This is topic AOL is AWESOME!!! -- OK maybe not. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000502
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-16-2001, 06:01 PM:
I conducted a little experiment last night. I created a new screen name on my AOL account. I did not give it a profile or anything. I wanted to see how much junk mail and how many instant messages I would get just by existing in a chat room for awhile. So I went to keyword: chat and clicked on "chat now" which placed me into a chat room called "Town Square - Lobby 6". I never said anything in the chat room. I left it there while I slept. I was in the chat room for 8 hours and 2 minutes. Here's what I got:212 E-Mails - Mostly porn solicitations and credit card scams judging by the subject. One had a file attached. I didn't open any of the e-mails.
96 Instant Messages - All of them were porn solicitations. The senders had thoughtful screen names like "BigBoobBetty69" and "ButtHunger34". I didn't respond to any of them.
I have since deleted this screen name. AOL is a spammer's paradise.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-16-2001, 07:18 PM:
Wow...that's insane. I average about 15-20 email spam messages per day and I thought that was high. With only about three procmail filters, I can dump more than half of those, but it's still horribly annoying and spam costs me time and disk space to deal with it.
Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 10-16-2001, 07:32 PM:
Scott, I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I rarely get spam even though I have a couple of websites and am on usenet regularly.I have to think that the spammers look for easy marks - especially with Joe's AO Hell experience where he just logged on and off.
Earthlink has spaminator. Since the 6th, I've had a total of 16 spams, this from all forwarded accounts. Then again, I regularly complain to host ISPs about spammers, so I could be on some clandestine do-not-spam lists. <shrug>
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 10-16-2001, 07:33 PM:
I only use the Instant Messenger and never have to deal with any of it.
Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 4594) on 10-16-2001, 07:47 PM:
I use AO-HELL and rarely get spam emails or messages, don't know why. Most of my friends complain about the # of both they get.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-16-2001, 08:32 PM:
Jerry -- I guess you're just lucky.
The 15-20 per day is, admittedly, spread out over several accounts (all of which forward to the same place). I have posted to Usenet many times from most (all?) of them. The oldest address has existed since 1995 and, unsurprisingly, seems to get the most spam. I'm not including mailing lists and other sources here.
Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 10-16-2001, 10:47 PM:
Could that be how I get so much junk mail to my Yahoo account, just by being in the Yahoo chat rooms? Mostly porn. Can't stand it. I never could understand how they are getting my address, but now it makes sense.
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 10-16-2001, 11:59 PM:
I use excite for my e-mail as opposed to aol or yahoo and hardly get spam and no porn mail.but i do get alot of offline porn messages
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 10-17-2001, 02:12 AM:
I've had the same email for 3 years and I rarely if ever get any spam or porn mail, I think because I rarely if *ever* gave out my mail address to any sort of public forum. Only time I used my email is to register for a reputable online vendor or website, I would never give my email out to anything I didn't think I had to, or I would put a fake one.
Posted by Freddie Dobbs (Member # 915) on 10-17-2001, 08:07 AM:
I've been on earthlink for a couple of years now, and the spam has been at a reasonable rate, 2 or 3 a day, I like Jerry complain to the about it, but it does no good.....
Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 10-17-2001, 09:17 AM:
I've been on AOL for almost 5 years now, and I finally figured out a way to stop "most" of the "porn spam". Whe I first signed up for AOL I was single, hanging out in bars and trying my best to pick-up 19 year old college girls. My AOL profile stated I was single, enjoyed dating and dancing, hung out in chat rooms, and most of the other BS that people put on their profile pages. While I was single, I didn't mind getting email with the subject line "Hot Spanking Teens", but when I got married - my wife didn't think too much of it.
One night I was surfing the net and I got an "instant message" from a girl in Clarksville, TN who was on her way to Nashville and wanted to meet up with me at a local bar. I told her I couldn't because I was married. She replied back and said "Your profile says your single". Once I changed my profile from single to married, the porno spam stopped almost instantly.
Yeah, I still get some occassionaly, but rarely.
------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)
Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 10-17-2001, 12:06 PM:
When I logged on to AOL last night it said now I should upgrade to 7.0! They still haven't got the bugs out of 6.0 and every Regal Cinema across the country (along with Kinko's) are handing out 6.0 discs.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-17-2001, 03:22 PM:
The Mac version of AOL is still on 5.0. I should sell my Mac and get the 7.0 version for Windows simply because AOL makes life worth living. Oh wait I already have a PC. That's a relief... I thought I was gonna have to kill myself! 
I pay $9.95 a month for UNLIMITED access! Ha! Oh wait... I'm on the "bring your own freakin' access" plan. AOL is not my ISP.
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 04-29-2002, 05:56 PM:
Of course AOL is awesome: $54.2 billion loss for 1st quarter 2002.Yes, a $54.2 billion loss!
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-29-2002, 07:42 PM:
What? When did they buy a theater chain? 
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2002, 07:51 PM:
Joe, just go into mail controls through your master screen name, and you can turn off lots of that shit. You can tailor your mail controls down to the Gnatt's butt. I had to do that with my usnrete7@aol.com name, and the others I have not had any problem with. Whether it be AOL or not, just enter a chat room and your name will be harvested. Then, BOOM! you have had the course.
Best thing is to stay out of the public chatrooms. They are worthless anyway.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-29-2002, 08:54 PM:
Paul G. Thompson I will do absolutely no such thing!!!!!! Why not? Well probably because I canceled/deleted my AOL account last December. It was just too awesome for me to handle, and I can only take so much of a good thing! AOL turned out to be pretty useless, as I don't use it for e-mail (that stopped long ago) and there really is no reason I could think of to dish out $10 a month when I could be spending that on hookers! J/K. Plus that AOL account was created by Ian Price, not me. Everything having to do with Ian should be deleted
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2002, 09:01 PM:
Joe, 
Actually, I kind of like AOL. I never picked up a virus through AOL, but I have with hotmail. Mostly with that Outlook Express program. Outlook Express is a piece of 
. To me, AOL is a very stable product. The only thing I don't like about is that if I type in a web address, I have to do it after it completely loads. Sometimes I can get to a web site faster through AOL, and sometimes not.
Microsoft's IE crashes at least twice a month, but the last AOL crash I have had was well over 6 months ago.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 04-29-2002, 09:07 PM:
Well use PMail and OS2 and you wont worry about virus's as there is still been only one OS2 virus that write to a HPFS disk system. Also Eudora for Win seems to avoid the outlook express crap
Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 04-29-2002, 09:18 PM:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,51388,00.html
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-29-2002, 10:33 PM:
I just looked at the above link...BOHICA!
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-30-2002, 09:43 AM:
"BOHICA"?
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-30-2002, 03:34 PM:
Yeah, Adam.....An old Navy term...Bend Over....Here It Comes Again!
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 04-30-2002, 04:06 PM:
Then that must eventually be followed by FUBAR. There ... like how I came full circle back to AOL?
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 04-30-2002, 04:22 PM:
It'll come back in a form of higher prices next year. Then, BOHICA strikes once more.