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Alas Poor DALnet, We Hardly Knew Ye
cryptonix was among the first to write with the outcome of the long-rumored DALnet/AOL acquisition game: "Direct from their site: The DALnet IRC Network, a leader in Internet Chat, announces that a sale of it's network infrastructure and services has been agreed with America Online for $1.5 million. America Online, one of the worlds largest international internet service providers has been negotiating with the DALnet IRC Network for approximately 1 month in secret negotiations. *sigh*"
Heck, it wasn't SlashNet.
Wait, that's the NEXT story, right?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Come on, people, the M&A jokes just don't work. An announcement on a sunday? get real. Besides, the joke is at least a few years old.
I say it's a prank, albeit a fairly restrained and subtle one.
The average AOL user can't survive in IRC.
In case anyone is left wondering, here it is from the horse's mouth: http://www.dal.net
Minupla
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On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Looks like we have our first fool.
No, I think it's Tim who fell for the prank.
Let's wait to hear what excuses are offered.
That would be the inteligent(sic) thing to ask yourself.
The writing on this thing alone sounds like someone who has spent way too much time on DALnet or AIM. While the 'suits' may make decisions this dumb, they probably use better spelling and grammar.
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Don't you know what day it is?
My god this got old quickly...
I'm amused at the plan to replace admins with bots that would "respond in a logical manner." Would this include IRCops, too? Somehow I doubt that AOL's AI technology is THAT good.
Ethidium
"If you don't be nice I'll say you're not omnipotent!"
--Laura Lutz, 11/8/99
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SAN DIEGO, April 1, 2001 - The DALnet IRC Network (http://www.dal.net), a leader in Internet Chat, announces that those who believed the previous press release have just been had.
It's my pleasure to thank all those who were involved in todays April 1st joke, we certainly had a large number of people going. I'd like to thank taz for letting this go through, altering jade.* and services.*. frink for his servers and the short lived dalnet.*, as well as countless other opers and helpers making it be believable. Special thanks goes out to maloy, Gotharial, taz, Melech, Wuher and Psionic for support and ideas.
Let me make this perfectly clear. America Online has not bought DALnet, never had any intent to, nor have any secret discussions been going on. This was simply an April Fool's joke. It would be appreciated if all the joke AOL things that have been created, could be cleared up quickly to avoid confusion.
Thank you,
Peter/Doc_Z.
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It's clearly an April Fool's joke. Come on guys, wake up. Have some coffee.
AOL needs to learn how to share. I acknowledge that this may be an April Fools joke, which I hope it is. But if not... Damn AOL. They need to stop buying up every line of Internet communication. Big Brother is upon us. I wonder when Microsoft will get into the game. "AOL Time-Warner Microsoft"? I mean, Microsoft has practically built the AOL OS with Windows XP.
AOLNET will require programs created by AOL as AIM requires?
Will our IRC clients work on DALNet next year? Next 6 months? Or will AOL require you to have AOL software and have an active account on AOL?
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
this is a joke. It even mentions that AOL wants to make Dalnet a more family enviornment by getting rid of the porn and warez etc. Now anyone who has chatted on dalnet since...well at least 5 years ago, knows that Dalnet without porn, illegal software, mp3s and solicitations for cybersex; is infact - well not much at all. A network with no one on it:)
// It had been Fat's delusion for years that he could help people. --Philip K. Dick, Valis
Included in America Online's many plans is improved filtering to help DALnet restore it's image as a "Family Network", helping to cut down the amount of pornography and illegal software distribution. Part of America Online's promise is a software development team from their Virginia, USA headquarters to help develop a more efficient and stable IRC daemon.
NOOOOOOOO!!!! Not my warez, porn, and bootleg movies! That's the whole point of DALnet.
America Online also has plans to replace the position of administrators with automated inteligence bots that respond in a logical manor. These bots will be able to provide more "services" for the average user. American Online has not yet disclosed it's long term plans for DALnet once it has been acquired. We plan to bring you further information as it develops.
Riiiiiiiiight...... I think this gives this away as a joke...
Of course, that was before AOL Version 6.0, which any one who can breathe on their own, and has at least 2 fingers can use. IMHO, services like AOL are making today's computer consumer even dumber than they were before using them.
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that having been said, was there every any difference? DALnet has always been the aol of the chat world. this is simply some money swapping hands. everyone, go to efnet (or whatever).
My .02,
My .02,
zencode
iactivist.org/jason
So DalNet is now a property of AOL.
Maybe AOL will finally IRCize its chat rooms. MSN did it years ago, although script kiddies forced it to go Java. But that's like AOL improving its service, which is something they wouldn't do.
Its a nice though, but the AOLers would have no clue how to use a IRC chat room.
Slashdot Hypocrisy at work?
News just in: AOL entered into takeover negotiations with AOL today. The reason, they already own everything else.
This is *very* bad news, DALnet has been my network of choice for a long time now. I have a lot of very good friends there. The second I start getting AOL sanctioned SPAM I will never connect to them again.
I will take this opportunity to plug a great new network I've been using lately, Sorcery.net. The services there kick DAL's butt anyday.
But how long till AOL get there dirty little hands there to?
REDHAT MAKES PROFIT!!!
April fools! Gotcha!
See here
You can apply to have your server be on DALNet, and how can AOL buy that??
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America Online also has plans to replace the position of administrators with automated inteligence bots that respond in a logical manor. These bots will be able to provide more "services" for the average user.
Although I'm sure automated bots indeed could provide better service than your average AOL administrator, this does appear to be an April Fool's joke.
And, it's quite possibly the first one of the day that hasn't been completely stupid.
43rd Law of Computing: Anything that can go wr