Change for some Yahoo! products
Today, we announced that we are sunsetting a few products. For the full list, please click here. Since some of you use Yahoo! Avatars, we wanted to let you know that it will be going away. However, you can easily save your avatar if you’d like to use it in the future:
Yahoo! Avatars
Effective April 1, 2013 we will no longer support Yahoo! Avatars. If you like your existing avatar and want to keep it, please go to the Avatars download page, pick a picture size and format, and click the appropriate download button. Similarly, if you want to edit your avatar, download the image and then use a photo editing service of your preference. If you want to continue using your avatar on our products, go to profile.yahoo.com and upload the avatar you downloaded. For more details, please click here. Additionally effective April 1, we will no longer support the Avatars YQL table.
Thanks for using Yahoo! Answers.
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I am the nice one. I sometimes cant say no.
Bad idea Yahoo!
Wow, Avatars was the only good part about Yahoo lol.
Oh no! This sucks! I loved Yahoo Avatars! Why are you discontinuing it?!
Yes I’d love to have avatars that would be epic
dear yahoo answers,
avatars was a brilliant creative feature and gave so much to yahoo answers itself, by deleting it you are removing the ”soul ” of yahoo answers itself and years of fun, creativity and productivity for many many people.
could you not at least have consulted the yahoo answers community members first without making such a drastic and harsh decision ? or please reconsidering ?
i for one are very heartbroken by the news as i first joined yahoo annswers in 2006 and yahoo avatars was one of the alluring – shining beacons that brought me to the site, because it offered/ gave what no other forum provides – offers.
i am really miserable and cut up by this news, i sincerely hope someone there in the yahoo team can find it in their heart to at least reconsider scrapping the wonderful irreplaceable avatars…and restore the light in mine and other peoples hearts..
yours sincerely, francis.
It’s becoming an old story and not a welcome one. Another Yahoo! product bites the dust.
Each time you cancel a product a few users leave the site, and a little more user confidence is lost.
I don’t use the Yahoo! Avatars. Not since the Yahoo! 360 feed became unreliable. Remember Yahoo! 360? But, I do feel for the users who do, and expect to hear from many of them. I doubt that they will have anything nice to say.
Can you at least say something about why the avatar service is being discontinued? I guess I will just have to use some other service to create an image for my online persona, but it seems a waste to chip away at the value of Yahoo! in general by slowly dismantling these services. It sounds like the people in power are intentionally destroying the value of Yahoo in order to play the stock market with insider trading. Next thing you know there will be a “hostile” takeover by a corporate raider Mitt Romney style, the people will be laid off, new companies will be created from the parts of the old, and the corporate raider will have the hubris to claim they created jobs after destroying more and cashing out the pension plan of the long term employees who were not rehired because they were just a few years shy of retiring. Deja vu. Again.
I’m not sure if this is an April Fools joke or not.
its good news.
Why are you eliminating the Avatars? Is this another example of less service from Yahoo!?
Ok.
Good to know.
Yahoo keeps removing/deleting products without adding new products. This article hinted at the addition of products to Yahoo (finally), but after reading the poorly written article, I discovered no new products to the YAhoo line were mentioned. Yet another dissapointment from the Yahoo team. ~AnitaNudderdrink
Bring back 360!
This is so annoying. Yahoo keeps changing profiles. It went from a profile to “Yahoo 360″ back to a less customizable profile. Services get created and then taken away. Geocities is another good one that was taken over and then deleted. Yahoo has had all kinds of little glitches for over a year now. There were also lots of features taken away from YIM over the last year. How soon til Answers and Yahoo Groups get the axe? Seriously thinking of abandoning Yahoo and going strictly with Google.
Well, I would, but I dislike having the Yahoo logo on an avatar I might use on another website. (Besides, Yahoo hasn’t exactly been endearing itself to me that I wish to advertise it) I do understand why it’s there but have no desire to perpetuate it.
see? so, when you bringing the real chat back? like in the old days?
that’s all about what you were worth.
and when are you going to demolish ‘answers’? you guys always borrow ideas and then drop them like a disease.
Phew, I misread that for a second. I thought we were getting rid of Answers! I used to love the avatars, but it has been so difficult for me to find them lately, that I sort of forgot them.
i love my avatar, re-uploading it just doesn’t look the same, its blury.
The person would have only their name in the future? Usually that is the case on comments through the Internet except for forums mostly. The post will be less interesting to sight when perusing the Answers section for example and that is my point. The avatars tend to at least draw visual attention to the post.
Missing the My Favorites tab.
Please fix.
Thanks.
I’ve come across a number of old pervs on Y!A. They look so young and fresh-faced with their Yahoo avatar, and they blend in well with others who also built themselves those cutesy Y!A avatars. Now the pervs will have to steal someone else’s photo to use as an avatar, instead of using their own photo. Can’t post their real picture and risk being recognized from a mugshot on a sex offender websites.
Really bad idea Yahoo. You just made yourself look a whole lot better. >:(
add me to the SUBSTANTIAL list of those unhappy with the decision to remove yahoo avatars.
i have rather enjoyed them as they give the place a soul.
keep them!!!
NOOOoooooooo!
By allowing ALL the users to upload their own avatar will result in lots of rude or vulgar images. If you had stuck with the Yahoo avatars as the only avatar to use then we wouldn’t have to see those uploaded ones that seem to popularize the site so often that resemble private parts.
Although the majority vote is against you, it is not us that rule Yahoo, it is you and you will be the only ones to blame for your own downfall.
On the other hand, progress is progress, and we all must abide by the ruling party even though the masses are up in arms and rioting the streets!
All right…my least favorite holiday, if you can call it one, is April fools day! FU!
@edfdef — if you save your Avatar in PNG format rather than JPG it should come out crisp as the original.
I am so sorry to see the avatars being scratched. I like to use them and enjoy seeing others´.
Some of the ones uploaded are a bit risky, to say the least.
Please reconsider your decision. Thank you.
By using avatars, it helps us spot trolls and fake questions more. Whenever I see a question mark it makes me think “That question doesn’t sound right and they don’t have an avatar.
Bad idea.
I really seriously do not want them to take away yahoo avatars. I have a cartoon avatar from that site myself, and I really liked seeing all those cute looking cartoon faces. They were so cute.
This is something that I really like that cannot be replaced. I don’t think I would ever get over this. I am severely sad and heartbroken
These avatars are very important to me.
Aw
Also, just a suggestion: Can the stars for the rating of a “best answer” be retired at some point, or replaced by a better option or way they are selected?
Many times I’ve seen that there are people who choose an answer that gave them all the info they needed, maybe more, and they gave a grateful response, yet for some reason they choose to only give two or three stars. I don’t get it…and while it’s silly to care about that it’s still a little offensive that they do this, esp when you obviously put the effort in to be really helpful and gave them the answer they needed. What more did they want for that 4th star, a plate of cookies?
Hasn’t Lisa Rinna’s lips taught you anything? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Is this decision similar to the YouTube one to prefer people to use their real names to discourage trolling? To be honest, i’m not strongly attached to avatars but can’t see the point of this idea at all.
I don’t really think this is a smart idea yahoo. I mean just think about this: with all the inapropiate people on it all the time instead of using an avatar they will use an inapropiate picture. It really doesn’t make any sense! Pretty much everyone on yahoo answers diagrees with this and you decide to do it anyway? I thought this was for the people. I guess that’s not true. And I just started using my avatar too… Well if this is true, then just wait for all of this to come back to haunt you because so any people are going to be mad and stop using it all together. Just you wait…
I like pie… AND KEEP THE FRIGGIN’ AVATARS! THEY GAVE YAHOO A SOUL! A SOOOOOUUUULLLL!
Kugs and Hisses,
Suparman Hamburgers
I’m watching you…
I think avatars should stay on Yahoo! because it gave this place a soul, AND it would make everyone happy! Don’t allow it and i’ll roundhouse kick YOUR HEADS OFF!
Thanks,
Nuck Chorris
I’m surprised at the number of people who care so much about Avatars. I never used avatars and I don’t think I’d ever care.
Hey Yahoo! Answers –
you should cancel everything about Yahoo! except answers.. 
What’s next? I mean, why are you taking Avatars away? I don’t get it. i don’t really care, but how does it make sense? even if only 10 people use it, why not keep it? Are the servers really that expensive to run… I guess so… well sorry about that anyways
Anways cool. thanks.
Wow. It is effective April 1st. That seems familiar…
Ohh this is one of the unique things that yahoo have. Please don’t kill it. There aren’t any such sites with so diverse way to express ourself withou revealing our true photograph
I’ve been loving Yahoo since I was 6 just because of the Avatars.When I got 9, I just joined in because of Avatars. I had too many memories in there.Thanks for ruining it.
If you’re going to take away Yahoo Avatars from its fans, I’ll be leaving.Seriously.
IT’S A BAD IDEA YAHOO.
aw man
another way of losing my individuality ;(
Agree with what you are doing and someone is watching me hahah :B
I wish you wouldn’t pull the plug. I love making those avatars!
You guys are screwing up again. I’ve already said it many times before, Somewhere along the way answers will go the same way 360 did. I already see it coming. I’ve already noticed a drop in the amount of people answering questions in my section. I see more and more questions going for days without answers. I’ve also noticed that the quality of answers are at an all time low. I’ve noticed that a lot of the ones that gave good quality answers are no longer here.
This move is only going to make it worse. You’re going to keep on till answers will be dead here in the USA. Another thing I’ve noticed, Not as many from the USA posting questions or answers as there were. It will not be much longer till we will be saying goodby to Yahoo Answers.
wow…i’m weirded out by all these sad comments…are you so desperate to announce your personalities? do you really think that an avatar represents you? i can only imagine the childish, affected ways you attempt to accomplish this in real life.
**48 people haven’t tried getting attention by being a good person**
fine, just please don’t try to connect it to facebook pictures or anything stupid like that. every idiot corporation thinks if they hook into facebook they’ll make a killing. guaranteed people only “like” products because you promise them free crap, and their friends couldn’t care less!
My take on the matter is if yahoo feels that Avatars is not cost effective then it has to go. I guess a lot of the posters here just haven’t put enough thought into this issue. Yahoo DOES NOT CHARGE YOU FOR ANY OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS THEY DO TO MAKE OUR ONLINE EXPERIENCE AWESOME. Sorry I didn’t mean to yell. It just frustrates me that so many of you are threatening to leave, or worse yet, stay and complain. This is actually a wonderful chance for you to put your real face next to your answers.
hi guys!!!!
Bad idea, Avatars made Yahoo Answers unique and different from all other answer/question sites.
now that they are taking it away, yahoo answers is going to be just like all other answer sites out there. i worked so hard to make my avatar.. it just doesn’t look the same when you re-upload it.
So will they at lease update properly before we save them for good? My avatar changes haven’t migrated for some time . . .
Sniff
Don’t go Yahoo! Avatars..
I have really loved to experiment with it…I remember the times @ cyber cafes when I used to be a virtual identity…
Is this really true, or is it an April Fool’s joke? April 1, 2013, no more Avatars on Yahoo Answers? Who thought up this dumb idea? Yahoo Answers will never be the same. What is the point anyway? I want to call for a vote on this issue. Who said this is a good idea? Thumbs Down on whoever thought this up. Don’ t dictate policy to the Yahoo Answers community! Let the Yahoo Answers community vote!
WE WANT TO VOTE!
WE WANT TO VOTE!
WE WANT TO VOTE!
Ah, yes, it does. It downloads whatever version you just saved, even if you can’t see it on other Yahoo! pages. You will have to upload the one you save to sites you want to use it on. Hint: You can change and save as many different avatars as you like before April 1 — a holiday one, a sports one, etc.
This is really stupid. Why are they doing this? I like my avatar and I don’t deserve to have to go through those tedious steps to keep it. This is a real disappointment. This site keeps disappointing me time and time again… hopefully they will realize that taking the features we love away from the site will not ‘improve our experience.’
I am really disappointed that YA would get rid of Yahoo Avatars. I am currently using one I got from a free avatar site other then Yahoo, but what the hay??? I think YA gives a distinctive touch to the personality projection of YA…what is going on with Yahoo anyway? I always realized that YA might morph into something I would dislike and here is a big one. I object to this move. But knowing YA for a long time (yes, I had prior incarnations to the current one), no matter how much people object you go ahead and do it anyway just to show us you own the site, not us. But at the same time, you loose because this is not a well thought out decision at all. I don’t necessarily need YA to create an avatar since there are dozens of freebee sites on the net to do that – I just think it sucks big time that the typical Yahoo Avatar appearance will go down the drain – probably result in more of the still-born bank dead grey faceless avatars people use. If it is at all possible for Yahoo to change its mind, I would appreciate it on this one.
Funny Aprile Joke, Yahoo!
No! I agree with the majority of the people on this site. It gives Y!A a distinct personality and soul. Soon it will just be those grey faceless avatars, and peoples pictures from facebook…. It doesn’t look good.
Awww
WHHHHYYYYYYYYY ?!?!?!?!?!?
I think that doing away with the Avatars is the worst thing that Yahoo is doing. They have the best Avatars! It as been so much fun playing with the Avatars. It is a big mistake on Yahoo part.
I cannot see what all the fuss is about; as long as one save avatar one wishes to keep, there should not be a problem. I myself care neither way if it there or no.
I just became a member and do not know what an avatar is. I don’t even know what the word means. ( online experience = < 6 months). I will know if I miss them after they are removed if I have seen one or used one. (not kidding).
Answer Yahoo: I along with all the other yahoo fans!
Think this is a terrible Idea! I hope you will change your mind and bring the Avatars Back!!! They are the heart of yahoo. They are the most Important part of Yahoo!
I think a lot of people will leave over this!!!!
Aww, that’s such a pity! I will be customising and downloading my avatars as much as possible today.
As for why I use Yahoo Avatars, I don’t like using a picture of myself on the World Wide Web. It’s for the purpose of protecting one’s anonymity in a fun and engaging way.
@Terry Lee: Um, let me correct you.
It’s true that Yahoo does not directly charge money for their services, but they do get income from advertisers.
Each time a user visits a Yahoo webpage and views an advertisement, they charge to the advertiser. Therefore. it’s not exactly free.
No company will be able to survive with no income, so they need to make sure that web users continually visit their site by offering attractive services.
I cannot see what all the fuss is about; as long as one save avatar one wishes to keep, there should not be a problem. I myself care neither way if it there or no. plz reaply
I am upset about the avatars.
My husband and I got a lot of joy out of them.
They are/were absolutely splendid.
Please reconsider your choice. They are what made Yahoo what it is. They are your public face.
Wait a minute: Is this an April Fool’s joke?
If this is an April Fools joke then you went a little to far. If this is real then this is a bad idea, many users uses this feature as they could use the avatars for their Y! Profile and other social network sites.
Hm. I don’t really care. I don’t know why they even had an avatar system in the first place. Tell me, do forums regularly have avatar systems?
What is wrong with you people? People love avatars and so do I…it pictorially reveals the personality and they are tons of fun. It challenges the creative urge. They go I go. Come on, don’t wreck the site with this dictatorial change.
I am extremely upset that Yahoo is discontinuing Avatars. They have become so personal to everyone using Yahoo. The Yahoo team has dropped the ball for at least the past 2 years with no updates to the Yahoo Avatars. The Yahoo Team has neglected the site. There were no new clothes or anything uploaded on their in a long time. Does Yahoo realize that’s the one thing that people loved about Yahoo. I’m not sure if you had the wrong choice of people in your focus groups about the Yahoo Avatars but as a company, they are making a huge mistake getting rid of them. I am beyond dissapointed with the lack of effort on Yahoo’s part to make the avatars successful. I’ve been on it for at least 7 years and I remember Yahoo was adding widgets like “Avatar World.” Of course there was glitches that were never fixed due to the laziness of the employees not doing their job. I hope someone over at Yahoo Corporate realizes that this is a major mistake for the company. Yahoo Avatars could have branded and been very successful. It just takes the right team to make it happen. I was always a huge supporter of Yahoo and I am shocked by this poor decision.
I knew something was going on with the Avatars when I tried to change it over back in February and it wasn’t saving what I originally wanted – I actually had trouble with it. I just found out today that Avatars aren’t supported anymore! That seriously sucks rope!! It was fun getting on Yahoo and expressing ourselves with changing our characters. This may be more of another reason I’m not on Yahoo Messenger that much anymore! If Yahoo respects their users, they should BRING BACK THE AVATARS!!
Yahoo has been dropping really good games and adding some shabby ones. gradually after 360 they have dropped so many good things that it’s terribly disappointing. BYW the avatar link won’t open, so I can’t save mine I guess. Not a good decision. Yahoo.
I find that yahoo is abandoning many of its features that make the service appealing. Among some of the better features were the chat rooms and the avatar service. Being that Yahoo has abandoned these concepts I pose this question to the Yahoo team; what attractive features are you offering to make your service appealing now? With so much being lost your service just isn’t as desirable. Y!A is great but even that is quickly losing its charm. Does the team intend to rescind that service as well? Your news is great, as is your email service, but there are other options that are equally as good. I tend to be a loyal person until loyalty is no longer a useful trait. I think we might be close.
Just found out why my avatar has vanished. I’ll have to download it before April Fools’ Day, but today’s already the 3rd of April. Oh well.
This decision seems like the usual attempt to apply the Pareto principle to business. That’s where 10% of the business seems to generate 90% of the profits, so you get rid of the other 90% of the business. But because it was the entire structure, not the 10%, that was carrying the load, suddenly nothing at all is left.
“We make most of our products on the fifth floor of the building, so we are going to eliminate the other eight floors.”
why not just allow an avatar or picture change twice a year instead of letting users change it whenever they please?You seem to be unconcerned with all the game playing and avatar games.,
This would be a way to possibly slow up those who make MANY accounts to trick others,report and take over categories.Once everyone sees who they really are.this would end their childish nonsense.
on the i love me
I am shocked that “Yahoo” would EVER get rid of a feature that so many ppl were enjoying! There’s zero empathy when it comes to “Yahoo users” by just putting up a post that you’re getting rid of it.. Yahoo avatars were fun and many people admired Yahoo for having it. I CHOSE to have my primary emails with Yahoo because I liked the avatars.. instant messaging was so much more different than other messaging ( I.e. aol, msn even Gmail ).. the experience was fun and interactive..I’m extremely disappointed because Yahoo will never be the same for me. My perception has completely changed because Yahoo has proven they don’t care about the people using what they offer..I know so many people who say how lame and disappointing this is. If Yahoo doesn’t care about the users, then I don’t care about staying loyal to Yahoo.. if all of these people are ignored that’s bothered by this.. and Yahoo doesn’t allow Avatars back in somehow, GMAIL is my new primary email and I’m deleting my primary Yahoo email accounts and DEFINITELY won’t use it as my homepage.. lots of other options out there.RECONSIDER PLEASE!
WOW.. so guess I found out about it a few days too late to save mine.. this is LAME no one wants their REAL pic on an OPEN site for everyone to see… the avatars were a fun way to customize your picture and show personality without showing your face.. ugh this site USED to be great.. I think I am going underground because this crap and google wanting all your info all the time makes NO SENSE!! mlm
Why are you discontinuing Yahoo Avatars? That was one of my favorite features on Yahoo. Why would you discontinue Yahoo Avatars? Please bring it back, getting rid of that unique feature was a really bad idea. I hope you reconsider the decision, I really don’t understand, without any reason provided, why you would take out Yahoo Avatars. Please bring it back.
Is there a good reason why avatars need to be discontinued? How would getting rid of them help the site at all? Avatars are the biggest feature when having an online profile
Typical Yahoo! management decisions, and it will be the end of Yahoo! eventually.
Each time they close much-loved and used services with no reason (or sometimes such a vague and meaningless statement) more people stop using the wider Yahoo! service.
I remember when Yahoo! was a strong internet company, they had a bunch of good things going. I remember being gutted when they closed Geocities. Then Y! Photos, Y! 360, the Y! Messenger chatrooms.
It’s just one bad move after the next, and they’re only doing themselves out of user-support with this endless rehashing of products and services.
Dude why? why get rid of the avatars? it’s ironic how i recently asked how to get an avatar on the same day they took it away
to be honest i never really like yahoo avatars anyway. It had so little features into it. Not many options on how to create your avatar. Besides internet is growing these days so yahoo answers needs to step it up.
>:( NOOOOOO
Wow, thanks, Yahoo!. Avatars was a really cool service, and the Yahoo! Profiles that you “replaced” them have very little chance of ever taking off.
I also can’t believe you shut down Yahoo! Message Boards. Really? That’s part of your heritage, but I guess you would rather shut all your good services down so that you can have a very limited number of new services. Flickr and Yahoo! Mail are about the only two good things you have going for you at this point.