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Mobetta Space – Apathy and Tilted Fonts
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"
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Hey Mo, my previous entry was lost. AOL Snafu? Or selective editing? Not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean it is your blog.......Sorry if I stepped on your toes......Wasn't intentional.
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StillwolfpackRed commented: "It was opening weekend of March Madness 1998 and College Hoops Chat was so populated that the chat room replicated 47 times. That's 47 FULL rooms of chatters there for one thing...talking hoops! If not for the diligence of the GSTD chat hosts in college basketball that many rooms at once would have been a disaster."
I was a relatively new host in 1998 as March Madness approached. My computer was on the fritz, so I was hosting a full college hoops room on a laptop. No Power Tools. (That was back in the day when many of us hand-typed the on-screen warn.) To my utter horror, a punk unleased an Armageddon scroll. Never have I seen such perverse filth! It filled the screen, and I can only imagine the shock experienced by the members in the chat. It was obvious that me doing an OSW was not going to stop the madness, so I sent a frantic IM with link to Mobetta, and he was there in a flash, quelling the problem just like that. ::::snapping fingers::: Without hosts, who puts an end to that? Who protects the community? Mo, I just wanted you to know I still remember you as the fastest gag-meister in the Cyber Universe. And you saved my bacon that night, Dude.
Missing my GSTD buddies...
Ms. Blu -
Ollie asked: Just as a reminder.... I personally saw over 8-9 rooms open simultaneously during March madness.... anyone know what the record was? It seems like I remember hearing about 14-15.
Ollie..I can tell you that number. It was opening weekend of March Madness 1998 and College Hoops Chat was so populated that the chat room replicated 47 times. That's 47 FULL rooms of chatters there for one thing...talking hoops! If not for the diligence of the GSTD chat hosts in college basketball that many rooms at once would have been a disaster.
People called the hosts a barage of names...nazis...cops..etc. The plain and simple fact was..if you were basically following the golden rule of life...you had no problems with a host. I cannot tell you how many times a chatter would have a momentary lapse of good judgement in chat/boards and a simple IM from the host saying...I understand but you are out of line would bring them back. But that too was taken away when AOL decided that the hosts could not communicate with members except in the chat room or on the boards...
Ah....Camelot...I miss you. -
My Friend - Another well written and thought out piece. It would be fabulous if this piece could be forwarded to the Talking Heads you speak of, along with hundreds of signatures of people who believe as you do. I am wondering why no one has mentioned the two people by name. Is there some legal reason I don't know of? Anyway, I totally agree with everything you say. I am a relative newcomer to the computer and the Pro Football chat, and I do remember how much fun it was when the hosts were there. But lately, I find myself getting drawn into arguments and name calling, things that have nothing to do with the "Cheers" like camraderie that I have enjoyed immensely in the past. Thank goodness someone told me about the ignore button. It helps, but there are still others who continue the malaise with their responses to the two morons who perpetuate their ugliness. Thank you for writing this, and I hope someone high up reads it and takes notice. Or else we shall all use our cell phones in the future to talk to the wonderful people we originally met on AOL. Peace and Love Mo...Paul
2/25/06 1:24 PM
I just made a called based upon the old removed post from a message board model. Your old post replied to the recreant comment made that I couldn't reply to via e-mail because I was blocked. I did not think this venue was the appropriate location to have a public discussion of what is a private matter.
Had I been able to reply privately, the comment would have remained. I guess someone was mindful of the fact that I do NOT work here any longer, and I am free to fully speak my mind.
-- Mo