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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.
Right-click, Delete Group. Done.
--Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
try swearing at them or asking for sex; a recent New Scientist article found that this would provoke some bots into fighting back :)
I could really use a friend.
Actually, it popped them up on Trillian Pro, too.
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.
And Gaim latest (yep, heard of it). I don't know what that post was about. Why would it matter what client you're running?
Add me to the "immediately-deleted-and-moderately-annoyed" list.
Haida Manga
I see this as the future of advertising. Everyone is now using GAIM or some other alternate client, so people miss all of AOL's annoying (yet profit-generating) ads.
AOL had to think of something new -- some way of profiting off of their protocol. Sticking interactive ads, that people think of as their "buddies"! What could be better?
These bots sneak in to your list, pretend to be your friends, and if you send them a message, BAM! Custom ads delivered right to you.
What are you eating? isItVeg?.
How does it make you feel that a corporation using bots in an official capacity?
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!"
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?
At IBM we use Lotus SameTime internally as our IM infrastructure. Several enterprising folks have written various sametime bots that allow us to look up acronyms (WhatIs Bot), look up employee info from our directory (BluePages Bot), and others I can't think off off the top of my head.
Michael C. Hollinger
Apparently once you've installed someone's software or used someone's product on your computer, they have the right to tinker with your machine and settings at will.
I was more than a little distressed to find these things appearing on my Buddy List. Like any "feature", don't I get the right to refuse it? Of course the cute little system message tells me I can right-click and delete them, but that's not the point. If you're going to add capailities to something, fine, but give the opportunity to say yea or nay first.
While not as bad as Sony's rootkit fiasco, it does point out the growing hubris of we, the software users of the world, when we believe that we still have control of how our systems work and how they are configured. It's not just worms and viruses now, but wholesale invasion by any company that feels you're not using their product most effectively. Pretty soon I expect Adobe Reader to ask me "Should you be reading that?" or IE to say "Sorry, no Slashdot for you today!"
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
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).
The names some parents come up with! After that, no wonder the lady took up with someone who uses her.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
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.
December 2, 2005 (AP Newswire)
Microsoft has announced a new addition to it's popular MSN Chat service - ClippyBotTM. According to Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, ClippyBot will "be a welcome addition to your buddy list. ClippyBot will watch for common behaviors, and will provide you with gentle, helpful assistance in completing those tasks." When asked about those users who might not want ClippyBot to be added to their buddy list, Gates replied "We are always responsive to the needs of our users. Removing ClippyBot from your buddy list is as easy as editing 13 registry keys!"
#DeleteChrome
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.
I thought they were useless at first, but if you have a cell phone like the sidekick2 where web browsing is super slow, but AIM works flawlessly, the bot will let you do movie lookups much quicker.
SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
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 use GAIM here and when I signed on this morning I saw them, I had no idea what was going on, I thought it was some kind of new GAIM feature since I just upgraded a day ago to the new version (I am slow on those things)
Maybe its being pushed in phases?
Wrong. We'll know from Google's search results. Mark my words, one day the following search result will cease to be returned forever:
That's when we'll know.
Here we are... found a list out on the intranet... I didn't know a few of these existed. I'm sure other corporations have some as well.
Who Is - do BluePages name and phone info searches
Helpline - Helpdesk FAQs searches
What Is - Definitions of acronyms
StockQuote - IBM and all other stock quotes
Dictionary - English language dictionary
SkillTap - contact others that may be able to help you
W3Alert - send broadcasts out to selected groups
Michael C. Hollinger
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...
If someone adds YOU to THEIR buddylist, then you are notified. If YOU add SOMEONE to your buddylist, you are not notified (since you added them).
Here AOL added these two buddies to everyone's buddylist. This is easy enough since AOL has stored a copy of your buddylist on it's server for years. Clients connect and then sysnchronize the buddylist. The buddies showed up in your client durring the sync. As far as your client knew, you logged in on a different computer and added these two names yourself (thus putting them in the server-side buddylist). The fact that AOL added the names on your behalf is transparent to the client.
So that's why.
I'm with you on this one. These are services that acutally add value to the AIM platform. Why on earth are we all complaining that they've added features. If you don't want to search for products, or get movie times in your area, don't use 'em. If they offend you, delete them from your buddy list. Don't go complain they shouldn't be adding resources for us all to use.
Now, if these things start initiating conversations with me, unsolicited, that's going to be a problem, and I will be the first to complain (and loud). As it stands now, though, aside from a short message informing me of a new feature, these things are non-intrusive, USEFUL resources. That's more than I can say for that irritating ad window above the buddy list, and no one's lobbying to get that removed.
What am I missing?
If someone adds YOU to THEIR buddylist, then you are notified
Not on AIM you aren't.