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AIM Bots: Useful or Spam?
An anonymous reader writes "Imagine my surprise this morning when AOL AIM popped up a window and introduced me to two bots that it automatically added to my buddy list. " Two seperate issues- one is simply auto adding robots to your friends list, which is very uncool. The second is a corporation using bots in an official capacity. This is an interesting trend, although technically speaking, not that far from the eggdrop of old.
And the first thing I did was delete them. I don't need some "shopping buddy" to automatically add themselves and promote buying over their network. Someone missed the ethics boat on this one.
Their servers, their rules. I can't complain about the cost of the service, after all, and this sure beats getting hammered by popups every few minutes while connected to their system.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I'm just surprised that AOL has taken this long to begin sending you advertisements via AIM. They have a near-monopoly on IM communications (near monopoly, I know that there are others out there, but everyone I know has an AIM name), and I'm hardly surprised that they have started to send people advertisements via IMs, since they put all of the resources and effort into maintaining the servers that people connnect to.
I can't say I'm glad I'm the only one. At least now I know it wasn't because I installed AOL Triton. I posted this rant against AOL in the last "AOL Sucks Ass" story.
I hate using AIM but I have friends who I chat with and they won't use anything else. I use Trillian so I can use ICQ and Yahoo! Messenger as well. I signed in this morning and I get this message from AOL that said "We've installed two new bots ShoppingBuddy and MovieFone. I thought "What the fuck is this shit?" It may have been because I installed AIM Triton preview to see if I could get the video chat to work. This is even more egregious than all the ads and tickers and additional software they want to install on your computer. Anyway I blocked them.
In the past, I've had to go in and edit some of the AOL files to get rid of all sorts of crap. AOL is about as welcome as an anal probe. They want to block other peoples intrusive software so they can foist their crap on you. AOL's idea of "consumer friendliness" is to come into your home uninvited, bend you over, put an anal probe up your keister, and tell you just how wonderful and lucky you are to have it. Your very own mini-Federal-pound-me-in-the-ass prison in the comfort and safety of your own home. Only 9.95 per month!
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Big deal -- I just deleted them. As long as AOL doesn't turn the service over to spimmers, a few like this from AOL is tolerable.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I use Adium on OSX and also received this message this morning. The two bots were automatically added.
I can predict many users here will bitch endlessly about it. The fact is that the service is free. If it means that I have to right click on each of the names of the bots and choose "Delete....", to use this service for free, so be it.
What's the big deal?
In a way this will make a honeypot network for them to find new aim worms. If the bots receive random links and nonstandard code from users they can maybe get a quicker lid on an exploit. It would be nice if this had been opt-in though.
I would love to if anyone actually used it. It was a bit overhyped, but it's still a great product.
1) You can delete them.
2) These are provided by AOL, not random companies.
3) This is a free service, and it's theirs. You have absolutely NO right to complain about their business practices. If it bothers you, don't use AIM or their servers.
This dose of "stop your whining, you spoiled unrealistic brats," has been brought to you by the grumpy old techy (tm).
What is actually so unethical about adding 2 entries to your buddy list on a service they provide? I had no problem with it other than being mildly confused 2 seconds before I painfully deleted 2 WHOLE buddies from my list. Seems like such a mild issue to get so steamed up about.
Well, until they get added quicker than you can delete them (would 50 per second do?). Reminds me of some other well-known message-based protocol system.
That is strange. I use Trillian and have not seen the 'bots. How many Trillian users (please indicate if you are using the free or Pro version) have had the 'bots added to their buddy lists? Also, which group are they added to?
That's where you failed it. It's *their* buddy list, and they're just letting you use it under the terms of the EULA.
-- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
The true question is: why did my IM client forgot to ask me about those new contacts? I would have denied those bots in the click of my mouse...
The pornbot, the pharmabot, the nigerianbot, the casinobot....
It seems that today is my day to be the token geezer.
The situation you describe was not all that long ago. Anyone who can drive legally was already breathing at the time.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I guess it confirms you total geek l33tness (and almost certainly your male gender) that you can compare unwanted AIM messages and rape. If ever you get in the real world and meet some women ask them if they're the same thing.
on a very basic level you can remove unwanted AIM bots with a simple click, a rapist's victim has no such option.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Because your client is intelligent in thinking that maybe you logon to aim from somewhere else (perhaps work?) and that you might have added people there. So, being the smart program that it is, since AOL says that these people are in your buddy list it adds them.
This is far more a problem of aol screwing around with people's buddy lists and adding a group and 2 buddys to everyone's list.
I'm surprised that there's only a few comments so far and most of them say "Eh, just delete them." Isn't that what spammers say we should do about spam? "Eh, if you don't like it, just delete it." Yeah. Great idea. I don't get enough exercise deleting spams and configuring filters all day long, now I get to do it with my buddy list too. Fucking beautiful.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
AOL is letting me use their servers to connect to others to chat with. I'm using their resource for free, so yeah, I think they get a little more leeway than a spammer. Spammers tend to only use others resources. Spammers don't usually host email servers for the public for free. Totally different situation.
It's the difference between hitchiking & not liking what they have on the radio and somebody sneaking into your house in the middle of the night with a boom box blasting intentionally obnoxious music.
Even if you couldn't delete them, it's not that big of a deal having 2 extra entries on a buddy list. Maybe if they routinely sent me messages, I'd have a problem but, for now, it's nothing.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Yeah, and when they re-add them every single time you log in, and when they disable blocking or banning them, and when they IM you every 15 minutes with links to cool, hot stuff that you just have to buy, will it be a big deal then? Why not, it's their software. Since you're installing it on your machine, I guess you agree to grant them root on your system, too. I mean, they provide such a wonderful, free service, so it's not a big deal, right?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Exactly. And I am using Trillian not AIM (assuming that with their own client they were allowed to do tricks like this). But, I was only for a second surprised to see them there. Next second they were in the bit bucket ;)
My guess is that they added it strait to the server buddy list, buddy lists for AIM are stored on their server, which they have control of they probably just added it to that list. I'm willing to bet there software doesn't have some backdoor (this isn't Sony) allowing them to add buddy lists from your software, when they have a much easier way of doing it.
Darwin award material, maybe. They have some pretty obvious disincentives to doing so, but it'll be a long time until artificial intelligence is a match for natural stupidity.
In any case, this is a (speculative) matter of imposing the death penalty for suicide.
Why not, it's their software. Since you're installing it on your machine, I guess you agree to grant them root on your system, too.
Usually when people crank up the straw man factory it means that they haven't anything better to say.
As noted elsewhere, I don't (read: can't) run the AOL IM client, and the suggestion that I would give them root access seems to be nothing more than trolling.
In the meantime, the service is useful, and for me more useful than the Microsoft-only services at MSN and Google. Obviously, that could change. I'll wait on events rather than flying off at the handle.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I'm sure the people who used to have the screennames shoppingbuddy and moviefone dont like this at all.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All