Template talk:AOL

message: I changed the AOL template from  to  thus eliminating the need for the servers to call up the sharedip template. I assume that then using  should actually reduce strain on the servers instead of seeming like it would. We would have to change the Template:AOL when Template:Sharedip changes, but that won't be that often or hard to do. What do others think? MicahMN | Talk 15:42, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, many times when I put up a template like this one, I use  so that less strain is placed on the wikipedia servers. FYI: adding subst before template basically pastes the contents of the template as it stands into the page, instead of calling up the template every time the page is loaded. I just found that out recently. -- MicahMN | Talk 02:30, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually this is not true - a commonly used template like  will be cached and then brought up quickly without additional hits on the database. Using the actual template instead of  will allow the quick adding of information for changing wikipeida policy towards anonymous AOL users without having to track down everywhere it was substituted. The demand templates place on the server are often exagerrated. 205.188.117.74 02:20, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Untitled 

message: For the sake of interest, here are IP lookups on the IP addresses currently marked with this template, combined with approximate geolocations as given by http://www.hostip.info/  -- Anon, 09:18, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reverse lookups 

message: Figured this might help sum up AOL for people unfarmiliar with the issue--205.188.116.203 23:13, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Can someone involved in that discussion please copy and paste a synopsis of it into this page for future reference. It is very good information. Including your demonstration of how dynamic IPs are assigned by page (assuming that was you?). Regards, --Darkfred Talk to me 20:41, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[User talk:Nlu/AOL|Discussion]] 

message: Please use Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:AOL for finding AOL users. Categories are for encyclopedic content not tracking user groups. --Darkfred Talk to me 16:48, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: * Since noone has contested this in the last month I will remove it now. Remember that we already have both the IP range list and the whatlinkshere mechanism to track these people. The category is redundant. --Darkfred Talk to me 21:44, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Categories

message: Has anyone considered adding a notice to this template that reminds people that not only are AOL user 'unlikely' to recieve the message directed at them, that is virtually, if not 100% impossible for them to receive them at all--205.188.116.203 15:42, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: For instance, right now the new message bar on the top of my page is lit up, , which is my ip as I'm editing this page now, which will change before I can even hit submit, by the time I could ever click on the new message I'd be on a different talk page, looking at a different message, left for a different user--205.188.116.203 15:42, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

text: I originally phrased it this way when I added the message. But it kept getting rewritten. I have no idea why they wanted a less accurate wording, but IK suspect it is simply cause noone knows exactly how the AOL system works they add weasel words. For the record this notice has been deleted once as well. It appeared to be a revert accident. But since people still keep adding Warn3s to AOL pages I readded it. It does no good to scare off new contributers with random warnings that don't apply to them. --Darkfred Talk to me 20:31, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Talk pages

message: :http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=+
:seemed like a good thing to add, works alright but someone might want to fancy up the formating a bit and make it look pretty, also won't work well for international IP users, since it only references ARIN, but it should be a good way of double checking who is or isn't a real AOL user--{anon iso − 8859 − 1janitor} 18:07, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *could also seeing it work well if integrated into a more general template, like template:vandal for instance--{anon iso − 8859 − 1janitor} 18:07, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *see User:43734731/workspace for reference,  using the first AOL ip on the above list as an example, again, would be problematic for international users who wouldn't be registered in ARIN, I'll try and generalize a little more--{anon iso − 8859 − 1janitor} 18:07, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: WHOIS

message: This is incorrect. Any non-business non-static AOL user (99%) will always change IP with every page loaded, the caching system chooses IPs based on a hash of the pagename and address. Simply changing a single character or waiting for 5-10 minutes will change your IP, this includes characters used by php scripts so an AOL user's IP will change between article and discussion pages of the same name. See  for a discussion and evidence. --Darkfred Talk to me 21:23, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Probably not be seen by the correct user

message: *I know it is a big template already - but I think a very important point is left out. We need to use this template to encourage the anonymous editor to get a username!  That is the best for us (since we can associate people with their actual contributions) and the best for them (since they can better participate in collaborative editting). Johntex\talk 15:34, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Encouraging them to get a username

message: Removing old warnings, per WP:AN, also, in the same spirit, also turning over a new color, it's now off white, instead of orange--AOL account  (205.188.116.200) 17:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Turning over a new leaf 

message: Why not? A good portion of the AOL related vandalism that goes on around here are people who stuble onto a wiki for the first time in their lives, and make very small or trivial changes. Given the sheer number of new users who see this template I don't see why it shouldn't also include some very simple instructions on creating an account and so on--152.163.101.13 12:59, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with pilotguy for whats its worth, this template is information aimed primarily at non-aol users. The welcome template is specifically for newly created usernames. --Darkfred Talk to me 04:00, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  on whether or not this should also be a welcome template 

message: AOL talk pages are pointless, everything other than the native semi static ranges (the 172s) cannot receive messages, but since vandalism warnings are required before vandals can be blocked, a sort of due process of sort, people have a hard time understanding that any contact they have with AOL users prior to blocking will be completly random. The only other thing I can think of, is, as other people have suggested, a complete redirect of all AOL talk pages to a central talk page, and some sort of media wiki fix to allow this notify them of new messages. Then everyone can experience warnings the way AOL IPs do, one big long random list of complaints that have no order, no context, and no rational order or causation--AOL account 00:03, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  I give up 

message: The ranges of AOL which are not proxied through the normal system are well known. We should simple use the IP address template for these as they have no AOL specific quirks. (And since they are business addresses mostly, the users are probably unaware of the AOL affiliation). (172.* for the record). Therefore the word likely is completely unecessary in the template, I am looking at you Pilotguy. --Darkfred Talk to me 14:51, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *WP:AOL says that AOL still doesn't use XFF headers, this template implies that they do--152.163.101.13 02:21, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *Can someone please correct it?--152.163.101.13 02:21, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *I can't edit it, it looks sprotected, could someone else fix it please?--152.163.101.13 02:25, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The word likely and semi static ranges 

message: I have now removed this template from all pages corresponding to IP addresses in the 172.x.x.x range: none of these are shared proxies, according to AOL, and are mostly (all?) dynamically assigned IP addresses, which should be treated identically to dynamically-assigned addresses from any other ISP. I have also reworded the template to reflect this. -- The Anome 18:25, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *There are a dozen or so 172s currently in that category, are they not supposed to be there?--152.163.101.13 17:01, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: * I removed this template from three or four 172.x.x.x talk pages tonight. They were properly deleted by anon editors on August 22, but it happened right in the middle of a huge  vandalism attack, and some AOL IP addresses that are shared proxies participated in that attack and _also_ deleted this template from some 172.x talk pages. A couple of us on RC patrol (including me) mistook the template deletions for vandalism, and reverted them. I think I've got this template removed from all 172.x.x.x addresses now, and the edit summary I used referred to this section of this talk page. Sorry about the misunderstanding. Baseball,Baby! balls•strikes 03:56, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: *They've grown back, as any change I try to make on my own, is of course seen as vandalism, you might want to go back and remove them yourself, because I'm just going to be reverted if I do it myself--152.163.101.13 12:55, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  172.x.x.x addresses 

message: "may be shared by hundreds of AOL users at any given time"
"are shared among thousands of AOL users"
Doesn't that sound strange? How about unifying them? Aran|heru|nar 06:39, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hundreds/Thousands 

message: Ok, how hard is it to just not tag any 172s? There's no reason to label them as proxies when they're perfectly stable, not to mention, why are there usernames in this cat? people must be tagging RUs with Template:AOL--AOL account 11:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  172s, RUs, and other things that shouldn't have {{tl|AOL}} 

message: I LOL'D. ~ Flameviper Who's a Peach? 01:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Humor that is only understood by Biology students 

message: As I understand it, with the release of the free AOL client software, all of these addresses have now been range-blocked as open proxies, and should not be showing up. Instead, those AOL users using proxies that correctly implement XFF should be visible as editing from their XFF addresses. -- The Anome 13:29, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Message changed to reflect open proxy blocks 

message: There are 87 IP pages tagged with this template. The template states that , but that is not the case. Either the IPs should be indef blocked for anonymous editing, or the template message should be amended? MarioGom (talk) 11:06, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Template update or clean up