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I felt the need to attach my name to this section, as the
following information contains some of my personal opinions.
If you came here looking for the AOL Chat Fix program and could
care less about the history behind AOL's reasoning in what they
have done, please feel free to skip this section.
Otherwise, read on...
In October of 2009,
AOL introduced it's membership to "AIM chat".
You might have noticed it if you went to Keyword: Find A Chat.
In the past, the AOL Chat Rooms Listings window would have
opened allowing to you browse chat rooms by category. With
the introduction of AIM Chat, this familiar window was replaced
with a web page informing you, and I quote "AOL Chat is
now...AIM Chat". It's a very deceptive page with a huge
"Chat Now" button that would take you directly to the new AIM
Chat interface, which is nothing more than a redesigned Bebo
chat system. In case you did not know, AOL bought out Bebo
some time back. It was supposed to be AOL's answer to
MySpace and Facebook. You might have noticed that the AOL
Profile system was converted to the Bebo system, as was the
"Locate Member Online" feature, and the "Buddy Info" feature.
Several features unique to AOL were now Bebo features.
Then AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was given the same treatment.
Some folks may have seen this as an improvement, although I have
yet to meet or talk to any of them. In my opinion, it's
far from an improvement (which is a nice way of saying "it
sucks" <g>). Most Bebo interfaces usually kick back
some kind of javascript error and just plain do not work as
intended. So be it. I stopped using them. But
I knew on the horizon there was this dark cloud that may
eventually work it's way here, and that dark cloud was called "Bebo
chat".
If you've any done any beta testing
for AOL (Keyword: BETA) then chances are you know what I'm
talking about. The occasional chat session that AOL Beta
offers are done via the Bebo chat interface. If you've
never seen it, the short version is it's a web based chat window
that looks and acts nothing like the AOL chat interface we've
all come to know and love for so many years (close to fifteen in
my case). I wondered (or feared) when I first saw this web
based chat window if this was the direction AOL was headed in
with their chat interface. It was clear none of the chat
based programs I offer would work with it. I knew that if
AOL moved their chat system to this web based version it would
be all over for WavMan. This was a few years back.
Fast forward to October of 2009.
I started receiving E-Mails from WavMan customers that the
WavMan Room Manager was no longer working in that rooms were not
updating because the AOL Chat Room Listing window had been
replaced with AIM Chat. My fears had finally been
realized. AOL was going to do away with their FDO (Form
Display Operation) chat interface and replace it with this
horrible Bebo thing that passes for chat rooms. This irked
me for more than one reason, the biggest was I had just spent
the entire summer working on a new feature for WavMan called
"Moderator's Tools" that would now be completely moot.
For a moment, let's go back to the
web page with the "AOL Chat is now...AIM Chat" message and it's
deceptive nature. First, you should probably be aware that
AOL is using
Google Analytics to monitor what members are doing on
that particular page. Second, placing a huge "Chat Now"
button is very eye catching, and those folks who simply prefer
to start AOL and go to chat would not even realize there was an
alternative to go back to the old chat rooms, which is now being
termed "Classic Chat". Third, at the bottom of that web
page is a check box that says "Don't show this page in the
future" which if checked will lock in your decision.
Finally, in little tiny letters under the chat button there is a
link that says "No thanks. Take me to Classic Chat." This
is the link that will take you back to the AOL Chat Room
Listings window that we all know so well. It seems that
many folks are choosing to click the "Don't show this page in
the future" check box and clicking "Chat Now" which locks them
into the new AIM Chat interface. They quickly decide it's
not what they want and would prefer the Classic Chat, but guess
what? It's too late. The choice was made and it
cannot be taken back without going through several steps that
require a fair understanding of Windows and Internet Explorer.
For those folks who just want it to work without all the fuss,
this latest AOL change became a nightmare. The People
Connection message board were being flooded with complaints,
demanding the old chat rooms back. Most do not realize
they were duped into their choice and it is possible to go back
to Classic Chat, but it's a song and a dance to do so.
Based on the
majority of messages I read, one would have to contact AOL tech
support (and hope they got someone who spoke decent English)
where instructions were available to get back to the Classic
Chat interface. The good news is that any chat rooms you
have saved in your favourite places are unaffected.
The story of why is the same as it's
always been. Advertising and money. AOL, in theory
would stand to make more money through advertising on the new
web based chat interface. If you've seen it already, you
understand what I mean. It's a glom of various
advertisements that take precedence over actual features.
Since AOL makes money simply displaying the ad, it does not
matter if anyone bothers to click-through. The more ads
displayed, the more money they make. The Classic FDO chat
rooms display one ad (and are also tracked via Google
Analytics...I know this because AOL crashes when opening a chat
room with a machine debugger running. After the crash, the
debugger opens with the offending script, which is for Google
Analytics) and is not very profitable. It is my opinion -
as it has always been - that AOL cares very little about what
their users want in an effort to grab as much money as they can
before it all goes under. I think they avoided a huge
uprising by offering the Classic Chat but made it very
unapparent and difficult to undo. They can still claim
they offered a choice, however badly implemented.
It really bothers me when big
companies, like AOL put the blocks to the little guy, also known
as their customers. In the decade and a half I've been
writing these add on programs for AOL, it's always been my goal
to solve the problems they create for their customers.
This started in 1996 with AutoDialer when connecting to the
service was impossible due to the flat monthly pricing.
Then again with Terminator when AOL decided to knock folks
offline at any given time due to "inactivity" or every 46
minutes for no good reason at all. Now AOL has done it
again with the duplicitous AIM Chat interface.
I like a good challenge and this new
problem was as good a challenge as any. How to undo the
damage of AOL forcing their users to this new AIM Chat without
having to go through a complicated list of steps. So I
spent a boring Saturday researching the problem and devising a
solution which makes fixing this issue as simple as starting a
tiny program, choosing which interface you want to use and
clicking "Apply". That's it.
Enter "AOL Chat Fix".
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