Classy of 68

3:55:31 PM EST
Hearing Ignoring All Ad Banners by AOL Exhiles

An banner ad occassionally appears at the top of this page that offers to tell you your credit score. How nice of them......except they will charge you for that little bit of information. GUESS WHAT?! You can get that info for free.....FREE. You don't have to pay any scum company for that! The U.S. government makes the credit score agencies give you that information for FREE.

DON'T PAY FOR YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

IGNORE ANY COMPANY THAT MAKES YOU PAY FOR YOUR CREDIT SCORE.

Rail against the machine!

 

My real journal can be found at BlogSpot.

http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com

 

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11:38:21 AM EST
Feeling Angry
Hearing A Call to Boycott All Ad Banner Advertisers

Look. Look up. Look, look. (I'm starting this using words the concept-challenged whohaas at AOL MIGHT be able to understand.)

I will say this slowly for you, Mr/Mrs/Ms Whohaa. The....Ad....Banners.....are...... still....invading.....my.....PAID FOR.....journal. The....dis..claim..er...is....a......farce. (for those of you who can't see the disclaimer, find a magnigying glass. It's there, it really is...someplace.)

__________________________________

And now, for the rest of the story (for those of you who still have a mind, morals, and ethics of your own).

I really liked J-land. Big emphasis on LIKED. I still have friends in J-land. That won't change, but the feel of the place is definitely not Mr.Roger's neighborhood. I'm keeping this journal, but only to irritate the hierarchy. BlogSpot is a much calmer atmosphere and there are no ad banners.

Some J-landers who have decided not to leave have said those who left are prissy whiners or that we think we're too good for this space. That's not me. I'm doing my "good" journal at BlogSpot because I'm tired of having big business push me around. The free journals in J-land originated with ad banners in place. The journalers knew that when they started. AOL said the journalers with paid subscriptions to AOL would not have ad banners. AOL lied. AOL reneged. AOL will do anything for a buck.

AOL has lost my trust. I cannot trust them to keep my journal safe from "vomiting" ads that obscure my words. I cannot trust them to keep ads that I find personally repugnant off my journal. I cannot trust AOL.

My husband is a bank board director. I don't want another bank's ads in my journal. I've been married for 36 years. I don't want a dating service ad in my journal. I'm sure there will be many more that I find personally distasteful in the coming months, and when I see them, I will tell everyone why....in big letters. I'm going to bad-mouth every advertiser whose ads are on my journal. I'm sure some of you will say that the advertisers shouldn't be chastised because, "it's not their fault." Wrong! They are paying AOL to have their ad banners featured in J-land. AOL is at fault and the advertisers are at fault.

In real life I'm a very laid back person. I'm friendly, I'm out-going, I'm extremely community-minded. Pardon me for patting myself on the back, but I'm a good person. There are times when I'm so mellow I practically go boneless...... BUT, when I've been wronged, my hackles are razor-sharp. In high school we were all assigned phrases that described us. Mine was "Dynamite comes in small packaged."

Hey, AOL.......KABOOM!!!!

(If you'd like to read about the mellow, fun-loving, friendly, normal me, please book-mark my BlogSpot journal. http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com )

 

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12:18:50 AM EST
Feeling Angry
Hearing Boycott the Ad Banner Advertisers

I was just reading another journal and the ad banner "vomited" all over the journal's words!! This is beyond just shilling for shameless corporations when the ad obliterates some of the words in the journal!!! Even if it is for just a few seconds, THAT was WAY over the top.

SHAME ON YOU AOL! SHAME ON YOU!!

Any advertiser who vomits on my words will hear about it!!

UN-FRICKIN'-BELIEVABLE!!

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4:40:08 PM EST
Feeling Hopeful

Ok, now they're back (or maybe not). The ad banners are playing hide and seek with us. One minute they're here, the next minute, they're gone.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND AOL!!! Take them off completely and make us all happy or keep them in place and we will remain pissed off (don't worry about us--as if you ever did--we're used to feeling pissed off and used. We've been that way for weeks now.)

MAKE UP YOUR MIND AOL!!! I still have a spot at BlogSpot (along with a large number of some of the best journalers that AOL used to have. Bet it's pretty disconcerting to realize you totally lost so many of the big players. Many of them will never come back even if you do the right thing. Trust, once lost, is hard to regain.)

MAKE UP YOUR MIND AOL!!! Think I'll go write something interesting at BlogSpot. http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com

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3:39:01 PM EST
Feeling Ecstatic

Look. Look up. Look, look.

(No I'm not reading from a Dick and Jane 1st grade reader. I'm asking you to look at the top of my journal screen.)

NO AD BANNERS! (insert little happy dance of joy)

I'm not blinking because I'm afraid they will come back! Excuse me while I go get more duct tape.....and Visine.

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5:57:21 PM EST
Hearing Ignore All Ad Banners

John's Monday Photo Shoot asks the questions, "What do you collect?"

Well, John, since I'm a member of J-land, I collect Ad Banners. Mind you, I didn't mean to start a collection, but a few weeks ago one fell into my lap, so to speak, and voila, a collection was made. It's not the best collection I have. In fact, it's rather tacky, and if I could get someone to take it off my hands, well, I'd be a very happy little camper.

Hope my heirs someday can sell it on eBay and make a small fortune, but since they're so ubiquitous, I don't imagine they'll get much for them. I know I wouldn't buy one....I wouldn't buy anything from the advertisers either.......

http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com

 

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7:57:01 PM EST

While totally ignoring the banners and reminding yourself to boycott anyone who advertises in those ads............

Please take a short trip to here and wish my friend a Happy Birthday on November 27 (and make sure to ask him how old he is.....)

THANKS!

http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com

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11:04:03 PM EST

IGNORE THE AD BANNERS!

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The natives are much friendlier at BlogSpot. Join us. No one will TOS you there!!

http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com

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2:39:39 PM EST



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12:24:38 AM EST

Before you read this, please scroll down a few notches to rid yourself of the annoying ad banners. I DID NOT give permission for AOL to place these ads in my journal. I DO NOT get paid to shill for companies listed on those ad banners. I would strongly recommend that you boycott any and all companies whose names are on those ad banners.

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AOL has done a great disservice to its subscribers. The placement of ad banners on journals written by AOL members who pay dearly for the service is unconscionable. Because of their actions many of the best journal writers have left AOL. Many of the dearest friends that we have made here have left AOL. The sense of community that so many of us cherished has left AOL.

I have started another journal at Blogspot.com. I will continue here for awhile, but my enthusiasm has waned. If you wish to read a journal free of the constraints that AOL places on its journal writers, and if you wish to read a journal that is free of ad banners, please check out the journals of J-landers who have fled. There is a list of them at http://journals.aol.com/patboy92/TheGreatExodus. You will find my BlogSpot journal at http://www.classyof68.blogspot.com .

Some say that we should just ignore the banners or that the banners are not that bad. I say that I am force fed banners and pop-ups and billboards and irritating pieces of paper that fall out of my magazines and radio commercials and television commercials ad nauseum, and I have learned to filter them out of my consciousness, I am older and I have my principles set in cement, but what of the impressionable? What of the people who actually believe that what is said in an ad is truth? What of the people who come to my journal, see the ad banner, and think, "Hmmm, if that ad is on Gail's journal, she must think it's a pretty good company"?

When do we say, "ENOUGH!" When do I put my foot down when yet ANOTHER corporation tries to push me around?

I want my journal on AOL to be MY journal. I don't want it to be my journal brought to you by the good folks at Bank of America (which SUCKS). I don't want ANY company to be a co-sponsor of my journal! I don't want any words in my journal that did not come directly from ME.

I am deeply saddened. AOL screwed up a perfectly good community. Thanks, AOL. I'll remember that whenever a conversation turns to ISPs, the internet, or blogging. Word of mouth is a fantastic advertising tool and YOU have just given us all a most powerful hammer.

Til later,

Be strong

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