AOL message board - still available to look at?

[kaylasdad99]

I first found the board and registered in September 1999, and I missed everything on the old AOL board. Is there a wayback machine trick to finding the old stuff?

[kenobi_65]

I was an AOL member back in the '90s, and I remember looking at the old Straight Dope section there, as well as other AOL message boards. My recollection is that that original AOL content like that wasn’t actually on the Web, and that you could only access it from within AOL’s portal – which, if I remember correctly, is also how early online services like Prodigy and Compuserve operated.

If that’s the case, unless the SD stuff was ever archived over to a web site, it may be gone forever.

[Beckdawrek]

Now you tell me.
Been digging for decades. more like days

[Ranchoth]

Howdy! Another old AOL hand, here. My question to Cecil was actually the very last article that got posted to the AOL SD section. (“My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent…”)

I’m trying to recall the date where all the AOL-exclusive content (the…what’s even the proper terminology? Portal services? Proprietary intranet?) was shut down, but I think it was around 2006. And as @kenobi_65 notes, was not actually on the web, proper, so would be out of reach of the Internet Archive.

A few excerpts from the boards were included in the to-date final print collection of the Straight Dope, Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999). So, ironically, the most complete and accessible—and perhaps only—record of the message board’s content exists entirely in print.

[LSLGuy]

@Ranchoth

So, ironically, the most complete and accessible—and perhaps only—record of the message board’s content exists entirely in print.

It’s sorta like this, but not exactly: Updating a Printed Wikipedia (xkcd.com)

[kenobi_65]

@Ranchoth

I’m trying to recall the date where all the AOL-exclusive content (the…what’s even the proper terminology? Portal services? Proprietary intranet?) was shut down, but I think it was around 2006.

Might have been a little later than that, but probably not much. Today, I think the term “walled garden” would probably be applied, but I’m not sure if it was commonly used for things like AOL back then.

Edit: found this on the Wikipedia entry for “closed platform”:

In the 1990s, AOL developed what later was called its “walled garden” model of service.[5] The idea was to preferentially offer sponsored content to users when possible.[5] During this period, CBS paid to provide sports content, ABC paid to provide news, and 1-800-Flowers paid to be the default florist for anyone seeking one.[5] This strategy became AOL’s first good method for selling advertisements.[5] In its time, this method was highly profitable to AOL.

Closed platform

[digs]

Come to think about it, I’m betting some of the Olde Cootes™ here could recreate a couple of the old AOL discussions.

We could stage some arguments over Cecil’s early columns. But actually, more of it was FQ stuff like “Why can’t we fly faster than light?” and “Explain this part of Relativity…”

And the quaintly-meta “Why are we on AOL? The Reader has a strightdope dot com domain on the internet, why couldn’t we use that?”
(and the rest… was history.)

[digs]

Omigarsh! A little googlin’, and I came upon this!

Discussion of the AOL boards from Ought-Three, where TubaDiva admits to having zip disks full of AOL sdmb archives.

It has tidbits like this from AHunter3, with the push-pin interface, and postings with garish background colors:

@AHunter3

… Then came the “new” AOL board, which had a background of pastel push pins on a corkboard, and which had real threads.There were only two forums, “General Questions” and “Comments on Cecils Column”. When you opened them, you would only see the threads that had posts since the last time you’d logged in…

AOL’s formatting allowed for color and size, and also background color. Some newbies would come in and post in 18 point bold red on a fuchsia background and everyone would complain that it hurt our eyes.

[AHunter3]

@digs

where TubaDiva admits to having zip disks full of AOL sdmb archives.

I wonder what happened to those ZIP disks. I wish I could get my hands on them. I could probably host the old threads!

[Loach]

AOL was the third time I discovered the Straight Dope.

First I read the books that were out at the time in high school. Second when I went to college I discovered the column in DC’s City Paper. Years later the AOL site popped up on the AOL Home Screen.

I think I signed up to that board and asked a stupid question. I lurked a little but not much. I was pissed when it went away from AOL but didn’t follow to the webpage. I don’t remember what made me look it up later. On AOL it sounds was one of my favorite things.

[VOW]

<>

I loved AOL.

I wandered into an area for writers, called “The Amazing Instant Novelist.” There were various boards, short story, instant story (stories less than 500 words, I think), poetry, and a humor department. There was also a chat room called The Instant Cafe, where I worked as a chat host. Bottom rung workers had a “uniform name” that began with NOVL. The upper echelon had a “uniform name” that began with AMAZN.

I was NOVLVow.

I still use my AOL email.

~VOW