AOL To Launch Blogging Service

Jorkapp writes "Later this summer, AOL will launch its 'AOL Journals' blog service, provided free to its members. AOL Journals (named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing) will allow users to post text, pictures, and voice entries. More information can be found at the Washington Post."

Comments

The average AOL user

[WTFmonkey]

...also found the words "unlimited," "free," and "useful" to be confusing.

Re:The average AOL user

[smagruder]

But many AOL users aren't very confused by AOL's unlimited billing after the user has cancelled their account.

Re:The average AOL user

[Lord_Slepnir]

After they continued to bill my account after they told me I had canceled, I found it easier to go right to my bank and I issue a stop payment. I replied with a goatse printout when they sent me a 'Why aren't we getting your money'. Never heard from them again.

Re:The average AOL user

[mesach]

I called up to cancel one time after i used them while i was waiting for my DSL hookup at the new place, and the girl was giving me a hard time about it... trying to get me to listen to her schpiel...

Me: can i cancel my account,

Her: but what if i give you aol for free for 3 months...

Me: i really want to cancel.

Her: let me sign you up its free and you have nothing to lose...

Me: No I would like to cancel i have dsl now.

Her: I can sign you up for AOL for Broadband for 3 months for free...

Me: (Frustrated) OK what have you got...

Her: going into her schpeil about the AOL for Broadband BS, when she gets to the part about, "then I cancel at any time before the 3 months are up and you will not be charged"

Me: (Grinning) Then can I cancel NOW?

Her: (MAD) Yes you can

Re:The average AOL user

[Anonymous Coward]

i told them i'm using chinese window, that the software was working fine with, they said aol aren't compatible with chinese window and cancelled it right away.

Re:The average AOL user

[theaphila]

I cancelled by sending them a letter, by us post. no irritating hold time, no irritating operator, no further bills.

Re:The average AOL user

[Anonymous Coward]

I find the words "No credit card necessary to sign up" on the ad and "Enter your credit card here" during sign up very confusing.

Re:The average AOL user

[Anonymous Coward]

I forgot to add... even on the CD, it says "credit card necessary to signup" with a sticker on top of the shrink wrap saying "No credit card necessary".

Re:The average AOL user

[mrmeval]

That's funny but in the future please get the phone/recorder adaptor from rat shack, hook this up to your phone and a recorder or staight into your computer and then put an MP3 of the recorded deed on your.....BLOG.

Ahhahahahahaha.

The idea is to ge them to scream at you and make threats without doing any screaming yourself.

I need to sit down and do this up again for telemarketers and other market trash. SO:

You get a point for each minute you tie them up whether on hold or not, you CANNOT BE PAYING FOR THE CALL. You probably should not do this to a company you want to keep around.

Within what they say:
100 points for any FCC forbidden word.
200 points for any racist word.
5 points for derogatory words not included above.

If you raise your voice or scream or curse then you lose points, this can be fixed point loss or can be decided by the group you will form (see below).

Once you've fumbled around to the point the fish is going to escape you 'start to buy' the 'product' read off the numbers they want, they are fantasy numbers of course. Just tell them you'll grab some other card and try again and again and again. Time is on your side.

1000 points for Death threats
10000 points if you get a call back number that is valid.

Any other interesting occurance will be judged by committee.

Hints: If you can do an elderly confused voice it helps, immitations of Mr Drucker, Jed Clampett or any character they are not likely to know garners a 10 percent bonus. An older person brings out the predator in these people and makes it much easier to screw with them.

It's no fun to do this alone, you need a group to pool a fee then everyone gets together and plays back their conversation and votes on who gets what. It works well if booze and music is involved. Even without money involved this can be way too much fun at get togethers.

Re:The average AOL user

[schmink182]

You can sign up by telling them your bank information and they'll take out like $5 to sign you up.

Re:The average AOL user

[56ksucks]

The average AOL user finds the internet confusing. And most shiny objects.

Oh good God, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

More inane AOL'ers filling up the web with their inane twiterings about the weather and what their pet dog puked up the night before. We'll be swamped! It'll be like the September That Never Ended, but on the web..

ARGH! It'll be like Slashdot..but a hundred times larger! Run, now!

Re:Oh good God, no!

[Jad LaFields]

Yo don't have to read their blogs, in fact you could just avoid anything that says "AOL Journal", just like many slashdotters (including myself) avoid all links that end in "cx"...

Re:Oh good God, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Or we could follow our patriotic duty and "slashdot" every single one of them by having every member loading their journals (but quickly closing them) thus exceeding their bandwidth limits?

Re:Oh good God, no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, you mean like about 99% of blogs out there :)

Bloogle

[squashed]

With AOL's announcement, maybe Google will finally incorporate their acquired Pyra Labs technology explicitly into Google.com.

Bloogle, anyone?

Re:Bloogle

[generic-man]

They already have, sort of. The Beta Google Toolbar includes a "BlogThis" button, similar to the Bookmarklet that Blogger offered before.

I wouldn't mind a blog-only search engine, considering how much noise blogs have added to the web. It's so annoying to search for a song lyric or quote to find the source, only to find that thousands of blogs have cleverly used it as a title.

Re:Bloogle

[trompete]

I wonder if Google could recognize blogs in their search engine and provide the option (a checkbox) to include them in search results or not. There has to be some way to easily detect blogs.
I did an IT Tracker system for one of my MIS classes, and I instantly had hundreds of hits from people looking for the real open-source project.

Re:Bloogle

[StarFace]

-site:www.genericblogservice.com

Yeah, doesn't get rid of the people using embed blogs on their webpages, but generally they tend to be a big more interesting. I have actually come across some of the things I was searching for in other's blogs, so it isn't all bad.

Re:Bloogle

[arose]

search -blog should eliminate most noise.

Re:Bloogle

[cpeterso]

There are blog-oriented search engines. The idea is pretty cool, but I find the results to be pretty garbled. Their results remind me of the early days of search engines. I guess I've been spoiled by Google. :-)

Daypop (seems to be offline at the moment...)

Feedster

o yipee!

[dema]

Now all the AoHaXoRs will be able to find eLiTe access tokens to mess with people's journals and create new keywords. Yay for nostalgia!

blog confusing

[athakur999]

named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing

The average user also thinks creating a buzzword for keeping a journal, an idea that has existed for centuries, is stupid.

Re:blog confusing

[Kethinov]

named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing

The average user also thinks creating a buzzword for keeping a journal, an idea that has existed for centuries, is stupid.

Gah....! Exactly! I've despised the word "blog" ever since I first heard it. I tolerage weblog, but the last thing we need is a buzzword for a buzzword.

Re:blog confusing

[DavidNWelton]

Right on. It's an on-line journal which no one probably cares about anyway. Blog sounds like a comic book sound (boom, pow...) for something plopping into the water. Possibly something dead.

Maybe when the economy gets better people will have less free time to fritter away letting the world know what they think.

Re:blog confusing

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe when the economy gets better people will have less free time to fritter away letting the world know what they think.

Yes, indeed, any society should strive towards minimizing freely available time. After all, your corporate masters have a right to said time, and anyone who denies them that is unpatriotic.

Re:blog confusing

[gad_zuki!]

Blog is short for Weblog. Slashdot is a weblog with comments. How is robotwisdom.com (site of the guy who coined the word weblog) anything like a traditional journal or a diary?

Reverse chronological links updated every so often does not make a journal.

I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[AtariAmarok]

I wish AOL would fix what they have first before adding new things like this Blogger that others likely do better anyway:

Specifically, their e-mail system:

1) They have absolutely no spam filtering (ability to get only e-mail from approved addresses, or blocking the exact address a spam comes from does not count). The free services have better e-mail than AOL.

2) They don't have a way to download complete intact e-mails (file cabinet does not handle attachments.

3) They have a "feature" that destroys e-mails that are left in the inbox for more than a few weeks. Since they make it tough to download them, this means you have to constantly forward them to yourself to keep them there.

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[Anonymous Coward]

Feel free to cancel your AOL account for a cheaper, better service that actually works. I give you permission. There, isn't that nice ?

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[TrekkieGod]

They have absolutely no spam filtering.

I'm confused...I'm not an aol user, but I keep hearing stuff about people not getting their legitimate e-mail because aol is spam filtering tons of false positives.

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[throwaway18]

>[AOL] have absolutely no spam filtering
AOL maintains an extensive list of open mail relays and proxys to block sources of spam.

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[nuggetman]

All three are in AOL 9 (currently the Blue Hawaii Beta)

Word-based spam filtering and a "saved on AOL" folder

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[thynk]

I ran the Blue Hawaii Beta for some time when it first came out, but, as I have now seen the light that I don't need to pay $14.95 (BYOISP) to get spam, AIM Spam, UseNet Spam, SnailMail Spam and Spam Spam. So I've switched over to the light usage plan for a month to make sure I get all the legitimate emails corrected. After 7 years, I've finally had enough. There is NO content on there that has an interest for me anymore. The only reason I've kept it so long is because of 3 things - Nostaligia (sp?), too lazy to have everyone update their email, and all the college hotties in town use it.

Since I'm not dating this summer, everyone has one of 4 new emails for me and I'm keeping my SN via AIM - there just isn't anything thing left there for me.

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[Electrum]

1) They have absolutely no spam filtering

That's completely wrong. They do have spam filtering, but it's not documented and is not predictable. Send one email and it will get through. Send a thousand and they won't.

Re:I wish AOL would fix what they have first

[Frac]

I wish AOL would fix what they have first before adding new things like this Blogger that others likely do better anyway.

Y'know, if they have more than one programmer, they probably can work on both blogs AND their e-mail system at the same time!

Rather telling...

[smagruder]

that Slashdot also considers its users to find that the term "blog" is confusing. hehe

Re:Rather telling...

[quelrods]

i've been online journaling since before it was called a blog and ya know the word blog is stupid. It's a friggin journal, leave it at that.

RE: AOL Blogs

[Anonymous Coward]

Me too!

Thanks AOL!

[RocketJeff]

I never found the word 'blog' to be confusing - just stupid.

Thanks to AOL for naming it something else instead.

Re:Thanks AOL!

[Tablizer]

["Blog" is a stupid word] Thanks to AOL for naming it something else instead.

But AOL Journal will get shortened to something like "AoJau", too similar to "Jar Jar", and we will be back to square one.

When I first heard the world "blog", I thought of a Dr. Seuss illustration of "bloggs floating by". They look like half-popped baloons with swollen toddler faces". I wonder if Seuss Inc will sue for royalties?

Re:Thanks AOL!

[jo42]

'blog' sounds like something you shit out after being constipated for about a week...

Informal Review already released

[SpriteGF]

Here's one weblogger's take on the service. Most notably, the author quotes,

The demo was going to be off-the-record, but because the opinion grinders in the room didn't turn the team into mincemeat -- reaction started with "this doesn't suck" (noted as high praise indeed), and quickly elevated to "they have a clue," and ended with "good job"...

The masses have spoken....

[Masque]

AOL to the blogging community:

ME TOO!

I guess this means...

[WegianWarrior]

..that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

On the other hand, it's good to see that an IPS can do more than just take your money and provide shitty service :-)

Re:I guess this means...

[tommertron]

I can't wait for the commercials: Mrs. Q. America: "I just love writing in my 'Online Journal' And I don't ever have to worry about accidentally writing any of those nasty words in it, because with AOL Parental Contrl, they'll all be deleted automatically!" Mr. Q. America: "Now I can tell the world what I think about golf!" (Editor's note: Yes, I have a blog.)

Re:I guess this means...

[psavo]

..that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

Can't see what you mean here. I for one use nntp daily, and have best conversations there (I do admit that I'm using Finnish/sfnet side of it, it's quite rural). I also do a blog, but it's less active than my nntp side. (My whole site is run by a blog software blosxom).

Re:I guess this means...

[StarFace]

How is that the same? It might be similar if say, up until this time AOL users couldn't access LiveJournal or Blog, and now they can -- but that is not what is happening. I don't even see how increased exposure to the web technique of journaling would cause a problem. LiveJournal is semi-exclusive, you have to know somebody to get in, and the official Blog service is less homogenized than LiveJournal, so an influx of users wouldn't hurt it that much, assuming there even would be one. If AOL's journalling feature turns out to be as good as some of the early reviews are saying, there wouldn't be much of a reason to switch. The people who would have reason to switch likely already use the alternatives as it is.

Re:I guess this means...

[bj8rn]

I wouldn't say that if AOL starts a blogging service, blogging is suddenly "out". It has definately passed the first, "underground" (do you have a better word?) stage and will cease to be "in" or trendy pretty soon, but this only means it will become mainstream. Still a long way to "out".

(Or maybe I just completely missed your point...)

Re:I guess this means...

[Anonymous Cowtard]

His point is that now the smug self-superiority he gets by being in on something that the general public (ie AOL users) aren't is now going to be gone, so he'll have to move on to something else to continue his quest of being "different" from the norm.

Re:I guess this means...

[Anonymous Coward]

On the other hand, it's good to see that an IPS can do more than just take your money and provide shitty service :-)

Woah! AOL is an Internet Provider Service on top of being an ISP?

Re:I guess this means...

[WegianWarrior]

Apart from the fact that I don't blog (tried, but gave up as I couldn't find anything to say that even I found interesting), you're right. The in-crowd of the cyberworld must now find something else to do, so that they can look down on the 'common luser'.

In a way, this is very much like trying to follow the latest taste in music and clothing to stay 'cool'.

Re:I guess this means...

[xtrucial]

I started IRC'ing in the mid-90's and remember the backlash against AOL when it allowed its users to get on IRC networks (or maybe it was just "the net" in general... AOL upgrading from being simply a BBS?). When the barbarian hordes swept through, they live many a k-line and g-line in their wake. I don't IRC much anymore, but I still get a quiver of suspiciousness when I see an *.aol.com /whois. It was too easy to for people to get free AOL accounts to troll (I don't think it was even called trolling in those days), try to takeover channels, etc. (My memory's a little hazy on all of this, so if anyone has more accurate facts...)

Re:I guess this means...

[Doc Hopper]

Unfortunately, "out" has multiple meaning in this context.

I assumed from his usage that it was "out" as in "coming out of the closet". "Out" is a pretty common word to describe something about someone/something that used to be concealed, but now is no longer.

Then again, maybe it is actually "out" as in "not cool anymore"...

Re:I guess this means...

[thynk]

that blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.

Honestly, now the great unwashed of AOL (I have used AOL, but I shower) have no idea what a newsgroup is unless they are shown. Maybe this new "feature" will give the stupid ones someplace else to say "Me too!" and they will forget about nttp all together.

Re:I guess this means...

[cpeterso]

blogging can be officially declared out, just as the newsgroups was when someone let the hordes from AOL in.


Newsgroups are a shared medium. AOL users flooded the Usenet news groups, degrading the experience for all newsgroup readers. Blogs are written by one person or group. Nobody is forcing you to read AOL Journals. Nobody is forcing AOL Journal entries into YOUR blog.

AOL Blogging?! Maybe they should make money?

[Pavan_Gupta]

I can't seem to see how AOL is ever planning on making money. Their business model is so violent flawed, it makes me want to gouge my eyes out .. but I'll explain..
See, Yahoo! has a good idea, they realized that they should provide services, but charge. It works, that's how capitalism functions.
AOL on the other hand believes that they can keep giving things away, CDs, Cases, Journals now, everything, but they fail to realize that in a world where business is dependent on profit not on sister company cash flow, it's a sad world when you're profit is negative.

I'm not an "AOHell" hater, or anything like that, I just dislike the fact that AOL wastes their money on all sorts of garbage instead of just improving their business model. Before you say, "well, it's not your money" do keep in mind that everytime they loose money, it hurts other people. That money isn't just randomly appearing out of no where, it's coming from other companies. They're inability to be intelligent in their business has costed other people money. Hell, their inability to conduct a good business is a reason for me loosing money on their stocks. Well, a little.

At any rate, seeing AOL Journals is pathetic. I'm waiting to see AOL make a profit, then they should start providing peripheral things.

Anyway,

What's left to dumb down for AOLers?

[Anonymous Coward]

As if their web pages weren't insipid enough, now they're gonna have blogs? Great.

AOL, the short bus on the information superhighway.

You've got prank!

[mikeophile]

AOL's instant-messaging system or by telephone. The phone option will be available only to subscribers to the extra-cost "AOL by Phone" service, who will be able to leave voice messages that will be posted as MP3 sound files

This will prove a boon to the AOL crank callers who wish to blog their exploits via three-way calling.

Thank you AOL for providing a solution to this urgent need.

Re:You've got prank!

[Anonymous Coward]

hahaha you're right, I might have to go sign up for AOL!

helpful

[Fux the Pengiun]

This, I think, will certainly help the fledgling Weblog (or 'blog) industry. I know that more ane more of these have been popping up all over the internet, and there have been a lot of Slashdot stories about them, but I hadn't ever really bothered to follow any, as most of them are just rants about auto racing or something.

Anyway, now I think blogs will become a much bigger factor on the internet with a name like AOL behind them. I know if I were surfing around the internet, and just come across somebody's blog (I guess we'll all be calling them Journals, now), anyway, if I came across somebody's Journal, I probably wouldn't care that much, but if it's got a brand like AOL on it, I think I can expect a little higher quality, and maybe some of that will rub off on the rest of the Journalists (or should it be Journalistas now?) out there. I mean, look at what AOL did for USENET? Before AOL get their tech-savvy users on that thing, it was just a dead service full of posts about Nazis and modern art. now it's a place to really do some business! Maybe AOL can repeat their success in the blogging (journaling!) field!

Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Paul Carver]

I'm not an AOL user, but I find the term "blog" stupid, not confusing.

It's a freaking diary, keep it under your bed. What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn. And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny moderation. Since when is calling people stupid and lazy insightful? Funny maybe, but not insightful.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, apparently some people *ARE* interested, because these things are fucking ridiculously popular.
It's sad, really.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[FunkSoulBrother]

I'm not a big fan of online journals or "weblogs", but come on dude, is it really necessary for everyone to learn HTML just so they can publish whatever they want to publish on the web?

I mean it would be a nice skill, but not everyone is interested.

Do you stand around outside of restaurants, yelling at people for being "too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as" cooking?

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

> And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters,
> then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something
> as simple as HTML.

You mean ML?

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Khazunga]

It's a freaking diary, keep it under your bed. What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn.

Perhaps I'm an interesting mind, worth observing. Perhaps I like to lay down my thoughts so they can be discussed among my peers. Perhaps I don't view the world in such an egocentric way, to believe adding my part to the knowledge pool won't amplify my results.

See, there's lots of reasons for blogging. As for the term, the beauty of it or the need for a new term: it's discussible, naturally, but I believe weblogs differ from journals enough to deserve a new term. They're more like open letters than diaries.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[arose]

It's a (digital) diary... no it's a (online) journal... no it's a (web)log.
Blog at least is consistent and can be filtered out of google's search results via -blog.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Joey7F]

"What makes you thing the rest of the world gives a damn. And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML"

Say, I resend(done with bold) that!

--Joey

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[afree87]

I believe you have confused a weblog with a diary.
weblog weblog weblog
diary

Dumbass.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML.

So that makes you twice as stupid and lazy because you use a contraction to save only one character?

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[aliens]

And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML

Let's see how lazy you are for fun:
I'm == I am = 1 character saved
AOL == America Online = 11 characters saved
It's == It is = 1 character saved
you're == you are = 1 character saved
you're == you are = 1 characters saved
HTML == HyperText Markup Language = 22 characters

Total characters saved = 39 characters. Man you are off the scale.

*Please note this post was made in good humor, it's a Sunday. ::)

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[AvengerXP]

If you dont like it, dont read. I invoke the First Amendment, something that even me a Canadian knows about.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah right on thats exactly what i said 2 seconds after someone told me about those damn things.

Re:Confusing, no. Stupid, yes.

[Tokerat]

Let's see how lazy YOU are for fun:

And if you're too stupid or lazy to say "weblog" and have to save two characters, then I guess it makes sense that you're too stupid and lazy to learn something as simple as HTML

Let's see how lazy you are for fun:
I'm == I am = 1 character saved
AOL == America Online = 11 characters saved
It's == It is = 1 character saved
you're == you are = 1 character saved
you're == you are = 1 characters saved
HTML == HyperText Markup Language = 22 characters

Total characters saved = 39 characters. Man you are off the scale.

*Please note this post was made in good humor, it's a Sunday. ::)

Yup, to lazy for a </I> tag.

Plus you you forgot one:
weblog == web log = 1 character saved.

Which brings him to a nice whopping 40. Unless I was lazy and missed one. :-D

None available, thanks

[AtariAmarok]

I've got none available, thanks. I don't consider MSN or that one run by L Ron Hubbard's cult that has Earth in the name. I do, however, have better alternatives that are more expensive.

Re:None available, thanks

[saden1]

ATT is pretty good so is Earth Link.

Re:None available, thanks

[the_2nd_coming]

what is wrong with Earthlink?

Re:None available, thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

see aforementioned linkage to the sceyentologgee asswaipes

Re:None available, thanks

[Izago909]

AOL can't be the ONLY service in your area. Have you checked out any sites that list ISPs by area code? This is a pretty decent site. I know it's not a complete list, but it lists services that are lower than $20. From the sound of things, you definately want to stay away from the free services because they were all bought out by NetZero and are giving people a really shitty experience now.

You should really ditch the AOL, you look foolish riding a bike with training wheels. If you can't cancel, call and threaten to. They will offer you at least 2 free months to stay on.

Re:None available, thanks

[the_2nd_coming]

that is why I asked dumbass.

Re:None available, thanks

[sirinek]

I was under the impression that since they have merged with Mindspring, they are now not run by that group.

Re:None available, thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

> ATT is pretty good so is Earth Link.

Maybe you missed this part of the parent post: "...or that one run by L Ron Hubbard's cult that has Earth in the name"

Anyone worried

[mindstrm]

about content ownership? With all these blog hosting services... do the licenses permit them to republish your information? What kind of information are they gathering out of all those blogs, neatly stored on their servers?

We freak out about the government wanting to pry into anything, yet we see no issue when the largest ISP on earth wants to encourage everyone to post their innermost thoughts online for all to see, to be forever archived by the googlebot?

Re:Anyone worried

[RobotRunAmok]

"Content" Ownership?

I've read a lot of what people call 'blogs.' My educated opinion is there ain't a whole lot of people outside of the proud authors looking to lay claim to any of that "content." I'd also guess that most of the authors will wish they themselves couldn't claim ownership in, say, five years from now.

Re:Anyone worried

[Anonymous Coward]

Relevant LiveJournal.com TOS:

LiveJournal.com claims no ownership or control over any Content posted by its users. The author retains all patent, trademark, and copyright to all Content posted within available fields, and is responsible for protecting those rights, but is not entitled to the help of the LiveJournal.com staff in protecting such Content;

LiveJournal.com reserves the right, without limitation except by law, to serve user Content on the web according to the security provisions set forth by the author. LiveJournal.com also reserves the right, without limitation, to resell any portion of a user's LiveJournal back to that individual;

Seems pretty harmless to me. Hopefully AOL's will be similar. I'm sure they already have similar clauses in the ToS for their customer web hosting "service".

Re:Anyone worried

[Tsuzuki]

Blogs are a potential marketing goldmine, especially when you're looking at the mainstream-and-gullible market that AOL occupies. Working out what teenagers and young adults want before anyone else is a very frightening (and lucrative) realm, so I'm guessing ownership of thousands of blogs would somewhat help that cause.

The word and news bursts at www.daypop.com are a great example of how blogs can have data extracted from them.

Blog of and AOL user

[Nighttime]

july 18 - i just tried to connect to america online. ive heard it is the best online service i can get. i cant connect. i dont know what is wrong.
july 19 - some guy at the tech support center says my computer needs a modem. i dont see why. hes just trying to cheat me. how dumb does he think i am?
july 22 - i bought the modem. i couldnt figure out where it goes. it wouldnt fit in the moniter or the printer. im confused.
july 23 - i finally got the modem in and hooked up. that nine year old next door did it for me. but it still dont work. i cant get online.
july 25 - that nine year old kid next door hooked me up to america online for me. hes so smart. i told the kid he was a prodigy. but he says thats just another service. what a modest kid. hes so smart and he does these services for people. anyway hes smarter then the jerks who sold me the modem. they didnt even tell me about communications software. bet they didnt know. and why do they put two telephone jack holes in the back of a modem when you only need one? and why do they have one labeled phone when you are not suppose to hook it to the phone jack on the wall? i thought the dial tone sounded funny! boy are modem makers dumb! but the kid figured it out by the sound.
july 26 - whats the internet? i thought i was on america online. not this internet thing. im confused.
july 27 - the nine year old kid next door showed me how to use this america online stuff. i told him he must be a genius. he says that he is compared to me. maybe hes not so modest after all.
july 28 - i tried to use chat today. i tried to talk into my computer but nothing happened. maybe i need to buy a microphone.
july 29 - i found this thing called usenet. i got out of it because im connected to america online not usenet.
july 30 - these people in this usenet thing keep using capital letters. how do they do that? i never figured out how to type capital letters. maybe they have a different type of keyboard.
JULY 31 - I CALLED THE COMPUTER MAKER I BOUGHT IT FROM TO COMPLAIN ABOUT NOT HAVING A CAPITOL LETTER KEY. THE TECH SUPPORT GUY SAID IT WAS THIS CAPS LOCK KEY. WHY DIDN'T THEY SPELL IT OUT? I TOLD HIM I GOT A CHEAP KEYBOARD AND WANTED A BETTER ONE. AND ONE OF MY SHIFT KEYS ISNT THE SAME SIZE AS THE OTHER. HE SAID THATS A STANDARD. I TOLD HIM I DIDN'T WANT A STANDARD KEYBOARD BUT ANOTHER BRAND. I MUST HAVE HAD AN IMPORTANT COMPLAINT BECAUSE I HEARD HIM TELL THE OTHER SUPPORT GUYS TO LISTEN IN ON OUR CONVERSATION.
AUGUST 1 - I FOUND THIS THING CALLED THE USENET ORACLE. IT SAYS THAT IT CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS I ASK IT. I SENT IT 44 SEPERATE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE INTERNET. I HOPE IT RESPONDS SOON.
AUGUST 2 - I FOUND A GROUP CALLED REC.HUMOR. I DECIDED TO POST THIS JOKE ABOUT THE CHICKEN THAT CROSSED THE ROAD. TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE! HA! HA! I WASNT SURE I POSTED IT RIGHT SO I POSTED IT 56 MORE TIMES.
AUGUST 3 - I KEEP HEARING ABOUT THE WORLD WIDE WEB. I DONT KNOW SPIDERS GREW THAT LARGE.
AUGUST 4 - THE ORACLE RESPONDED TO MY QUESTIONS TODAY. GEEZ IT WAS RUDE. I WAS SO ANGRY THAT I POSTED AN ANGRY MESSAGE ABOUT IT TO REC.HUMOR.ORACLE. I WASNT SURE IF I POSTED RIGHT SO I POSTED IT 22 MORE TIMES.
AUGUST 5 - SOMEONE TOLD ME TO READ THE FAQ. GEEZ THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO USE PROFANITY.
AUGUST 6 - SOMEONE ELSE TOLD ME TO STOP SHOUTING IN ALL MY MESSAGES. WHAT A STUPID JERK. IM NOT SHOUTING! IM NOT EVEN TALKING! JUST TYPING! HOW CAN THEY LET THESE RUDE JERKS GO ON THE INTERNET?
August 7 - Why have a Caps Lock key if youre not suppose to use it? Its probably an extra feature that costs more money.
August 8 - I just read this post called make money fast. Im so exited. im going to make lots of money. I followed his instructions and posted it to every newsgroup i could find.
August 9 - I just made my signature file. Its only 6 pages long. i will have to work on it some more.
August 10 - I just looked at a group called alt.aol.sucks. I read a few posts and I really believe that aol should be wiped off the f

Will the Fad Survive the Mainstream?

[StingRayGun]

Now that Google, and AOL are providing Blog service, it looks like the once underground-communications medium is now mainstream.

Will this now-hip medium be so co-opted that it will lose it's apeal?

Time to see if this fledgling medium has what it takes to join the ranks of eMail, or go the way of micro-payments.

Re:Will the Fad Survive the Mainstream?

[bj8rn]

Will this now-hip medium be so co-opted that it will lose it's appeal?

Maybe for those people who at the moment do it only to "be different". Those people who have an enormous ego and need to boost it in any way they can, won't be bothered, as long as they have readers. Those who blog just for the sake of blogging, won't be bothered. As always, I may be wrong.

you think?

[greygoose]

"because its surveys showed that members found the word "blogs" confusing," The average AOL user clueless? no way! Considering most of them couldn't imagine that the internet is more than that welcome page in that cluttered window AOL provides. aol does deserve a little credit for adding these neat little things for its members to use though, not that we really need any more usless info about utterly boring people. I am sure Most people will like to inform the world that they are going to bed, or with some crazy "ShOuT To My BoYs", but atleast they attempt =).

Isn't this idea saturated??

[SuperDuG]

I mean lets face it, AOL was late to the bandwagon with this one. Especially with free sites like blogger, LiveJournal, and hell even Slashdot (link not provided).

Plus anyone with a webhost that supports perl or php can setup their own personal blog or even a community of blogs.

If you think that AOL will win because of "Exciting Software" to ease updates then you might want to take a look at this page. With livejournal being opensource I can't help but think that AOL won't take the time to re-invent the wheel, they'll just use what's already widley available.

Anyone know if the LJ crew has been approached for a "buy-out", I mean remember when AOL was going into the net radio business and bought WinAmp and some streaming service?

Re:Isn't this idea saturated??

[Masque]

How do you 'buy-out' open source?

Re:Isn't this idea saturated??

[marnanel]

There's a difference between LJ, the codebase, and LJ.com, the site. LJ.com is owned by a for-profit business called Danga Interactive, Inc.. LJ also has a community to discuss how to make money from LJ.

(I have no connection with LJ other than keeping a journal there-- the above is mostly just stuff I found with Google.)

Re:Isn't this idea saturated??

[giantsquid]

It's not saturated. For better or for worse - it has barely begun. I see new ways of approaching it constantly lately, some are more for community, some are more non-linking/personal. UIs are getting better - just saw EachDay.net a couple days ago and I think it's a great improvement on everything I've seen yet. AOL will actually make money, or at least loads of revenue, no matter how crappy their blog service is. They have 30+ million members to sell this to. For most of these folks, it's a novel idea.

Kick ass!

[Talisman]

This is long past due. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been pining for regular updates as to what goes on in the mind of an AOL user.

AOL Tactics

[aeinome]

Once again, AOL is trying to implement a very popular feature that they didn't think of first, in the hopes it will become more popular. But will it work? There are over a million bloggers at LiveJournal, and Blogger.com is equally popular. How many more people can there be that want to blog and aren't on other sites?

Are you retarded?

[Anonymous Coward]

AOL provides internet access, and they toss in extra content to entice new users to join and current users to stay. "AOL Journals" is one such feature.

Allow me to review:

AOL charges its customers money for the internet service it provides to them.

They may not be doing it perfectly well, but as a business model, "charging customers money for services provided" has withstood the test of time.

Your post makes no sense. Telling us that you're an AOL stockholder completely tips your hand and offers us more insight than you should allow into the motivations for your trolling. Please go away.

Re:Are you retarded?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you are reduced to trolling from AC accounts?
Not even creative enough to make up an account?
Pathetic!!

Re:AOL Blogging?! Maybe they should make money?

[LiENUS]

this was quite possibly the oddest troll ever
first hes trolling against aol which most people troll for... second he should realize aol is one of the largest isps in the us, i dont think cash flow is much of a problem. third if youd read the article youd realize aol does charge for portions of the blog (namely the voice entries)

Hmm

[yeschat]

AOL users know how to read and write? ;)

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[Jad LaFields]

I'm surprised your AOLer figured out how to use usenet so fast. I've never used it more than once or twice and I'd consider myself at least at the basic level of /. computer-savvy-ness...

Yes, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it run on linux?

Inside an AOLer's mind:

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, back in '93-'94, when I first got an AOL account, it was possible to find decent conversation. These days, though, forget it. I think the brain activity of today's average AOLer is something like this

breathe blink blink breathe blink blink type "a/s/l" breathe blink blink type "lol" breathe blink blink breathe type "holla" breathe blink blink

I figure in another few years they'll start forgetting to breathe, and the problem will take care of itself.

Aol is also going into the BOOK business

[zymano]

2 Companies Yahoo and Aol summary.

Their merger with TimeWarner during the internet buble was stupid and their stock has tanked. They are going to do anything and sell anything for their shareholders.

Yahoo' website now has premium memberships for everything including games and other special features like mail. This was another result of dotcom bust that forced reality on these companies to make some sort of profit.

Re:Aol is also going into the BOOK business

[Anonymous Coward]

No, actually it was brilliant from the standpoint of the aol stockholders. They used overinflated stock to buy a serious and profitable company. The only people who probably got screwed were those holding time-warner stock and were enjoined from selling it.

Rapture!!!

[Picass0]

Oh Joy!

Two things the world needs:

1) Another Burger King
2) Another Web Log

Bonus points if they can patent something!

Re:Rapture!!!

[AnamanFan]

So we need more Starbucks (TM) ?

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[Jad LaFields]

Ah, I just realized that I may be dumb and AOL may have something like a POST ON THE USENET link on their front page... sorry I haven't had AOL in over five years, something that makes me very very happy =)

*blog* definitely sucks

[SunPin]

This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.

Since both are true, the word "Journal" works just fine.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[Otter]

This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.

...and then C) sneering at people who are unfamiliar with the newly invented term.

Any less usage of "blog", "blogger", "blogosphere" or, God help us, "warblogger" is OK with me.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[JaredOfEuropa]

"This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology."

What about "C) just sounds plain awful"?. Blog. Blegh. Imagine this conversation of a mother and AOL subscriber, and her 14 year old son:
"Johnnie, what are you doing?"

- "I'm blogging, ma!"
"Stop that right now!!! You'll go blind!"

By the way, the tech world will indeed invent awful new words for things covered by your points A), and B). Business, however, will patent them.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.

My favorite one is Wi-Fi. WTF is Wi-Fi? Wireless Fidelity? It's used to describe 802.11b. Why not just call it 802.11b or WLAN?

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

Business, however, will patent them.

No, but they might trademark them. Jesus, how hard is it to understand, especially when you've probably been told the difference between copyright, trademarks, and patents a dozen times if you've spent any time on slashdot. A patent is for inventions.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[JaredOfEuropa]

I am well aware of the difference.

My mistake, I meant to say that business will patent the things (things that have been done for 1000's of years and have simply been ported to a new medium), not the words for them. That may not have been clear from my previous post.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[Joey7F]

You realize that it is a contraction of "Web log" right?

--Joey

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[Ryan Amos]

Ehh.. but a "journal" and a "weblog" do different things. The blog gets published to a large audience immediately. It's more like a TV show or a newspaper column. A journal is just a book that someone writes in and doesn't really get read. Granted, both are usually people bitching about stuff nobody cares about, but at least on the blog people can see it and not care.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[SunPin]

The blog gets published to a large audience immediately.

It definitely gets published. You shouldn't kid yourself on the second point.

Re:*blog* definitely sucks

[jandrese]

Wi-Fi may not be the best term (I always liked Wavelan myself), but watch your average person's eyes glaze over when you utter 802.11b. Long strings of random sounding letters and numbers is not the sort of thing your average person is going to remember. It sounds hopelessly technological and scary. WLAN doesn't exactly roll off the tounge either.

This is a great idea

[ispel]

I know the consensus is that AOL sucks; mod me down if you must. Considering their contribution of a stupendous project like mozilla (funding, many full time Netscape developers, hosting, existing software, robust set of tools, all donated to make the best browser free software), I hope any good ideas they come out with increases the # of their subscribers.

A blogging feature not original, or particularly timely, but there is no time like the present. This is a great idea for AOL to add great value to their free AIM service (and AOL). I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting. Current blogging offers require, at least, a smidgen of tech-know-how to find livejournal, download a client, or whatever. With AOL, the user only needs to know what a "Journal" is and have AIM/AOL installed; I believe the service will be quite popular.

Re:This is a great idea

[MyHair]

I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting.

Hmmm....

Today I slept 'till noon. I woke up, masturbated while thinking of two high school girls, then got out of bed and turned off the alarm. I ate 4 bowls of Lucky Charms and read Slashdot, posting a few things hoping I'd get modded up. I don't think I'll wash my hair today because it's only been 20 hours since I got stitches in my forehead, and they said to wait 24 hours before getting it wet.

No, I think you're wrong. I had no need to do that at all.

Re:This is a great idea

[KU_Fletch]

I agree, despite AOL's public persona being just about on M$ level, they have brought a lot of technology to the masses. Sometimes the results are poor and have no impact (AOL music streaming, You've Got Pictures, etc), but many times there are positive side effects to AOL's adoption of a technology.

Think about it. We, the technologically advanced, had ICQ. AOL took the idea and tweaked it to their use. What was once a very tech heavy system now has a "lite" alternative. Many people who could never function with ICQ do quite well with AIM (or MSM or Y!).

AOL was also one of the first ISPs to give users personal webspace. Now this is common and expected practices. And let's face it, personal webpages were very much the first iteration of Blogging.

I very much doubt AOL will fsck up the blogging community too much. AOL customers who would use such a feature seem to make up a sizeable portion of the LiveJournal community already. But I suspect this will push the genre a little further into mainstream society. This, I believe, will be of benefit to many of the quality blogs out there today. An AOL blog will provide little technical competition (I'll reserve judgement on content because Blogging at it's core is based on the notion that insight comes from unexpected sources).

So I understand why this irritates many people. I liked my PDA a lot more before everyone had one. My DVD player was cooler when none of my friends had one. But technology moves on and so must we.

Re:This is a great idea

[JPelorat]

"I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting."

Yeah, all the webloggers think that, therefore it must be true. Talk about bad data samples...

You really should consider getting out of the house and interacting face-to-face with people. The Internet is not doing you any good.

Re:This is a great idea

[Reziac]

That's a common problem around here -- confusing AOL corporate (who can't be completely evil, or both Netscape and Mozilla would be long dead), AOL developers (who in my observation often make good stuff when left to their own devices; AIM is a *nice* little app), and AOL users (the Average Joes that slashdotters so love to deprecate).

I don't use AOL for online access, but I do use AIM, hence I wonder: if this is AIM-based, will it work for anyone who has an AIM screen name?

Re:This is a great idea

[Reziac]

I'd say most people have an intrinsic need to espouse their daily lives in a public setting.

Speaking from the perspective of middle age, I've observed that particular behaviour belongs mostly to the young: it's one of the perfectly normal ways that young people establish themselves as independent individuals, a sort of "staking my territory" by informing the world "this is who I am". It says "Listen to me, I'm an individual and I count."

In the pre-blog era, the same thing was accomplished by ongoing journals in APAzines, round-robin letters, or even just one-on-one discussions.

After a certain point, most people outgrow it -- likely because they get past the stage where they are feel a need to prove they count in the adult world.

I wonder...

[AntiOrganic]

Will Justin Frankel use it as his blogging service now?

Death the word blog!

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking we should call it babyguts, but journal also works.

Is this an AOL 9.0ism?

[janda]

Because I still have friends running 6.0, 7.0, and I switched to 8.0 about nine months ago.

Far too many people have been bitten by the "AOL Upgrade Bug" to go running out buying more memory, whatever, just so they can upgrade now! Now! Now!

If this is a 9.0ism, I don't think you'll see anybody using it successfully until 2004 or 2005.

Re:Is this an AOL 9.0ism?

[Jman314]

For other software, it might be in the 8.1 release, with some minor feature enhancements and fixes. But no, AOL skips right over the incrementals. 6.0 to 7.0 to 8.0. Why bother with the .0 at the end? I don't get it.

Oh well, more cds for nomoreaolcds.com

BL-AOL-OG

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks AOL, for not using that stupid word "BLOG" .. it's tolerable when in print, but the instant I hear someone use the word BLOG in speech I want to "BLOG" all over the carpet. Maybe they should be renamed "BLARG" or "BLERG" or "BLECHHHHH" instead...

I hope they make the content mandatory under an open license to side-step a lot of BS copyright issues that can pop up when/if the journals are syndicated with RSS, etc.

I also hope they let people use the journals for business purposes (i.e., news site for a company, etc).

The world *REALLY* doesn't need any more personal diaries, they need BLARGS with real CONTENT!! For instance I enjoy reading the so-called "A-List Bloggers" like Dave Winer and pals (he's been running a BLARG since before they had a hip'n'trendy name. I don't remember if he had a hand in naming them "weblogs" but if he did, he should be beaten soundly.

YAY!

[Dark Lord Seth]

As if we didn't have enough web logs already! (I refuse to use that retarded buzzword) Now we can all enjoy the daily adventures of random 14 year old American girls loosing their virginity to a random 24 year old American guy and then compare their blogs together! Actually, we could make a nice betting game based on that, building a few scripts that hunt for tell-tale signs about upcoming relationships... ("OMG im so in luv LOL i cant w8 2 see him!!!112" & "Hey, my 14 year old cousin is starting to get breasts!" (for the redneck version of the show))

Then we can make a Big Brother-esque show out of it! People can bet on what will happen! Will he screw her? Will she get pregnant? Or are they actually smart enough to use protection? Who will enjoy it most? All those bets can make a fortune and with the endless supply of ignorance and stupidity delivered on the internet (courtsey of the AOL userbase) we wont run out of subjects before the sun expands and consumes the earth!

Coming up next: IRC Deathmatch. Two horny people, one modified ircd, no fucking dignity! Is 16 year old Suzy really the virgin from Tampa she claims to be? Does 17 year old Kindra from Portland really have a D cup? Bet on these uncertainties and watch out as we send a large, aggresives and violent camera crew to meet them all a few days after!

Re:YAY!

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to add about how Nick from Arkansas gets on the chat room and pretends he is a 5'5" sweet innocent girl with brown hair. You can call the show "Incognito Ho"

Re:YAY!

[mrpuffypants]

I'll bet my bag of chips that FOX already has something exactly like that in the works..."Temptation Internet" or "Wild on Blogs"

Re:YAY!

[shnarez]

Liar. :)

enough web logs already! (I refuse to use that retarded buzzword)

And on the next line:

...compare their blogs together!

(Emphasis mine).

Re:YAY!

[Zebbers]

wow, you refuse to use the retarded buzzword.

web log?

a web log logs the accesses of my website tyvm

or, its a what a spider does when it shits

Re:YAY!

[Dark Lord Seth]

You sir, are a shit troll and an even worse flamer.

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[Anonymous Coward]

> August 9 - I just made my signature file. Its only 6 pages long. i will have to work on it some more.

Best /. joke. ever.

but, the bit about multiple usenet posts shoulda' mentioned 'I didn't see my message, so I kept posting it until I did.'

heh

[MousePotato]

so aol has discovered the blog...bfd.

oh wait, I can think of a few reasons why this is actually cool. First, aparently a good chunk of thier users thing that aol is the internet. While it may have had that appearance in the beginning they are learning how to use the web. Not bad.

Second, it would be nice if all those folks could have a blog so they can spew whatever at whomever is listening. Again, not great but not bad.

Third, this might actually be the beginning of the end for all of those hideous personal websites that litter the web with popups, useless data, unexpected embedded midi's & audio, search engine pollution, broken links to other shitty pages filled with similar flotsam and those amateur looking boilerplate pages.

not bad.

this darn internet thing.....

[Anonymous Coward]

> will allow users to post text, pictures, and voice

wow. just think, it could be like an interconected maze (or web, if you will) of personal information easily available to every person.

Ambiguity

[marnanel]

"Weblog" is a bit ambiguous: it could also mean the contents of my /var/log/apache/access.log. (And that same file also shows that the rest of the world does appear to give a damn.)

IM-based blogging is advanced? plegh.

[toomuchPerl]

i am surprised it took someone so long to think of IM-based blog. it's really simple to implement in Perl, as there are numerous modules with whic to write IM bots.

they're really not contributing hrm, think i'll go write one right now!
-toomuchPerl

Re:IM-based blogging is advanced? plegh.

[Anonymous Coward]

not to mention that MindSay already does this, with their own bot.

Nah

[thejackol]

Believe me, you don't want it. One banner ad per entry makes not an ideal journal.

And those kiddies programming there will really pride themselves with finding a way to insert ads at the bottom of every picture you add to your blog.

Wasn't Time Warner supposed to provide content???

[Rahga]

With the personal value and investment in e-mail addresses dropping thanks to spam, I suppose AOL needed something that will keep subscribers from jumping ship.

I've got to wonder, however, what the EULA on this thing is going to look like.... especially if the try to pull a geocities "all your content are belong to us" clause. And what will happen someday when an popular AOL blogger decides to complain about AOL's service?

They've had it in beta test

[xintegerx]

Journal Entry #1
February 1st, 2003 02:40:11PM PST

Woot! I just got this sweet new job. Finally, no longer uenmployed! :) I heard it's gonna be a long winter. :/ This JOURNAL service is awesome!

~Dave

Journal Entry #200
February 30th, 2003 17:55:16PM PST

Just wanted to say... happy 200th post to myself! :) I am the best employee, my company said! I heard I'm getting a bonus. The weather looks like it will improve... Until next time!

~Dave

Journal Entry #214
March 2nd, 2003 12:00:04PM PST

GOOD NEWS! that AOL just e-mailed me. My journal was selected to be automatically published in AOL Advertising when the service is launched in the summer. !!! I'm so excited! TTYL, I gotta oil the plants, water my hose.

Things couldn't be better! I'm so strung I'll probably end up pressing SUBMIT 1,000 times! :)

~Dave

Journal Entry #2,340
March 2nd, 2003 12:04:34PM PST

OMG! Haha Look that. Got it to 2,000 in four minutes. I'll try 10,000 and then submit bug report. OK anyway, oil the plants, water my hose.

~Dave

Journal Entry #11,699
July 11th, 2003 15:22:56PM PST

It has been hell. The outfall shows no signs of ceasing in the near future. I am writing this from beneath the downpour. This could be my final entry. I don't know how much longer I can cope. I am conserving the battery as much as I can. I'm out.

~Dave

Journal Entry #11,700
July 12th, 2003 00:26:32PM PST

Still holding in there. I thought checking off "mail a copy of each journal entry to me" would be in e-mail form. How I was wrong. My hand is slowly immobolized. My BACK is hurting (the discs are a pain in the ass.)

~Dave

Journal Entry #11,725
July 12th, 2003 14:20:20PM PST

DAMMIT! Can't anybody see me type? HEELP!!

Journal Entry #11,740
July 13th, 2003 23:59:44PM PST

I'm losiong cohersion. The postman visited today. They just won't stop. Turn on the light! Cant.. handle... the weigh.......

--
[End of Flash Presentation]
Thank you for browsing a sample journal entry!

Sign up now, and we will automatically mail you hard copies of each entry directly to your house! As a bonus, we will include a couple of AOL 9.0 MEMBERSHIP DISKS for EACH journal entry, to give out to your new online friends!. (Beta testers received 5+ disks in each packet.)

Press continue to learn more!
(C) Copyright 2003 AOL Time Warner. This web site may not be...

karma to burn

[einer]

me too!

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[Izago909]

I didn't know you met my grandparents. You should teach them the difference between their yahoo email name and aol screen name. Next time they get it mixed up I don't have to drive 20 miles to fix it and remind them that they aren't the same thing.

My grandmother has about had it with AOL. She wants to know why everyone wants to enlarge her penis. My personal favorite was when I was helping her out and she got the pictorial advert for fisting transsexuals. They've got more than just mail. I've never heard grandma say a single swear in my entire life, until that day. Thanks AOL.

Blog != Journal

[Fu Ling-Yu]

You, Sir, are a cad and a bounder! There is big difference between weblog and journal. A journal is someone notes and thoughts and observations of what they are doing.. somewhat like a diary, but online. Okay, a lot of weblog are like that, but that's not technically a weblog.

A weblog is a site that primarily links to other site, links to interesting online finds, and so on. Somewhat like Slashdot, Memepool or MetaFilter. A weblog like Slashdot is not comparable to an online journal belonging to some 16 year old girl!!

Re:Blog != Journal

[thynk]

A weblog like Slashdot is not comparable to an online journal belonging to some 16 year old girl!!

Ummm... can you post the link to her journal?

Re:Blog != Journal

[SunPin]

If I wrote a journal entry on a sheet of paper and decided to note something interesting I found at Google News and make sure to note the appropriate links, how does that differ? By putting my journal entry on the web, people can click to it faster. Your additional identification for what is nothing more than a journal proves my point.

aol blog? huh?

[linuxislandsucks]

Hmm yes but the non AOL bogs NYTimes reads :)

Well at least mine :)

http://www.freeroller.net/page/shareme/Weblog

The next Ester Dyson will not be found on AOL blogs..

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[caluml]

My grandmother has about had it with AOL. She wants to know why everyone wants to enlarge her penis.

You can never have too many grandmothers with huge penises, can you? Or something.

THE GNAA CLUB IS A PRISON CELL

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you understand it already? You fucking fucks. You fuck your fucking fucks in the fuck. Anusbreaths youse all.

Re:THE GNAA CLUB IS A PRISON CELL

[Anonymous Coward]

fucking fuck fuck fuck!

Ultimate Anonymous Coward Compettition

[Anonymous Coward]

Get "First Post!" on AOL Journals.

I am a homosexual. (.au edition)

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that's correct. I am a homosexual. You may ask, why do I prefer the sweaty, hairy, turd-encrusted garbage hole of a fellow male to the tight, virginal pussy of the other half?

Simply because it is a conspiracy, my friends. There is no longer such a thing as tight pussy. In fact, it may have been an illusion all along. Hence, I remain in distinct preference of the clean, shaven rear of a man to the disgustingly hairy, beef-swallowing, prawn-flavoured, tuna-smelling, loose-as-they-come sewer hole that is the Australian Pussy (tm).

Thankyou for your time.

I always thought Blog meant

[BoomerSooner]

Blob. I guess I've worked with data too long.

AOL BLogs?

[soulsteal]

Wouldn't AOL blogs be one person posting what they did for the day and everyone else posting "Me too!" ?

RSS?

[krokodil]

Hope their service will support things like RSS, popular in blogging.

Confusing? That's unpossible!

[CleverNickName]

a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing

They just need to translate it into AOL:

"DUDE!!1 A bl0g iz a plaze 4 ur shit dat u write n stuff! U can put linkz n shit in there! Write back, k?"

Re:Confusing? That's unpossible!

[BWJones]

"DUDE!!1 A bl0g iz a plaze 4 ur shit dat u write n stuff! U can put linkz n shit in there! Write back, k?"

Say, that's pretty good. You must have been talking with the undergraduate in our lab. Seriously, this dude walks in talking schnizzle this and fizzle that and he honestly writes his emails like that. I feel really old sometimes....

This is AOL...

[Peterus7]

Get the same internet that you would normally get for a lot cheaper with now the same functions that normal internet users take for granted! Pretend you know what you're doing! Pretend you're hip on the wired (And be called a 12 year old AOLer)! AOL can help(you lose all self confidence as people laugh at your slow bandwidth and primitive net skills, you n00b)!

Yep. Pretty much AOL makes things that are available to normal internet users available in a stupified form for stupified users. Or old people. At a higher price and a lesser quality too.

What next? A P2P service that allows you to exchange .midis? A MMORPG that's 2d and the only characters are different colors of the little AOL guy? Instead of having normal movie trailers, having the .mp3 trace of the trailers? I pity da foo who is stuck with AOL... And yet sometimes it's the only provider... And that makes me sad.

I mean, if AOL isn't bordering on a (wired) human rights abuse in itself, I don't know what is.

Re:This is AOL...

[mandalayx]

AOL bloggers suck...until that hot chick you know starts to write about her personal desires...

It's like AOL Instant Messenger. I wanted to resist, but then this chick got it, and wanted to chat with me, and you know how it went from there.

Strangely, I'm still not sure abt how AOL really plans to make money on this.

Re:This is AOL...

[Peterus7]

Bah, I use my tech saavyness (?) to pick up chicks in a different way...

Motherboard pimping. Tie a motherboard (It has to be big and thick... Size matters.)around your neck as part of a costume for a halloween party. Be well versed in motherboard innuendo.

I had a girlfriend within a week.

Report Received - Thank you for your assistance

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Sir,

I am writing on behalf of Mr. Ashcroft to thank you for your help.

As you may know, the recently passed VOLUPTUOUS CHILD (Very Often, Ladies Underage or Pre-Teen Undergo ObvioUS CHanges, ILlegally and Detrimentally) Act authored by Mr. Ashcroft makes it a federal crime for girls to develop breasts, because breasts arouse boys, leading to fornication and other sins of the flesh.

We have already issued an arrest warrant for your 14 year old cousin. We appreciate your role as an informant. Thank you for participating in the TIPS program, loyal comrade!

You are a whack off

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you sign in before complaining about anonymous cowards?

I say its not a buzzword,...

[fiftyvolts]

... but rather a contraction. The name makes perfect sense. It's a log of what I do, on the web. A "Weblog" if you will. If you would prefer I'll use an apostrophe such as the one's used in can't and don't to so I removed letters. In this case the "we" has been removed instead of an 'o,' 'cause (notice apostrophe) "we" are definitely not on the same page.

'blog

See that wasn't so bad. (Apologies for the sarcasm but I just woke from a nap.)

Is this really a good idea?

[Valar]

AOLers and bloggers at the same time. Sounds like a horrible chimera-like beast.

Why all the elitism about the word 'blog'?

[FunWithHeadlines]

Lots of comments slamming 'blog' around here: "It's a diary!", "It's a journal!", "Why make a new word for an old idea?"

Well, because it is a new idea. Diaries were kept for private viewing, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding. The idea of being able to post your "diary" globally is certainly empowering. Yeah, yeah, we're /. and we look down on anyone who cannot do HTML. Fine, be elitist, but most of the world is not, and never will be, programmers, or even scripters. And blogging software has given the rest of the world a simple tool that enables them to do what we have been able to do for years.

Blogs are more than the sum of their parts, furthermore. It's not just that these "diaries" are online. The blog phenomenom is based on the mutual linking that goes on. It's a community -- that hardly describes a diary or a journal -- of users connecting to each other. Does that sound familiar? Sure, it's the promise of the web, only now accessible to a lot more people.

Finally blogs are not just "diaries." For example, I have my web site where I have fun with the wording of headlines. In order to see how the power of blogging works, I recently created a blog of my site in order to see if the connectivity of the blog community would increase awareness. I'm playing with the blog phenemenon, in other words. Yet there is nothing about me at my blog, no diary entries, nothing. It's all about the humor.

Blogging is about the community, not just a diary.

Re:Why all the elitism about the word 'blog'?

[buddha42]

"Yeah, yeah, we're /. and we look down on anyone who cannot do HTML."

Funny thing is, most tech people know HTML about as well as AOLers know "the internet". AKA a sick, sad, nonstandard pathetic subset of the real deal.

Nope

[robogun]

Someone in the media made up the word about six months ago and is now one of those "information superhighway" type terms that everybody except computer users use.

It is used in place of the word "diary," when one wishes to record their feelings without sounding feminine and frivolous.

However, it is an ugly word. To me, it sounds like one of those floating turds that refuses to get flushed down the toilet.

Re:Nope

[Jayfar]

>However, it is an ugly word. To me, it sounds like one of those floating turds that refuses to get flushed down the toilet.

And how is that not perfectly apt for the typical blog?

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[MyHair]

Me too!

Great! AOL TiVo... just what I always wanted!

[I Like Swords!!!]

From the article:

America Online is launching another feature tomorrow. This one's aimed at users of TiVo, the digital video recorder for television. AOL members with TiVo boxes will be able to program them via AOL by typing in the keyword "TV Listings," clicking on the show they want to record and clicking "record to my TiVo DVR." The free AOL service requires a Series 2 TiVo recording device.


Now I can record all those AOL commercials when I'm not watching TV so I can view them later! Oooooooh GOODIE!

Wait...

I would help if I had TiVo...
annnnnd watched TV a whole lot...

oh and I guess not having AOL puts a damper on that idea too. Dratz! KNEW it was too good to be true!

Yeah, because this si what we need.....

[nuintari]

Yeah, cause the internet needs MORE blogs, riiiight.

More details about AOL Journals Blog Beta

[securitas]

Some more details about AOL Journals from:

1. An AOL employee involved in the Journals project.
2. San Francisco Examiner columnist Jeff Jarvis who was invited to an exclusive preview (five high profile bloggers were invited)
3. Thoughts on AOL Journals from Internet consultant and professor Clay Shirky, one of the five invited

Blogs: AOL Journals Coming This Fall

AOL has discovered blogs. AOL Journals (so named because AOLers were confused by the term ''blog'') will make its debut this fall. The new service will let subscribers use AOL Instant Messenger to post to their blogs/journals with RSS/XML. AOL by Phone users will be able to leave voice mail that will be posted to their blogs as MP3s. More thoughts on the AOL Journals beta from Clay Shirky and Shelley "burningbird" Powers

The Best Part of AOL's Personal Blog Service

[ticklemeozmo]

You will ALWAYS get First Post ;)

Great post

[Anonymous Coward]

It shut that stupid fucker up.

HTML is just the tip!

[metalhed77]

I know html very well and you need to know more than that to do a blog from scratch, unless you like tons of typing. A program like moveable type is really necessary. Anyone blogging with just HTML files is an idiot.

Yes it supports RSS

[count0]

A recent behind the scenes look confirmed that it will support RSS...

HA HA. Blog word confuses people.

[anon1978]

You're jokes about people not knowing wtf blog is are totally funny. So funny I forgot to laugh. I've been reading peoples .plan for years and you call that bullshit something else now. So, in short, fuck off you chompers.

anon1978@hotmail.com

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[Nighttime]

No, no, no. You're supposed to quote the entire text and add "Me too!" to the bottom.

Can't work Re:This is a great idea

[leoaugust]

Your point is well taken, but I just have a simple concern about how regularly will the AOL'ers blog.

If most of the nerds can't keep their journals on slashdot, then most of the AOL'ers probably won't on AOL. I am not sure what the percentage of slashdotters who keep a journal is (can someone write a hack to do this?) but divide that by 5, and multiply by 34 million, and you get a guesstimate of the AOL journalers. I bet you that this is a pretty small number.

It's just a guess, but it's still pretty small !

Audio blog posts?

[Xformer]

No thanks.

It's already hard to understand some people over the phone, without MP3 encoding potentially making that even worse (with the number of dialup customers AOL still has, I don't see them using a decent bitrate just yet). This isn't counting nasal voices if someone happens to be sick.

Typed blog updates, on the other hand, are a lot easier to understand (even with a ton of typos), are possible to skim through to get a general idea, etc. You also bypass all of the "um"s and "uh"s that go with the monologues of a lot of people.

Me, I'll just stick with the blog system I already have. Updates either through the web or with a dedicated client, RSS feeds (both incoming and outgoing) and not tied to a specific ISP.

good point

[zymano]

yes. can't believe how much media hype they got.

Re:Blog of and AOL user

[saunder3]

That is really funny. I must forward it to every email address I know.

Are they really?

[Chris_Stankowitz]

Well, because it is a new idea. Diaries were kept for private viewing,

It was once said (not verbatum): That people who keep diaries, do so with the hope that someday others will read them.

Not very difficult to understand is it? Do people who write diaries go back and read them? Do they try to get some insight into their own thoughts? Without having any numbers I would safley say that most if not all do not. It does then stand to reason that the only reason for keeping a diary is to share your thoughts with others.

"blog" confusing to some users.

[Lord Kano]

AOL Journals (named as such, since a survey showed the average user found the word 'blog' to be confusing)

Other users (like me) find the word 'blog' to be stupid. It sounds like a level one reaches in the Boy Scouts 'Webloes', 'Weblefs' and 'Weblogs'

LK

I don't care what they are;

[Anonymous Coward]

just keep them away from me. Friends don't let friends blog.

Re: No, it's worse when they *leave*

[zo219]

It's been a month now, and we still have not established, in the mind of my 60-ish housekeeper, that:

- turning her computer ON does NOT instantly connect her to the internet. (She lives in fear that it does.)

- there are ways to quit Outlook Express besides unplugging the macine.

- the alias on her desktop that says Mail is also Outlook Express.

"Where is Outlook Express?"
"It's the same as Mail, remember?"
"I want to see my mail."
"And I made you a nice alias that says Mail."
"I don't know where Outlook Express is."
"We can change the name of the alias to Outlook Express."
"But then I won't know where my mail is."

My lips are getting chapped from saying, Do the tutorial. She has (goes without saying) an old iMac. A friend told her about an ISP that charges a max of $10 a month. She has determined to resign AOL.

BUT THIS MEANS TWO SEPARATE APPLICATIONS.

NEITHER of which gets her online. For that, she must perform a THIRD action - and coordinate all three, you see - and press a tiny button in the Control Strip that says: Connect.

Oh, the humanity. . .

blogging revolution

[agent66]

Just think of the 34 million users aol has, how great is that going to be? people can blog about there pet cats and how they pickup underaged girls using aol. :( ---

Re:Wasn't Time Warner supposed to provide content?

[Anonymous Coward]

> I've got to wonder, however, what the EULA on
> this thing is going to look like.... especially
> if the try to pull a geocities "all your
> content are belong to us" clause.

"Try"? You must not be an AOL subscriber - they
did add that to their TOS - effective August 3,
announced in a mass email July 01.