Talk:AOL/Archive 1

message: I think there should be a section on the amount of legal stuff that AOL has been involved in.  I use the word 'stuff' deliberately because AOL has helped to make and shape laws as well as defending themselves in a court of law.  I'd start writing this section myself except that I just can't remember the specifics very well.  The only thing I can remember with any clarity is the class action lawsuit filed by Observers.net against AOL in the name of AOL's community leaders.  The beef was that AOL should have been paying the Community Leaders because they were doing the same sort of work expected of paid employees.*Kat* 02:06, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)
:Perhaps further discussion of the legal actions by the New York Attorney General would be appropriate. []
:As well as a discussion of their ongoing legal action against spammers.
:--terriblecertainty 06:40:51, 2005-09-12 (UTC)
I agree completely, since they were the biggest and the most visible, they drew the first shot on just about everything.  The community leaders thing was a bit of a tempest in a teapot, though.  People signed up to be "volunteers," their only compensation was free time (pre-flat rate pricing in 1996), when the price went to $19.95 for unlimited usage, the "volunteers," got angry and eventually filed a lawsuit, claiming they should have been paid the whole time.  Interestingly, the Department of Labor intitiated an investigation (they are in charge of enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act) and they decided that there wasn't enough there to justify a law suit.  But if people think the big legal issues are the community leaders lawsuits, they are missing all of the contributions to spam litigation and legislation, internet defamation and more. AOL was one of the big defenders of anonymous speech on the internet.  Maybe I should start researching some of this and writing.
Tacitustheyounger 02:05, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  AOL and Legal Issues 

message: I just started the America Online and Pop Culture section.  I intend to expand it to be much more than what it currently is.  As a teenager who never had a social life, the Internet was a Big Deal when I first signed on and I took to it and its chatrooms like a fish to water.  So most of my contributions will deal with the chatrooms, message boards, and Community Leader program.*Kat* 02:46, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)
:The Internet is a "Big Deal" to me, too, but I've never regarded "the Internet" as having anything whatsoever to do with the cheesy, proprietary online service that is the subject of this article. Dtobias 16:19, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  AOL was/is the first/only Internet experience for millions of people - all of whom are much less cool than the previous poster, it seems, or at least it seems that way to the previous poster - and so its influence on many areas, including pop culture, is certainly worthy of an article. - DavidWBrooks 20:28, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Definately not is, was maybe... Frenchman113 00:48, July 27, 2005 (UTC)
*I have never used AOL and probably never will. Cable is so much better than anything dialup that I would do without rather than go back to it. The computer that I recently bought to replace my stolen 2000 came loaded with it. I am still finding traces of it. Uninstall is a joke. It takes forever to completly delete it from the registry. My advice: use the AOL discs to make art or recycle in some way but don't stick it in the drive. Dakota 03:47, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
* Regardless of your love/hatred for AOL, it is undeniable how HUGE it became during the internet boom.  "You've got mail" and "Welcome!" almost became synonomous with the internet.  At the very least, it should be mentioned that a movie by the name of "You've got mail" was made, and was about the use of AOL's email and IMing, etc to foster a relationship. --Gidge 20:50, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pop culture 

message: Hello everyone, here it says that AOL is owned by TimeWarner but in TimeWarner article it sais that AOL purchased TimeWarner!
Which one is correct?
:AOL purchased Time Warner, but then people realised AOL's business was screwed, so Time Warner, the stronger partner, subsumed its purchaser. Ironic, but true. Johnleemk | Talk 13:20, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Ownership

message: Is anyone going to write about the actual software used to connect to AOL, you know, the client?  I'd like to see the features introduced in each version - 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0... what have you.  Might be nostalgic for those who miss the "good ol' days" of AOL, when it wasn't so much just newbies that used it. (You've Got Mail! - ha, classic.) --Geopgeop 03:34, 5 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  The software, not the service 

message: However, this reputation doesn't stop aol.com addresses from being widely used, even in serious business contexts; it is still commonplace in advertisements in non-computer-related publications to see lines like "See our website at www.whatever.com, or e-mail us at whatever@aol.com," to the puzzlement of those who believe an address in the company's own domain would be more logical and professional.
I'm not sure this is needed. It's rather inaccurate at this point. Can anyone provide any kind of recent anecdotal evidence proving this?
:I agree that it may no longer be relevant. I do think it's an interesting note, however; perhaps we could change it to indicate that "at one time" or "in the late '90s" companies were doing this? --Birdhombre 04:17, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unneeded? 

message: This article needs something about the ubiquitous "AOL keyword", which seemed to be pushed heavily in cross-marketing efforts around 1998-2002.  I just noticed an AOL keyword on the cover of a National Geographic issue from a few years ago, and am somewhat surprised they put something right there on their cover that had carried an advertising/marketing influence. -71.2.177.157 11:29, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Keywords

message: I was surprised to see that nothing was mentioned about the massive consequences of the unlimited plan offering in 1996. I remember in very early 1997, it was almost impossible to connect to ANY AOL number since people were just online all the time. Flyerhell 20:31, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Lack of connection circa 1997

message: I feel that AOL battler should be mentioned on this page. But where? The AOL chatrooms are rarely mentioned as well as being scattered in the article. --Zeno McDohl 03:04, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Adding chatroom battlers? 

message: after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected
music?  according to Gameline's article, it was used to download games.
 The CVC GameLine was a cartridge for the Atari 2600 which could download games from a phone line.
What am I missing here?--Martin925 01:34, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Bill von Meister had the idea to stream music over what eventually became the Gameline modem, but it was never actually implemented. The second paragraph of Gameline mentions this. Microtonal 02:33, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gameline 

message: I added an  tag to this article. Much of this article is written in a tone that's not really appropriate for an encyclopedia. For instance: it is still commonplace in advertisements in non-computer-related publications to see lines like "See our website at www.example.com, or e-mail us at example@aol.com," to the puzzlement of those who believe an address in the company's own domain would be more logical and professional, for instance.
Also, Claims are that these rules are too strict to follow, do not allow swearing, or a very flexible rule called room disruption seems like a highly unencyclopedic sentence. Whose claims would these be? --Ashenai 20:53, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  More formal tone, please!