Angry AOL bloggers now push boycotts

Sadly, there is no response whatsoever to bloggers concerns. If you go look at the AOL journal editor's blog there is scarce mention of the concerns of customers. Also, the whole system of journals on AOL is completely in a mess. You can't even post without going to IE!!!

Thanks for the consideration on the whole art thing. We've seen enough of Bank of America to last a lifetime.

And thanks most especially for the follow-up. All we're really asking for is to be heard. It really can't come as any big surprise that customer depreciation has just reached its limit of tolerance.

I will not patronize any of the businesses listed in these ads ever again. If I wanted seizure inducing images on my blog, I would have put them there myself. AOL does this and then remains incredibly unresponsive.... although the grunts talk about their winning business model. I am not sure what that is.

For me the advertisers are not the problem, it is more the eminent domain tactics of AOL when placing the ads on my journal. However, I have met some wonderful people and will gladly participate in a boycott to support them.

Thanks Stephen! Would you consider becoming a VP at AOL? Then we would have someone there that listens to us!

Peace, Virginia
(AOL journaler in Exile)

Dear Steven,

Thank you so VERY MUCH for stopping by my journal and for sharing that link with everyone who reads you. This is SO COOL having someone not only LISTEN but RESPOND as well to our unhappiness & the battle within our Jland community.

I just today wrote my finale entry in Simple yet satisfying and am ready to close it completely. It was a VERY painful entry to write. If you read it, I think you can feel how much My AOL Journal, and Community MEAN to me.

http://journals.aol.com/annalisa135/Simpleyetsatisfying/entries/901

IF ONLY THE AOL EXECS CARED about their customers, and responded in kind, THAT would be the MOST awesome thing to come out of all this.

Thanks again for highlighting my entry.

P.S. your last link where you say "here's a funny post" -- also is linked to my j. you may want to change that cause I'm curious who said that. I can think of a few people with that kind of humor. lol

Sincerely, Anna

That flashart isn't an ad that AOL has made us suffer with, it was a creation by one of our protesters showing that we are making a stand. =)

AWWWWWW I feel honored. I created that image the day that they started putting up those ads and emailed it to all of my aol jland friends to put up on their journals. Gah, you can ask vivian, brian,and everyone else that was on that list...there were a lot...awwww.. :) That made my day. lol. Anyways, thanks for the follow up.

My Comments never show up on these entries you do. :( I hope this one does. I just wanted to say that I feel honored for you to show the image I made last tuesday. I had just emailed it to a group of aol jlanders and never actually thought it would go further than their journals. :)
Felicia
P.S. Thanks for the followup

It's the whole glib reactions of both the editor and the "paid" writer there that kill me. The no response from AOL, well I expect that. Why should they respond, all the see and hear are dollar signs and the cha ching of the virtual register.

A journal... a word, a thought, a sentiment, a creation. Journalers are writers, and writers are creators. We write on blank screens, or paper, just as a painter paints on a blank white canvas. What once held an infinite amount of ideas, has been tainted by indelible corporate greed. How is creativity to exist in such an atmosphere?

I'm all for progress, but not at the expense of customer service and good business practices. And where's AOL's communication in all this? They threw us, the paying customers, under the proverbial bus.

Thank you for following up on this issue.
Judith
jtuwliens@aol.com

I don't really enjoy AOL and their corporate sponsors making money off of my life. Or the death of my friends. Or the joys I have found in the arms of a boyfriend. It's not polite to highjack my life and put it up for commercial gain without, in the very least, compensating me. Add in the fact that I PAY the AOL Overlords for my service and journal makes it even more sickening. I am staying with the AOL Overlords but, my journal will remain private. Only invited guests will be able to read my journal on AOL.

Although I would not officially consider myself a boycotter, I have temporarily moved Dancing in the Rain to AOL International Journals, there are no ads there yet.

I've also blocked the animated ads, (AOL does offer that option with it's software but the JPEGs still show up). The banners are still there, but at least we don't have to look at them. Who would have thought that the dreaded red x in a box would now become such a welcome sight as we make our rounds through J-land.

Now that there is virtually no significant difference in journaling or E-mailing through a paid AOL account, than there is through an unpaid account (AIM) it makes you wonder why any of us would choose to continue paying for something that we can get for free.

Obviously the few bucks that AOL gets from it's members each month must be nothing compared to what they can get for plastering those very discusting distracting nuisance ads all over everything including our journals.

*** Coy ***

I have never used the AOL journal software but was irked to find 2 new "buddies" in my AIM Buddy List: FoneBuddy and ShoppingBuddy. How annoying is that?

I couldn't delete them so I blocked them. Ha ha. Take that. Like when I mark the annoying Hotmail Staff emails as "junk."

I am on Blogspot, so if an AOL Journal user has some doubts, try it first! I love Google and GMail and Google Earth and Blogspot has yet to disappoint.

Joel
http://beppuhatto.blogspot.com

hi

I hate these banners ... any way to avoid them?