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Filed under: Internet, News, Yahoo!, Social Software

What's a troll to do now? Yahoo! News Message Boards taken offline

Yahoo! NewsOne aspect of the Yahoo! experience that always left me shaking my head is the News Message Boards. Easily accessible from a "Discuss" link at the bottom of news stories, it was the stomping grounds of trolls and other hate mongers with little to no social value, unless of course you are a troll.

But now I say, "Hallelujah!" Break out the bubbly and do a little jig on the table because the powers that be at Yahoo! News have shut down the News Message Boards. The "Discuss" link has been replaced with a link labeled, "What happened to the "Discuss" option?" The message at the other end of that link takes you to a short explanation of how the boards were dominated by a few, links were difficult to embed and something bigger and better is soon to replace the old board system: "Over the next few months, we plan to offer new discussion forums based on topics in the news and incorporating the latest features to foster a better discussion for all of our readers."

Will it be an implementation of the new Yahoo! Message Board system or something digg/Netscape-like? Will it combine Yahoo! 360 blogging platform to be more like Newsvine? We'll have to wait and see.

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Yahoo!

Blogs missing from Yahoo! News search results

Yahoo! NewsIt was almost a year ago when Yahoo! began including blogs as a subset of it's Y! News search results pages. Tonight I have notice that they are missing. There was a struggle as whether to include them within the News Search results or segregate them as was finally decided. I wonder if the battle with this decision is continuing.

No clues anywhere about not including them in search results anymore. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?


Updated 8/27/06 - I received information that this move was the result of the rampant splog problem and only a trickle of click-through traffic. Thus the overhead to operate it wasn't justified.

Second update 8/27/06: Greg Jarboe blogs: Brian Nelson, a Yahoo spokesperson, called me back to say the Blogs beta had been "temporarily taken offline to retool the offering."

So it depends on whether you believe internal communications or the PR group.

Filed under: Internet, Yahoo!, Social Software

Yahoo! Answers is a disaster

Train wreckAccording to James Derk in his Scripps Howard syndicated column, Yahoo! Answers is now a disaster. He says it was once useful but now is overrun with spam, chat-happy posters and others who simply disregard the guidelines knowing there will be little to no retribution.

I have to agree, sort of. It hasn't become the putrid cesspool the Yahoo! News Message Boards are, but can I see it coming.

Filed under: Fun, Photo, News, Yahoo!

Give Your Favorite Yahoo! News Photos as Gifts

I have started noticing how some photos on Yahoo! News now appear with a new option New - Purchase Photo. So far it appears that these are limited to AFP distributed photos, but not all AFP photos have this new option.

Mug shotThere is one photo of a magazine cover which I first saw this with. I called my wife over and we debated over whether it would make a better gift as a t-shirt, mouse pad, tile, or on a coffee cup. As you can see, it works great on a coffee cup.

Won't those on my Christmas list be surprised this year.

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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