Remembering Oldie's Moldies

 

Baby, do you understand me now
Sometimes I feel a little mad
But don't you know that no one alive
Can always be an angel
When things go wrong I seem to be bad
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

 

 

Hasn’t this NFL Season been a bounty of topics to discuss in only three weeks? First we get “Patsgate”, then, hot on the heels of that we have a firestorm of emotional outbursts resulting from James Brown’s interview of Donovan McNabb on HBO’s Real Sports.

Initially, I was surprised to hear that McNabb had made comments that many could interpret as “playing the race card.” Too easy a target for the masses that prefer to preface their comments about people of color with “I am not a racist, but…” (Note to the masses here: when you make a statement and follow it with “but”, you have negated the meaning of all the words leading up to it.) My next thought was to watch the entire interview before passing judgment.

It turns out the interview itself focused on McNabb’s childhood, specifically how it felt to be the black kid in a mostly white neighborhood. An open forum on the race issues that are still prevalent in today’s society. So in my mind, interviewer Brown only followed a logical course of questioning in asking McNabb how it was affected his feelings today as a high-profile NFL quarterback. Taken as a whole, two issues arise here.

First, McNabb was asked how he felt -- an emotional-state question. Like it or not, theirs is not another person walking this planet who can accurately know what Donovan feels or thinks.And furthermore, there isn’t any among us who has the God-given right to judge how he feels.

Second, in this author’s opinion, there wasn’t a single thing that McNabb had said in his interview that is not true. Especially when taken in context with the complete interview.

There is one common thread among the intelligent of our human species: the ability to admit an error, and correct it. The intelligent do what is necessary to discover the complete story, and base their final judgment on a complete body of facts, not a sound bite sitting in a vacuum.

I personally am appalled by the reactions I have been discussing, hearing and reading to McNabb’s interview. Far too often, when I would push the question, “Have you seen the entire interview?” to a flippant individual making their judgment, the answer was no. People were content to take the sound bite we were fed, and rush to their narrow-minded and often racist opinion of the situation. It’s bad enough that the “but” people of the world are using this situation to express far more deeply-rooted feelings, but they are doing so based upon ignorance of the entire situation. (If you are reading this as my just having written “there is nothing quite like an ignorant racist,” you are reading me correctly)  

As an Eagles fan, I have grown accustomed to taking barbsand insults based upon the reputation that previously I would classify as an incorrect perception of the Eagles fan base as a whole. As such, hearing the volume of derisive comments I had about McNabb wasn’t shocking. What IS shocking to me is the number of these types of comments coming from the Eagles fan base itself.

Hello, Philadelphia Sports Fans! It’s time for your wake-up call on this one! There is one over-riding reason that far too many of our group has an issue with McNabb. The undertones were whispered in 2002 when A.J Feeley finished off the regular season when McNabb was injured. The same undertones were amplified and repeated when Jeff Garcia literally saved our season last year. Simply put, that reason is not an issue based upon his performance; it is the fact that Donovan McNabb is black.

There it is, Philadelphia Sports Fans who use that “but” phrase to preface their McNabb comments, I have said it for you. Do not assume that I am in agreement with this mindset; I can assure you I am not.  For many Eagles, and other teams’ fans that I do associate with, the fact McNabb is of color means nothing.

For too many of you out there whom I have just nailed on the head with the truth, now that the cat is out of the bag, it’s time for you to decide what you’re personally going to do with being broadsided with a stark truth.

Thank you for reading.

ifoundforester at 3:32:50 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Many folks have had an issue with the cursor in chat rooms being stolen by the ads in the chat, and Power Tools not functioning. Seems the issue came down to your computer needing an upgrade to Macromedia Flash 8.0.

I did the upgrade, and both issues were resolved.

For your convience, here's the link to the download:

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOW 

Have fun!

-- Mo

ifoundforester at 6:02:26 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

God saw that you were getting tired
A cure was not to be
He put His arms around you
And whispered, “Come Home with Me.”
With tears, we watched you suffer
We saw you fade away
He put His arms around you
And took you far away
It broke our hearts to see you go
But now you are at rest
God will only take you
If you’re the very best
He put His arms around you
And made you Heaven’s guest
You eat now from the Tree of Life
And worship at God’s Throne
He put His arms around you
And whispered, “Welcome Home”

 

This entry is dedicated to the memory of our close friend, J. Steven Swager.

As things are anything but "Mobetta" this morning, I have allowed the title of this entry to stand on its own. Little did I know as I was writing my last entry, "What Would John Do?" that I would…, WE would, in fact, be so quickly given a reminder about issues that have a far more profound affect than a friend leaving AOL.


Warpy, as many of us had come to refer to Steve, has been a source of laughter, joy and always a warm smile for quite some time in the Pro Football chat. In my all too brief encounters with him, one incident clearly sticks out as the one that will be my lasting memory of him. One morning in our "Breakfast Club" gathering in Pro, Warpy and Softy were having a playful teasing argument, and Steve would taunt her, and then run behind me to hide. Of course, he wasn't satisfied with getting off one shot, and running to safety, he continued to throw jabs at her with me as his shield!

To me, this was Steve's essence: The quintessential playful child wrapped up in a grown man's body. You just couldn't help but smile when you were around him. His eternal inner child was exhaustively addictive to all who came in contact with him.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section of this entry.

Godspeed, Warpy!

ifoundforester at 9:18:02 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 9 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

I will scream in your ear
As you're passing by
I will wrap my arms around you
You won't hear, you won't feel me
I will walk stride for stride with you
I will try to help
When you stumble
You will stumble through me.

Today, I had gotten an e-mail reply from a dear friend with whom I have been associated here on AOL for 10 years. I hadn't seen her online in several weeks, and had inquired about her well being, and the reply I received had saddened me greatly.

I was not saddened by any bad news that had befallen her in her life. In fact, she had said things were going well with a new house, new hobbies and the like. What had saddened me is that in her letter, she told me that she's been limiting her online time waiting for the day she would be canceling her AOL account. She, like all of the former Community Leaders on AOL, is rapidly approaching the end of her free year as the separation agreement from their volunteer duties on AOL.

While the end of her free service will mark the end of her decade as an AOL member, her reason was not only due to the end of her free service. She made it abundantly clear that the reason is she could not see the value in paying for a service that the custodians of have allowed to deteriorate in such a stark manner. The room that my associates, as well as people such as herself had worked so hard to make feel like home for so many people no longer feels like home to her. (and to many others as well)

In the past, I would be able to formulate a multitude of arguments against making a decision such as this. The price of AOL when you have your own access is cheap. The people you've met in your time here still love you. One person's actions shouldn't override the multitude of others who do not act in such a manner. (Note to any AOL Employee reading this, please read my entry "Apathy and Tilted Fonts." I am referring to the same pusillanimous harlequin here as I was in that entry.) What alarmed me in this situation: I could not think of a single thing to say to my friend of ten years to attempt to dissuade her from her decision.

Within the Pro Football Community itself, this same decision will be faced by over 100 other people. Just in one community! I am no where near vain enough to state that all 100 of these people are close friends and have a significant meaning in my life; in fact, I couldn't be happier that I don't have to deal with quite a few of them. However, there are a select core few who have made an impact on my online and personal lives, and frankly, I find the prospect of losing so many of those people in one fell swoop scary.

I'm sure that many of you are saying to yourself something along the lines of, "Mo, you're a grown man, get over yourself and it! Life goes on!" Sure, we've all faced similar situations such as this in real life. Having our fathers find a new job in a far away city, and having to pull up roots and say goodbye to all things comfortable at a tender young age. Graduation from high school, and for many of us, college, or parades to "Pomp and Circumstance" signaling an end of an era of our lives, that in spite of the multitude of kind words saying how you'll keep in touch, the song is really signifying the end of a good number of friendships. For those like me, getting married, and then divorced, and the schism that develops between your former spouse their friends and yourself; again marking the end of an era, and of the friendships associated with it.

So yes, perhaps I am over-reacting to an era that has ended in my life a year ago, but had been extended for a year due to the free year given to this group of people, of which the person I had the e-mail from is a part of. A group that up until his passing, John, Oldtmr1, for whom this blog is dedicated to, was also an integral part of. 

I find myself think about John frequently in the past few weeks. I remember how he would instant message me out of the blue with some abrupt comment about how I should be doing something different in terms of managing and communicating with the "guys and girls in the trenches." How I could get a straight and unbiased opinion from him when I needed to know more about the members of this community, but lacked to time to get to know for myself. Hell, even the flat out arguments about Kurt Warner, or other players in the NFL, debating their relative import to the game from the aspect of two long-time fans.

Sigh, I do miss the man! I'm missing him right now because he would be the first one to be reminding me to be mindful of recognizing what I can't change in this world, while in the next breath saying something that would alter the course of a raging river. I could use those words and actions of inspiration right now, because as I see June 16 approaching, I can see dear friends falling offline, and as the song I quoted says, "Stumbling right through me."

So to you, my loyal readers, those of your who have been through the numerous ups and downs of this community, I ask you, "What would John do?" Please, share your thoughts with me, and everyone else on this.

Thank you!

-- Mo 

ifoundforester at 6:11:33 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 7 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Some say I've got a bad attitude,
but that don't change the way I feel about you,
and if you think this might be bringing me down,
look again 'cause I ain't wearing no frown!

And I, get sick when I'm around,
I, can't stand to be around,
I, hate everything about you!

Say what you want about the typical Philadelphia sports fan, there is one thing you do have to admit. The panache shown by the blue-collar mentality tied into a fine appreciation of the history of the games always produces something for people to talk about.

Last night, as the Giants took the field for the fourth inning, Barry Bonds was greeted in left field with a hand-made banner that you see above. You can see in the picture that Bonds is reading it as he takes his position. What was going through his mind while reading it is purely conjecture, but after some of the attacks he's been subjected to, this particular one had to bring some sort of comic relief to the beleaguered slugger.

Let's face, it, the heroes from sports' history are not a collection of angels, model citizens, and role models for youth to follow. Many Hall of Fame members from various sports have been enshrined in spite of being, for lack of a better description, complete bastards off the field, and on it. So why then do we have the greatest home run hitter of all time being the magnet of such hatred as he closes in on baseball's most hallowed record?

Do I agree with the use of performance-enhancing substances for the purpose of athletic achievement? Absolutely not! Anabolic steroids are potentially more harmful to the human body than the multitude of drugs listed as controlled dangerous substances that we read about in the papers and see on the news. Not to mention that the use of a substance to make one bigger, stronger, and able to reach McCovey Cove in a single swing is indeed cheating.

A counter-argument that could be presented is with the scale of usage of the steroids, was the perception of this cheating somehow softened by our own competitive natures rationalizing the need to keep up with the competition?

While laws against the use of steroids have been on the books for decades, and major sporting bodies such as the IOC have been fastidious in their testing to keep athletes natural, Major League Baseball had done nothing about the obvious pervasion of theproblem in their own back yard, until the records of a past generation's idols have begun to fall.

Following the 1994 player strike, the resumption of the 1995 season found many teams faced with more empty seats than fans, slumping television ratings, and a general morass of the game. I myself did not watch a baseball game in the 1995 season until the game Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive game record, and that moment rekindled my fires for baseball.

However, I am not, nor have I ever been one to hold the view of the majority. Even Ripken's achievement was not enough to sway the masses back into the half-empty arenas around the country. More was needed to attract fans back to the ball parks. In an odd twist of fate, it was this point in time that the steroid use was beginning to reach its peak among pro athletes. With players hitting more home runs, generating more runs and in theory, more excitement for the average fan, it would make perfect sense to turn a blind eye to the abuse of steroids, rather than join other sports in effectively policing the problem.

Yes, I am laying the blame for the steroid problem in baseball directly on the league. The "don't look, don't tell" attitude fanned the flames of this problem, and allowed it to prosper until public outcry and a congressional investigation forced the league to deal with the problem.

I will freely admit that I have never been a Barry Bonds fan. I have always been put off by his attitude and mannerisms on the field, and his stand-offish nature to fans. There are far too many instances of his attitude towards the media and the fan base to make me feel that he was a hero in a baseball sense.

If you're going to dislike Bonds for any reason, that aspect is as acceptable as it gets. You can call him a cheater, but at the same time, you're condemning over half of the players of his era as well. Make sure that your venom is shared with the multitude of steroid users as well. The bottom line is: If you hate Barry singularly due to his steroid use; the real truth is that you don't hate Bonds; you hate the league that allowed the abuse to happen.

Congratulations on your achievements, Barry. I don't have to like you. As a fan, I do have to nod my head to your performance.



ifoundforester at 1:26:52 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

It is a quarter to 10 AM central time and I am ready for the draft. Just remember if you’re reading this you’re probably just as sick as I am.

The New Orleans Saints general manager must be giddy with anticipation of the offers he will now receive. He has the luxury of taking Bush and trading him a little later in the draft ala the Chargers in 2004. Not beyond 5 spot I suspect.

Adam Schefter of the NFL Nework doing introductions of the possible top 6 players shows the NFL does PR better then any sports league.

I am watching the NFL Network, listening to local radio, I am in a pro football chat room.

Rumors, rumors and more rumors. Hard to keep up. I wonder if the Enquirer has a sports web site?

Cutler’s wife, girlfriend or sister looks bored. Much like my wife during football season.

Texans on the clock and the boos begin.  Texans take Williams and the boos are done very nicely.

Ok the big moment Saints pick. I wonder if Curtis Martin is nervous?

Ok Saints take Bush but they can still trade him a little later. Bet Deuce is not happy.

Vince Young is the kind of player you may kick yourself for taking or kick yourself for not taking. Jeff Fisher will not be happy and in my opinion gone after 2006.

Ok Jets passed on trade to Saints it seems.

49ers taking Vernon Davis-tight end. I am suspicious of players who do great in combine but do not have the production to match. Davis had just over 1,300 yards receiving in his college career. Davis fits that description.

Al Davis passes on Leinart. Al likes the big arms. He is waiting for the next Jeff George.

Matt Leinart left his table. Might be a looooooooooooong break. Ok not so long.
For the people feeling sorry for Leinart I ask will you have about $6 million in the bank this September?

I feel a trade for Rams spot. Where are all those trades that were suppose to be part of draft. Was it hype?  It is getting boring. Ok, no wise cracks.

The NFL has an official vehicle? As boring as this is a hearse would be a good choice.

Ok Broncos make a trade to get Cutler. NOW Cutlers, wife, girlfriend sister is paying attention---------now she can count the money.

Another trade. Ok keep it going. Ravens take a defensive tackle. Training table budget just increased 20%.

Brian Billick on now. He has a nice command of bs.

Tamba Hali from Liberia. Kromartha in pro football chat room has given him the nickname "Liberian Lightening". You heard it first right here.

Ok now we’re going. 2 straight trades. I like the Steelers/Giants trade for both teams. And now Bills/Bears.

They just showed a picture of Lendale White and without food in his mouth. Wonder why he has the munches so much?

On the pro football chat room we keep referring to Chad Johnson of Florida when we mean Chad Jackson of Florida. 

Ashton Youboty----hmm wonder what Berman will make of that?

Well I have to go out to eat with wife and NO TV.

Back

Folks in pro football room saying ESPN coverage of draft has been awful. I am not surprised.

To wrap it up. Possible winners for the day are the Broncos---in getting qb for future and a top wide receiver. Saints for Reggie. Pack for getting so many picks and good value. Possible losers were the Bills not so much for the players but that they could have had those players later by trading down and getting more players. Chiefs for taking Pollard who has been described as a coach killer and Croyle who is not worthy of where taken.

Fans take a pill to chill and see me in 3 years when we will know who was great and who busted.


ifoundforester at 10:47:05 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

You’re so good
Treating me so cruel
There you go
With your fancy lies
Leavin’ me lookin’
Like a dumbstruck fool
With all your Jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Jive talkin’ You wear a disguise

 

I've finally made it! I'm somebody now! What event has occurred that puts me on the "in crowd"? Why, some coward who doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to say what's on their mind face to face has created a screen name to hide behind. "Still NoBetta 4U" would be the coward's new moniker.

In ways, I do feel badly for the pusillanimous letch. First, off, my life isn't that exciting! I spend 40 hours a week playing computer geek on my real job, and I run my own business which has me nose-deep in laptop parts. There's not much time left for fun! Second, the most enjoyable activity in my life is a round of golf. Sure, I routinely shoot in the 90s, and I can putt like I use cup-seeking Titleists, but it takes a certain kind of person to thoroughly enjoy the game.

Third, my second love has become writing. I have a distinct style to my prose, and I am no stranger to the thesaurus, nor do I hesitate to make my readers become acquainted with it. It would take too much effort for whomever found me a worthy harassment target to even try to emulate my writing.

But, it was an ounce of prevention outweighing a pound of cure action on my part that beings me the greatest feeling of sadness for my fan: I had taken the time to create the clone names that could be created to look like "Still Mobetta4u" myself, and preventing anyone from doing an exact clone of me. Boo-hoo cloner! In spite of your best efforts, the truth of the matter is that you remain what your pitiful attempt is: "No Betta."

The fact that AOL has deteriorated so colossally that members must take steps such as I have to protect their names and reputations in the chat rooms is deplorable, at best. AOL's Terms of Service is very clear on the matter, and the Community Guidelines are specific:

• Do not impersonate any person, business or other entity. Doing so in an attempt to deceive, harass, or otherwise mislead another member is forbidden.

Forbidden. What part of that word is ambiguous? If the AOL Community Guidelines are so specifically worded on this point, then please explain to me why the vaunted Community Action Team is absolute in it's refusal to terminate names created with such a clear intent? Can it be that the spinelessness shown by the clone-name creators is only eclipsed by the diffidence exhibited of the Community Action Team itself? 

I find it pitiful that for a service that we pay our hard-earned money for our own entertainment and socialization purposes acts in such a negligent manner when it comes to correcting a problem that is clearly costing the TWTH members, and money! The sheer volume of cretinism allowed by the powers that be at the Digital Plantation in Dulles is killing this service. AOL is a community. In spite of the numbskull who determined that the scope and purpose of "America Online" is now an outdated concept, 25 million of us are Americans coming here to meet other like-minded Americans online!

We are the community here. We pay membership fees. We provide free content for the AOL Community Programmers to use to attract members. We are the content! Why, when so much has been piled on the back of the community members already, has the service determined that the onus of controlling our own on-line experiences lies on us?

If AOL was truly interested in allowing the members to control their own experiences, then why do the members, even when acting in unison, have NO power to deal with the real problem in an appropriate manner?

To AOL, I remove my gloves, and in a medieval manner, slap you in the face to wake you up. To you, I present the gauntlet: Reestablish some form of credibility in yourselves by enforcing the rules that you so grandiosely flaunt, rather than allowing them to remain token lip service to support a mission statement that has become encumbered by blinders.   

Thank you for reading.

-- Mo

 

ifoundforester at 8:19:08 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Sisters of the way-side bide their time in quiet peace,
Await their place within the ring of calm;
Still stand to turn in seconds of release,
Await the call they know may never come.
In times of lightness, no intruder dared upon
To jeopardize the course, upset the run;
And all was joy and hands were raised toward the sun
As love in the halls of plenty overrun.

Where does this doorway lead?

Hello once again, loyal and new readers alike! I was honorably pleased with the response to my "Apathy and Tilted Fonts" entry last week. I was rather surprised that the responses include some new friends that I have made in the Biker Bar chats. I fully intended my previous post to be nothing more than chest clearing on my part. It appears that what I believed to be on solitary voice in a large auditorium turned into a sentiment waiting to be echoed in some manner. And for that, I offer my profound thanks!

I did delete a couple of comments, however; former hosts taking a run at me for doing my job correctly when I was employed here. When I attempted to respond privately via e-mail to the people making the inappropriate comments, I found that my e-mail was blocked, and I was unable to send a reply.

I have no problem with negative comments. I'm a human as well, and fully aware of my own fallibilities and shortcomings. However, should you choose to comment in a recreant manner, (ie: not allowing me to reply privately) save both your bandwidth and my time. The comments I can't reply to personally and privately will be given all the respect an inapt comment deserves. None!

That said, it's on to this entry's topic. I had briefly touched upon the erosion of members, and quality of the community since the TWTH (Time-Warner Talking Heads, for you new readers) have had their way with the AOL Division. As I had stated, AOL has lost nearly 10 million members since Steve Case and the rest of the former AOL executives were excommunicated. (Quick math: $25 / month times 10 million… why, that sounds like a quarter of a billion dollars. A MONTH! LOST!) Is it any wonder that the stock price, the value that investors place on a business, has been languishing under $20 per share for the better part of two years? Clearly, since the coup d'etat by the TWTH, AOL has lost value.

In this writer's estimation, there is a clear reason why this is occurring. When looking for a means to make the company more attractive to the investors, the TWTH failed to learn from the history of its newly acquired interactive service, and its unique format and needs, and focused upon an external model. Specifically YAHOO! Don't read anything more into this statement other than the face value. I am a YAHOO! member myself. I play fantasy football every year with several different groups of online friends, (Yes Tazzie, this is a shameless plug for the Animal House) and I also use their instant messaging software to keep in contact with those AOL-phobic friends.

I think it's actually a great service. All the news I need on one page. Shopping, Sports, information about my own hobbies; a fully customizable portal to what I want to find in the Internet. Everything is there, except for one thing: My friends. AKA the reason I remain and AOL member!

YAHOO! came into being as a search engine, morphed into a collection of most common searches, then further evolved into a news page where its users could make the site their way. The reason people returned again and again was they made things their own way. The reason for the continued usage was purely convenience. I came. I saw. I went on my merry way. Much like the newsprint that we all grew up with, YAHOO! is there to get what you need, then package for recycling until the next day's paper arrives.

Ironically, with the evolution of YAHOO!, the visionaries for the site looked to the AOL model to help their company grow. They added community aspects; places and things for Internet users to interact with other users. Why did they do this?  The simple concept of MEMBER RETENTION!

Stay with me for a moment while I go on a tangent and bring something that we all do regularly in our lives to illustrate what member retention is: Dining out. Think about the decision process of where you're going to go eat. Excluding the times that you want to splurge, you're looking for a relaxed atmosphere; one in which you can bring your family, friends, co-workers etc. Someplace you can socialize, satisfying that basic of all primal urges we human beings possess.

Take a look at the choices that you have where to satisfy your hunger. In many towns in this country, it is not unusual to find a privately-owned mom and pop restaurant with a local reputation close to a chain restaurant, such as a TGI Fridays. Mom and pop's restaurant has a solid crowd, outstanding food, and potentially with service that reflects the more casual attitude that many smaller restaurants are noted for. Then you look at the Fridays, and you see it's packed!

Have you ever asked yourself why this is? It's simple. TGI Fridays is based upon good, not great food being consistently served by high-energy people who smile and possess a genuine fondness for what they do. They make you feel good. And the company consistently trains their people nation-wide to maintain this level. It doesn't matter if you visit a TGIF in New Jersey or California. You know what you are going to get when you walk in the door. A decent meal served by someone who wants to do what he or she is doing, and you're going to be surrounded by other customers who are enjoying themselves.

And in many ways, this parallels what the AOL growth model was, is likely the reason you are reading my prose, and why YAHOO! adopted the AOL model to sustain their membership base. Simple theory: You keep people in your place, you increase the amount of time you get to advertise products to enhance your profits.

YAHOO! is what the internet industry refers to as a portal. The doorway for an individual to find what they need and get on their way. Much like the TGIF example I used, it's the volume of people visiting finding what they need presented in a friendly and customizable manner that makes people return. And the stock value nearly double than that of Time-Warner stock. But the bottom line is that YAHOO! added their community after the fact; it was not their primary focus, and is not currently.

All in all, it seems like the notion the TWTH using the YAHOO! model is a sound business plan. It reduces costs in that it's cheaper to buy news than to pay someone to write about it, and with community being an ancillary item, less money is spent maintaining those assets.

However, AOL is not YAHOO! "America On Line."  Even the name that Steve Case chose back in the mid-1980s for this service screams the scope and philosophy of this company. Get America online. America: the melting pot of the world, the combination and mixture of every culture imaginable. The "so ugly it's cute" affectionate mutt you brought home from the pet store when you went shopping for a pure-bred dog. That's us!

Case was smart enough to realize that we as social beings, would be more attracted to situations that put us on contact with other like-minded people than simply providing just another boring page on the growing Internet. He had software developed to make is fledgling service unique. The whole company was focus on one goal: complete customer satisfaction. They knew, if the customers were kept satisfied, half the work of retaining the member base would be done by the members themselves.

The TWTH are placing far too much reliance upon that last idea, that the members themselves will retain the member base. While many current members of AOL are here solely to maintain the friendships they created here, more and more are feeling that the value of their hard earned dollars is greater than the satisfaction they are receiving by keeping AOL.

It is rare that one can go into a chat room or onto a message board and not find people being harassed, automated programs running hacked accounts and posting ads to x-rated content that is not removed in a timely manner, people creating cloned names (substituting lower case "ls" for upper case "Is" in screen name, for instance) to taunt both other members into believing a friendly screen name has gone bad and other forms of disruption.

While the oft-trumpeted Terms of Service clearly state each of the above examples of member behavior are reasons for a potential account cancellation, the members causing the disruptions are repeatedly reported, yet no action is taken against the member. Very poor customer service at the least, gang. That's 10 million members and three billion dollars a year you've lost dear TWTH! 

Especially with the emphasis upon turning AOL into a YAHOO!-like portal, this neglect of the 24 million or so of us who remain AOL members will only accelerate the member drain we are currently witnessing. One aspect of the YAHOO! community assets is most of them require some form of membership in each area, were at least one person has control of who is allowed to partake in the discussions.

At AOL, we PAY to become part of all aspects of the service. The difference being on AOL, there are far greater opportunities for an individual to meet new people due to the public nature of the service. You've already joined in one large community. Failure on the TWTH part to maintain this aspect is purely to blame for the member drain.

It's not that the average Internet user has grown more sophisticated, as I have heard coming down from the ivory bunny tower since 2003. The sophisticated Internet user has NEVER been an AOL member. That doesn't make a difference in AOL's membership at all, no matter what the countless scores of mall surveys have told you.

The fact is that many members of AOL do not have the desire nor the need to become more sophisticated in their computer skills. This is interactive television: people want to turn on their PCs, log on, and find entertainment. If there's a problem with their computer they can't fix, there are enough geeky kids down the street or grown up geeks, like myself, who are willing to lend a hand to correct others' problems. (There we go, back to that community thing again.)

Should this plan come to fruition, the end result will be a lose situation. Who will lose? You will! I will. The stockholders will. So the TWTH succeed in turning AOL into "Yet Another Humdrum Online Outlet" the type of portal AOL will become is evident to all but the people making the decisions. It will merely be the doorway to the end of AOL.

Once again, thank you for reading.

-- Mo


ifoundforester at 10:52:22 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

So you ride yourselves over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
And your wise men don't know how it feels
To be thick as a brick.

Who's being made a monkey of?

As many of you loyal readers know, I am a former AOL employee. I worked for a division of AOL called America Online Communities Inc., otherwise known as ACI. The scope of our jobs was to guide, advise and instruct the former chat and message board hosts to improve the online experience for our members.

My personal odyssey as an employee began in 1996, when Scott Axelrod of what was then "Grandstand" (the online sports community of AOL) approached me about running the College Basketball Forum. Knowing nothing about college hoops at the time, I initially declined the offer, only to have Scott write me back and say "That's okay, we don't want you to. This way we know you're going to find people who do to host the chats!" So armed with the name of my alma mater as my favorite team, a stack of newspapers, and two close friends who read message boards with me, my career began.

For a little history, Grandstand was founded in 1985 with the purpose of providing a venue for sports-minded internet users to discuss their passion in an environment which fostered community development. In the early days, Scott would personally reply to every message board post with another post and an e-mail to the poster to welcome him or her back to post again.

This simple concept of creating and fostering an environment of communication led Grandstand to grow quickly. So quickly, in fact, that when the former Q-Link and several other Macintosh-only online services were combined to form what is now AOL, Grandstand was brought aboard as a partner to maintain and grow the fledgling service's sports communities.

The rules back then were simple. No vulgarity. No insults directed at other members. No disruption of chat or message boards by means of off-topic conversation. No advertising. Life was very simple back then. A member caused a problem; the member was prevented from causing another problem. People understood the rules, realized they had a moderated environment where they could post their thoughts and not be harassed.

Over the years, many of the community guidelines that Grandstand created rose to the top and became incorporate into AOL's system-wide community guidelines. I firmly believe that never before, and never again, will the online world see a collection of individuals with the combined integrity, concern for customers, creativity in member-generated content and passion for building online communities. In short, we "GOT" what online communities were all about. This is one group of individuals that I was truly proud to be a part of for a decade on AOL.

The ACI Sports Community Team was awarded six ACI Achievement awards between 2001 – 2003, more than any other community on AOL. We reached out Apex in 2003 when our team captured three awards, for exemplary communication, creative member programming, and building community usage. Nearly 20 years after our creation, we were still committed to maintaining our community base, and enticing new members to become part of our community.

In addition to our efforts being so richly rewarded, the job of earning those awards was thoroughly entertaining. We all had fun doing our jobs and that was reflected all the way down to the newest of members who visited us. We made it fun for 20 years!

Shortly after the 2003 conference, Steve Case stepped down as the chairman of what was then AOL – Time Warner, and more former Time-Warner executives filled the board of directors' seats. This time period was clearly the beginning of the downturn, and in the estimation of 10 million members who have left AOL since that time, the ruining of what was at one time the finest online service available, bar none.

Community was the basis of the exponential growth of AOL from 1993 through 2003. The people in charge of the service realized that while a quality community atmosphere was not an inexpensive aspect to maintain, it was (and still is, if the Time Warner talking heads can figure it out) the heart of  member retention. When a solid core of members wants to return because of the friends they have created, in what they perceived as a non-hostile environment, you have a base to which other products can be marketed to. It really is THAT simple!

The TWTH (Time-Warner Talking Heads) began to view the AOL division as a cash cow that could be utilized at paying down the massive $40 BILLION debt that brick and mortar bunny brought to the ill-fated merger in 2000. They viewed the community aspect of AOL a strictly a cost center, and altered the strategic plan of the service to be as cheap as possible.

Corners were cut in enforcing the Terms of Service, the ACI was increasingly restricted in what steps they could take to protect and care for the members, and eventually, outsourcing became a way of life for the internal operations such as customer service and the Community Action Team itself.

More disturbingly, the TWTH felt that sticking to the letter of the law of TOS was a member-losing proposition, and rewarded those people who chose to violate the signature-required membership agreement with free months, or more. They completely disregarded the fact giving the very people that were willingly violating TOS validation of this sort lead to members becoming fed up with the deterioration of their online home, and leaving AOL without saying a word about the cause of their departure.

Many customers have felt the effects of this outsourcing when simply picking up the phone and calling to have an account question answered. Another manifestation of this occurs when the Community Action Team is called following receiving a Terms of Service violation that clearly, if the person or people reviewing the events leading to the violation understood American culture, would not have resulted in a violation being recorded. Many members refer to calling AOL in this current environment as "Dialing the UN" in calm cases, to far more derogatory comments in more severe ones.

The cost-saving solution to maintaining the AOL communities was the concept of member guidance: Allowing the members to report violationsthat they see in their communities without a host being present to immediately handle the problem. While the theory looks good on paper, in practice, there is now no immediate means of having a disruptive member removed from the situation, there is lax enforcement of the community standards (result of the lack of understanding of American Culture) and when a persons' actions become egregious enough to terminate the account, the member can simple call in with a different credit card, and get a new account!

No wonder there is an enormous cost involved with enforcing the community standards when you allow the very same people who acted in a manner that justified terminating their account to return with a clean slate and begin the process once again. Hello TWTH, pay attention. It was not the AOL account itself that caused the violations. It was the PERSON WHO OWNS THE ACCOUNT that caused them! Put some teeth in TOS, and when you suspend an account, RECORD THE PERSON'S NAME and prevent them from getting a new account for an extended period of time, at least! This isn't rocket surgery, for heaven's sake!

Allow me to take a deep breath here before I continue. I have fully covered the genesis and development of the apathy aspect of this entry, and you are probably asking yourself, "What's up with the tilted fonts?"

I firmly believe that contained within Newton's Natural Laws that one of the principals included to be included as a universal truth is the "Inverse Font Relevancy Principal" that states "The more size italics, and over-use of punctuation, specifically exclamation points, a member uses to express themselves is inversely proportional to the relevant importance of what the person actually saying."  More often than not, the aforementioned member that violated TOS and had their account terminated, only to return with a new account is typing with a large, italicized bolded font.

Basically, this takes up a tremendous amount of space in a chat (TWTH take note, the Terms of Service identify this as CHAT DISRUPTION) with nothing that adds to the conversations, and in many cases, is harassment of another member. In the Pro Football Community, we have two such "tilt-fonters" as I call them, who continually add nothing in the form of football-related conversation, and take delight in harassing other members in the chat.

The forms of harassment these members engage in include degradation of women, taunting members based upon an illness, injury, physical appearance, sexuality and as far as ridiculing those members unfortunate enough to suffer from disabilities.

Many times, these two members have been reported using the Notify AOL button provided in the chats to "empower" members to control their own online experience, yet little or nothing is done to solve the problem caused by these two. (Side note to any AOL employee reading this, just ask, I will be glad to provide logs of this disruption, and any other relevant information upon request, as will several other members!)

To make matters worse, one of the members in particular boasts about the fact that all he has to do is call AOL and have his account restored after violating the Terms of Service. He has had an account canceled, yet was back the very same day on a new account, and continues to boast that even if his current account is canceled, he'll be right back with a different credit card, and yet another clean slate to continue his disruption. (and resulting loss of members who do not feel that paying the AOL membership fees to endure having this constant disruption occur.)

While I am being extremely critical of AOL and the TWTH in this entry, there is another aspect of this problem that compounds the issue: Apathy of the members themselves. Many members have the mindset that since AOL doesn't seem to care, why should they? A valid point, I might add! The more pervasive attitude is an unwillingness to report offensive members, feeling that there is no need for them to get involved in something that is not their fight.

Dear readers, I present to you that this is as large a part of the problem we are currently experiencing in our humble community as the apparent lack of action and conviction with which AOL enforces its own policies. IT IS YOUR COMMUNITY! At home, you will not allow yourself to live in squalor. Why put up with it in a service you pay your hard-earned money to ENJOY! It's simple gang! GET INVOLVED!

Many say that this is only a computer, and this is just the internet. Bear in mind, what content you see, the conversations you take part in, the abuse that you see members dish out and endure are generated by real people! A simple click of the Notify AOL button will help eliminate the problem. Take the time to make a comment at the end of this entry, and have your online voice heard as well!

It's time for me to kick away my soap box. Thank you for reading.

"Mo"

ifoundforester at 3:10:09 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 25 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Out on the ocean sailing away,
I can hardly wait,
To see you to come of age,
But I guess we'll both,
Just have to be patient,
Yes it's a long way to go!    

 

Has it been a year already? A year since I had been sitting nervously awaiting Super Bowl XXXIX to begin? Tempus Fugit, my friends, tempus fugit! Today, I'm going to be in my Eagles jersey and hat, pretending they are pieces of equipment from another team: The Seattle Seahawks. 

Of course, this revelation will probably doom the Seahawks to a crushing defeat, the way my 2005 season predictions had gone. But none-the-less, today's game will be a spectacular match-up, as the so-call 2005 "Team of Destiny", the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first sixth seed to reach the big dance, face off against the "Eagles West."  

For this day, I've also set up a "Regulars Only" room for the chatters in the Pro Football Chat, and in honor of another one-year anniversary, have named it Mobetta Pro Football. My name will be there the entire day however, I personally will be chatting on my other screen name, one that I'm sure you'll figure out.  

Here's to seeing you pay me a visit, and to a great Super Bowl XL!  

Regards,   -- Mo  

ifoundforester at 11:42:49 AM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own