The Aol Blockage- a discusion

[coopa]

I have been a member since the old forum. I signed up just before the first VD thing by underclocked.

I happly posted on aol, only when necessary, only when i had a good deal.

then things started to get bad. harsher moderation was good, but blocking all free isps? I know that there were a few trolls, but for some people that was there only way to get online. Then there was the no scams and taking advantage and coupons policy. that made cense leagaly but that made many people leave.

THEN there was the AOL ban. i havent posted since then becasue of that. my parents paid for it and that is how i got online.

I never really understood why it was banned. my understanding, please correct me if i am wrong, is that i was banned caus one or two people that were "trolls" were on aol, and when anand or whoever called aol up to ask for a solution that they werent very helpful. that is my understanding, and it doesnt make that much sense does it? i was wonder ing how many people were banned becase of that. i havent been to this site in 2 months at least, (used to be alsmost daily) Because i was so discussted at being blocked. but i would still like an explanation.

The reason that i am on now was because i finaly got a cable modem. That is why i decided to post.


I found this from a while ago. a real slam on anand. interesting press this got you yes?
is anand proud of this?:disgust:
yes i am aware that this is not am actual publication but it was still seen by many people. It is actually kinda funny. i encourage you to check it out.

Please reply i am interested on other people's viewpoints on this situation. I just wanted to know why aol was banned. and whatever other people thought about it.

again sorry for the long post.

PS: please disregard spelling errors.

--edit--
after looking around a bit i found this neffing stuff quite interesting. Just out of curiosity "Why would you care"
I think that the Elite status is the best thing that has happened to the board.
The reason that i am only member status is becasue i dont BS around with my posts. when i make a post, there is a reason. unlike many of the people who achive senior in one week and dont post 2 things helpful or interesting.

---

Search the archives for the reason AOL and other free ISP's were banned. We will not lift the ban anytime soon.

There is no possible way to please the +/- 30,000 members on the AnandTech BBS, and we do the job as we see fit. Remember, we all volunteer our time.

AnandTech moderator

 

[Duckers]

interesting newspaper
Edit: Try posting this in Off-Topic, I think the mod is there!

 

[coopa]

--dealeted--

EDIT:
thanks duckers, sheesh!

 

[KotchY]

why is netzero not bannned? i use it cuz i cant use hotmail, and i dont have access to my isp email account

 

[Stealth1024]

Maybe if people are forced to pay a very modest yearly fee to use the forums all of our problems would be fixed.

The mods will have something to line their pockets with, the rest of us will feel like we are getting something for our money, jokers will be mostly cut out of the loop, and the entire free ISP will be out of the window.

<Stealth thinks he should get Elite status for that one... lol>

 

[Spicollidriver1]

The only thing that bugs me is that I used to use aol for a long time so my aol address is all over there place as far as things that I am signed up for and the address my friends have also. I am now on dsl but I did not want to try to change all my stuff and also get my friends my new email so I went with that aol sevice for 10 bucks a month I keep my address, and I can still talk to all my friends like before. And I get a nice spam adddress too. Yet I still have to put my email address for my dsl service which I don't use and hate checking because I don't like outlook. I can check my aol mail from my phone too which has been good for doing trades (another BBS). But anyways it's not that big of a deal just had to complain I guess I will have to be annoyed it's not worth not checking the board anymore. Twice a day is hard to give up

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

LOL, coopa, where'd you find that? (I'd not seen it before). That &quot;National Tattler&quot; isn't actual 'press', it's a spoof. It's still there btw, you have to go to angelfire.com then cut &amp; paste the URL you want into that window. &quot;KoKo the Hotmail Monkey&quot;.... bwahahahahaha.

 

[Jason Clark]

The only way you will understand, is you were put in the shoes of the moderators, and administrators that have to deal with the legal implications, and hassle implications that some of these ANONYMOUS users brought upon the forums. If only you could live a day in the life.

 

[coopa]

YO mama-

I had it bookmarked from a long time ago. I think that i got it off agn forum. yes i do know that it is not an actual publication, but a lot of people saw it.



the national tattler

Zuni-
i understand that it might complicate things, but as you said i guess that i would have to bee there. I just think that its odd that aol is banned but net zero isnt??
also i must be stupid or something, because i cant find any of those archives that the mod was talking about. is there an archive search feature??

Netzero WAS banned, until they decided to cooperate and help us solve the problems we were having with their users. Had AOL done the same, they would not have remained banned.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[Jason Clark]

http://forums.anandtech.com/search.cfm

that big old search button there scroll down to search archives.

 

[Duckers]

Zuni
Learn how to send a link!
[l]http://forums.anandtech.com/search.cfm[/l]

Anandtech moderator,
why would AOL cooperate?
Do you think AOL cares whether or not their users can access this web page? Obviously not!

AOL already wants to be the internet.

 

[Duckers]

My link isn't working either!

 

[compuwiz1]

AOL chooses to be part of the problem, not part of the solution in many aspects. On no other isp, have I (and my kids) gotten so much porn mail. They should be extinct, as they are really a POS isp. It's just that most people don't know any better.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

http://forums.anandtech.com/search.cfm

Your link code is wrong

 

[coopa]

here is one thing i dug up for anyone wondring:
(and if you didnt care you wouldent click on the thread title)



<< AOL was banned from AnandTech as BOTH an email address and as an ISP because we were attacked by a very persistant and nasty troll who uses AOL as his base. His idea of fun was to challenge the moderators to see how far he could go in vandalizing our forums. When he was banned, he would just register again under another name and continue his activities and then brag about it on other forums.

Unlike every other major ISP we have dealt with under similar circumstances, AOL repeatedly refused to give us appropriate technical assistance to stop him. Our moderators are unpaid volunteers, and we simply do not have time to deal with irresponsible ISP's such as AOL.

That is why, if you wish to post on AnandTech, it will have to be with another email provider AND from another, hopefully more responsible ISP.

AnandTech Moderator. >>



-direct quote

 

[warlord]

so what's your point? you proved that AOL really sucks.

I find it disgusting that they sell your email addy the minute you sign up to any porn company who wants it. when I visit my parents, they have AOL, so I am unable to post, but when I created a name on their AOL service, within 10 minutes I had porn mail. All I had done was log on, then open up explorer (because AOL sucks), so don't try and tell me its because I was in a chat room, AOL just sits on the task bar. My younger sister who has the &quot;parental filter&quot; set up on AOL gets porn mail! AOL tells them how to defeat their own filters!

back to the point, from what I remember of the whole deal, other major isp's cooperated with the mods/admins, but AOL was above helping them. since AOL was the root of the problem, why would anandtech choose not to block them? obviously if you had watched the ordeal happen, you wouldn't be asking why, you would have realized that all this guy did was run around like a bratty, spoiled little kid posting juvenial garbage, getting pleasure by annoying other people. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a little taunting or teasing, but this was just ridiculous. I have nothing to do with the administration of this board, but I totally agree with the decision, it was better for the majority of the members of the board to ban AOL and have a few suffer because they had to find a new isp to use.

 

[Spicollidriver1]

You know I keep hearing the porn mail thing brought up I have been using a aol addres for more then a year I have gotten porn mail twice if that even. A long time ago I used it and I would get it all the time but this time I never do.

 

[warlord]

you seem to be lucky, anyone I've ever talked to that signed up for, complains about the porn mail. I used to recomend it for new users, excpecially people who weren't exactly computer savy, but now I don't because I was embarrased when they came back and complained about the porn they get.

besides, the whole program is a virus infecting your entire computer.

 

[coopa]

True, i do get the porn mail and i hate aol.

But if it is the only way on...
I was just thinking, not critisizing, well not really , the mods;
I was thinking about proportions of people's time and effort;

How many people were banned becasue of the aol ordeal?? How many people and hours would it have takin to deal with aol and get them to help? And how much time and manpower could it take to ban the one Troll??

Were there under 500 people that were banned and could not get another way to post?? Is that not enought to make a difference to Anandteck with their approx. 35 thousand users?? Do you care about 500 users that cant post anymore?? or does that mean nothing to you??

Is there any way that i could have, or can, help?? Is there any reason that nobody has tried to contact aol lately to see if they have shaped up? Or have you??

Just wondren what i could do to help those who are still blocked, especially those who cant find another way at all.

If you still are banned and are reading this it looks like your best option is netzero right now. it is free and isnt banned.

Ps: sorry about spelling

 

[Budman]

coopa,

I suggest you drop the subject before you find yourself banned too.
:Q

 

[AnandTech Administrator]

<< Is there any way that i could have, or can, help?? Is there any reason that nobody has tried to contact aol lately to see if they have shaped up? Or have you?? >>



Lots of people tried to contact AOL. Anand and I each spent over an hour on hold just trying to talk to anyone in tech support. All we got was bad music on hold and recordings telling us how busy they were &quot;helping&quot; their customers. When we finally got a real live person, they refused to help us.

When we banned AOL, we had about 18,000 members. We now have over 30,000, so we are busier than ever, we are still volunteers, and we still don't have time to put up with the likes of AOL.

Thanks for understanding.

AnandTech Administrator

 

[mastertech01]

I am not an AOL member.... in fact I dont even like AOL... But there is one thing I find that is a problem with the bannishment. I sincerely support the reasons for Anandtech to do this, for the reasons given. But I have had a couple friends who learned that I spent a lot of time here and wanted to check out this site. The like what they saw and decided they wanted to participate. But when they signed on, being AOL subscribers, they saw this great big YOU ARE BANNED greeting when they signed up. They became very disturbed by it and contacted me right away, wanting to know why they had been banned when they had never even been logged in before. Is there no warning to AOL users that they cant sign up using AOL in the new membership signup? Is there any explanation for them? I kindly explained the situation to them and after a few emails they understood but I have to wonder how many potential new members are lost because they are simply scared away. I find it great that you have increased membership greatly despite this, but likewise I also believe it may have grown at an even greater rate with a little extra care for those who have no way of knowing what happened. Im sure the value of membership is quite valuable when advertisers wish to purchase banners for the site, so this surely is something to take into consideration. If Im wrong about this, please accept my appologies as Im only trying to suggest perhaps a little more information for potential new members who DO only have AOL for thier access presently.

 

[Duckers]

I used to recomend it for new users, excpecially people who weren't exactly computer savy, but now I don't because I was embarrased when they came back and complained about the porn they get.

LOL
The reason why AOL members get a lot of porno is because they have 'real e-mail addresses'.

I seriously doubt that AOL sends you the porno, but instead, every time that some spammer gets your AOL e-mail address; he will start sending you porno because he knows that that is your real e-mail address which you probably check most of the time.

These spammers probably won't bother sending all their crap to a hotmail account because they know that most people use these as their secondary e-mail addresses; which they probably don't even check.

 

[abracadabra1]

the moderators are always very fair. i applaud their efforts!

it is a quite humble abode, btw.

 

[coopa]

Abracadabra1-
HUH???

mastertech01-

I know what you are saying, when i went to post and got the u are banned thing i did a bouble take. I am glag that i took the time to find out why.
I hope that this may have helped a few people.

AnandTech Administrator-
Thank you very much for trying. I respect your effort very much. Also thanks for taking the time to respond to my message.