AOL Locks Out AIM Screen Names

dshaw858 writes "According to a story on eWeek, AOL has mistakenly suspended a very large number of AOL Instant Messenger (one of the most widely used IM programs) accounts, by mistake. I don't know about you guys, but this happened to me and a large percentage of friends and coworkers. AOL says that a fix should be ready by Monday."

Comments

AOL is sadly the standard

[brxndxn]

It seems the computer industry is prone to these accidental 'monopolies'. Sure, there are other instant messaging networks, but almost everyone uses AOL/AIM. Sure, there are other OS's, but almost everyone uses Windows.

Too bad there isn't a more decentralized open standard for instant messaging..

AOL's fault?

[casuist99]

I know a lot of people will take this opportunity to laught at AIM users for using a closed protocol. Now lets be honest: how many of you here use AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, or MSN Messenger? I suspect that whichever of these services most of your friends use, you are likely to use.

Here's my whole point. Instead of saying it's the user's fault and proprietary protocols lead to this sort of thing, why don't we use it as an opportunity? With the outage of AIM for a weekend fresh in their minds, talk to your friends. Let them know that you found a "cool, new program" called Jabber (or some other open-protocol service) that wasn't out for the weekend. Get a few to at least try it out.

If at least a few of each of our friends AND WE try a different protocol and chat program, there's a chance that we can finally stop making fun of AIM users. (I know it's fun, but wouldn't using a better protocol be even better?)

Just remember - AOL may have given us a golden opportunity here. Let's take advantage of it rather than complain for the next year.

Re:AOL's fault?

[DNS-and-BIND]

They got video and voice chat working with these "open" standards yet? Nope? Well, then it's useless to me.

Re:Closed Protocal

[AusG4]

I mod you down as a fanboy.

Download an open source Jabber server, set it up. Create a ton of accounts. Then, turn it over to a team of staff members to run.

One day, when they accidentally delete some accounts, or lock some out, our make a typo in a .conf somewhere and a kill -HUP promptly turns into a kill -9, I'll say that open source is flakey and untested.

And I'd be equally stupid for saying so...

This isn't an issue of "closed protocol"/"closed source" and more of an issue of "poor management". This can happen just as easily (and arguably easier, in fact) with open source products.

Future of AIM?

[rm999]

Almost everyone I know (I am a college student) uses AIM exclusively. If AIM were to suddenly disappear, many people would be lost. At the rate AOL is going, how long can AIM be sustained? It costs them money to pay for the servers and update the software. Are there any good alternatives that have some sort of guarantee of staying power?

Re:Open IM

[AusG4]

No, I do know how jabber works and I'm well aware of how inter-server messages are relayed, right down to the the XMPP schema that actually relays the message.

Thanks for the lesson though... it'd have been better if ya, you know, commented on the point rather than just having a fan-boy outburst.

IF YOUR STAFF CRASH YOUR JABBER SERVER, I CANNOT TALK TO YOU. THIS IS NOT BECAUSE JABBER IS OPEN OR CLOSED, BUT BECAUSE SOMEBODY CRASHED THE SERVER.

As much as you think it can unite warring cultures, send men to Mars and create water-powered cars, open source/protocols/technologies still can't save you from human error... which is exactly what caused this AOL problem.

Re:OLD news.

[WIAKywbfatw]

1. The old adage "you get what you pay for" seems to apply here. AOL isn't a F/OSS endeavour, it's a for-profit corporation, so it's understandable why they would think that providing tech support (which costs them money to supply) to non-paying users isn't high on their list of priorities.

No offense, but you really should have had that information backed up somewhere - it's not AOL's fault that you didn't.

2. Given that you were given a way to recover your AIM account - sign up for AOL and then cancel after a short period - I can't believe that you didn't take that option. After all, you could probably have got what you needed to get done within a month's free trial, and even if you didn't it wouldn't have cost you that much to recover the information. Just how much is all that data - "at least a couple hundred contacts (personal and professional)" - worth to you anyway?

Not taking this option seems ridiculous to me, especially as it would have cost you very little if anything at all. Seems like you really cut off your nose to spite your face by not even trying that route. "Of course, why would I want AOL?!", you asked. Seems to me that you'd want it (albeit for a very short while) so you could get your vital data back.

3. Just what did you expect AOL to do? Did you expect free tech support for life as well as a free instant messaging service from them? And do you really blame them for your decision not to back up your data? It might seem harsh, but if you go through life looking for altruism and miracles all the time then you're destined to live a life of disappointment.

Sorry, but I find it hard to be sympathetic: you did everything that you shouldn't have and somehow you have the impression that none of the blame is yours. It's like someone setting out on a drive across a desert without checking their oil level, breaking down because of it, then eschewing the help offered by the one garage that can help you get out of the mess because it would cost you a few bucks, and then blaming the car manufacturer and the garage owner because you didn't get to your destination on time.

I have one piece of valuable advice to you: learn from this mistake and next time, if you've got so much at stake, take the help that's offered to you.