In case you couldn’t tell from the subject, this is about AOL.
Ok, it’s about 2:30 in the morning here, and no one I know is online right now. I just got an IM from somebody I don’t know with the message ‘Hey :^) Guess who this is’. That I can handle. I tried to reply, but their IMs were off. The wierd thing is I get these all the time! Once, I got one where they called me Joey and invited me over to trade pokemon cards!
Who the hell are these people, and why don’t they have anything better to do than IM random screennames with meaningless messages? It’s never the same person twice, and it’s usually late at night. I’ve been told that these people use a password stealer that gets your password when you reply. I don’t believe that for a second.
Anyone else have this happen to them? Gah! It drives me crazy!
Also, if anyone could tell me how to turn off Buddy Chat invitations, I’d appreciate it. I can’t stand it when I’m surfing quality porn and then an invitation for sub-par porn interrupts me…er…I mean…BYE!
The one I’ve gotten most often is, “I’m new to AOL, can you help me?” I’m helpful (ie, gullible), so I try to respond, but their ability to receive IM’s is turned off.
What is the point??
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I mostly get horny freaks. Most of them are blatantly horny–“age/sex/pic?” “hey good lookin’” etc–but a few claim they’re just wanting to chat. However, when I tell them I’m in love, how great my love life is, etc., they tend to lose interest in a hurry.
One asshole, once rejected, tried to suggest my boyfriend was a loser (has he met him? no…now who’s the loser again?), saying other girls have told him how bad he is in bed, etc. My response was, “What, you think insulting the man I love–a stranger to you–will somehow make you endearing to me?” What a loser. I’ve kept my favorite IM conversations from such freaks, for future laughs.
I’ve also been frequently approached by 16-17yro boys (supposedly) who say they find teachers sexy. Ewwwwwwwww.
Usually, it’s just someone wanting to glean information, or some “nice” random cybersex. They can’t get your password if you don’t send it to them; a few years ago, phishers would try to say they’re AOL and that, ye gads, they’ve lost your password. What is it again? …Yes, this is America’s brightest, right here. Typically these random IMs aren’t entirely random; they search profiles for certain keywords, then IM whoever shows up as online from the list.
I haven’t gotten a random IM in a while, though. If you like, I’ll post some of my favorite moments.
Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.
Poster You’d Most Like to Date–Female
Second Official SDMB Awards
I have AOL and when I’m doing things, I just turn off my IMs. To do that you type in the name field $IM_off and in the subject line you put in a couple of spaces.
I haven’t figured out how to turn off the chat invitations so if you find out, please let me know.
“I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
adam – If you find one, let me know. AOL has it’s problems, Lord knows, but I’ve tried four other services and AOL is still the 900 pound gorilla in the bunch.
To the OP – I have less problems with random IM’s than with the damnable ‘Buddy Chat’ invites. The AOL Techs essentially tell me to have a nice day when I complain, so I’m guessin’ they haven’t got a handle on how to shut this spam down yet.
Dr. Watson
“There is no tyranny so despotic as that of public opinion.” – Donn Piatt
Or they could be totally ignorant, unqualified dunderheads making $5.50/hour. Or maybe AOL has taken a cue from the telemarketers and recruited ultra-cheap prison labor. I wouldn’t be surprised.
For a decent ISP, try your local baby Bell. They’re usually pretty decent. Earthlink and AT&T Worldnet aren’t bad either. Local ISP’s are always a gamble.
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
No, it says something about dimwits who pollute AOL with IM spam, not all AOLers. Not like I have any great love for AOL or anything (even though i use it) but please, must you lump the however many millions of AOLers who don’t randomly IM people in with the few who do (who are mostly sleazoids who sign on with a free disk to try to lure people to business or porn sites)?
Well AOL pays (tech) with bonus about $14.50 an hour plus with all the stock splits have gotten about $50,000 a year in stock option, even at the low price its going for now. I’m sure most dunderheads would love that kind of pay.
Only way I know of the stop getting the buddy chat request is to block who you receive IM’s from. But if this is random might not be so easy. Of course if you only want to hear from a few people you can allow only them and block everyone else.
Keep smiling it makes 'em wonder what you’ve been up to.
I’m surprised they even have tech support at all. If you have a problem and email them about it, you get (assuming you get ANYTHING, the way AOL’s email service is) a form letter. How many ISP’s can you say that about? I get prompt, courteous replies even if I’m just writing to whine about my slow news server. Speaking of news servers, does AOL even carry all the groups? Last I heard, they didn’t. Especially the binaries groups.
I just don’t understand why people continue to use a service that they know to be slower and more expensive than the alternatives. Because the commercial told you to?
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
I’ve been using AOL for about six years or so. I know AOL, and so far I have no reason to switch. I’m perfectly happy with it…well, except when they boot me off for “inactivity”. Or when my connection is lost. I honestly don’t use newsgroups, so I’m not worried if they don’t carry them all.
Plus, I’m not the only one who accesses the Internet around my house. Sure, I’d be willing to switch to something else, but one of the reasons AOL is so popular is because it’s easy to use. The rest of my family is not exactly computer savvy. Switching to another ISP means learning a whole new interface, a new set of commands, etc., etc., etc. My family isn’t up to that.
I’m told by the AOL Techs that the problem with blocking the ‘Buddy Chat’ spam is that these folks never use the same SN for more than one day, and the spammers know that blocking them on a case-by-case basis won’t work. The spammers also know that AOL can’t restrict the free creation of new SN’s without all hell breaking loose. It seems like a ‘damned if you do, and damned if you don’t’ kind of problem, and I don’t envy them the dilemma.
As for the ‘Baby Bells’ and the like, my first go round was with SNET (The local “We Go Beyond The Call” baby bell). They did indeed go beyond the call, since they couldn’t even place the damned call more than half the time. Odd as it may seem, one or two of us out here have no ambition to become computer experts.
I’m just as pleased as Saint James that computer experts exist, but let’s leave the puffed up snobbery at the door, shall we? It just ends up sounding like automotive engineers sneering at mere customers fer not knowing how to properly size the ports in the fuel injectors . . .
Dr. Watson
“Not a computer geek, but somehow getting by just the same.”
I really don’t see how AOL is any easier to use than an ISP. I’m on cable right now, but supposing I had my old ISP, I’d just open up my dial-up networking connection, press the little button marked connect, then click the icon to open my web browser. If you want to chat, IRC can be a little daunting at first, but if you just devote maybe an hour of your time to learning what to do, you’ll get it.
Everyone I know who has quit AOL for an ISP is happy that they made the switch. My GRANDMOTHER uses an ISP. Really. She’s 70 years old and not exactly computer-inclined. She surfs the web for recipes and sends me email. How do you know something is difficult if you never tried it?
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
It’s got nothing to do with snobbery. It has to do with paying more money for less service. It has to do with your email address being on a huge list that EVERY SPAMMER ON EARTH uses.
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo
Well, I might have mentioned that I have tried a few other ISP’s, and found them not to my liking. Sorry if I got my own rhetoric a bit puffed up there, but yer, “This says something about AOLers,” comment was designed to raise a few hackles, right? Seemed a shame to disappoint you.
