Fuck "New" Yahoo Mail - the old one wasn't broken

The BBQ Pit
1

As some of you may be aware, I’m not the biggest fan of the newest and neatest in technology. For me, most of technology is nothing more than a tool, and my needs are accommodated well shy of the cutting edge.

One of the constants in my daily on-line routine is to check 4 sites - one of which is the Dope, another is Yahoo e-mail. I’ve used Yahoo as my main e-mail address for - gosh - I don’t know how many years. And you know what, it was perfectly 100% reliable and suitable for every use I ever had for it. Heck, I even participate in a couple of Yahoo Groups and track my stocks on Yahoo, and could get from one to another easily.

Well, this morning I go to check my e-mail, and something is off. It doesn’t look the way it has these past several years. And when I click on my messages, I cannot see the content, only the address of the sender. My first thought is that something is wrong with either their site or my connection. Only after checking out and back in a couple of times, do I see a banner asking if I would like to check in to “New” Yahoo Mail.

I may have missed it, but I don’t recall seeing any notice or e-mail of an impending change. When I click it, I see a format completely different from what I was used to. Messages appear somewhat differnetly than before, and take slightly different steps to access. Along the way little boxes and banners pop up touting new features - and I can’t readily see how to turn off these boxes which are blocking what I want to see. Apparently it offers a whole bunch of new services at the same site, but I don’t want/need any of those new services.

Now, what I’m getting at in this lame little rant is that I have no problem with technology changing and progressing for those who wish to be current with every new development and capability. But I really wish they would not do so in a manner that inconveniences those of us considerably lower on the curve, who have no interest in the latest bells and whistles, but just want simple, easy, and reliable basic services such as e-mail.

2

They’ve been heavily promoting this change for a long time – I think more than a year now – every time you sign on.

3

For what it’s worth, I just logged into my Yahoo Mail account and the classic version appeared. I checked out the Beta version of the “new site,” but preferred to stick with the older one.

4

I don’t like it either, but if you look around, there is an option to go back to, I think they call it “classic”, Yahoo mail. Click it and all will be as before.

5

Yup, you finally clicked on the ‘Switch to the new Yahoo! Mail’ link.
Now all you have to do is find the ‘Switch back to Classic’ link and click it. (or it says something like that).

6

As of now I have a link on my Yahoo mail page asking me if I want to switch to the ne one, its been untouched there for I dont know how many days; I´m not in the mood to change something that works… almost.

There`s one single thing that drives me bonkers about Yahoo mail, a few days ago a friend sent me many pictures and I had to open and save each one individually which took me well over 15 minutes. Is it too much to ask for a “Download Attachements” button? :dubious:

Thinking of it, does the New! Improved! version have that button?

7

Okay, they may have been promoting this heavily, but in my daily use of their service I did not notice it. Why? Because I had no interest in any change/improvement. So however they were promoting it, it was easy for at least this one long-time user to overlook it.

When I went to the old e-mail, all it did was list the senders. When I clicked on the message, all it showed me was the sender, not the content.

When I went to the new e-mail, it said I did not have enough resolution, but it would do the best it could. So I was able to make my way around a crappily formatted site. Scanning down through my inbox, I see various notations that it could not display messages. I’m sure they weren’t crucial, but I usually do a good job of culling shit I know I’ll never want again. So I wonder what it is that it could not display, and whether it is gone for good.

Then when I went back to the old e-mail, I again got just the addresses but no content.

This has not been a huge deal, but so far I’ve fucked around for maybe 10-15 minutes at something that usually takes me 1 or 2. And I am not the kind of person who thinks “Gee whiz, isn’t that neat!” when finding my way around a new format such as this. All I want is to read my few stupid boring little e-mails as I have day-in and day-out these past several years. And I really do not appreciate a corporation making changes and updates that make it harder for me to function at my basic level.

This type of complaint is somewhat consistent with one I have concerning much of technology. As a very basic example, you can no longer simply plug in a new TV and watch it - first you need to program the set. And the computer operating system you are perfectly happy with becomes functionally obsolete, requiring that you learn a new way of doing what you had no desire to change.

I guess my point is that this type of “improvement” imposes proportionately greater burdens upon the least sophisticated users. Which, in my opinion, sucks. Consider cars. As much as they have changed under the hood and beneath the skin over the past 50 years, with few exceptions someone from the 1950s could sit down in a brand new car, insert the key, operate the foot pedals and manipulate the steering wheel.

8

Are you saying Classic Yahoo mail isn’t working for you? Or are old mail messages not showing up correctly. If the latter, as others have commented, click on “Mail Classic” up at the top of the screen and it will take you back to the flavor of Yahoo Mail you have come to know and love. If it’s the former something is messed up on the Yahoo server you are on. Because, classic Yahoo is working perfectly fine for me.

Really, my biggest complaint about Yahoo is the massive amount of Spam I get. Luckily, a large chunk of it gets into my spam folder. But, enough gets in my regular inbox to be annoying.

pat

9

When I first hit my e-mail favorite, it gave me the page saying I needed to re-login.
The material was familiar, but it was on a plain white background and somewhat less well formatted. I recalled seeing similar things in the past, but they never lasted for long.

When I clicked the “log in” tab, I got my e-mail account, again on a white background with less formatting than usual. That was when I got only the sender info but no messages.

After trying to get in there 2-3 times, I saw a small banner on the top right that said check out new Yahoo e-mail. Which I did. I even changed my display resolution to make them happy.

Now when I click on my Yahoo e-mail bookmark, I get the white “Re-login” page. When I click log-in, it sends me to the new e-mail page.

It is as tho every time I wanted to flip a switch to turn on a light in my home, I didn’t know if someone might have flipped the damned circuit breakers - AND hidden the damned breaker box somewhere in a different room in my house!

10

Something else might be going on. Because I use the Classic Yahoo, and I can access my messages. You say you’re getting a list of senders, but no subject/link to the actual message?

11

Well now I don’t seem to be able to get to “classic.”
When I log-in, it goes right to the new one.
At the top, right under my username, there are three small blue hyperlinks "Sign Out, My Account, Mail Classic"
When I click on “Mail Classic”, nothing happens.

I’ll have to see what happens at home tonight. The thing is, I did not intentionally do anything differently than I have every day for the past several years, and find myself with a product I personally find less desireable than what I had before.

It looks as tho I should be able to figure out how to work my way around in the new e-mail, but at the very least I will need to change my bookmark. Here’s something I love, when I go to e-mail, the page that appears does not show me my e-mail, but instead shows me news and ads. There is a small box on the side that I have to go to to get to my in-box and such. It reminds me of something like Windows or Word, where there is so much more crap on the surface than a low-end user such as myself has any interest in. This kind of “bundling” of services/functions does not make things easier/better for me.

12

I understand you’re frustration, but you have to take into account that you’re using a free advertiser-based service. Services like that are especially subject to frequent changes.

13

Yeah, I realize I have little to no right to complain over something I have enjoyed for free for several years.

Just stopped in a buddy’s office down the hall, and he said, “Do you know what’s going on with Yahoo Mail?” Good to know I’m not the only incompetent old fossil around.

Coincidentally, I was cleaning out some old files and discs in my office, and happened to run across this e-mail dated 8/18/94:

Please find attached, instructions on how to send and receive E-Mail through
the Internet. This functionality gives us the ability to send E-Mail to anyone
with an Internet address. Please be conscious of confidentiality concerns.
The Internet is not secure. Use password encrypted text files when warranted.

Man, I feel like I stepped out of a Wayback machine! :wink:

14

Yup, New Yahoo is like New Coke. Stuck with the classic and am not remotely interested in any additional “bells & whistles”.

15

I’ve actually been very happy with the new version, which I’ve been using since they first started offering it about a year ago. I can navigate among my messages very easily, don’t have to wait for things to load, and find the search function pretty useful. It took me a couple of days to adjust, but I found it a definite improvement.

16

Huh. I switched over to the new version maybe six months back or so and haven’t had the least little bit of trouble. :shrug:

17

Well, the new “My Yahoo” page is pissing me off. They’re busy pimping their new services in ads that take up a significant portion of the upper left in the active area, pushing my stock quotes out of view. You can move fields around, but not their ads. Hey, fuckers, I put my stock quotes there for a reason!!

18

First thing I did was close just about every window that allowed me to close it.
That cleared things up considerably. Then stocks are IIRC one click away.

It is things like this that make me wonder if there is an increasing age/personality gap re: technology. Many many folks shrug, and say this kind of thing is no big deal. They may even enjoy exploring the new capabilities and reconfiguring stuff.

Others of us just want the damned tool to work the same predictable way it always has.

19

Yeah, the ads are pissing me off. You can AdBlock them but you have to do it every time, because the url for the ads keep changing. And you can’t make them smaller, or move them to a different part of the page.

Ever since I switched to the new Yahoo mail months ago, I’ve been getting more spam. I don’t know what the hell is up with that.

20

Really? I blocked http://.yimg.com/.swf a long time ago and haven’t had any trouble since.