Challenges With Yahoo Groups Signup System

I enjoy being one of the moderators of the LinkedIn Bloggers group  which I started last year and has now grown to over 570 members.

But I am continually bothered by the limitations of the Yahoo Groups setup for people joining the group. The group is only open to LinkedIn members and it’s a requirement that that people join Linkedin before they join our group, and then provide us with the link to their profile, so we can check.

Here’s the message that greets anyone wanting to join the group:

Registration Open Only To LinkedIN Members.

Only members who provide a link to their LinkedIN profile in the ‘comments to list owner’ section will be approved.

To join LinkedIN for free, click here.

LinkedIn Bloggers is a forum for discussing how blogging and related technologies, such as podcasting, video blogging (‘vlogging’) and wikis can support their professional networking using LinkedIn.

Also, many people leave their yahoo email address as the default here but don’t check it so we can’t contact them if there is a registration problem. Please use an email address you check often.

Any questions - email Des Walsh, one of the moderators of the LinkedIN Bloggers Forum.

Fairly clear, I would have thought. But no. We regularly get applications with no LinkedIn profile link or member number and comments such as the current batch:

• I am on LinkedIN and would like to know more about the BLOGs I’m on.
• Online Learning & Earning Successfully Tested Program To Make Huge Money From Net With Right Combination Of Tools
• I am a corporate recruiter and always am looking for good talent to job our company
• looking for support from the Linkedin
• need bloggers

Some of these I find particularly mysterious.

But with each of these incomplete applications I faithfully send an email asking for the details already requested. Problem is, a significant number evidently don’t read the bit on the home page of the group (as above) about using an email address they “check often”. Typically these are yahoo.com or other free addresses.

I suspect that some of the “applications” may be by people just trawling for contacts by joining groups, but it bothers me that some people may be missing out because of the limitations of the Yahoo Groups setup.

It would be good if Yahoo Groups had a format which enabled group leaders to communicate more effectively with prospective members.

Tags: LinkedIn, LinkedIn Bloggers, bloggers, social networking, Yahoo!, Yahoo Groups