March 29, 2007

Perhaps They Should Have Tested More - Yahoo!


  • Some users "automatically unsubscribed from their own groups by Yahoo's anti-flood-detection software"
  • up to 25 duplicates for each original message


Yahoo Groups hit by massive duplicate e-mail bug
March 29, 2007 9:02 AM PDT

A major bug in Yahoo's mailing list software has deluged in-boxes around the world with duplicate messages.

Yahoo Groups confirmed the glitch in a brief statement on Wednesday evening.
CNET News.com reader David H. reported in e-mail that the problems started early on Wednesday. He said: "What is incredible to me is that 17 hours later, Yahoo has neither solved the problem nor rolled back their 'upgrade' -- despite hundreds of messages from irritated group managers, some of whom have been automatically unsubscribed from their own groups by Yahoo's anti-flood-detection software."

Comments posted on Yahoo's official blog said that messages often were arriving faster than users could delete them, with up to 25 duplicates arriving for each original message. Some mailing list operators responded by enabling emergency moderation, and others reported additional glitches such as messages not appearing that should have. Over 1,500 comments were posted.

In a revised statement released at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Yahoo said: "A fix was pushed at midnight (PT) that we believe has resolved the problem for messages submitted after that time. However, it is possible that some users of some groups may have continued to receive duplicates of messages that were posted before midnight."

It was not immediately clear whether the glitch was due to Yahoo announcing earlier in the day on Wednesday that it would open its e-mail interface to outside software developers.
Posted by Declan McCullagh

(http://news.com.com/2061-10811_3-6171648.html)