” sessions I have been completely unable to access my profile again.
Everybody I know through Yahoo! is very worried about the proposed future development of Y! and Y! 360.
Y! is a good product. It ain’t broke. Don’t try to fix it. And stop trying before you lose a loyal userbase!

Lisa | October 19th, 2007 at 6:06 am

In Yahoo’s arrogance they have forgotten the customer base they have. They have asked for help from us the users. In every case it was asked that the bugs be fixed and that they stop harrassing people with “mature content” notices when there is NO Mature content. In flagrant disregard nothing was done. Then the Mash. Have you ever asked your users if they wanted anything like that? No. So many do not know how to use features like codes for backgrounds. May seem simple to most but I know a lot of people who just learned how to change a 360 background, let alone a Mash one. Have you read any of the dozens of pages that begged to keep 360 and not change it but fix it? On a regular basis blogs are eating and can’t be posted for days at a time. Now they are moving us? Do you know how many have already left for Multiply? How many will never come back as they feel they have been betrayed by Yahoo? MSN is booming over there with Multiply and the Yahoo refugees that flocked there. Why would we trust a company that cannot read the messages they are given and take into consideration what we want? Arrogant educated idiots.

Steve Sutherland | October 19th, 2007 at 6:12 am

I realize that ultimately, Yahoo is a business. You currently offer a great service, yet I must admit - outside of 360 and Answers, the only other service I use at Yahoo is the search engine.

Removal of 360, a reasonably easy to use social networking tool when compared to others, would result in the loss of my use of Yahoo completely. I know I don’t bring tons of money into your coffers, but I do click through on many of your vendor ads, knowing that this is how you are able to provide the free service. With the removal of 360, a mass exodus of users from Yahoo will impact your bottom line.

Don’t listen only to your inner circle, too many businesses have done that - only to discover too late that they have misread the pulse of their target audience. Consult with all your stakeholders, not just those who you see as a line on your financial statements.

I think you will find, managed properly, Yahoo 360 can be a value added project to your stable of offerings. Continue to expand, but retain 360.

Thank you

Rick Kintz | October 19th, 2007 at 6:56 am

Instead of trying to reinvent and create a clone of other “online communities” why not build and improve on the fantastic foundation you already have in 360. If that MASH is a sample of things to come I may as well take all of my “online time” right on over to MySpace. I don’t like MySpace near as much as 360, but it is so much better than the “brain fart” called MASH! 360 is a wonderful community! It has bugs, but instead of trying to fix the bugs you seem to be choosing to dump it and all of the wonderful people there to cater to the “children”! I beg you, don’t do it! Be the difference in the “online communities”!

Norma Dawn | October 19th, 2007 at 7:14 am

I have been a member of Yahoo 360 since June of 2006. It took me a while to get into the whole blogging scene, but once I did I became an active daily blogger. I have made a ton of friends from all over the world through blogging and visiting other people blog pages. In fact, I have met several of my fellow bloggers as my husband and I travel around the United States in the last two or three years. I am still in close contact with the people I have met in person, and plan to meet still other fellow 360 bloggers in the future. It has become a life line for me, and I am upset that it will be taken away in the not so distant future. I have an account on MySpace. I don’t like it or use it often. I have an account with MSN for blogging, but rarely use it either. I have checked out the YMash and I am not impressed with it. If that is what you are planning to replace 360 with I will have to find another venue for my blogging. It seems so many have heard rumours of this happening and have already left 360. Isn’t there some way we can compromise on this so 360 and its current bloggers can continue in the New Year? Can’t we fix what we already have? Don’t older adults count as much as children and young adults? After all it is our money the younger clients are spending!! If I have to move blogging, I will move everything off of Yahoo! Just how I feel… Norma Dawn

Richard Dutt | October 19th, 2007 at 8:32 am

Hey I plead that you keep 360, I have friends there, and don’t want to loose them. I like it’s stye, you’ve done a good job. Well that’s my two cents. I agree with Princess Vicki, but I’m older, so keep something good. The old saying if it ain’t broken don’t fix it. I think it’s working just fine, Thank you for listinening.

Alexander Ainslie | October 19th, 2007 at 9:17 am

Jerry:

Out “Open” Goog/MS/FB/Bebo/Hi5/LI. Make the New Yahoo! an i/O platform of choice your users & developers will love you for it. As Marc Canter puts it, allow developers to “spit and suck” into and out of the platform.

Take the Web 2.0 “Social Graph” and drag it (and messers MZ/FB & Co.) to where it belongs and go eventually - a true “Semantic/Contextual Graph” - just be the person and organisation that makes it happen. BTW, try to do it before Nov 15th ;).

Also, don’t give up on Kelkoo just yet. We have a portfolio of systems and methodologies in patent pending that can take Kelkoo (& Shoposphere) to the next level of revenue generation.

Best regards,
Alexander Ainslie
WinitNetworks Ltd. (BVI)

Angry Baby Boomer | October 19th, 2007 at 9:55 am

It’s obvious that you have NOT looked at the Yahoo360 NOR WHO is using it. We do NOT want to have to know how to use htlm code. We LIKE the format the Yahoo 360 provides. It is innovative and different from ALL the rest. That’s why we are here.

I’m amazed that you would write off all of the baby boomers in exchange for the kiddies. Why do YOU not have a Yahoo 360 blog??? Have you even LOOKED at it?

Did you know that the Yahoo360 team didn’t even blog for TWO months this summer?? It wasn’t until everyone was commenting on MASH about what was going on over on the 360 that we FINALLY got a response. Please hire folks who ACTUALLY use the product that THEY earn their paycheck from.. not from folks who work here.. and blog on MySpace.

Who’s kidding WHOM?

Jayne Jordan | October 19th, 2007 at 9:56 am

I agree with Princess Vicki…

360 is slow enough without adding things that will make it run even slower.

Danny Sea | October 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am

My dad had a phrase he used continuously when I was young. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I find it ironic that 360 is the best blogging website out there and you guys want to shut it down. And I have been to MASH and Multiply. MASH is so inferior to 360 that if I have to move to another website, it definitely won’t be this one. I probably will discontinue blogging period. 360 made blogging a memorable experience. I met so many wonderful people. The newer blogging websites makes me wonder if they were designed by geeky, immature teenagers. 360 was such a breath of fresh air from the sleezy chatrooms. I think someone sat on a loaded gun and it went up where the sun doesn’t shine and blew out their brains. I can not speak for others, and I am not asking people to get on my bandwagon…but for me, it is 360 or nothing whatsoever. This will probably be deleted so you cannot read anything negative, but at least I got it off my chest.

Guy, High Priest of Meatloaf | October 19th, 2007 at 10:31 am

Dear Mr. Chang:

I’m going to jump on the bandwagon here about Y360.

Y360 is the PREFERRED social networking site for adults. Period. The other sites look, and behave, like very obnoxious tinker toys for kids, without any serious writers, an astounding amount of clutter brought on by users with no idea how their changes will affect the output to people trying to see their profiles, and the NOISE you get subjected to on those sites is truly atrocious to me, a 50 year old male.

I blog on Y360, nearly every single day. Some days the topics are serious, sometimes just goofing, and sometimes I’m testing rough drafts for reception amongst an ADULT crowd so I can dress them up for print sales. Y360 currently IS my homepage, my first landing point of the day. Every day. 360 days a year (hey, we ALL take a break now and then).

You have created what has become the de facto KING of social networking sites for adults. And I know of about 200 who are preparing to jump ship at the drop of a hat if you turn it into a children’s play zone.

Some of us are waiting to see if you instead reblock the hat, dress it up, and clean up the rough edges. Despite its flaws, Y360 is the BEST option for adults right now - but your team has failed to listen to the users or address the issues brought to them for nearly 2 years.

Guy, High Priest of Meatloaf

Guy, High Priest of Meatloaf | October 19th, 2007 at 10:32 am

Woops, sorry… Mr. Yang.

Guy

Socen Muse | October 19th, 2007 at 10:46 am

I do agree with the above sentiments about 360 being the adult world’s blog experience and if a couple of the bugs were worked out, most in 360 would continue being the ever-growing family it’s become. I don’t think there’s a need for yet another *younger generation* blog site….we don’t need a pet to feed…have no great desire to drift through 2 years of relearning how to use tools, etc, when all-in-all, 360 has been very user friendly for us of the AdultWorld.

We just want to keep it! It’s our scrapbook w/out all the bazillion pieces! I’ll even keep it with the bugs rather than have to give it up completely.

haroula | October 19th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Why would you want to stop,or change the 360 page?I do not like Mash and i want my 360 page!If you really were interested in our opinion,you would listen to us!
Most of us are adults on the 360 page,and are happy with our blogs,friends and so on.
If you honestly listen to us,then how about letting us vote if we want to have something else?
Please let us keep our 360 page and just make improvements there!
Thank you

Vee Ghozlan AKA butterflynxile aka 360 Yahoo Refugee | October 19th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Sir,

I am done with Yahoo. As of January 2008, I will no longer use Messenger, their email system, their phone system (yes, I a have a phone number with Yahoo, 360, Mosh/Mash, Travel, shopping or any other the other services, that Yahoo provides. A dear friend suggested that you were through neglect, forcing 360ers to abandon this service. Well, if that was your intent, you have succeeded. We are mass migrating to Multiply, when 360 closes.

Amazingly, some of your staffers sought to misleads us about Yahoo’s intentions, in some recent blogs. A Mr. Darrell Jones aka Mr. UHHH, patronized and condescended and managed to piss off reams of 360ers. Then Matt, informed us of the “transition” in 2008. One that would allow us to keep our blogs, comments etc. Unfortunately, your transitions have been disasters. We are still recovering from the photo/Flickr fiasco and as such, have little or no faith, that Yahoo can live up to its statements.

Unfortunately, one in your Customer Service is not spouting the parting line and has confirmed, that you are closing 360 down. So the whole Matt post on the 360 team blog is a clever lie, about “transitioning”.

Thank you. By 2008, I will be not be using any of Yahoo’s services. Incidentally, other people are following me, in this decision.

vee ghozlan

Ruth | October 19th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

Okay, I doubt I’ll be heard here, as the thousands of us that cared to comment on other places on YAHOO have been ignored, but I have to try.

I have recommended Yahoo 360 to people. Why? Because its straightforward, easy to use, and the networking was great.

Now, after being insulted by your staff, ignored, and for the most part treated as if I, as a long time Yahoo user, were inconsequential, I’m told that …”too bad, so sad”…we’re getting rid of Yahoo 360.

Do you care about customer relations? Do you understand them? Are the kids you have working for you breathing such rarified air that they can’t think like real people? Do they really think ignoring and patronizing customers is the way to go?

Now, I’m seeing people leaving Yahoo in disgust, in droves, and heading to other places that *listen* to their customers, and *care*.

What Yahoo needs is a crash course on customer service, and how to make a customer feel valued, because they sure aren’t managing that NOW.

I have opened an account elsewhere and I’m moving my stuff there, piece by piece, because I no longer trust Yahoo to provide me the service they have, or to keep their promises, or to even treat their users as if they had one whit of intelligence.

Nice job of alienating your customer base!

Ruth, a formerly *happy* Yahoo 360 user

Dave | October 19th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

I agree with the comments posted here about Mash and 360. I don’t like Mash. The “About Me” questions are juvenile, why do I want a pet, or a kaliedescope on my page? I know nothing about HTML, CSS, and know enough about RSS to copy a link to a newspaper for my 360 page. THAT is my profile. Not Mash. 360 is incredibly user friendly. It allows me to search for other users by location, interests, etc. It’s a great blogging location. Fix it. Don’t transition it to something no one wants in the first place. It seems like a bad business decision to make changes without ever bothering to ask those who use the product what they want. It’s an even worse business decision to ignore those who use your product, and are very loyal to it. I also know many people leaving 360 because of the rumors, lack of information, and mostly, dissatisfaction with Mash. I realize that anyone over 13 may not be your target audience, but we are the primary users of your product.

RC | October 19th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

Jerry:
I am glad that Yahoo seems to be getting back to its roots. However, I can tell you, that as a big fan and daily user, the site has many flaws.
You guys are getting ahead of yourself and seem to have lost touch with the users. For example, I use Yahoo every day and surf the net every day. Yet, I heard about this thing called 360 and have no idea what it is? I read about it on another news site.
Bix? What the hell is that? You need to realize, not everybody is a hard-core techie and understands this stuff. I surf for hours every day, what about casual users? Yahoo has such a huge audience and is a great brand — you should be worth the same as Google. They suck, don’t offer much and in my opinon, are kind of sneaky. AOL is the pits. I can’t get my email to work with them. You have the opportunity to be the leaders, but you are kind of blowing it.
I think you have the chance to be even bigger and better, but you seem to be blowing it. But even finding a way to give feedback was a chore for me.
Think more in terms of KISS and you will do better. Anyway, hope you see my point and would be glad to help out.

Donna aka Hanz | October 19th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

I like many others have become frustrated with the lack of caring and customer service for the last several months. I’ve lost entire blogs, comments, e-mails, feed entries (finally deleted in frustration), etc. Had I pulled the same stunts that the Y!staff has been pulling, I would have been fired long ago.

I am in the middle of moving my favorite 360 blogs to Multiply.com as I no longer trust you or your company. From there I’ll make the decision of whether or not to save them in a document folder; I’m certainly not going to try it here, nothing works; the rest I might as well delete as they’re going to be lost anyway in the so-called smoth transition.

I’m glad I made the decision to delete ALL of my photos when I heard about the Flickr; I never did like that site. Free? Yeah, right.

I don’t want to lose the cherished friends I’ve made from literally all over the world and I know I will lose most of them once 360 closes it’s doors. We’re adults and we don’t want a toy site to deal with. We can go to MySpace for that nonsense.

360 is a valuable tool for those of us who love to blog. It’s valuable to those of us who’ve made friends of all ages from all walks of life and all over the world. And you are going to flush it down the nearest toilet?

Sit back, prop your feet up and watch as literally hundreds if not thousands of us leave your troubled waters for greener pastures; those pastures ARE out there.

Fix the site already.

Rose | October 19th, 2007 at 1:39 pm

Its too bad, that you didnt announce the transition of the 360 site at the same time you announced the closing of yahoo photos. If you had done that, a lot of us wouldnt have bothered with moving our photos from yahoo photos to FLICKR——–would have been no need to do it, wouldnt need a place to store our photos if 360 is gone.Or at least i wouldnt have done it.

Progress is only good if it makes things easier and better. Theres something wrong with progress when so many people, and i do mean a lot of people,,, are angry and upset.

People are still angry over yahoo photos closing,, just go to the Flickr forum and read the comments–

People are angry over this transition of 360, just go to the 360 staff blog and read the comments–

I know my comments may not mean much to you, but felt i had to take the time to address it.

Thank You for your time Rose

Diana | October 19th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

I have been trying many different sites since I first heard that you might close 360 down. None of them have compared in ease and options…… mash….. not a good option at all for bloggers. I have met many through my 360 and I am thinking that many of your advertisers would benefit from keeping it open and focusing more on it and letting mash just drop.
Thanks for your consideration
Diana

Terry | October 19th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

I would also like to see 360 remain in its current form with the bugs fixed. I have looked at the MASH pages, and see it as something similar to Myspace. I want something simple, without all of what I call ‘clutter’ on the main page. I enjoy blogging and reading friends blogs, the lack of a blogging on MASH is a huge negative in my mind.
With your recent announcement I’m sure the decision is already set in stone to eliminate 360…and with it, I think you’ll lose a lot of formerly loyal ‘customers’.

GEL | October 19th, 2007 at 2:37 pm

Mr Yang,
I applaud you for wanting to make Yahoo better for all concerned, but I am concerned that when someone makes a blanket statement about what is going to be done without being specific that they either (1) do not know the specifics to give; or (2) are not telling those specifics to avoid consumer comments. I have been on Yahoo 360 for over a year now and I would hate to lose it and only have MASH as the alternative. MASH is not what the adult audience is wanting, because it is laid out for teenagers with childish things, such as Karl Marx Paddleball, My Pet and Mashies. Those of us who are older enjoy the blogging with our friends and being able to comment on other’s blogs as we have on 360. If I wanted something like MASH, I would have been on myspace a long time ago, but I chose to make my online page on 360.
I have read alot of the comments both here and on the Y360 blog site which list numerous bugs on 360 which have been brought to Yahoo’s attention for quite some time with no results. If you have an oil leak in your car you don’t go buy a new car, you get the oil leak fixed…. that is common sense.
Now if the real reason for aiming for the younger generations is the money brought in by the ads, well then do away with 360. But in the meantime, please don’t spin your yarn with invisible wool and expect us to see it as you do!
I will wait and see if this is posted, that will tell me if you truly are interested in what your users have to say.

GEL

Linda Stewart (aimlessjoys) | October 19th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

I hope the changes you intend will address the passion its worldwide users feel for their Y360 blogs & Friends, & reap the goodwill & loyalty that is so abundant there. Many of my 360 friends are finding other venues, & I also set up a Blogger account long ago when rumors of eaten blogs, etc., surfaced back at the beginning of 2007. But I still like my Y360 blog best.

While I am certainly no great hand at html, I have been able to share photos & hopes & dreams, poems, great experiences, etc., with delightful ease. My homepage is set to My Yahoo, but the changes already there have been somewhat bewildering to me. Which is, of course, my problem, to be regarded as an opportunity to learn. Since you have stated that the platform for my beloved blog is one you are no longer interested in investing in, I am sorry for that, & hope the community spirit that Y360 embodies will not be toast.

To conclude, I understand how business works, & will be hoping to find an “incredible experience” with Yahoo, hopefully even better than the one I have enjoyed so far on Y360. But the nuts & bolts of sharing that vision will be up to you & your employees.

You are providing a universe of unprecedented possibility here, & hopefully the judgement of history will toast you in the good sense. Cheers!

Senei | October 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

I have used other blog site but when I discovered Yahoo I found it the best. It is well laid out and easy to navigate. I did check out the new MASH but found it more in keeping with entertaining kids.

The current 360 is now well established and I have found it easy to spend time expressing my thoughts, some serious and some with a touch of humour. The people who make up this community are genuine and warm. Together we have bonded and in a way promoted 360. Now the rumour is that there is going to be drastic changes and that is scary. I and others feel that this is unnecessary and implore that you listen to the voices that don’t want to loose 360. I prefer the 360 to remain as is. It’s not broken so it doesn’t need fixing!

It is our loyalty to Yahoo that recognises the concept of 360 has already proved successful and we sincerely hope that Yahoo 360 will maintain its current format for the future.

Mac | October 19th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

I don’t think it’s to much to ask the CEO of Yahoo just to take a look at all off the 360 users out here asking for someone associated with Yahoo to please just listen to what us users would like. Please take notice of all the request to please keep Yahoo 360 up and running for us. If a change is needed then change the way 360 is being operated and just fix the minor little bugs with the program and keep what works instead of creating more problems and disappointments for the 360 community. Leave the MySpaces, the Mashes or other blob communities for the kids and let us adults have the community that we have helped build.
Thank you
Maclll

Chairman Jell | October 19th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

I have to admit that Mash is a bit of a….Mash.

360 though, is a nice concise well designed product and it is a puzzler why you would want to replace it.

deb | October 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

i love my yahoo 340 why cant we please keep it lots love theres too i do not like mash thanks deb

deb | October 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

i mean 360

deb | October 19th, 2007 at 3:07 pm

why cant you just do what you want to 360

r_i_d | October 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

Dear Yahoo! people,

You state that your number one goal is to
//Become the starting point//

well, you are
For a number of people like me. Y360 is our starting point.

If you’re going to move our blogs and networks to something like MASH, may I suggest that,

a) rethink the basic set-up on MASH. Ditch the silly pet, put a BLOGGING module up and running as fast as can be, with a push button, IMPORT BLOGS/PICTURES/COMMENTS from y360.

b) why two messages system? Dith the Y360 message system that everybody hates, and let normal yahoo mail deliver the message. By the way, the new Yahoo mail is a nightmare compared to gmail (in case you didn’t know).

c) let people put ads on their blog/mash/homepage. You’ll have millions of happy customers, and you can take a share of that too.

You guys are lucky ; we are telling you what we want, although we could get it elsewhere already, on Multiply, on Blogger, using MyBlogSpot (I see you have it up there). Etc.

I’m thinking that when you launched Y360 you must have have an idea in mind. What was it? To find us, a large base of enthusiastic users? Well, we’re here!

Everything runs on trust. Simple TRUST.
If your people base feel betrayed, even in the context of a free service, they’ll go elsewhere, and never come back.

Enough said.
Good luck!

r_i_d

Susan | October 19th, 2007 at 4:11 pm

Dear Mr Yang:
I have been reading reports on thoughts of closing yahoo 360 and moving on to something else.I want to share with you my thoughts of yahoo 360 and what it means to me.I have met so so many people on there,wonderful,loving,careing people.I call my 360 my extended family.I have grown to love them like they really are my family.We have been there for one another through ups and downs in our lives.We group together as a family to help others.We do blogs for friends and family who need our prayers and support.Do you have any idea what these few words of Goodmorning and Goodnight mean to people on 360 who have no one in their lives who care enough to greet them each morning or night with a smile and a few words to brighten their day.These comments,the blogs the people,,we all mean so much to one another.I get so so many messages from people on 360 who tell me how much i brighten their darkest days,just by putting a comment on their 360 pages every day.Do you realize what it would do to these people if you took 360 away.It breaks my heart to think of loosing these people i call family.It would be devastating to some if we lost the contact we have here on 360 Mr. Yang.These are real people behind these screens,typing real words,real feelings.I invite you to please visit my yahoo 360 and read it carefully and go to any of my friends 360 and see and feel the love and concern for one another.I am not interested in any other sites on here,,360 is like home to me,,please don’t take it away.
Sincerely
Susan Bradley(susanb)
Yahoo 360

Brenda B | October 19th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

I have been a loyal Yahoo user almost ever since Yahoo came out. Yes, I’m one of those horrible baby boomers who feels that we’re being turned out because we’re not longer needed. Nobody has ever asked our opinion about what we want. Well, I think it’s perfectly clear, given the countless comments you have already received: WE WANT TO KEEP 360! And yes, I realise that I’m shouting. Do you know I’ve just seen the video that you people at Yahoo need to watch. I found it on my 360 friend ‘The Drama Queen’s’ page. It’s called ‘The Simple Truths of Service Movie’. Here’s the address: http://www.stseervicemovie.com Enjoy!

Suzi | October 19th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

I realize that you don’t give a tinker’s damn about what I have to say concerning 360, but, I’ll say it anyway…

It’s my understanding that you want the younger crowd, and the majority of them are on MySpace…
So…make 360 more appealing to a younger crowd…how hard can that be?

It’s also my understanding that Mash is just a temporary site, a test field…
So, you are going to gather everyone there, and then turn around and change it again? What an absurdity.

Personally, I don’t see one good thing about Mash…
We need a pet to feed? Give me a break…what the heck are you thinking? Younger crowd? Sounds to me like you want 6 year olds.

Mash is just about as useless as it gets…and, in the end, with places like Multiply.com and LiveJournal, etc., you are going to lose much more than you gain…

Sincerely…

Brenda B | October 19th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

Sorry. Correction to that address: http://www.stservicemovie.com

Brenda B | October 19th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

Third time charm: http://www.stservicemovie.com

Lisa | October 19th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

Please just leave 360 alone. Fix the problems and just leave it alone. Its better then myspace and its much easier to use. Its my addiction and I use it daily several times a day.

vivieny | October 19th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

Alienate the grey £/$ at your own risk - 360 is for adults who currently seem to be turning their backs on Yahoo in droves. Change is not necessarily for the better and frankly, Mash sucks!

Misty | October 19th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

I was given this site to come on over and read up on what the
CEO has to say about improving Yahoo.
Far as my pea brain understands this sweet talk what I gather
is all about the mighty dollars so that you can remain sitting in
your high tower with glass windows, an over paid job and your entire kiss
a$$ing underlings covering up and praising you on bended knees.
What you really need to do is to take a moment out of your busy
schedule and go read what you’re so called Yahoo 360 Product Blog
team is spewing forth and what the 360 community is saying back.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1qCkw2Ehaak.hdNZkEAzDrpa4Q–?cq=1
Two blogs by them: The Evolution of Yahoo! 360 with comment counts
now up to over 1059 and growing AND the second one titled
Yahoo! 360º Questions? Let’s Talk (Uhhh, Right Here) with a total
of 1645 comments.
This will tell you how your most loyal customer base are handling your
brain wave ideas.
Since the product team or whomever you send emails to for questions
or problems to be answered, NEVER respond or they send a generic
email claiming they are hard at the problems, have not had the
decency to post since way back in July THIS tells us all really Yahoo
doesn’t give a Rats A$$.
Your loyal consumers/customers are jumping ship so fast because of
no reassurances the 360 community will be as it is/was in 2008.
Because of your lack of insight Multiply is benefiting big time. It is a super easy platform and the speed sure beats Yahoo. Guess what? Nothing goes missing and if a problem they hop to it pronto AND a response to boot.
By not fixing the problems within the 360 community e.g. Flickr,
Groups disappearing, counters caput, blogs disappearing for days on end,
unable to post comments and a host of other things to numerous to mention your so called special teams will be transferring these problems over onto the new platform. Now that is what I call brilliant.
The Yahoo 360 community is mostly all adults who have established
a large base of new found ADULT friendships. These people are serious
bloggers. These bloggers are from all over the world. Y360 is the most preferred adult blogging site.
My Space and Facebook has a following of kids that simply want to play games, send silly pokes, animated grow flowers, join unreal meaningless causes, buy rounds of booze and post a zillion UTube videos on your
Fun Wall.
You did have a loyal following. Believe me Word of Mouth is what makes a business successful but also Word of Mouth can rip it to shreds in a blink of an eye. You won’t have advertisers beating a path to your door with no customers.
Can you afford that?
See you at Multiply.

Misty | October 19th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

I forgot to mention that you don’t have to use Flickr to use for images on your blog at Multiply. They have a nifty feature whereby you can upload straight from your computer.
Too bad you aren’t listening.
I luved my home at 360. Now we wait.

John Milani | October 19th, 2007 at 6:51 pm

Please,
I do enjoy 360. It is very easy to stay in contact with friends and easy to use. I hope 360 can be kept. Just please consider the people who use it and not just your bottom dollar. The majority should have a say in this.

Tracy | October 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm

Just a thought… I know you guys are planning a new “profile” experience, but if you kept the 360 name- you might avoid some of this panic.

I’m all for making things better with 360, but I think your biggest draw is the 360 simplicity. It’s easy to use. It’s easy to meet others. It’s easy to blog. Easy to use RSS feeds. Easy to comment. It would be a shame if that went away in all your tinkering.

You have a HUGE, LOYAL 360 fan base. Start by making them happy, then progress by attracting new users.

Lastly, I can tell you right now… everyone on 360 wants to be assured that Mash is not our future ‘360′. Because, frankly, I hate it. Everyone I know finds unappealing. It sucks.

I’ve been with you since the beginning Yahoo!, and it’s been a great ride…. but I have to say, this is your last chance to make it right. Make it work.

joannp | October 19th, 2007 at 7:14 pm

I for one love both sites, 360 and Mash. Mash is a nice social network and 360 is great for blogging. I am wondering why you are dumping 360 when Mash does not have a way to blog?? To become top in the field that you so desire why don’t you combine the two . Leave 360 as it is for the blogging part and just add Mash for our front page:) how simple is that!!!
I thank you for taking the time with us , we do love our 360 please let us know a little more about the blogging part of your plan. People are worried.
Blessing and good luck , joannp

Darla | October 19th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

You have got to be kidding me. You can not get rid of 360. There are to many of us that made friends on here and do not want to loose them. I like going and reading other peoples blogs and browsing. I think the majority of us wants 360 to stay. And I also think if you get rid of it a lot of us will be going else where.

Hans Krugger | October 19th, 2007 at 7:23 pm

Please… if its not broke..dont fix it. We like 360 as it is.

Joan | October 19th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

What I get from your essay above is that you want to turn Yahoo into some sort of hypermarketplace. You want it to be a starting point for consumers, a must-buy for advertisers, and a place to attract the most publishers and developers.

As a person in my mid-40’s, my consumer value has never been higher. It is people in my age group that make up the bulk of consumers in this nation. I know you think it is a younger group, but you would be incorrect.

Yahoo!360 is the best forum for social networking that I have been able to find for people ages 40 and over. My age group. We don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, just a place to jot down our thoughts and have people respond to them. The advertising is noticeable, yet not ostentatious and overbearing. The technology is not too overwhelming to learn easily. It is a very nice place to park my blogs.

I am leery of the vague future you’ve laid out for my friends and me on Y360. It makes the users of this product suspicious and I can certainly understand why many of them have jumped ship and headed over to Multiply or MySpace. I hope you understand that you are pulling the rug out from under your own plan by causing mistrust and bad feelings among those users of Yahoo in my age group, who have, until now, felt right at home on your pages.

As for me, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll stick around and see if I like what you’ve got in store for us, but if it is just another kiddie site, my days of visiting Yahoo (and it’s advertisers) will be over. I’m sure I am not the only one who feels this way!

John of AllFaith | October 19th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

I have spent the day creating a Multiply Blog.

It is we, your users who have made Yahoo what it is.
Without us you would have no advertisers.

When Yahoo bought Geocities they destroyed what was the best such site on the internet.

When Yahoo bought (and later dumped) Webring Yahoo destroyed an incredible service. It never recovered.

This list could go on but why bother…

Yahoo 360 is without any doubt (in my opinion) THE best such service online. Now Yahoo are going to destroy 360 too!

Yahoo can do anything it wants to with its products (of course) but if you do not cancel this destruction of 360 I for one plan to sever all ties with all Yahoo products forever.

I’m through creating things to make you people money only to have Yahoo destroy them.

I hope Yahoo comes to its senses instead of cents and dollars.

Cheryl Siders | October 19th, 2007 at 7:49 pm

WHY cant u just leave 360?????// It seems smarter financally to fix the bugs here & leave it over creating another forum or even cont. Mash doesnt make much sense.U said you were listening well LISTEN NO ONE WANTS YAHOO 360 TO GO AWAY. KEEP IT PLZ!!! You guys have done enough to mess with our minds by posting in August then NOTHING for 2 months then a blog that said we r listening & now this.I cant get my avator to post or even my third pic Im allowed wont post. Canu help me plz. U came by to swipe a nakey pic I had plz help me post my avator.Most of the 1000 comments on Yahoo 360 page is similar KEEP 360 & FIX THE BUGS!! SIMPLE ENOUGH??Also why did you allow bad language to stay on the last post in August?/ Ppl did it to get your attention. The ONLY way they got your attention was go to Mash & complain.

Terrence M. Wiens | October 19th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

Hi Jerry:
I have had a Yahoo Mail account for eleven years and have had Yahoo as my Home Page for about the same amount of time. I have been blogging on 360 for over a year and despite the fact it has more bugs than the Arctic in summer, I have enjoyed the experience and made lots of good friends.
You are now in grave danger of losing me and a multitude of other adults. That MASH thing is a glorified colouring book for children. We do not want a Facebook or Myspace or any other format designed for teeny boppers. We’re mainly Boomers with fat wallets and bank accounts, advertisers’ dream targets.
So messing with 360 is simply bad business.
The so-called infor we’ve gotten so far from you folks has sounded like the gobbledegook spouted by politicians who use a lot of words to say nothing and make grandiose promises they have no intention of keeping. That sort of treatment may fool children but not us. We’re setting up accounts on MULTIPLY as lifeboats for when you sink 360 into oblivion. It’s a darn good site, you folks could learn something there.
Anyway, my advice is to communicate clearly and often with us or it’s going to be Sayanora, Yahoo.
Take care and be safe.

Mystie2007 | October 19th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

If you ‘honestly’ want to know just how devoted your users are to their Yahoo 360 blogs, perhaps you’ll take the time to read the Save 360 Petition. People deserve to be heard so please make the effort. Thank you!

Sherri | October 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

Hi
I just wanted to let you know that I think you are making a big mistake. I have been a yahoo user since 2000 I will be 41 in Nov. I feel that by not listening to what 360 users want you are not satisfying your customers. I don’t have a problem with change. I started using Beta Mail when there was still the option to use the old mail format. I have yahoo jukebox. I also don’t mind watching a commercial while I wait to watch a video. It seems that you are trying to make yahoo a new an innovative place. Thats fine sometimes, time changes things. My questions to you is why get rid of 360 and why change it? If nothing else you should be trying to make it a household name like Myspace. Even though I can use a computer I found myspace to be too complicated I have grown to love 360 I enjoy my friends that I have made here. You say that a transition will take place?? Just what is that? We need help! I know that it has a lot to do with money. Don’t you think that advertisers are will pay to advertise where the traffic is? It’s not like the site isn’t being used or that there is low traffic flow. I think that you could find a way for people to advertise if you really wanted to. Fix what is wrong with the site and do what you can to make it a place where more traffic will come. I don’t really like to google I use yahoo as my search engine although I do sometimes use google if I am looking for pictures. Please fix 360 don’t get rid of it. I enjoy blogging and I don’t want to loose my site. I have learned a lot from the group I joined. I am slow at aspects of the computer and would hate to have to learn another site. I would rather learn to make changes with the 360 site. All we ask is that you don’t keep us in the dark and you do your best to make 360 a site of the future instead of a thing of the past. Thank you for listening.

Moonie | October 19th, 2007 at 8:07 pm

Sir, do you realize the life line that you will be severing if you shut down yahoo360?? Do you understand what will happen if it just goes poof like a thief in the night? The friendships that have been forged and created, the relationships that have been established between people of all walks of life? I have found FAMILY that I never knew I had because of yahoo360. 360 is a place that adults can be and not have to worry majority of the time about being invaded by brats under the age of 18. I do not like Mash, I hate MySpace, I love my Yahoo360, why??? Why do you persist in destroying something so good?? Yahoo360 has so many networks, especially for women. Women who are survivors of Cancer, survivors of Rape, Survivors of Domestic Violence and it is only because of Yahoo360 that majority of these Women can actually find someone they can relate to without being judged! And now……you so callously decide to take all of these lifelines away. We……the loyal patrons of Yahoo360 beg you to reconsider.

Moonie Sixkiller

Midnight_in_Gethsemane | October 19th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

I have been with Yahoo ever since I became familiar with a computer.
I believe it would be a great shame for Yahoo to shut down 360. This is where we have made great friendships from all over the USA and the world over.
I can understand if you were upgrading the program. I can not see doing away with 360.
Most of the younger generation is on myspace and I very seriously doubt if they will go to a yahoo program.
I fear that you are letting the older generation down. We should count just as much, if not more, than the younger generationI also fear that if Yahoo does away with 360 that many will do away with a lot of Yahoo’s services and go instead to Google and MSN. Yahoo would loose a lot if this were to happen.

mary | October 19th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

From the Greetings E-cards to the games to the photos. Now 360? Are you guys kidding? Do you just get the hook in peoples mouths and get a good forty percent to just follow along with the changes and let the other 6o% go? Honestly when 360 goes, I go too. I enjoyed 360 very much. It’s easy and fun. You, for a lack of better words, stink! When you close 360, I guess that will be it for me on Yahoo.

mary | October 19th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

While I just commented, I need to add that the advertisements on Y360 are viewed by stable adults with real live jobs and the freedom to spend money, unlike that awful myspace who shows slasher film ads, because that is there best bet for money making. Is that where you want to be? The market of teens on an allowance?

Brian | October 19th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Your just not listening are you. Listen to the voice and try to understand it. Most people in 360 don’t want glitter we are not children, we enjoy being adults. Put it to a vote!!!

Anna~Anna | October 19th, 2007 at 9:16 pm

I was going to write…

But I see that Anne Orsi (above) has expressed my own sentiments so succinctly that I perhaps do not need to.

I SHARE ALL OF HER SENTIMENTS!
So I shall keep my own comments to a personal level; business (yours) has already been addressed.

IF you ARE indeed preserving all of this (360-World) for us, then why would we need to be “transitioned” in the first place?

And why would ‘we’ need to be given “the right tools to move ‘our’ blog content”?

Move it where, pray tell????

As of this moment, I have been faithful to 360. My friends list is/was chosen very carefully. I have a clean page and run a tight ship.

I just wish that Yahoo! might have shown a little more of that same faithfulness in return.

Oh just let us know already…

I have asked people repeatedly to let us know what is going on. No concrete answers there, or here.

I have blogged since I’d 1st heard the rumors too. (Please see my tag cloud under 360~World)…

Part of my own remarks there read as follows:

“I am not a wise blogger, not sage, or any of those other terms… But I love to share my little stories, and photos; AND to read and see others as well.

This (360), for me has created an outlet, and has brought many friends to my heart.

I am not, nor have I ever been, interested in blogging elsewhere.

Nor have I accepted any invitations to join others on their “new” sites.
(Yes, I have checked out Mash). Noisy and immature.

Yahoo has created somewhat of a mass exodus by not addressing these issues for people. Many have pulled up stakes and went elsewhere.

Yes, there IS a huge difference in 360 from some of the other sites.

But hey YAHOO!, maybe this is WHY we are here in the first place.

…Lightbulb goes off, …(somewhere out in California I hope)…”

There are those of us here on Y!360 that are not interested in numbers, (although with the sheer numbers that some individual blogs have, it would seem as there is NOT really a number problem).

These numbers, (real people reading real Y! 360 blogs) are coming from somewhere, and I refuse to believe that there is some Stepford computer reading mine at any point.

Maybe there are more ‘numbers’ elsewhere… (that ‘elsewhere’ being myspace, blogspot, facebook etc- blah, blah, blah).

I neither want to quit blogging, nor be forced to go elsewhere.

Mash, like many of the others mentioned, is too immature and childish for my own personal tastes.

I am hoping that the powers that be will allow 360 to remain as a separate entity if need be, and not to be confused within a whole new world of “poor me’s” and the immature writings of people that cannot find their own way in the world. (cyber OR otherwise).

I do not need rapidly changing walls or other things in my life.
For crying out loud I will be 50 next year and do not need anything even remotely close to ’stupid’ anymore.
(Hell, I was married to ‘Stupid’ for too many years anyway)…

“I get sick of idiocy very quickly and do not want any other blog site.

This little corner of Yahoo! (360) is more than enough for me.

In the meantime, I have had many requests to “join a friend” at MySpace and the others…

If I wanted a MySpace account, I would have one.

If I wanted all the crap that goes with those other sites, I would have that too.

…Although many a person HAS gotten their 15 minutes of fame by going to those sites.

(I don’t think I have EVER seen Y360 aired or profiled on Primetime)?

So while I am sure that the 360 could be improved at times, I am still very comfortable here.”

As far as anyone that has sent me an invitation to all those other sites knows, I do not accept, nor do I join them. I am not opposed to ‘change’, but the fact is that I am simply NOT interested in being anyplace else. (Unlike real life)?

All humor aside, I am thinking that if we go off half~cocked to join anyplace else, we are only feeding that frenzy, that gaggle of goners.

I will not be doing this.

My 360, and ALL of yours, provide me with enough inspiration to get me through my days, and to see how you are getting through your own too!

And until this is all more substantiated, then I shall try not worry overmuch. I will however, go buy some ink, and a wee bit of paper. My blogs are as much for you as they have also been written for my grandbabies; and they will have each of my blogs available to them on hard copy too.

Rethink. Renew. Reuse. But do not replace.

XOXO
Anne

Mommaof2 | October 19th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

I truly appreciate that Yahoo 360 is free,but please…If it isn’t broke…don’t fix it! Yahoo 360 is a simple,easy to use site that many ADULTS enjoy using. It isn’t noisy,it doesn’t take forever to load,because it isn’t ‘junked up’ with a bunch of unnecessary graphics,and thankfully with us more mature people,not full of a bunch of immature children.Yes,there are a few exceptions,but all in all,it’s a wonderful place to spend a few minutes of extra time each day,or as often as possible ,with no bells and whistles that’s just not needed!As for the Mash thing,since the majority of people on Y360 are adults,we already have REAL pets,and REAL children and families to take care of,who needs a virtual pet?! I truly hope someone is really reading what we all have to say.If we wanted something like MySpace,we’d already be there!Please be “The horse of a different color” and don’t follow in the footsteps of the sites focused mostly on the younger generation!Thank you.

Viccles2004 | October 19th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

Thank you for your posting on what has been going on behind the scenes in Yahoo. It is obvious that what is “relevant” for Yahoo and it’s stock holders is money,… bottom line. I know that Yahoo provides a service, in fact a lot of services. Those services are used by us the consumer. The views of those consumers have been voiced in the latest postings in the Yahoo 360 team blogs both here and abroad. What Yahoo fails to do is listen to those consumers. Here lies the “relevancy” of what really mattes. Profit, more advertising, or the opportunities for more advertising and businesses that tie themselves to the Yahoo network. Each small voice of ours though is the basis for consumption of that network. A lot of members of the 360 blogging community are understandably upset. Questions went unanswered for months… Issues sidestepped…promises being made of something that will enhance our Yahoo experience even more. How can promises be made of an “enchanced yahoo experience”, when what we the users of 360 have already been experiencing…. such general disreguard?

“Irrelevancy: not relevant: not applicable or pertinent,” …. isn’t that what you really meant to say?

Night _ Howl | October 19th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

I am here to plead with you to please keep 360 as it is,or at least don’t change it drastically.Many of us are ready to leave and migrate to multiply.com if you take our pages away,and we don’t really like it there.You don’t know how much 360 means to a lot of people.We have worked very hard on our pages,and 360 is like a little neighborhood where we check in on each other.It’s extremely user-friendly,and I like the look of it.One of my friends is nearly suicidal at the thought of losing his page and his friends.For those of us who don’t get out much,or don’t have a lot of friends or family,360 has been a Godsend;it literally gives us a reason to get up in the morning.Please don’t take it away!
Thank you.

dezbird | October 20th, 2007 at 12:21 am

“We defined a strategy that revolves around making Yahoo! indispensable to an ecosystem of consumers, advertisers, publishers and developers”- err no, you are running away your consumers by closing down 360. Even if you were to transition it in to something like MySpace and target a younger audience why are you paring down your music service? Not that I care about the music service but it makes no sense to me. What demographic are you targeting exactly? You have blatantly ignored the vox populi. It seems you are only interested in obscene profits. The thing I am wondering about is, if you drive away your loyal 360 users, how do you expect to make these profits? There will be no one left to click on ads, purchase products or services, no one left to increase your market popularity and make you appealing to investors. I am not a professional person by any means but even I can understand that you do not alienate your customer base. You can’t expect people to shop through your sites or patronize your sponsors once you have told them to “go fly a kite” (to put it mildly). I have had a Yahoo! game account for 7 years and an e-mail account for even longer than that. I have had a 360 account for over a year. If you destroy 360 then there will be no reason for me to return. I still have other e-mail accounts from 10 years ago that I can use and I can go play card games elsewhere. I am also setting up a different blog spot on another server so that I may still have contact with the wonderful people that I have met on 360. Yes if 360 goes down then I will no longer have anything to do with Yahoo! or it’s sponsors. Hey if you don’t want me or my money then there are other places that do. I think that you are making a horrible business decision.

Angeline | October 20th, 2007 at 12:52 am

I joined yahoo about 6 months ago and having tried others have found it the best one to use. I especially like the protection we receive as users to be able to report abuse and harrassment and other problems. I like the service the way it is and do not wish to see it change. It works for me it is simple and effective and the community here is one of the best. I have already lost some friends who have gone over to the other service and can not keep up with more than one blog. I have had an invitation to mash but can not get into it as there was a problem. Given a choice i would stay where i am. Many users are objecting to this change having been happy with the service the way it is. I understand the need to update, compete and run an effective service but most people would just be happy if some of the glitches in the system were ironed out.
Many people were not happy with the move to Flickr either as they liked the service they had before but they had no choice. It would be good if we could try out the new service and decide for ourselves if we want to stay or go. Reading the comments most people would prefer to stay where they are.

SweetPotatoe Queen | October 20th, 2007 at 1:05 am

Congratulations on the new changes that await!
While your customers await the specifics of said changes there is much angst about the future format of 360. Y360 is a vibrant community of adult bloggers that are quite concerned about the continuity of this platform. Per your post it seems Y360 is not an area of investment in your future plans. This is truely unfortunate as you have a vast number of customers who will simply move their blogging sites and in doing so have no use for daily ties with yahoo.
Thanks for the update..going to go spread the word on 360 that it’s time to look for a new home for blogging.

ian bach | October 20th, 2007 at 2:47 am

Hello I have my web site hosted by Yahoo and I use many yahoo products.

I do think yahoo has lost users for several reasons

1. many changed internet subcription to a local DSL.

2. yahoo has lost its edge in the search engine market.

3. in yahoo 360 a person must try and find ways to make their 360 page better. many use video. Yahoo has not supplied a video host site that i know of? also there is no help pages that really show a person all they can do. how to find friends,, ways to prevent finding bad friends, BUT mypage has very little help on showing users what is possible and how. They suggest contact other users to learn.

4. There is plenty of places that cater to young people…but yahoo has many devoted people 30-60 +. This is where Yahoo should focus on the New markets like baby boomers etc.

5. Yahoo should not try to do it all. look at google, myspace, youtube, they all allow 2nd party software and they show they users where to find 2nd party software to enhance their sites/pages/blogs.

6. Yahoo should look for untapped markets like 30-70 age group.

Personally I like Yahoo 360 because it is less kids and nuts (then most sites). Also they are strict against porn and such. Yahoo 360, yahoo questions and answers, and a few other yahooo products/services rate very well in google. A person can gain high ranks if they use a good user name (use a fake name if u can), blog id, and tags work very well in the google rankings and search listing. I am number 2 or 3 in google search and have about 1/3 to 1/4 of the top 20 links in google if you type Ian Bach in the search.

For now it looks like yahoo 360 will be around at least a year more but I expect that will be years. New products will be available but switching I don’t see becoming manditory. Major reason why they will keep yahoo 360 around…. People Like Cherei. and also the possible loss of long time users.

I do think yahoo QandA needs work cleaning up of the disruptive people. But for now it looks like Yahoo beleives, liberael views sell better than reality /conservative views.

Best Wishes,
Ian Bach

ian bach | October 20th, 2007 at 2:57 am

I want to thank yahoo. About 10 months ago I started to report terrorist friendly Blogs, pages, profiles, etc. to many hosts. Yahoo has been very helpful in shutting down terroist / terrorist friendly web sites. Some of these include ones with a nuke explosion superimposed over NYC skyline, blogs that showed US military in a bad light, fake military IDs, and fake NYC ID, even a terrorist friendly / site in Australia yahoo.au

Best Wishes,
Ian Bach
Counter Insurgency Blog

Peggy | October 20th, 2007 at 3:05 am

I dont know what I would do without yahoo! It has become a part of my everyday lfe for over 5 years now and I depend on its services..Sorry to hear 360 is closing as I use that too and I have met alot of people (my own age) to befriend an see whats going on with them in their daily lives..

MaRtY | October 20th, 2007 at 4:30 am

I love 360 and have used it on an almost daily basis since joining the community. I’m not impressed at all with Mash; nor am I impressed with your lack of response to either the bugs that affect 360 users or the requests to keep 360 around. You constantly talk about wanting to cater to the customers but are constantly showing that customer opinions don’t matter. If 360 goes away then I will too. I have no desire to mess with a MySpace clone. If I wanted to use MySpace then I would have gone there to begin with. I also strongly feel that it would be a waste to mess with Mash because it too would be abandoned when you come up with your next ‘great idea’ and loyal customer opinions would be completely ignored. 360 is an incredible site that is geared for adults, and that has set it apart from and above other social interaction sites. To believe it needs to be scrapped for something different shows just how disconnected from your users you are. Like another commenter said…you should have followed the age-old advice - if it’s not broke then don’t fix it.

Nancy | October 20th, 2007 at 4:44 am

Most of us who use 360 and know what’s going on (as much as we can,anyway) are worried and upset. We have spent yrs building up our pages and our friends here. We are ,for the most part,intelligent,thinking ,feeling Adults. That’s why we have our blogs on 360 and not Myspace.
I think most of us would appreciate communication from the management of Yahoo & 360 and not just some rude blog by people like Darrell Jones.
I know it’s hard to please everyone but from what I have been reading on blog comments and other sources,including here,it might be a good idea to ask us,your customers what we like and dislike about 360. I’m sure you’d get lists and lists.
From reading these comments I see alot of knee-jerk reactions but I also see alot of really good ideas that if taken into serious consideration might just help make your “transition” easier for you and all of us.
I’m not asking for the moon….I don’t want that. All I’d like is some consideration & respect as a long time Yahoo user . Please listen to us .
Thank you for your time.

Kathy Marche | October 20th, 2007 at 5:39 am

I recently heard a rumor that 360 might be closing and changing into MASH. I was absolutley devastated when I, along iwth a few friends decided that since there was no reassurance that this was only a rumor, decided that we had better get MASH pages for ourselves…just in case it turned out not to be only a rumor, so that we would still be hooked up with each other. But upon seeing how there is no blog in it, and features that are obviously designed for children (which is fine - if you happen to be a child), well, I was literally in tears. I am a 42 year old woman in a long term relationship. I’ve looked previously at MySpace, FaceBook, just out of curiousity, as they get so much media attention, and was totally appalled at the thought of having an account at a place like that! Too many unnecessary features, and again, designed obviously for children and teens, and adults who wish to “hook-up” and a place full of sexual predators, and in general, just a place where I would never go to feel comfortable, or go at all.

Ove a year ago, when I changed over from dial-up to AT&T Yahoo DSL HIgh Speed Internet, I sort of fell into 360 by accident. And found that it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. There have truly been times that I don’t know if I would have made it through had it not been for 360 and the absoultely wonderful, true and mature friends that I have found here. I come to 360 every single day, I’ve had a blog running on here now ever since I joined in Sept. 2006. If you kill 360, you might as well kill me, too. 360 has enriched my life more than you people there at Yahoo could ever know, and to have had that, and for me to have invested so much of myself in people who I have believed would be there for as long as I live, and vice versa, how could you possible be so cruel as to threaten to take that away from me. And it’s not just me. I read some of the comments above mine here, none of them from people I know, although everyone I do know here on 360, along with their friends, their friends friends, and so on and so on, are as devestated as I am, if possible, some even more so - at the rumors that have been flying about the possibility of 360 abandonng us, or worse, changing to something foreign and unwelcomed by us here who love and need 360 in our lives every day. Now, we’re finding that the so called rumos are not just rumors, but that you at Yahoo! are actually considering doing something so very, very cruel, as to play with so many of our lives by threatening to yank our world right out from under us! Please, I beg of you, Pleaes, please, please… let 360 be. Do whatever you want with your other services, but please don’t destroy so many lives by having given us 360, and each other - only to take it away from us. Please give this matter more consideration, and think of how many lives you will absolutely destroy, should you discontinue, or change in any manner, 360. If only you would put you energy instead ino fixing the minor 360 “glitches”, such as allowing all of us to be ble to put all 4 of our profile pics back up, maybe allowing HTML in blog comments. But even if our do’t fix those things, I would be still ever so grateful if I couold know that 360 is not hanging in the balance the way it now seems to be.
Please, listen to us, know that many of us literally depend on this site for our sanity, for companionship, we have put a lot of work into our pages. Why in the world would you create something so wonderful that has touched so many peoples lives the world over, only to take it away from us? Surely you wouldn’t be so cruel. Please take my comment along with all the others I’ve read so far, expresing basically the same sentiments. I thank you very much for taking this into consideration.

Sincerely,

Kathy Maracher

Suzanne Deal-Fitzgerald | October 20th, 2007 at 6:06 am

I’m also a 360 user, my homepage is Yahoo’s home page, my default search engine is Yahoo, I use the Yahoo tool bar, I’m in over 20 groups on Yahoo Groops, and I use the “My Web” feature daily.

I’m 50, I’m one of the babies in the Baby Boomer Generation.

There are many of us out here, and I’d hope your “senior” leaders will keep us in mind. When it comes to the 360 sites, many of us are there for the content, and not the toys. Mash seems to be a lot about toys and gimmicks, and not about substance.

Please keep us in mind when you go through your changes, and we go through ours. We are more settled about who we are, and what we are comfortable doing. I think that’s an asset. Work with us, answer our questions, fix the problems with 360, and don’t roll your eyes when we want to stay with something that’s working perfectly well for those of us who know what we need and why we need it.–Thanks!

Cordelia | October 20th, 2007 at 6:13 am

FWIW, I’ll chime in here with support for 360. I won’t go down the list that so many people have cited, but I LOVE 360 because it’s ADULT ORIENTED! I am 42 years old. I don’t want glitter crap. I don’t want some ridiculous cyber pet to feed. Since hearing about the impending demise of 360, I’ve been looking elsewhere in order to find a site that serves my need for adult conversation and insight. it’s looking like Multiply at Google may be where it’s at, or so I’ve heard from lots of 360 users.

Looks like I’ll be moving my base of operation int eh next few months and taking my friends with me if 360 is altered.

sher | October 20th, 2007 at 6:28 am

please dont destroy our 360, like most 360 users i do not like mash, and would rather keep 360 i have been a yahoo user for 9 years now and have seen a lot of changes, i think yahoo 360 is the best thing that was made and i want it to stay that way, please yahoo listen to us just for once and hear what we have to say dont close our 360 and turn it to mash

Jolinda A. | October 20th, 2007 at 6:29 am

It is obvious here and from all the comments on Y!’s Product Blog that the majority of 360 users are not happy with changes they feel are looming over them. I became a 360 user by chance. I saw it listed as a link on the home page about 2 years ago and clicked on it to check it out. I have never left.
The reason so many people are upset, I believe, is that we feel as if our suggestions for the most part have been ignored. We are your customers. I would venture to say that 360 users take advantage of more services than any other group.
Now, the users of 360 have made a personal connection with other users who are now quickly leaving. 360 has been a mental “home” for me and I don’t know where I will go if it is “integrated” with Mash or a different service.
We are an older generation of users that enjoy the indepth personal connections we make with people who have similar interests and experience. Going somewhere new would very much be like starting over after a divorce. I find that traumatic and basically unrewarding.
I hope that you find a way to resolve this without greatly affecting your largest consumer base. Otherwise, I see my blogging life regressing back to a personal hand written diary.

OBI | October 20th, 2007 at 6:42 am

Well, I guess my 2 cents won’t matter much anyway, but here it is! One thing, 360 became a haven for me as an adult who wanted to blog. I have two 360 pages, one for networking and one as a personal journal(my first 360 page and still have it). However, there are bugs like the reporting of abuse, when pages are made to blast another person’s beliefs or their children, and your 360Team just allows this to go on for weeks. Once, I opened a 360 page only to have it deleted by Yahoo for its being tied to another 360 users email account! I got threatening comments and messages and appealed to Yahoo for help only to be deleted without any kind of explanation or apology. I was labled a “hacker” and don’t know squat about how to do anything in that vein. It seemed a Yahoo glitch that Yahoo never admitted to its making a mistake. Yet, all that eventually passed me by. I am so angry that I found out about this through word of mouth, or rather through word of blogs from my friends! Yahoo 360 is going to be merged into Yahoo Mash! I’ve stopped by and seen it, but if I wanted a facebook, I’d have promoted myself there for an invite. I am not a pedofile, and don’t want to have a bunch of children telling me to “have a bitchin day.” But all in all 360 is a great place for adults. I found 360 through Yanswers(which answers is a fine service, but you have to weed out the children playing) and have been on it ever since. I was relieved to find adults online, talking and networking. I have a Myspace and rarely go there because of how long it takes to open a page and nobody cares what you blog and never posts a comment on the blog itself. Save 360 for us dinosaurs who love it and those we’ve come to consider friends. The glitches, bugs, and such can be overlooked, but, in closing, I will write here what I write to my friends on 360 when they are upset with something not working there — Yahoo is a free service and you know you always get what you pay for.

Watercolorarteest | October 20th, 2007 at 6:42 am

I keep trying, I believe in vain, to leave my two cents worth about the Y360 experience.

I’m a powerblogger thanks to Y360. It’s an uncluttered format with the ability to share as much or as little about yourself as you want. It’s a blogging experience with maturity for responsible users such as myself.

I’ve not done any complaining about Y360 glitches because it’s a free service. I know beggars can’t be choosers. Or can they? Since the rumors of Yahoo eliminating or “transitioning” Y360 I’ve been worried. I’ve put a LOT of myself into my Y360 and met some fantastic people and now it’s like the captain has jumped ship!

I’m straddling a fence right now. It’s a position one will RARELY find me in. I WANT to stay at Y360 because I like it so much, but in case some executive somewhere wants to not follow through with promises to save blogs and contact info, I’ve had to find another place to find “home” online.

I’m trying to reduce costs, but it is one place I’d pay a small monthly fee for to keep. BUT if I end up paying for a service then the product will then need to be glitch free and problems addressed in a timely fashion. No more abandoning ship if I end up paying for a service.

Like the other user above, Y360 IS my HOMEPAGE. It’s what I wake up to to greet my contacts and what I say goodnight to in my online presence. Yahoo profiles? Yahoo music? Yahoo search? What’s THAT? Y360 has had my attention, drop it? Lose me.

Perhaps you can come visit me at my Multiply blog site for some serious adult interaction? Or perhaps not.

Sincerely,
Watercolorarteest
Powerblogger, will blog for free.

Laura B aka Ut's chick | October 20th, 2007 at 7:30 am

I say Leave 360 as it is Most of us are adults on the 360 page,and are happy with our blogs,friends and so on.

PLEASE DONT CHANGE IT AT ALL PLEASE!!!
If you Vaule our Opions here and you honestly listen to us,then how about letting us vote if we want to have something else?
Please dont change OUR 360!

I love 360 I had been invited to Mash but can’t get in it… If Mash is what you want just ADD it to Yahoo DONT CHANGE 360 Please

I thank you for taking the time with us , we do love our 360 People are worried and dont want to lose 360 at all Thank you for your time

Laura B

cam | October 20th, 2007 at 7:31 am

Regarding 360, I for one would be willing to pay an annual fee (like Flickr) to receive a comprehensive solution to SNS that was supported, and constantly improved, allowing us freedom to differentiate our pages from the Free version (like Flickr).

You will note that the majority of your 360 users are NOT of the same market segment as the Myspace people. We come to communicate on 360, not to bounce around and be cutesy funsy. We expect intellectual, adult conversations in our groups and at the same time demand that Yahoo! take the support of this medium serious.

Having said that, I might inform you that click-thru ads for revenue will most likely be a very poor way to become profitable for this community. It may work in a different market segment (younger web surfers, for example), but when people come to communicate, they don’t come to follow ads. The ads in the blogs detract from the experience, they do not add to it. Therefore, if the majority of your sales profits are based on that model, it is no wonder that 360 has been “de-emphasized”, because it would be a failing business. And any business CxOs worth their salt would want to get rid of those non-performers, and quickly.

However…. SNS really is, I believe, the future communication tool that binds us all together, so if Yahoo doesn’t have one (and a superior tool), then the others out there will take the market share, and once again, leave you in the dust.

If you are going to integrate it into something, by all means, please do, BUT please consider the market segment that you have attracted (Mash! for example is probably one of your worst concepts and I would highly recommend that you divest that test ASAP if you wish to keep the millions of “bloggers” that you currently have. Of course, if you are targeting a MySpace crowd, it might be interesting, but by my appraisal (I basically “deleted” my Mash) it is sub-par to anything else out there.

Consider offering Free SNS and PRO SNS and make it a difference. Those that enjoy what they have created here will likely stay IF you make the pricing competitive and don’t try to deplete everyone’s pockets.

Being an MBA holder, I have to ask the question, “why on earth did it take you this long to come up with the conclusions above (removing the silo mentality, etc.)? From my perspective, everything you state should have already been integrated into your b.p. years ago. This is a no-brainer and any MBA on your team should have been consulted on this several years ago. They could have told you exactly what you are just discovering now.

Good luck and I hope you find the right business model to move into the end of the second half of the decade.

Cameron Switzer

rose or luzie | October 20th, 2007 at 7:40 am

I am so happy to have my yahoo 360 blog. It is a wonderful media to share news, thoughts, photos with friends and other and to ge know to others all over the world. Please be so kind and listen to us and let us keep our 360 page. I do not like mash a lot, you cannot do as much as on yahoo 360. Mash is a bit fun, but similar to so many other blogs, you cannot create so much in your private way like on yahoo 360. Yahoo 360 is more special to creativity. Please let us keep it.
Thank you in advance
Rose

Tres | October 20th, 2007 at 7:56 am

~I am so upset about 360. I do not understand so many things. One is how I blogged passionately by the name luvzoeygirl@yahoo.ca and without warning or reason the account was deactivated. When I phoned I was told to write. When I wrote they said I didn’t abide by the service agreements and yet I asked what I did wrong and they wouldn’t say. They played God with me and I must say it upset me. I have met many people through 360 and it means a lot to me and for it to be zapped away from me without cause is totally uncaring and cold. So I take on another account and I TRY to find some of the old friends. I think maybe 14 % of them… but I can’t get my old blogs /comments back…I can’t get my emails back and personal things in my emails. AND NOW you tell us 360 is finished in the new year? To what..MASH? That is for children, what’s left for us adults? I really wish you and your staff would reconsider.

Tres Bien

Jenn | October 20th, 2007 at 8:21 am

Hello Mr. Yang,

Your Yahoo 360 team should be able to post more information on what the plans are for Y360. Tell us what is going to be added and taken away. Nothing should be removed from 360 adding options would be fine. One thing that I would like to see inproved is the for blog entries. The max size of the photo that can be uploaded is 5MB. I would like to see that increased. Do not eliminate 360, and just have YMash you would have a lot of angry people. Hopefully you are reading these comments and not one of your assistants.

tony scarpa | October 20th, 2007 at 8:44 am

you need to fix the violatin porblem first. You hand out to many bogus violations and suspensions. Your answer tems does not check the bouus violations that are done by nut jobs. We get screwes all the time. You need to wake up and stop tsaking all our points away. You too 10,600 pts from me for noe good reason. Yous should only suspend an act foe a week not forever.
It is not fair for us to work so hard to get all those points nad then u take them away. You are making this anwers a foss. Wake up ok. And repalce tthe answer team they stink.

jo | October 20th, 2007 at 8:45 am

Agree with the others: Y360 has a couple tech problems which, if solved, would make it the best adult blog around. We don’t *need* another Mash, MySpace, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. You overlook the adults at your own economic peril All the Y360 bloggers I’m in contact with are disheartened, feeling betrayed, lost, as if no one (and I mean no one) at Yahoo gives a damn about what we want or like. Most of these contacts say that they will simply quit blogging entirely rather than transition to another blog like Multiply (which has its own drawbacks). Another problem is that yes, there *are* boomer blogs — but I’m not a boomer, and I don’t want to blog with just other boomers. I like the range of ages on Y360 and the perspectives those different generations provide.

Don’t, please, please, please, throw the baby out with the bathwater in some mis-guided attempt to make everything “new” and “improved”. Trust me on this: you stand to lose more than you will gain.

Katie | October 20th, 2007 at 8:57 am

Changing or removing 360 will be a mistake. I’ve used yahoo since I started online in ‘99 and opened a 360 page as soon as it was available… I have no wish to deal with myspace, mash, or any other format that caters to teenagers.

Dorothy | October 20th, 2007 at 9:12 am

Please don’t change ayhooo 360. I am older and don’t care for younger persons under the age of 18 whcih I find on other sites.. i have no interest in the other site nor in joing facebook or my space. I much prefer yahoo36o just as it is I odn’t mind the occasional problems most of my friends do’t want to switch wither.. you will lose a lot of people if you contiue to disregard the ones that don’t want to change over! I don’t trust that you won’t lose our pages profiles or info please don’t change
I love the comment section where I can quickly go form one page to anouther and visit all my 84 friends
sadly Dorothy

terry | October 20th, 2007 at 9:17 am

I watched as another online service (msn) ignored their users and flushed a bulk of their biz down the drain so I’m not shocked watching yahoo do it.

360 was an outlet for my art and allowed me to get feedback i couldn’t get from myspace and introduced me to a quality adult oriented group of people who shared similar interests

i have tried mash for about a month and shut my page down it dose not hold my interest , its a kiddy site and i cant see it turning into a replacement for 360
so if yahoo has no interest in my interests ive also shut down my involvement in groups and am currently copying my photos out of flickr(which i paid for pro account and now am told its free to att cust)(wheres my refund)
when 360 goes il cut all ties to yahoo including my dsl that is packaged with yahoo products and get a cable or satellite connection
Thanks for ignoring your adult users maybe your advertisers would like to know your chasing off the people with money

Mike ~ The Defender of Myrth | October 20th, 2007 at 10:39 am

Well Mr. Yang….

After all your Yes Men and Yes women are done patting each other on the back for what “YOU” think is a job well done…why not seriously look at what is about to happen to yahoo in general…

You have more than 2 million 360 users who enjoy the product even with all the problems such as messages not being delivered in a timely manner or delivered in mass to the tune of hundreds at a time (weeks later); comments disappearing precisely at 9am central time every damn day and sometimes repeating the whole process through out the evening from 7-9pm central time; friends disappearing out of the friends list or showing as deleted for no reason; blogs disappearing randomly. an inept team that is either unable or worse, unwilling to fix issues presented by users…check the blog comments on the 360 team…

That is just one product you offer. Yahoo Answers is tied to that product and many users who are in answers are also 360 users…keep that in mind as there are problems in there as well…

In your first point, the only viable product that Yahoo offers is Mail and that is going to suffer as 360 users depart….I’m not renewing any services for mail within yahoo at this point. Google wins hands down as the search engine of choice, your search engine is a joke at best. And adding all the content you want is not going to keep your user base here…

The people are telling you and your teams they don’t want changes that ruin their experience, yet all that comes out of Yahoo is how the changes are desired?…By whom are these desired? Not the users….Listen to the users…they are your customer…and the customer is ALWAYS right.

I guess to sum this up…Yahoo is really working hard to earn the Yahell Moniker I gave it in the summer. At this pace with all the poor communication and decidedly poor decisions within the business plan…Yahoo should be comfortably behind Google for the duration and last among social networking sites…

You really should light a fire under the development teams for results, and stop accepting the “we cannot do that” answers they give us…and light a fire under all those yes men and women who are speaking up in meetings, knowing they might lose their cozy little job if they point out the blatantly
obvious flaws in whole mess you helped create!

Do not settle for second best…there are many good suggestions above…and Yahoo could be number 1 if you people would just listen to the users who obviously know what we are talking about!

Sincerely…
Mike~The Defender of Myrth.

Robyn | October 20th, 2007 at 11:27 am

Not sure that you care or not but at least I hope you do read these.
Yahoo has been ahead of the trends for some time. However they from time to time get wild hares that just dont pan out. 360 is one of the finest hours Yahoo has had in years.
It has rapidly become one of the largest online Adult (Not as in content but actual living breathing mentally functioning bill paying intelligent ADULT) communities on the web.
It has allowed an open forum for us to express ourselves and our artistry in whatever format we deemed to fit us.
Each upgrade Yahoo did wiped us out but we rebuilt. Staying true to Yahoo and our communities. A new object for Yahoo to play with resulted in hours of frustration on our parts as we worked through “Gremlins” and Blog thefts of the Yahoo origins. Ignored by Yahoo 360’s team all together at times we fought on because we found this place something worth fighting to remain a part of.
We no longer were thrust into a world of kids with strange and odd behaviours we did not understand (nor did we want to) But we had the right to pick and choose where we fit into it all. And for some of us we never really have fit in before anywhere.
Suddenly Yahoo has another wild hare. And our communities are being yet again threatened by the Yahoodledome Nuke.
At least listen to us…hear us if you will.
Yahoo is ahead of the game….try improving the current team instead of selling out. Keep true to those out there that have remained true to you.
Hey Flicker stinks…but we migrated our accounts to keep on blogging. We worked for hours to post images, writings, music…and other forms of creation…Only to have a Yahoodlemess up wipe it out to a Whiteboard (this I know because I became Queen Yahoo Whiteboard for weeks) And yet I remained….
We all did.
Maybe the truth is, for once Yahoo and its board…You included need to remain true. Remain committed…
We need and want our communities….
If you build the other, people will come. But let the one land you did build be important enough to remain.
We are alive out here…we do matter. And you as a board, better yet as members of a society built on throwing everything out….Hold on to what really works.
Us…..at 360.

Kindest Regards inside a world of frustration…
An Angel…

Kyi-i-staah | October 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Thanks to the changes and the non-response of Yahoo to complaints of abuse, harassment and hacking by some users; I am slowly migrating to another blog platform. I came to 360 in early 2006 and loved it up until recently. You did NOTHING to the person harassing me and my friends even though we ALL reported it.

Your decision to ignore your largest demographic group (and those with the most spending power) in favor of the under 18 group also played a part in my decision to leave. Yahoo doesn’t seem to care. Comments and suggestions to the 360 Team Blog go unanswered, yet a statement there says “We are listening to your feedback”. Thanks for turning a deaf ear to your users. Goodbye.

seanymph | October 20th, 2007 at 1:01 pm

Ok so after all this hoopla I finally decided to come here to talk to you Mr. Yang. Yes I said Mr. …I will offer you that much respect even tho Yahoo hasnt done the same for me. I am a former Mrs. VP of an executive in this here Silicon Valley. Been around all of this since the mid. 1970s. One thing I do know is ….alot of innovation has gone on in that time and its been great. Your Yahoo 360 is one of those. I ask you please to pay close attention to what folks are saying here and on the Yahoo 360 team blog. You are losing people daily because of a total lack of respect for your customers. They tell you want they want, whats wrong with the product and where they need help. They ARE your best design team. I have an issue when you have TOS and you yourself do not abide by them yet quickly and without looking at whats really going on , delete innocent folks. Stalkers abound on 360 and you do nothing. Standard emails are sent out with what to do but you dont seem to hear (or care) that YOUR PRODUCT ISNT WORKING, therefore it is not protecting your people. I myself have had to shut my page down to friends only because of a spammer who spews filth hundreds of times on my page. I have reported repeatedly but I can not get HUMAN to see them. Ignore feature doesnt work for me and many others and if it did , this wouldnt be an issue. Many cannot shut their pages down to this insanity either. What do you think people will do then? After being totally frustrated with your product and the lack of customer service , they leave. The bleeding has started Mr. Yang. You need to address these issues if you want it to stop. You NEED to fix these issues and if you cant and thats why 360 is moving thats fine. But then in the meantime have customer service folks available to stop the pain in there. And speak on your 360 team page of exactly what you will do for us ….and have it done! We are mostly adults in there. We do have patience. But because we are adults we also expect some respect. We have earned that. Have you? Going by what Im seeing these days around Yahoo Id say you have lost it. It takes alot to earn it back. Hope your not too late.

David | October 20th, 2007 at 1:06 pm

Dear Mr. Yang

If there is a problem concerning the saftey of Our Children it should be solved. Then also i can not see the gain in abandoning such a valued source of information and Happyness either!

We all have concerns with some of the content printed and the actions of some hurting others by their Sins. However it is a way for Us to reach out to a hurt and dying world. Lots of people use 360 to bless the lives of others by giving them the word of God!
There must be something that can bring about resolve to this issue! So many great minds, and no answers to be had?
Maybe you should seek out God and ask him for guidence?

It would truley be a shame to toss the whole thing away! With God all things are possible! Trust in the Lord!
Jesus is the Way…!
In Christ, magoh

sophiasmom10 (Kat) | October 20th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

Mr. Yang,

I wish you wouldn’t close 360. Why not add to it? It is the only place adults can enjoy each other’s company, not get spammed to death and meet like minded friends. Myspace, Mash…kids love it but I sure don’t. I have enjoyed using 360 and am quite upset it is being removed. 360 is easy to use, creative, interesting and has a great audience, why take it away?

Mrs Riete Nijdeken | October 20th, 2007 at 2:08 pm

Dear sir,
As an almost 50 year old blogger from Europe I feel deeply insulted by your anouncement. I feel that to you we, the adult members of Yahoo!360, don’t count as serious.
360 is a wonderful medium to use and to meet people from all over the world. That’s why we are there - to meet people, not to try silly gadgets.
Mash is, to be honest, far to childish and an insult to the more mature users!
My advice to you (but experience has learned me that you won’t take any of this into consideration, as you have not listened to any of our comments this far) is that you fix the problems with 360 and keep that immense “ecosystem”, as you so galantly put it.
If not, I’m afraid many of us will move on. And I don’t have to tell you that many of us are already looking for a nice alternative, where we can meet each other in a way we like.
All we want at this point is a word from you “up there” as to how the new alternative will be - a Mash kind of thing or more like 360.
We do like to stay! But it has to be nice for us, the above 30’s, too!

Ann | October 20th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

I love yahoo 360. I would be lost without it. I am not very good doing things on the comp., but I get helpfull hints from other 360 bloggers. For crying out loud! I just bought a brand new comp. so I can be on yahoo 360 anytime of the day or night. Cause I would have to wait till my daughter would be up, cause, I had to use her comp. or go to the library. Cause the comp. is in her room. I had one of my friends set me up on Mash. Now that is really hard to do. I can’t figure out nothing on that stupid thing.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Don’t get rid of Yahoo 360. I’m 52 and don’t need more stress in my life. I have great friends on my list, that are the best friends Iv’e ever had. I really don’t have friends that I see on a daily basis. I just go to work, and come home, and spend time with the greastest bunch of people Iv’e ever met, and thats cause of YAHOO 360. And I get to meet people from other countries, and find out what its like for them. Besides, I get to tell them about the amish! hehehe. Thanks for listening!

Lady Harley | October 20th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

You should take a look at my 360 page… MANY people are UPSET (myself included) that there will be a “transition” of some sort for 360.

PLEASE KEEP 360!!! Just FIX it!!!

I see I’m not alone in this!

You’re going to loose the 25 to 80 demographic!! THINK ABOUT IT!! We’re the one’s with the deeper pockets!! We come here because we HATE the “social” (M.space) type of sites!

Mash was ok… but it’s WAY TOO SLOW!! Takes way too long to load stuff!
Please do NOT make 360 like Mash!!!!!!!

By the way, for those of us who blog constantly (sometimes more than once a day)… what do you suggest we do? Find somewhere else to blog? I don’t think there is an easier site like 360 out there… TRUST ME, I’VE LOOKED!!

Ok, I guess I’ve had my say… for now!
Again, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OUR 360 away!!!! :*(

Jessyca | October 20th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

Sorry, but there lots of people whom don’t seem to take you serisouly. You had a great product and screwed it up and don’t want to admit to it. There are tons of problems that nobody wants to own up and repair. Yahoo 360 has a large fan base which you just might lose since the 360 team obvisouly does not care about it’s users and members. If you HAVEN’T notice, the members of the 360 community are asking you NOT to change the product, but to ONLY fix the bugs that exsist. Lack of company response is just driving the users faith in your product straight into the dirt.

Carl Starrett | October 20th, 2007 at 3:18 pm

Having Matt Warburton start reaching out to 360 users about the future of there blogs was an important first step. You’ve got a few million angry 360 users that need reassurance their blogs will remain in tact and that the unique culture of 360 will survive. We need more communication about what Yahoo’s plans are with Profiles, Mash, 360 and any other forays in to the world of social networking.

I moderate a Yahoo! Group devote to 360 with over 4000 members…they aren’t happy. We want to hear more specifics about what is going to happen.

Connie Taylor | October 20th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

I am commenting to let you know that I dont want to lose my Yahoo360!

I personnally dont like Mash or “Mush” as I call it. I am not fond of MySpace, and I will not do Facebook. I am not a child and I do not wish to play childish games. I also do not care for raising a fantasy pet. I am an adult, not a juvenile.

If you eliminate 360 as we know it you will be tossing aside a very large group of people. These are the babyboomers group. Those of us from 30 to 60. Most of us are not interested in finding a new partner or discussing what went on at the local high school dance. I personnally do not wish to mingle with a bunch of high school students or college students for that matter. I prefer a more mature set of contacts.

This new format you want will lose you alot of people. I for one will leave and I know many others that will also.

I certainly hope that you read the comments from those of us who do not want to lose the format we currently have.

Thanks for reading,
Connie

Cal Jennings | October 20th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

Just when there was a place for intelligent adults to converse on the web, you’re taking it down in favor of a kiddie board. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Instead of a place where people can share, explore, and network, you are throwing it away for icons and games. That may make you more money off the children if we allow them to use it, but you are alienating every intelligent adult who uses the web. This is pure madness.

Love, Hope, Peace, & Christ Be With You,

Cal-el

John of AllFaith | October 20th, 2007 at 5:22 pm

My comments on this topic were not posted here (and these probably wont be either). That’s part of the trouble I think. Yahoo honestly does not seem to care about our wishes.

nyagwai spiritbear | October 20th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

I came back to Yahoo after a few years of absence because Yahoo had become pretty crappy!! I came back because I found 360 and found I could blog my butt off with letting friends no about activist causes I support. Now you tell me I won’t have that outlet anymore; I have people coming over from AOL, MSN and other websites to read my blogs!! I can’t put them up on your new bug ridden beta program MASH…….so I’ll just have to depend on my own webpage cause MASH does not impress me one bit…..looks like I’ll end up leaving Yahoo again….thought you guys were getting better; when actually you are getting worse, even Myspace is going to outblog Yahoo!!!

Stan | October 20th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

Jerry,

It is very well to improve and develop. But when the foundations are unsteady and not secure. What does one build on? I have witnessed the transition from Yahoo Photos (a fairly excellent product) through New Photos and on to Flickr(which is trash). They were anything but smooth. The general public were the people that took the brunt of the unqualified modifications. With the pending migration from Yahoo 360° to something better. God help us if we can expect anything along the lines of MASH (see the similarity - MASH & TRASH). I advise you to look around, see what the other contenders are offering, and only then make some decisions on sound advice and not speculations. It appears that the Peanut Butter Conspiracy has risen its ugly head in a more determined way than before. Any business man will tell you that it is not the carnival of people that pass your front door, but the number if individuals that come in and inquire. These later persons are your customers. I for one have my pictures switches off. Because there is to much Spam generated by influential sites such as your self and Microsoft. I wonder how your advertisers will read this. Probably not - as it does not conform to your rule of thumb, praise us or we will remove you. Go ahead with my blessings. Please take this as some sound advice rather than an irate user, who has grown very tired.

Thank you for your ear.

Stan.

Nancy Wilson | October 20th, 2007 at 6:45 pm

We want to keep yahoo 360. 360 is the greatest, i have other social sites but i do not use them like i do my 360 site. I think yahoo should leave 360 alone, upgrade a few things maybe, but please do not get rid of it.

gag | October 20th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

;-) yahoo!

tricia garrett | October 20th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

I realise business is business BUT please do not take our 360 pages!
I do not like the silliness of other sites eg.myspace or even mash leaves me cold.now I am encouraged to try multiply???
I dont wanna play on other pages.
I have been a yahoo person since 2001 (hence my nick ,palobi2001)
I play canasta,literati and use my 360 pages…….
go forth and better things by all means but leave us our 360,just improve it! alter it , take out the bugs……………but leave it for us please.

candybobcat28(vikki) | October 20th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

I lov yahoo 360* !!!! please do not get rid of it …..
this is how we make new friends and find old ones too
plus it helps us with our problems .. we get to vent out on our blogs so every one could read and help…

please let us keep it !!!! everyone on 360 put a lot of work on
their pages …. please please keep it on for us
thank you candybobcat28(vikki)

E | October 20th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

Come down to the 360 Team blog page and read the comments that the loyal yahoo users are leaving there to apparently deaf ears.

Melissa | October 20th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

I am Very concerned about the direction Yahoo is going. I Love Yahoo 360 and so do Many other people. I am not too computer savvy but I do know how to use 360. I love to blog and all of my friends there also! I am wondering why you are dumping 360? when Mash does not have a way to blog?? To become top in the field that you desire, why don’t you combine the two. Leave 360 as it is for the blogging part and just add Mash. How simple is that!!!
I thank you for taking the time for us! We love our 360, Please take all of this into consideration People are worried.
Blessings and good luck,
Melissa

Mary Clare | October 20th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Just to let you know I love yahoo360 I’ve enjoyed this site so much!
Thank you very much for this site!

Sherry Chumbley | October 20th, 2007 at 9:24 pm

Hi,
I wanted to leave my input here also. I am a user of 360 & i LOVE it..I also have Mash and the best way i can decribe it is..i feel shut in.. I never go there.. I dont like it at all.
On 360 I have some of the BEST ppl i have ever met on yahoo & i have been a user for about 5 or 6 years now. I dont have to deal with the younger set nor do i have to deal with the filth,bots or the fighting you deal with in the rooms..ya just delete & ignore & go on having fun with the rest on your page.
On mash sure you can invite ppl but you can’t go any where..I like to go blogging & see what wonderful things other do with there backgrounds & there blogs..theres ALOT of talent out there that you wont see with Mash.
I know of many that wont be goin to Mash & i dont want to lose contact with ppl I have become close to & that i see every day. They have become like a second family to most of us that have 360..Fix the problems you have with it & forget about Mash & in my book you will have the #1 site on the net.
Thanks for listening
Sherry

shelly | October 20th, 2007 at 11:15 pm

I recently heard of the decision of Yahoo to make some changes to 360. As an adult who uses the computer for a variety of reasons, I have found 360 to work for my entertainment and education purposes. I enjoy the blogging and friends on 360. I used Myspace for awhile, but found it to be for teens and singles. I like the format of 360..knowing it can use some improvement, so why not actually use some of the advice your users are suggesting instead of deciding to not invest..in 360. You really aren’t doing your company any favors by messing up OUR 360. Wonder if your company will actually listen to so many people from all over the world voicing their opinions??

Night _ Howl | October 21st, 2007 at 12:25 am

Once upon a time,there were a bunch of people,scattered across the earth,who stumbled upon a site called Yahoo 360.It was a place where they could write about anything they wanted;their day-to-day lives,their jobs, their families,their pets and their problems.They could post jokes and stories,videos and photos,recipes and lots of other interesting things. It was user-friendly,and just right for those “older people,” who weren’t interested in MySpace and similar sites.But most of all,there,they could find friends.A lot of the people didn’t have a lot of “real life” friends,or they were stuck in small towns,with no money and not much to do.Ah,but on 360,there were all sorts of people to “talk” to,people who shared their interests,their fears,their dreams.These people became like family to each other,and they would exchange addresses and send each other little things;cards,books,tea-pot clocks and sock monkeys.They would keep each other company through insomnia,family problems,mild insanity,and major silliness.They could post quizzes and have virtual parties.It was fun.But one day,Yahoo decided that 360 wasn’t “hip” enough to stay,and they began to plot against the very people who kept them in business.It was decided to “do away” with 360 in favor of something “cooler” that would beckon to the younger set.So,the poor,displaced people of 360 had to move on,like refugees.They didn’t want to stay at Yahoo,they felt betrayed and sad that Yahoo would do such a thing to them.So,off they went in search of a similar site.They came upon this place called Multiply,and they decided to set up camp there,at least temporarily,in hopes that Yahoo would come to their senses.It was not to be,though,and the refugees stayed at Multiply,even though it really didn’t feel like “home,” as 360 had. They left their pages abandoned,like empty shells,and Yahoo soon became like a virtual ghost town.Even today,when you log onto your computer and type in Yahoo 360,there will be heard the distant cries of those displaced souls,the wails and sobs of the lonely people who’s only wish was to post a blog.Shame on you ,Yahoo! May the ghosts of bloggers past haunt you for the rest of your days! Bwahahahahahahaaaaaaaa……

Anna~Anna | October 21st, 2007 at 6:34 am

Ok This really makes a body wonder…

I have tried to put my comment in 4 times now…

Do you think anyone is actually moderating this site???

Yahoo maybe?

cathy | October 21st, 2007 at 6:51 am

its good to meet people around the world and see their culture thru 360. . . but sometimes things are not quite good to see that much.

Char | October 21st, 2007 at 7:20 am

Good Morning,

While I appreciate Mash 360, it is NOT Y360. You guys tend to try to fix stuff that ain’t broke. Why is that? The original mail was working and you came up with BETA and it is NOT user friendly at all for those of us who are in our 40’s and 50’s. I don’t mind change but why change Y360, you can improve it but it is a site for older adults and not to many children are in my circle of friends mostly older folks. We keep our pages clean but unfortunately not DRAMA free but we sure try.

Mash 360 allows you to do to many changes on the person personal page………amoung friends that is fine, but others to change it to something inappropriate is totatly uncalled for……..It took months to change a problem on Y360 and the changes are not done on some of the minor or major things and now your creating a web Mash that allows for more freedom from outsiders than Y360??? what is wrong with that picture??? Now you want us to trust you to make changes and give us more options for others pages as well as our own make it impossible to add a picture to our page on Mash with out going thru flicker or photo shop??? but with Y360 it was lock and load and upload so to speak?

Make the improvements on Y360 keep the trash out and let us old folk keep our pages up and running and safe from the slime that is out on MySpace and other blog spots.

Regards

Flutterbee | October 21st, 2007 at 8:47 am

I hate to see 360 go away and a trend to pattern yourself as MySpace come forward. Yahoo 360 provides a more interactive environment for people truly seeking to connect on a more personal level. In ways of truly getting to know people and their interest. I have developed very valuable friends and would hate to lose that.

I have been invited to numerous other systems and not fully understanding the action have joined, so I have MySpaced, Mashed, Bebo’d, Facebooked, Imeem’d, Flixstr, hi5′d, and who knows how many others where my information is out there…lol… and still I find myself back to 360 Land. I have a whole journal of my life there and I would hate to lose it!

I do agree that there are some glitches in 360 and I have liked some features of MASH. Couldn’t you take the good of both of them and combine to make one smashing great program?

Gypsy | October 21st, 2007 at 10:15 am

Wondering if you have read or have had someone in your office, read the blog comments recently on the Yahoo 360 team’s page? You should. It’s incredible the community support that is displayed there. That is priceless. You cannot put a dollar amount on that kind of loyalty. Won’t you please at least have your 360 team post periodically there to calm your supporters and reassure them that Yahoo respects and considers their opinions and ideas? We feel ignored and patronized for the most part. A weekly blogpost from that team would go a long long way. Seriously, long time Yahoo supporters (adults with bank cards and bank accounts) will not be patronized or pacified in this way for very long. As we all know, you’re only as successful as your last sale. This change proposed is not a welcome sale. If Yahoo is adament about pursuing it, then maintaining a positive outlook that extends to those users, would be in my opinion, a very wise course to take as opposed to the path we’re all on right now.
Just my two pennies. Thanks for listening!

navin | October 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pm

I re-read this blog post and it made sense. Their is something new online everyday, i would rather count on yahoo’s experience and maturity to work out solutions and provide me with quality life when online.

Jen | October 21st, 2007 at 2:12 pm

iam really excited about the changes for yahoo i think it will be great its always great and i really love yahoo mash you guys are amazing for a while i was freaked out but now im great with what you are doing i will be a yahoo user for life! i always start my day and end my night with yahoo and always will
Thank you Yahoo :)
Jen

Ticked off Baby Boomer | October 21st, 2007 at 4:40 pm

In all honesty.. WHERE is Yahoo heading?? lol.. Well, I can think of a few places. I’m just to polite to tell YOU!

Now, let me tell you where Baby Boomers and THEIR money are going.. ELSEWHERE! Once you delete the Yahoo 360, I will NEVER again book a flight, reservation or use ANY Yahoo service again.

Multiply is listening to Baby Boomers!

Facebook is adding them at a rate of 200,000 a DAY! (according to Forbes magazine this week)

But, hey.. you do what you gotta do.. and we’ll do what we gotta do. We have the money.. and soon.. that is going to other places on the internet.

Remember when we all Yahoo’d? So much for brand loyalty. It’s a TWO WAY STREET! Good luck explaining to the Yahoo Board of Director’s how you managed to lose BILLIONS in revenue over a silly little blog site that means NOTHING to those who’ve been entrusted to oversee it.

Good luck. lol

Clar | October 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm

I have been a blogger at Yahoo 360 since mid-2006. I’m comfortable with it. Generally, I don’t like Mash, but I gave it a fair shot. I would like to see 360 fined tuned (fixed) in areas where needed. It would be nice, too, to have some of the capabilities offered by mash (adding fun modules at our own discretion, that stay on the Top Page).

My feeling is that Yahoo needs some programmers who can fix existing problems - programmers who can stay focused. I get the feeling programs, currently, are being assembled and programmers move on to other projects before “bugs” are fixed… and they never get back to fix them… but instead they are off to other programs (additions) they deem exciting. Well, to the end users, they are not exciting if they don’t work well. Getting responses to problems we encounter is (I dare say) impossible!! Though I like 360 & have become comfortable with it, Yahoo needs people on the “Team” capbale of staright-forward answers with time to address them, and the knowledge to fix them.

Mash is too childish… I prefer 360.

Thank you.

Clar | October 21st, 2007 at 5:08 pm

May I add that if you keep Yahoo 360 and add Mash capabilities to the top page (addition of modules, at the user’s discretion), you might have the best of both worlds — a site that is appealing to both young & mature audiences.

Thank you again.

Laura B aka Ut's chick | October 21st, 2007 at 5:38 pm

Why would you want to stop,or change the 360 page?I dont like Mash and i want my 360 page!

If you really were interested in our opinion,you would listen to us!
Most of us are adults on the 360 page,and are happy with our blogs,friends and so on.

If you honestly listen to us,then how about letting us vote if we want to have something else?
Please let us keep our 360 page and just make improvements there!
Thank you

Ut's chick | October 21st, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Dear Mr. Chang:

I’m going to jump on the bandwagon here about Y360.

Y360 is the PREFERRED social networking site for ADULTS. Period. The other sites look, and behave, like very obnoxious tinker toys for kids, without any serious writers, an astounding amount of clutter brought on by users with no idea how their changes will affect the output to people trying to see their profiles, and the NOISE you get subjected to on those sites is truly atrocious to me, a 50 year old male.

I blog on Y360, nearly every single day. Some days the topics are serious, sometimes just goofing, and sometimes I’m testing rough drafts for reception amongst an ADULT crowd so I can dress them up for print sales. Y360 currently IS my homepage, my first landing point of the day. Every day. 360 days a year (hey, we ALL take a break now and then).

If you honestly listen to us,then how about letting us vote if we want to have something else?
Please let us keep our 360 page and just make improvements there!
Thank you

Jean | October 21st, 2007 at 6:45 pm

Mash is a mix of mypace and facebook together… I do not like it.. 360 is original and I agree that we are all mature people there. Mash is very for teenagers… is not like 360, and for me 360 is unique…
Please listen to the community and do not change it! just fix the problem dont “mash” us… it is sucky site!

bobbie whittington | October 21st, 2007 at 7:16 pm

hey my friends and i love yahoo 360 please don’t shut us down!

Kelly Cronk | October 21st, 2007 at 7:38 pm

Personally, now, I think you people at yahoo are a bunch of assholes!!! Now that you have decided to wipe out years of blogging to people that have worked their numbers to quarter million or more and the ones who are working on it, I have no respect for you any more. Every one I know has went to different servers and opened up new blogs there and are transfering their materials. I personally think you have signed your own death warrent. Well with your attitude I really feel no remorse. Hope you get to wallo in the mud before you drownd in it. Later.

chris f | October 21st, 2007 at 8:22 pm

I am so upset that you are planning to close 360. Without that site i would not have gotten thru a lot of hard times, all other blogging sites are inferior including that Mash rubbish you have made. Shame on you

Nancy (Abby) Oberg | October 21st, 2007 at 9:37 pm

I chanced upon yahoo 360 about a year ago. I have a myspace blog, however 360 gained my loyalty and as a result, so did yahoo. Myspace is great for posting pictures, but the blog interface leaves a lot to be desired. I am in the process of archiving my blog because I don’t want to lose my postings, and I am exploring other blog sites with my friends on my friend list. In all fairness, I took a look at your MASH. Feed the pet? I appreciate the year I spent with yahoo, and regret leaving, however, the MASH product that seems to be where yahoo is headed is entirely too juvenile. With no 360, I will have no need for the yahoo toolbar, as I won’t be spending any time on yahoo. Thanks for a great year. Too bad it was such a short amount of time.

Hrishikesh Bawa | October 22nd, 2007 at 5:02 am

We must realise that some time little is enough. Look at Gtalk or Orkut, compared to Messenger nad Mash they have little to offer but they come big on Usage and maintain the functionality. Jut adding eye candy will not help. i am an avid 360 user and it would be nice by the transition you mean that you’ll remove the bugs and make feel a bit better. Just don’t tone it for the kiddos.
best of luck!

Regal | October 22nd, 2007 at 7:38 am

It is all about the bottom line isn’t it?

I run a company myself. One of the things that has made me the success I am is due to my ability to deal with people well. I think that translates to our employees as well as our clients. I also have a strong belief that guides our operation. I believe customers are the heart of any business large or small no matter if they are using services freely or paying for them.

This is why I see the path Yahoo! has chosen to be one rooted in quick change to increase revenue and cut losses. They say there is a vast difference in the view from the sidelines to the one on the playing field. That is why I am sure Yahoo! would not have made suck a bold move as to cut services like 360 unless they had a reason. But, being that I am looking on from the sidelines, I can see Yahoo! may have cut their nose despite their face when the long term effects come into play.

It is a well known fact that free services attract massive amounts of people. As much as it is costly to service free services offered and as much as free services are seen as negatives on profits and losses statements, free services are also a massive pool of customers to market to and bring into the fold of other paid services offered by Yahoo! However, if you just cut your losses and close your free services with an offer to roll everything over into the ‘unknown’ making promises of commitment to help after repeated evidence of extremely poor customer service, your customers will leave to never come back with a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to Yahoo!

Like I said, it is about the bottom line. I have not only quadrupled our company’s client base in 5 years with my philosophy and beliefs in running a company but, I have also got the same clients I started with in the beginning.

I suppose success is in the eye of the beholder.

Empress Celena | October 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 am

I am so mad! They decided to make us more like MySpace, well that is ignorant considering the reason why most of us are here is because we HATE MYSPACE. It is nothing but whores and advertising. This was a place for people who just wanted to make friends not get laid!!! Now you are trying to make it into a fracking Myspace wanna be and people flocking to multiply!!! They even have a group called 360 Refugees! Stupid idiots Yahoo CEOs!

Susan Van Dorn | October 22nd, 2007 at 10:53 am

Forget the rest of Yahoo, keep 360 the way it is now.

Donna | October 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 pm

Just thought I’d let you know that the blogs I’m really concerned about are now at Multiply (I love it there); other blogs are now in a document folder, the ones remaining with 360 I’m not all that worried about…if I lose them, I lose them. Then again, maybe I’ll just go ahead and delete them.

I am also in the process of going through ALL of the hundreds of emails I now have and making the decision of whether or not I really wish to keep them. If I don’t, it’s the ”trash” folder for them. Some will be saved to my document folder then deleted. Others will be transferred to my new email provider which is gmail. I by the way, am a paying customer of the email system as I wished to have added features. (Gmail doesn’t require payment for added features.) I will not be renewing the account as by the time that date rolls around, I’ll no longer be here.

My 360 will remain open long enough for me to witness the transition. I doubt seriously if the move will be a smooth one.

In the meantime, I’m going to lean back, prop my feet up, watch and wait. Wait for the fall of Yahell, along with the others who have fled to Multiply.

Aeryn Sun | October 22nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm

Hello Mr. Yang,

I’ve been in the corporate world long enough to know a white wash sales pitch containing no information and a lot of vague goals when I hear it, and I find it and your treatment of your customers insulting. I know you only put these comment sections here to APPEAR as though you actually care about feedback and customer opinion, but you don’t. That fact is clearly demonstrated by Yahoo’s inaction to correct problems with its products and introducing products your consumer base doesn’t want.

360 is full of bugs, but there have been many users in many forums who have pleaded with you to keep it and finish what you started by fixing it. MASH is a poor substitute with little appeal and even less staying power. I’m not online to lick someone’s virtual pet.

As far as your other products, if your performance continues, I’m pitching those as well, I have other email resources, your lauchcast service is quickly going down the drain by not listening to user ratings, and Google surpasses you in any other online service I need. I’ll take my ipod, hotmail, and google search and blog somewhere else, and as someone in the IT profession who many friends that look to me for an opinion, you can bet I’ll take as many with me as I can.

See how your bottom line stacks up with no one using your services and all of your goodwill gone. It’s really a shame to let all of this FREE market research your consumers are providing you with via their comments go to waste. Use some good business sense and fix your products before your whole brand suffers.

Sincerely,
Aeryn Sun

Charles Wellen | October 22nd, 2007 at 9:56 pm

Read comments for an hour, then rapidly scrolled down to here, noticed while the text was flowing up from the bottom of the screen the repeated references to Y360. It looks as if that is on the mind of most commenters, as it is on mine as well. I have been blogging there since the onset and I was a featured blogger. I have 299 friends as I type this and nearly 300,000 page hits (if the counter works at all). If I am driven from 360, (seemingly to Multiply.com) I am also driven from Y mail, and http://www.worldartexhibit.org. And I am begging my 299 friends to come with me.
RE: Mash. I read one comment that really struck a responsive chord with me. The guy said if his kids said “fugly” he would pop them in the mouth. No kidding, I figured the word meant what it sounds like, but when I checked on Urban Dictionary and had my suspicions confirmed I just wondered if you all had lost your minds! FUGLY? That verges on pornography, and it is certainly classified as adult only language. Stupid adult, I might add.

zzee | October 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 pm

There are a few people I know, maybe I am a bit like them too…who are very comfortable now with 360..and its only because its so uncomplicated, mature and elegant.There are a few who have become lost with the new terminology in Mash, and find it a bit childish. It’s bad enough having to cope with Bots in chatrooms or having to try 14 times to enter a chatroom, by copying a code.We have lost friends because they cant get into rooms. So, 360 remains our only way to keep in touch, and its accessable from the main messenger window. 360 is our daily morning newsletter…our voice. We have found our comfort zone there..and there are many who are not doing it for just fun..it becomes a kind of lifeline for the elderly too. Please do not shut it down…it would be sad for many of us.

Stephen | October 22nd, 2007 at 11:09 pm

As a prolific Y!360 blogger I was (and am) disturbed at the prospect of losing my favorite outlet and have found myself withdrawing from it. I have a mash page, but get no satisfaction out of it. It is silly, and obviously not meant for the likes of me. MySpace was/is too cluttered for me…I have accounts with a few other “social” networks, but none have piqued my interest, fed my passion to create, nor satisfied my social, spiritual AND educational needs like Y!360. And soon it will be gone? See ya…wouldn’t want to be ya.

steph | October 23rd, 2007 at 10:19 am

360 - hmm - yes I have come and gone and returned to 360. Its a funny place. Somewhere you can be yourself, alone, or can be yourself with other people. No requirements to be anything to anyone else unless you choose. I use 360 as a personal blog\journal to put my thoughts and feelings in - write stories, and poems, or just be.

At one time I had two blogs up - one for everyday stuff, one for stories. I dumped the second in favour of the first. If I had one wish it would be that I could retain my mailbox without it being attached to a blog. Dumping my second blog meant losing a mail account - bit of a nuisance. Still have two mail accounts because I am still ambivalent about retaining my “dormouse” blog. Pity the two accounts are not mutually able to share contact lists. I have a facebook account which is OK, and I don’t like MASH much. Doesn’t do it for me. Don’t like Mutiply either and see no point in keeping two blogs going. Too much work.

thats all.

Rachel | October 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 pm

I love Yahoo 360. PLEASE do NOT get rid of it. I’ve met so many wonderful people on there AND MY FIANCE!!!! I’ve placed so much of me on there. I love it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE KEEP IT!!!

Thanks!

Dimples | October 23rd, 2007 at 3:10 pm

I’m with so many others that have left a comment, please don’t get rid of Y360. I, already have friends that are starting to look around, NOT because they want to but because they don’t want to lose the friends that they made, via the internet. I, have checked out the other sites, but I come right back to Y360, love the format the personal feeling you get, and what you get from others. Please don’t get rid of this great Y360. This is the best of all, from the others that are out there. Please listen to all of us!

Thanks

Night _ Howl | October 23rd, 2007 at 5:38 pm

So long! I’m going to be fruitful and “Multiply!” At least they care about their patrons!

onap | October 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm

This is the comment I left on the 360 team blog. I don’t expect to hear a response there. They don’t seem to respond to anything over there. I don’t know about here. I guess what I am really asking for is better communication!

I too love 360. It’s been my cyber home for the past 1 1/2 years. You promise us improved blogging capabilities which is great. What worries me is that you have already announced a transition in early 2008(just over 2 months away), but you don’t have the answers and you are testing solutions. It sounds to me that this hasn’t been well thought out. Besides Mash, what other solutions are you working on? It has been a week and 1500+ comments since you posted this and we haven’t heard a response to anything said here. During this time it would be great if you would just try to communicate a little more with us. Most of us know what happens to a relationship when communication fails. Please don’t let that happen between Yahoo and it’s loyal users.

Night _ Howl | October 23rd, 2007 at 9:40 pm

Yeah,”fugly” is just downright stupid.

Annette P | October 24th, 2007 at 12:14 am

I am a dedicated Yahoo user. I had your company as a web host but this is one of the many services I use that I have cancelled. I’m also a 360 user, my homepage is Yahoo’s, my default search engine is Yahoo, I use the Yahoo tool bar, I have several Yahoo Groups I’m involved with and I read Yahoo News everyday instead of the television news. (Does that sound familiar?)There are many of us baby boomers who can chant the same thing to you all day…but I think you get the picture.

I absolutely love Yahoo 360, I’ve made life long friends that I will miss sorely if they can’t move on to another site with me. However, I will not be forced into MASH. What are you guys thinking???

Can the “younger generation” truly support you with their glitter crap and html backgrounds? Those are just clicks in cash. We older adults pay money for Yahoo services.

Are these youngsters going to purchase your phone and Internet services, web hosting, etc… You are letting down your true bread and butter winners, but if you want to be like MySpace…go for it. If you like catering to pervs…go for it! Don’t expect to maintain your giant stature in the Internet world. You’d be best to act like a democracy leader than a dictator.

I’ve been with Yahoo for over 10 years and it is a sad day to say that I am moving on when you “transition” aka try to force us into the MASH site.

You’ve greatly disappointed us all!

Rob Alpert | October 24th, 2007 at 6:27 am

Please fix the upload photos, reviews and moble blogging ability of Yahoo360 and then you have the perfect personal page for adults. I have seen so many problems with new products that Yahoo has been rolling out, I’m starting to think of pulling out all together. I see NASCAR and NFL rumors under the NBA rumor section in Sports. Yahoo music player is just a shell of its former MusicMatch and an ugly iTunes clone (I’ve stopped using that). I cannot load a picture to my personal profile. Movie listings are missing (An Evening with Kevin Smith IS a movie) and customer service is not helping. My company just revamped their personal web page offering and it is certainly more appealing now then Yahoo is currently. So much more can be done with Yahoo overall. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex … it takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.

Benita | October 24th, 2007 at 7:40 am

If you cant fix the bugs that Y360 presently has..then let it be…we want our 360…..i’m sure that they can be fixed…but do not close it down..and we dont want a different integrated 360 we like it the way it is…

Benita | October 24th, 2007 at 7:44 am

Another thing if you notice all of friends on 360 are from other country’s and somehow throu 360 we have manage to come together…is that not great or what…they can use other outlets since we now there are other 360 wanna-be out there but we chose 360.

Susan | October 24th, 2007 at 7:48 am

I have been with yahoo almost since it’s inception. ATT/yahoo is my server and you would think since I pay for that service it would be somewhat better but it isn’t. I am on vacation and lose blogs, get pages up from last summer or don’t get them at all. Pictures aren’t showing on my page, or in photo album pages of groups either where I am a moderator. This will also change a lot of your groups dealing with 360. I don’t appreciate all the ads I have to deal with that are popping up everywhere. I am already migrating my yahoo mail to gmail where I have no ads since I travel a lot and the ads prevent me from getting my mail in a timely manner. When I leave I have to switch back to the original mail. I have been waiting patienty and telling people that they might like the new yahoo better. But today I was just totally exasperated with the whole mess and don’t know if I will wait or not. I have just had it.

It seems to me you should fix what isn’t working before you start on a new project. Mash was fun and something new to play with in the beginning but after about a week there isn’t much reason to go back.

steph | October 24th, 2007 at 10:20 am

So…is it just a rumour that Multiply are going to announce a way of transporting 360 blogs to Multiply within a few days?? Yahoo - you’re gonna have to get yourselves moving quick!!!!You are losing people fast, lets not let that happen any more please?

Empress Celena | October 24th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

They say we will have continued service on 360 until the change. What a bunch of horsecrap! We go to pages and it says we are not logged in. Or worse ALL BLOGS DISAPPEAR OFF OF OUR PAGES! Yahoo is seriously failing in its service to its users. So many are not coming back from multiply ever. Too much of a hassle. I am so mad at Yahoo I may change my mail and blog get rid of messenger and never use any yahoo service again!!!

Ze Baron | October 24th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

I’ve moved to Multiply. I run a group that consits of 290 members - and growing. I love 360 and I’m going to put my page into a dormant cycle until I see what the new service is like.

The only thing that really kills me about 360 is that no one helped us. About 5 days after the rush of immigrants to Multiply resulting for the 360 Team’s wreckless blog, Multiply supplied us with a tool to transfer our blogs. Mine now rest on Multiply (minus the comments, but I can live with that.)

I’ll give you guys a second chance. You better wow me; I’ve already got a smooth transition in line should you not. A fair chance is all you can ask for.

DOROTHY ALBRECHT | October 24th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

your just messing up everyone’s life for no good reason!

ROFLMAO! | October 24th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

WOW! You sure know how to make everyone feel welcome!

Folks are leaving Yahoo and it’s services so fast that it makes one head spin!

In only a few short months - you’ve managed to alienate every user of Yahoo! May you enjoy your retirement! I hope they were smart enough not to give you a big bonus for taking a good company and trashing it within a short time! Kudo’s job well done!

I cannot believe you were able to bring Yahoo to their knees within a few months. How long until Yahoo is penniless? roflmao

Lorie | October 24th, 2007 at 6:27 pm

As I just stated on the 360 Team blog (after multiple attempts to post the comment due to bugs that have suddenly crept up since Monday night), you have succeeded in destroying customer confidence and good will. You had the opportunity with 360 to lead in the 24+ market. You had an easy to use social network which if marketed properly, if customer sensitive and if responsive to issues MIGHT have cornered a relatively untouched mature market. Instead, since Monday, I see more and more of my friends flocking to other sites like Multiply. And, frankly, I am joining them.

I can understand wanting to advance in the market. However, foremost in this is KEEPING the market you already have NOT alienating it. The least you could have requested of your 360 staff is that they maintain its stability while you make the transition. Many of us were taking a wait and see attitude about the new platform. Since Monday, more and more of us are deciding that we’ve had enough.

Sad to say because 360 was one of the easiest to use sites that I’ve found…

Let’s face it, blogs posted after June 2007 disappearing and reappearing is not a confidence builder for folks who wanted to transition their existing blogs to the new site. That started on Monday night and is also probably the cause of the issues posting comments.

I am tempted, at this point, to request that my ISP consider breaking its ties with Yahoo. Maybe it’s time to do some real damage control, APOLOGIZE to your customers and make things right. Unfortunately, it might be too late.

D Wan | October 24th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

Jerry,

I want to share how Yahoo affect my daily life. I hope you feel useful.

Yahoo! News - I read news (outside U.S.) from Yahoo! everyday. I do not subscribe any newspaper. However, I start reading other sites since not all major newspapers are covered in Yahoo!

Yahoo!Email - I have five email accounts on Yahoo! Email. Since there are so many junk email, I start giving different people different email addresses. Also, my email comes from different languages. They cannot be displayed well under a single account.

Yahoo Messenger - I still keep using it. I use AOL -> Y!Messenger -> MSN, as the order of frequency. It is one of the best for international better then AOL and comparable with MSN. Skype seems more popular when crossing countries.

Yahoo!Maps - It used to be my #1 choice. I switched to Google graduately after the interface changed.

Yahoo! Group - I use Yahoo! Group and I still like it. I feel that it is better then Google group. The space limitation is really bad. I saw that many people create several groups to by-pass the limitation. You should grant the space based on the visit frequencies and number of users.

Yahoo!Answers - I like this one. Google did a mistake in this area. If I remember correctly, Google charged people for receiving answers. Yahoo! Answers’ response rate is high. My #1 choice.

Yahoo! Game - I played Yahoo! Games several years ago. Some game seems disappered.

Yahoo! Calendar - I never really used Yahoo!Calendar. Not because it has a bad design. Simply because I have to use the calendar within the Intranet of my company.

I installed Yahoo! Toolbar and removed it. Too heavy. I hate it. I deinstalled google Toolbar as well since I feel that Google toolbar may hurt my privacy.

Yahoo Widget - I dislike it. Putting something to my desktop, which is already very heavy.

Yahoo! Search? If I accidentally go to that page, I will immediately leave it. Not I hate it but I do not even want to look at it.

del.icio.us - I think that it is a good thing. I like to get some statistics from there once a while. Will it merge with Yahoo Bookmark? Why change the name? It sounds studpid if you do so. You should do a co-naming. Do not migrate from one to the other.

Yahoo!Mobile - I just tried it yesterday. The apps seems not very stable. Installation failed.

Yahoo! Home - I use each Yahoo service directly. I do not use Yahoo Home nowaday. I may use it when I to try if my network is still working, but i do not use it. I still remember that I used Yahoo directory in 94′, using the lynx. Jerry you did a really good job at that time.

Yahoo!Video - I use Youtube. I have never used Yahoo Video.
I used to watch Broadcast.com before it was acquired by Yahoo. You lost it.

Yahoo!360 I did create a page there. But I thnk that it is really a joke. It is a good decision to shutdown it.

Thanks for keeping working hard. I believe that you can turn Yahoo around.

Dudge.OH | October 25th, 2007 at 5:40 am

Jerry,

Part of me is sad, and part excited at the imminent transition of 360.

I keep reading, in the various online articles that 360 has been a failure, but I never see any figures. Would it be possible to provide, preferably through the 360 Team’s own 360 Blog, some kind of figures and explanation backing up this “failure”?

Also, a lot of my Friends have moved, or are moving to another platform. Multiply seems to be the favored platform right now and, in light of the (seemingly) mass exodus from 360 over the last few weeks, they have listened to their new members and developed a 360 option for the tool they provide to migrate one’s Blog from another platform. This contrasts with the lack of bug fixes and response to information requests that alienated those 360 defectors. That lack of response and feedback needs to be addressed when rolling out the new integrated platform.

Thanks!

onap | October 25th, 2007 at 6:56 am

Mr Yang,
I hope this finds you in good health and happiness. I have to say that what is happening in Y’360 is terrible! If you are happy I will tell you users in 360 are not! If your health is good that is great but the health of 360 (your/our blogging community) is not! The least Yahoo could do is keep a functioning 360, a bug free blog until TDay(Transition Day)! Things get worse daily over there and no one cares. We do understand the need for change. We do understand the need for improvement. What we don’t understand is the complete disregard for our feelings and needs. Please give us a functioning 360 until the big day! I now call it TDay! If you don’t there may be no one in 360 left to transition. But that would make the big day less complicated wouldn’t it!
Just give us a bugless blog! That’s a very small price to ask for our loyalty! Thanks if you read this and if you don’t see ya!
I sure would like to know if these comments ever make it to the right eyes!

Coco I | October 25th, 2007 at 10:40 am

Dear Jerry,

I am speaking on behalf of Y360 users.

I think it is a real shame that due to a massive breakdown in communication between Yahoo and Y360 bloggers, Yahoo has lost many once-loyal, happy consumers. Many have deserted Y360 in revulsion and anger, vowing to never use another Yahoo product again.

While as a business entity, you have every right to terminate a nonprofitable project such as Y360, it is regrettable to lose your user/customer base solely due to poor and inappropriately handled customer relations.

The lengthly lag time of announcements about Yahoo’s impending plans for Y360 after dropping the ball about Y-Mash, and the cavalier, dismissive attitude that the Y360 Team evinced after this slow response time have caused a slew of blogger contention, frustration, fury, and ultimately, Y360 defection.

I trust that you will take Yahoo at the helms again, and provide clearer direction and objectives, as well as retrain or regroup a more responsive, effective, direct, communicative customer relations team for your future “integrated” Yahoo profile users.

Sincerely,
Coco I

Coco I | October 25th, 2007 at 1:42 pm

Dear Jerry,

I think it is a real shame that due to a massive breakdown in communication between Yahoo and Y360 bloggers, Yahoo has lost many once-loyal, happy consumers. Many have deserted Y360 in revulsion and anger, vowing to never use another Yahoo product again.

While as a business entity, you have every right to terminate a nonprofitable project such as Y360, it is regrettable to lose your user/customer base solely due to poor and inappropriately handled customer relations.

The lengthly lag time of announcements about Yahoo’s impending plans for Y360 after dropping the ball about Y-Mash, and the cavalier, dismissive attitude that the Y360 Team evinced after this slow response time have caused a slew of blogger contention, frustration, fury, and ultimately, Y360 defection.

I trust that you will take Yahoo at the helms again, and provide clearer direction and objectives, as well as retrain or regroup a more responsive, effective, direct, communicative customer relations team for your future “integrated” Yahoo profile users.

Sincerely,
Coco I

Anne Orsi | October 25th, 2007 at 3:11 pm

A lot of the continuing freak-out from the folks over on Yahoo 360 has to do with this question and on the Yahoo 360 Team Blog’s answer to it:

Q: Will the bugs be fixed on 360°?
A: No, we will no longer be fixing bugs related to 360°. We are putting all of our resources on building the new profile system.

Y360 has always been buggy. The mail delivery problem, in which PMs were delayed by as much as four MONTHS, is one example of the bugs. Mail is still slow on occasion. Two weeks ago I received a batch of PMs that were several weeks old, as well as replies to some I had sent that were just as old.

For ten months I tried to get Yahoo to find out why my reviews had disappeared from my 360 page. Each time I wrote them I got the same form letter back in response. Now they tell me that they really don’t care that I want my reviews on my page - they don’t intend to fix that particular bug, or any other.

When Yahoo photos closed, I tried to get a Flickr photo-stream to show on my page. Nope. Customer service? Nope. I got that same old form letter. I know exactly how much good that’s going to do. Hello? The only reason I signed up with Flickr was because of that photo-streaming option. I even paid for the premium service. I’ll be cancelling it as soon as I post this comment.

Yesterday my Yahoo Groups disappeared from my 360 page. I didn’t close the module. It’s still there, pretending it wants to display the groups. I’m not going to bother soliciting that same bloody form letter.

Over the last several weeks, the load time for pages on Yahoo has been excruciatingly slow. Before the announcement made by this blog and the Yahoo 360 Team blog, I speculated with others that perhaps Yahoo was having bandwidth problems. Given the announcement last week, it appears they may have actually removed bandwidth from 360.

In the past week, since the announcement, three people on my friends list have logged into 360 only to find that their entire blog was gone. Only one of the three has gotten hers back.

I’ve never been a big fan of staying someplace where I’m not wanted. By all indications, Yahoo doesn’t want me or my other 360 friends.

Because I want to maintain contact with the friends I’ve made here, I’m keeping a presence here. I’ll be cross-posting blogs here, on Wordpress (where I began backing up my blogs over a year ago because Yahoo frequently sent blogs drafted in its platform to Never-never Land), and now on Multiply.com, where I hope my friends network will be able to remain fairly intact if Yahoo screws up this new integrated profile platform, too.

Yahoo is rapidly losing loyal customers through a combination of not maintaining the service at minimally acceptable levels and poor PR. The way this announcement was made angered a lot of people. While I understand that business decisions must be made, and that they won’t be popular with everyone, even kids understand that putting the right spin on a problem lessens its negative impact.

The sky isn’t falling, but the paint on the ceiling is peeling at an alarming rate.

David Coco | October 26th, 2007 at 3:32 am

So if yahoo wants to be the starting point to the web why not acquire sites like popurls or other famous aggregators?

sher | October 26th, 2007 at 4:39 am

To jerry
well after using yahoo for nealry 10 years, where the yahoo staff used to listen to what we had to say, you brought 360 out as a beta and loads of yahoo users signed up to try it and liked what they saw, yes it had a few bugs but like every web site anywhere on the www there are glitches, i have tired mash and did not like what i saw feeding funny faces etc, we are not 5 years old you know yahoo 360 was a place where yahoo users called home where they chatted with there friends instead of going into the chat rooms where loads of porn bots roam cant you see what you are doing to your yahoo users they are leaving the same as me there all going to multiply so this is it goodbye yahoo it was a great 10 years but i aint going to stay a moment longer
from a long time user sher

political junkie | October 26th, 2007 at 8:55 am

Mr. Yang,
What happened to your promise to leave our blogs intact until we are through the transition?
You’ve removed our 360 button from our toolbars which provide a “blog this” feature. I guess I will delete my yahoo tool bar now.
Our blog entries are disappearing. We cannot leave comments on each other’s blogs.
It is one thing to stop addressing old bug issues on a product you said you will no longer support.
It is quite another thing altogether to engage in active sabotage.
I had intended to see things through, to experience the transistion, but it is getting much to hard to bail out this sinking boat.
You have alienated yet another Yahoo customer. I’ve been with you since 1998.
Disgusted altogether!
~PJ

Mila Lukic | October 26th, 2007 at 9:54 am

Dear Mr Yang,
It is nice to know that Yahoo are looking “forward” in an attempt to garner a greater share of the market and win back some of its lost momentum.
I have used Yahoo for 10 years, and while I was initially happy, I gradually shifted my loyalty to other sites which were reliable, accurate and user friendly.
I still have an email account and my Y360 page, however, the recent mismanagement of communications with Y360 users will see me close those entirely.
You have, through your inability to be honest and forthright with Y360 users created a mass feeling of resentment. Word of mouth is a dangerous weapon, and seeing that despite all your business acumen and visions for the future, none of this is possible without grassroots support. It is this very support that you have now, not only lost, but completely alienated.
Y360 users, by and large, were an educated, mature and articulate group. They may not have been large but they are vocal, and unafraid to speak up.
As a public relations exercise, your mishandling of Y360 may end up costing you far more than you anticipated. 2 million pissed off people who can articulately vent their frustrations can cause a lot of fall out… and they will!
I wish you well, however, like over 2 million other Y360 users Yahoo has lost all credibility. From now on I will treat any future proffering from your company with the same scorn and disdain you extended to me. It may not make any difference to you in the long run… but it will make me feel better.
Mila

Dantcer | October 26th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

All Yahooers are very welcome at Multiply. The import tool for blogs is very working well, and the “invite your yahoo contacts” is amazing. Multiply is doing everything it can to accommodate and make everyone feel at home. The Y360 Refugee Group has taken off overnight, and support personnel at User Support is available virtually around the clock.

See you there!

http://dantcer.multiply.com/

Marty | October 27th, 2007 at 6:36 am

Well written corporate speak Mr Yang!
Did you set up Focus Groups and Steerage committee’s to make your decisions? I guess 360 didn’t quite hit the mark for you. It’s a shame your customer service department at Y360 didn’t respond to its users in a satisfactory manner. Perhaps people got fed up getting no response and therefore failed to recommend on the product.
Communication seems to be a major obstacle. A little late, I see we are now getting some communication, but much of it is confused. First of all, rumour was allowed to proliferate about closure with no clear comment from yourselves. Then too late, we are told the blogging functionality will be preserved. Meantime, some people have become SO upset with lack of information, petulance has ruled and they have left ALL Yahoo products and actively bad mouthed Yahoo. That’s unworthy really, but it could have been avoided.
I guess it has to be put down to a learning experience.

Libra | October 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am

My $$$ and my time go where my trust goes….I feel myself beginning to not trust.

I’ve enjoyed and learned so many interesting things on Yahoo 360. I built a friends list of interesting folks. Now I feel threatened, rather like a promise was not kept.

I’ll wait and see before I flee. Yahoo will not notice my leaving, but it will take note of OUR leaving.

Michelle Langlinais | October 27th, 2007 at 10:51 am

I moved from myspace to Yahoo 360 because there were more adults, more content, ease of use. And, now… my 360 friends are leaving in droves to other blog sites because of the proposed changes and the recent and still ongoing glitches.. (blogs disappearing, pages not available)

Why mess with something that is working and enjoyed? Enhance it, don’t change it.

Mickey | October 27th, 2007 at 9:39 pm

Sorry Jerry,

Given the recent announcements about the transition, the current state of the 360° servers and the lack of focus and concern for the mainstream 360° consumer, I have already begun the migration to an alternate service. I hate doing it as the yahoo service has been a great place to grow and blog, but it feels like decisions were made regarding the service prior to having a plan in place to maintain presence.

I wish you luck in the future. From what I have seen, I am one of thousands leaving your service for greener grass.

This reeks of the Four “P”s…

Piss Poor Prior Planning.

Color me gone….

http://harleymick.multiply.com/

Norma Henry | October 28th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

I want to say that I have tried a few of these other programs, I started with MySpace and migrated to 360. I love my 360 mistakes, bugs and all I hope and pray you find a way around the problems because nobody, NOBODY, is doing for those of us who are die hard 360ers. I like having it all in one smooth website. I like the easy comments, wish they had an easy delete button - like the mail room does, I like the everything about it.
I have gone back to MySpace temporarily until this is resolved. I am still posting but not butting anything of real importance at the moment. Just staying in tune with my world wide friends.
I can tell that none of you in the 360 Team spend a lot of time personally on 360 reaching out. But to those of us who love to blog and love to talk to people all over the world 360 was the best. On a scale of 1 - 10 MySpace is a 4 everything else is a 2 and 360 even now is an 8.
I am sorry you have felt the need to transition and I hope it is a beneficial one. I, for one, will be there no matter what. So here is to a smooth transition.
And cheers to a new Year and a New 360.

mightymite1957 | October 29th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

I left two responses on the official Yahoo blogsite, if you would like to know what I and others really think, you may want to visit your own company’s rheteric.

We 360 users refuse to die
We’ll just transfer to Multiply……

Roslyn | October 30th, 2007 at 6:58 am

I have read comments and can only repeat what many have already told you. To close 360 and not fix bugs until your team cuold come up with a better idea (To them not to us passionate 360 users) Was a very bad idea. I am, one of those who now has a home on Multiply as well as keeping my 360 open. Reason is as follows: Some of my friends cannot enter my blog/Comments, i cannot leave comments at times/Enter other people’s blogs either. You have officially announced that you will not be fixing 360 any longer.

I am only a registered nurse, not a media tycoon or a business woman but i do know one thing! When someone comes up with the best product ever (360) And when users, same as myself, actually brought others to join it (Even though they refused to go on yahoo beforehand) To let it go as you have done is the last thing to do! Yahoo should have been proud of 360 and maintained it for our community.

Naturally there are younger people about and they probably want a different product but what is wrong in being the great Yahoo that we all love! And being probably the only group on the web to cater for all ages?

My time on Multiply is due to the fact that my page on 360 doesn’t work. Many of my cyber family/friends have joined me there if we all keep hoping you will hear us out and maybe suggest to the person responsible for such a big change that it would have been a better idea to consult with users prior to doing so.

I still love yahoo if i feel so badly let down.

Empress Celena | October 31st, 2007 at 8:48 am

A very large number of people left 360 and went to Multiply because of 360 closing and all of a sudden becoming more buggy then it has ever been. This had people not being able to post blogs or comment to their friends. We were told that we would be able to continue to use 360 until it was moved. Well that is not true either is it? So many have went to Multiply and say they will never come back to Yahoo for anything. Yeah 360 was beta but just because something is beta doesn’t mean it will be ended in a few years. So many were not expecting this. So many are angry and frustrated as they loved 360 and thought of it as home. You can not yank someone’s home out from under them and expect them to still have any loyalty to your company. It saddens me greatly as I have had a lot of fun times with my friends on 360. I would say half of my friends from 360 went to multiply. More than half, some I know, some new that I met, will not be coming back. Why would you betray your own and then call it a move for them? People need more than the pathetic excuses, as for the 360 team that we have, these people did very little to ease the situation. They could have answered more questions and been a little more informative. And even after the news of the ending of 360 there is still no news of where or what it will be replaced with. WE want to know what it will look like. I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT EASE OF USE IS WHAT MADE PEOPLE LIKE 360. IF IT IS TOO HARD AND NO ONE LIKES IT, YOU WILL HAVE LESS BUSINESS THAN YOU DID WITH 360. People will stay with Multiply which to me is annoying. Too many stupid emails telling you that your friends have comments on their blogs, not yours, theirs! WHO cares? 360 was set up as being so much more user friendly than any site. To try to compete with Myspace is stupid. Kids want to go on Myspace because everyone made a big deal of it, so they think it is cool. Reverse commercializing. Bad Rep, kids want to see why it has a bad Rep. That can be done with any site.

rmagedon | November 2nd, 2007 at 12:22 pm

Gee, I have read your post now six times and I cannot see in there anywhere where it says 360 is closing or that you are not going to service it.

Always amazed to watch how rumors start, taking two segments of a 400 word piece and twisting them together to come to the conclusion you want to sell.

Went over to Multiply at the urging, ney make that at the coercion of friends, had a big screw up, reported it and Multiply essentially told me I was stupid and it was my fault. May have been but you do not say it that way. And now I am getting PO’d at people who stop by everyday demanding I go to Multiply, forget about it.

So I am not leaving, like Mash and 360 and am sure I will like how it transitions in the spring.

Blade | November 3rd, 2007 at 6:44 am

You are in a process of renewal. We support everything you do, just in case you let our faith in you not shaken, for it is firm within us

luvmt | November 3rd, 2007 at 3:32 pm

I miss my 360 and all my friends. It’s incredibly frustrating not to know whats going on. I started a multiply site but it is too much like myspace for me to really enjoy it. I liked the ease of 360 and the fact that there were no graphics to bog down loading time.

Please hurry and bring it back for us.

thank you

Fanta | November 3rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm

I had a blast on 360 and made many valuable connections through your service. It was the best blogging I ever experienced, I can assure you.
But as I am not a teenager anymore and Mash -type sites simply won’t do it for me, I had to pack all my bags (entries) and transfer them to better grounds. It was a sad moment, but had to be done, as no-one likes to be held in mid-air while a decision is made.
But I am just one individual. I believe you have created sadness in thousands of souls within this amazing community. What are souls, compared to hard-core business?

Searching for the same friends you have accumulated on 360 on other blog sites will take a little extra time. But this is the price we have to pay, as nothing really comes free these days-does it?
You must move on following your ideas, and so do we.

Many of us have backed up our blog entries onto other sites, just to make sure they won’t dissappear into thin air, whenever the transition is being made (to Mash-I guess???-because I have never-ever heard of any other alternatives).

Wishing you all the very best with your decisions in the future.

Mrs Riete Nijdeken | November 3rd, 2007 at 4:11 pm

I’ve posted a comment some time ago (Oct 20th, to be precise) and this afternoon I’ve been reading all posts following that. They all amount to the same thing - anger, frustration and a deep desire to keep 360.
Up till now we have not heard one iota from anyone from Yahoo. My serious guess is that no one has even bothered to read any of this. Thay are reviewed … by whom may I ask? Not by people who care bout their product!
I’ve moved to Multiply, which turned out to be a great place to be, with a team that actually does listen and does something when needed…
But I’m sorry for 360 - it was great and it could have been so much better … if only …

Jesse B | November 4th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Jerry,

I am an MBA student doing a term project on Yahoo!. It seems to me, after researching and understanding the problems that Yahoo! is facing, that all of your answers lie within comments made on this page. Yahoo is geared toward an older target market. If you win over younger users then the rest will follow. How do you do this? Focus on integrating more of your awesome products into one user friendly platform that acts like myspace, but is so much more fun to use. Think about what kids are into…the coolest new video games and then make your new streamlined product as user interactive as possible. Read through all of these comments and then collaborate them. The answers are here, but you’re not listening. Your upper management people are great at looking at new acquisitions and figuring out if they are financially sound investments, but it’s your young, edgy, rebellious engineers that need to be leading the way in product development. Be willing to listen and then lead rather than the other way around.

Jen | November 5th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

mr yang,
please keep a few services like yahoo tickets and yahoo movies and yahoo tv and yahoo groups and yahoo broadway and yahoo avatars and yahoo message boards please i use these sites all the time

Susan | November 13th, 2007 at 6:03 pm

Dear Mr. Yang:

I think your marketing department doesn’t know its anal opening from a hole in the ground. As Jesse B., the MBA student commented, capture the young and the rest will follow. Good advice, if you believe that the young are like Peter Pan and never grow up. However, if you throw off the adults, baby boomers included, you have thrown out not only a huge market, but a huge market with money in favor of teenies with minimum wage jobs.

People are speaking and Yahoo still isn’t listening. Having a cute yodel as a recognizable slogan is not enough. The angry migration from 360 to other sites, including primarily, Multiply, is not putting Yahoo is a very favorable light. Interesting that the Multiply CEO has already responded to a blog of Yahoo 360 refugees. The Multiply CEO is listening and responding.

Perhaps it’s time to leave your ivory tech tower and find out what is really happening with your users, or are you advocating a Marie Antoinette attitude of ‘let them eat cake.’ Just remember what happened to her! In a figurative sense, heads could roll, if you and the other powers that be at Yahoo, continue to refuse to listen.

EmpressCelena | November 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Well I have now been with Multiply for about a month. The site has some serious issues. Like it sends you mail updates for every annoying possibility. If your friends friend leaves them a comment in their guest book you get an email as an update. Everyone hates this. Everyone complains about it. People want their own updates not everyone else’s. One thing some like and others don’t like ~ It is hard to harrass and stalk when your picture pops up on the bottom of the page every time you even enter someone’s page. This is a good thing. LOL Keeps the harrassing idiots down to a low roar as they cannot even enter another’s page without leaving a visible trail. I think everyone is still in limbo wondering what kind of mess Yahoo is going to produce to replace 360. Some will never come back. That is Yahoo’s loss for not thinking that they are dealing with human beings instead of just doing what ever they like. This is not a communist community. Think of that the next time you decide to force changes on people that didn’t want it. Maybe a preview of the new location and its features are in order. It had better not be bloglog or even the Mash as no one likes them……

karen | November 30th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

well first of all i was so shock to see that 360 is closing I just start to like it more and another thing why did you change the chat rooms see we all had friends on other rooms now we never see them at all to me this is very sad thats all for now please change the rooms back please and keep 360

vsws06 | December 11th, 2007 at 11:45 am

I use my yahoo as my homepage and enjoy the new modules. I would like to be able to view my y360 page right on my yahoo rather then being let go cuz it took me a long time just to set up my y360 page and would like to keep it even if I have to pay a small membership dues to hang on to it. Just finished putting enough contents in it to be able to start inviting friends but now must put on hold because who wants to invite someone when you aren’t sure if you are going to be there anymore. Come on don’t let us baby boomers down after all we are the majority of spenders out there aren’t we?

don | December 27th, 2007 at 1:45 am

Mr Yang
One more comment or question, depending.
Why doesnt yahoo clean up its act?
‘EVERY’ yahoo page is cluttered with advertising, some which flash causing headaches, [or worse].
Most of this adverizing is ‘undesireable’ to the average yahoo user, and unused.
—>WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!!!
I went to New York City recently, and everywhere one looked, there was trash,ugliness,filth.
I notice also that yahoo’s members are slowly moving elsewhere to enjoy the internet.
But then I guess youve made more money than any 500,000 people and you dont care.
Yahoo used to be a premium site, outshining every other internet site.
Today…….
thank you
don christ
ludichrist2000@yahoo.com

don christ | December 27th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

Mr Yang
I noticed that most, if not all, adverse or negative comments about yahoo, or yourself, posted here are being deleted.
—->Why is that, Mr Yang?
I, personally, have some issues with yahoo, [critisims if you like], that I think would improve yahoo if they were seriously looked into, and resolved.
Furthermore, I have some suggestions on how yahoo can make even more money!!!!
But I wont waste my suggestions if I dont see some interest from yahoo, and you personally, Mr Yang, on the afore mentioned issues that affect your business, and every yahoo employee and member.
don christ

david tweedy | December 30th, 2007 at 12:19 am

Yahoo 360 is a site that people of my generation understand an apperciate. Multiply is a distant scond and madh is crap If 360 shuts down I will not be on the internet as much and I will not use yahoo and will discourge all my friends from using it or it advertizers and if Mr. ying yang thinks we baby boomers don’t matter he can go down the drain with yahoo.

don | January 1st, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Oh gee. Another of my posts here have been deleted.
I wonder when yahoo people will wake up.
All the critizim here, or anywhere in yahoo, ‘ABOUT YAHOO’, could be used by yahoo to —>BETTERBETTER<— YAHOO MEANS MORE MONEY FOR YAHOO AND ITS EMPLOYEES!!!
— a big fat duh
But do you think anyone at yahoo is smart enough to realize this, and cash in on this asset?
not a chance.

delete this post.
[its about you peoples speed.]

don

don | January 1st, 2008 at 6:03 pm

oh yeah
I forgot to mention.
Have you noticed how trashy yahoo games have become?
[I didnt cuss yahoo people]
Yahoo games reflects yahoo in general.
Try and concentrate in yahoo games.
You cant do it.
FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH
Thats yahoo advertising folks.
Obnoxious
ugly
useless - as not one yahoo games player buys any of this stuff.
Its sad.
Yahoo used to care about its members and customers, and yahoo was an exciting internet experiance.
Now its a war.
Yahoo members fighting off yahoo’s ignorance.
[I bet this post gets deleted.]
don

Beth Wellington | January 1st, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Isn’t time for an update on the 360 “transition?” You’re losing users to multiply, blogger, wordpress, etc. I waited until today, but hearing nothing from y’all, I’ve starting putting new posts at blogger. As a result, you will also lose traffic when I list my webpage as the new blog address.

mary sciole | January 5th, 2008 at 8:43 am

yes yang you have a power over all of us and my little input i know does not matter but you have hung us out to dry thank you …………………………………..I really thought out of an obligation to current subscribers you would hav ethe decency to fix current bugs plaguing yahoo 360. Perhaps you do not care or give a damm about people only money ,im sure thats the reason behind this stinking transition but for some on here this is a life line and you pulled the plug no messages can be viewed or sent .Its been a nightmare on 360 millions of people are very upset not that you care and i know im writing in vain im just one of the little people who don,t matter to you but i just had to voice my opinion ————yahoo 360 was just great the way it was why you mr yang want to fisx something that is not broken is beyond me oh yea excuse me MONEY GOD OF THE AMERICAN WAY ,PEOPLE OR FEELING MERE BUGS TO BE CRUSHED BY PEOPLE LIKE YOU .

don | January 7th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

—skuze me while I ramble.
You know I was thinking again about yahoo, and pretty bummed because I did enjoy yahoo.
Yahoo was my ‘world’ on the internet, and Ive been with yahoo since its beginning.
Yahoo is huge, with all kinds of useful and fun stuff to explore.
But over the years Ive seen yahoo go downhill.
Dealing with yahoo isnt much fun anymore. More like work, or downright WAR.
Yahoo is forcing me to go elsewhere to work and play.
Maybe yahoo is too big, and now its infrastructure is breaking down.
Whats worse is that whomever runs yahoo, doesnt seem to care.
No one at yahoo listens.
‘Customer service’ is a joke too. [Yahoo's employees care only about their paychecks, from top to bottom, it seems.]
—–>Now…….I have to shake my head.
Can anyone say, ‘out of touch with reality’?
It amazes me that anyone at yahoo can overlook the fact that if you run people off, ‘THEY DONT THROW MONEY AT YOU’!!!
duh
High traffic means more money spent.
Yahoo’s high mucky-mucks are lost in la-la land. They are rich, but in my humble opinion, not very smart.
Yahoo doesnt need to change to get better except in one way only.
FIX THE PROBLEMS THAT EXIST RIGHT NOW.
I want my yahoo ‘home’ back, and yahoo wants my money.
I want to feel secure in my yahoo home also, and yahoo should want to feel secure in its future.
This is all so ludichrist and un-necessary.

don | February 17th, 2008 at 7:56 am

Well, another month has gone by, and still yahoo officials allow petty meglomaniac employees to dish out punishment on yahoo members.
And guess what folks?
There still is not a yahoo department or individual for ‘member rights’. When you sign up for a yahoo account, you sign away all your own rights. Read it. Its all about yahoo, and what yahoo wants.
I realize that yahoo is a privately owned company, but it seems to me that when a company does business with the public, the public has some rights, and some say-so about how that company does business with the public.
This is common sence and GOOD BUSINESS, and good for business.
Not to mention, common decency, and maybe even CIVILIZED?
Listen up yahoo. The day of the greedy pig is comming to an end.
Wake up and look around yahoo big-wigs. It doesnt work, and people are getting sick of it.
duh

smt | April 30th, 2008 at 9:27 am

open your php framework as you opened the fantastic YUI, open your svn server as google code does, developers will follow in a crowd.

sohbet | January 30th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

thank you