Verizon -> AOL Mail

[Caramon13]

Man, I thought I was done with AOL like 20 years ago..This morning my Verizon email got converted over to AOL and I'm right back to the same crappy look and functionality I had in the days of dial-up.

 

[RJM62]

It's not the first time Verizon has tried to offload its email to AOL. They did the same thing with new DSL accounts in New York (at least the parts of it I worked in) some years back. They backed off after a lot of people complained.

From what I understand, this new switch really only affects webmail users. If you use a mail client, it should be pretty seamless other than changing the password if you choose to do so. The mail servers and so forth will stay the the same.

For what it's worth, Verizon is absolutely the most difficult company in the world to deal with when it comes to spam / anti-spam issues. They'll blacklist entire blocks of IPs because one user was accused of spamming, and it takes months to be removed (if in fact you ever get removed at all). AOL, on the other hand, is a pleasure to deal with when it comes to spam / anti-spam issues. That's the one thing that they do really well.

Rich

 

[James331]

Just as long as they don't switch you to a @aol.com email address!

Every time I see a email ending in @aol.com I think it's ether from

A really old person
A mentally touched person
A scammer in some crap 3rd world country
A chomo who must think I a little kid or something


Ether way, nine times out of ten the person on the other end of one of those email addresses is probably wearing Velcro shoes

 

[wrbix]

Just as long as they don't switch you to a @aol.com email address!

Every time I see a email ending in @aol.com I think it's ether from

A really old person
A mentally touched person
A scammer in some crap 3rd world country
A chomo who must think I a little kid or something


Ether way, nine times out of ten the person on the other end of one of those email addresses is probably wearing Velcro shoes

I resemble that remark!
Just what is it about AOL that engenders all this disrespect?

 

[James331]

I resemble that remark!
Just what is it about AOL that engenders all this disrespect?

lol, just how it is, not always true, google "types of people with aol email addresses" you'll get tons of stuff, some actually quite funny.

 

[wsuffa]

For what it's worth, Verizon is absolutely the most difficult company in the world to deal with when it comes to spam / anti-spam issues.

Fixed it for you.

 

[RJM62]

I resemble that remark!
Just what is it about AOL that engenders all this disrespect?

It used to have a reputation as the Internet on training wheels -- something you would move away from once you outgrew it.

I've always thought the mail was pretty well-run, though.

Rich

 

[wrbix]

It used to have a reputation as the Internet on training wheels -- something you would move away from once you outgrew it.

I've always thought the mail was pretty well-run, though.

Rich

I mean...really....mail is mail for dog's sake.
Nobody really reads the news on AOL do they?

At least it's not a social slight like Feces Book.

 

[denverpilot]

I put the "You've Got Mail!" announcement on my iPhone for a week or so for incoming text messages just to annoy the hell out of my IT counterparts.

 

[timwinters]

Just what is it about AOL that engenders all this disrespect?

I think this question falls into the category, "if you have to ask"..........

 

[Fearless Tower]

I mean...really....mail is mail for dog's sake.
Nobody really reads the news on AOL do they?

At least it's not a social slight like Feces Book.

True, but in some circles, it appears to matter.

I had never heard about the reputation....until I started to go through my transition preps to leave active duty. That is where I first heard it: in the resume/job interview prep, it was highly recommended that if you have an aol.com email address that you get something new like Gmail or a personal domain since AOL is seen by many as email for old people who never adapted to the real internet.

I think it is silly, but when HR people are reviewing hundreds of applications/resumes and just looking for reasons to throw some in the trash to narrow down the playing field, you might as well play the game.

FB is a whole 'nother interview problem these days....

 

[pikespeakmtnman]

I know a 2 star Air Force General who still uses an AOL email address for her personal stuff. She pretty much bucks every single stereotype that could ever possibly be applied.

 

[flyingron]

I gave up years ago on relying on my ISP to provide mail service. This is not the first time Verizon has done something boneheaded. Years ago when bellatlantic.net got transferred into verizon.net, they let the domain expire without notifying the customers.

I have my own domain (it's the same as my name) and MX it to a very nice provider that provides IMAP and Webmail interfaces and excellent and configurable spam filters, and some other snazzy benefits. (tuffmail.com). My email has remained constant and reliable for the past 16+ years even though I've changed ISPs a number of times.

 

[RJM62]

I mean...really....mail is mail for dog's sake.
Nobody really reads the news on AOL do they?

At least it's not a social slight like Feces Book.

Mail's not really "just mail." Administering the mail, especially the spam / anti-spam aspects, is actually the hardest thing that I do and the aspect of the job that I'm most-often tempted to outsource. It's really quite a pain in the ass, quite frankly.

AOL does a better job than most when it comes to spam handling. They shut down their outgoing spammers pretty quickly. I get tens of thousands of pieces of incoming spam from addresses on Gmail, Yahoo!, and the various MSFT freemail domains every day, but relatively few from AOL addresses.

AOL's also an easy provider to deal with when your own mail server is blocklisted, which ultimately does have an effect on users because most users consider false positives to be even worse than spam that gets through. The easier it is to fix these problems, the better the users' experience will be, even though the vast majority of users have no idea that these behind-the-scenes communications happen at all.

First of all, if you're in AOL's Feedback Loop, they send you copies of mail that their filters or users have tagged as spam before they blocklist you. A lot of times the "spam" is actually an opted-in newsletter that an idiot user has reported as spam. The FBL report lets me notify the sender to unsub the user. Other times the "spams" are actually automated invoices that are tripping AOL's filters for whatever reason. Once I point this out to AOL's postmaster department, they whitelist the invoices and the problem doesn't happen again. AOL is very easy to deal with in that regard.

Secondly, if your server has already been blocklisted, they quickly delist you -- as in within minutes -- as soon as you can demonstrate either that the listing was unjustified or that the reason has been corrected. (Verizon, on the other hand, takes weeks or months to delist a mail server, assuming that they ever get around to it at all.)

I'm not a fan of AOL's cheesy interface. I also can't comment on their software because I haven't used it in many years, nor can I comment on their news other than to say that the AOL content that friends send me links to seems no worse than that on MSN's or Yahoo!'s portals. But I do think that AOL is one of the better mail providers in general and one of the best freemail providers. If I were going to use freemail at all, I'd rather use AOL's service than Gmail, Yahoo!, or any of the MSFT freemail domains.

Rich

 

[Fearless Tower]

I know a 2 star Air Force General who still uses an AOL email address for her personal stuff. She pretty much bucks every single stereotype that could ever possibly be applied.

I'll admit to using AOL. I got an AOL email account back in the early days.....mid-90s. Never considered changing it since everyone I knew already had that address for me. Interface really is a non-issue since I monitor my email through the phone/ipad anyway. The only time it bothered me was back in the days before smart phones when AOL would not interface with Outlook, but that is no longer an issue.

I honestly never gave it much thought until I went through the interview prep. I will probably end up getting a second 'sterile' email when I start sending resume's out.

 

[wrbix]

Interesting stuff here.
Glad I'm technically an old guy.

 

[SkyHog]

I had an @aol.com email address for about 2 years. In fairness, I worked at AOL at the time, and aside from my work email (nickdbrenn@aol.com), I also had my personal account that I got for free, so I used it to pick up chicks and whatnot.

Every once in a while, I'll log into AIM to see whats up. None of my old buddy list is ever online.

Now, that said, did you know that there are still millions of users dialing into AOL's numbers, using AOL's desktop client? I found that to be mind-blowing.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Now, that said, did you know that there are still millions of users dialing into AOL's numbers, using AOL's desktop client? I found that to be mind-blowing.

There are people who still use dial-up internet???

 

[wsuffa]

There are people who still use dial-up internet???

There are still people that use dial phones.....

 

[Fearless Tower]

There are still people that use dial phones.....

Hey now.....I have one of these on my bedside table...and it works!

 

[SkyHog]

There are people who still use dial-up internet???

2.1M, if you believe it!

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/

It sounds crazy, but 2.1 million people in the United States still use AOL dial-up to connect to the Internet.

Beep-beep-beep. Chcck. Eeeerrrhhrr. Bhrrrh. Hccccchhh-ZZzzZZzzz. That. They hear that.

That number was in AOL's quarterly earnings report Friday.

 

[RJM62]

I had an @aol.com email address for about 2 years. In fairness, I worked at AOL at the time, and aside from my work email (nickdbrenn@aol.com), I also had my personal account that I got for free, so I used it to pick up chicks and whatnot.

Every once in a while, I'll log into AIM to see whats up. None of my old buddy list is ever online.

Now, that said, did you know that there are still millions of users dialing into AOL's numbers, using AOL's desktop client? I found that to be mind-blowing.

I had a free AOL dial-up account back in the day. I forget exactly why they gave it to me. I remember that it had something to do with being able to log in from customers' computers when they had AOL but were having problems connecting, but I forget what led to their opening the free account for me. It may have been something they did for any tech who asked for one. I really don't remember.

Other than for helping clients, I didn't use it much other than when traveling. My primary provider back in dial-up days was Panix, and they were strictly a NYC-area provider. AOL, on the other hand, had numbers literally everywhere. It came in handy.

Rich

 

[signtwist]

Did you get moved to a @aol.com email address?

 

[Caramon13]

I did not get moved to an AOL address (thank goodness). That would have been SUPER annoying to have to change all kinds of logins and information that used my old address.

I guess I just don't have a high opinion of AOL. Even when I had dial-up ages ago I had Prodigy, Sprynet, and a buncha other options. I did eventually use AOL but it just seemed so juvenille...but maybe that was just the culture, interface or audience that ended up on that platform.

 

[James331]

?..., I also had my personal account that I got for free, so I used it to pick up chicks and whatnot.

"Hey baby, let me give you my....aol address, maybe we can get on messenger sometime, but first let me slip out of these Velcro shoes and put by rubber soled socks on, then maybe we can curl up under my heated blankets and take our teeth out"

 

[denverpilot]

"Hey baby, let me give you my....aol address, maybe we can get on messenger sometime, but first let me slip out of these Velcro shoes and put by rubber soled socks on, then maybe we can curl up under my heated blankets and take our teeth out"

Hey don't knock the heated blanket. Well, the heated mattress pad anyway.

That thing is totally awesome on a really cold night! Mostly just for defrosting the bed, then turn it off, but no picking on them! Haha.

 

[SkyHog]

"Hey baby, let me give you my....aol address, maybe we can get on messenger sometime, but first let me slip out of these Velcro shoes and put by rubber soled socks on, then maybe we can curl up under my heated blankets and take our teeth out"

In all fairness, when using aol To pick up chicks who are also on aol, you found thst they weren't very smart.

Which was precisely the point. Aol chat rooms were awesome.

 

[denverpilot]

In all fairness, when using aol To pick up chicks who are also on aol, you found thst they weren't very smart.



Which was precisely the point. Aol chat rooms were awesome.

You saw the part about taking the girl to Burger King and meeting all her baby-daddies in my Valentines Day video post, right? LOL!! That's the AOL chick.

 

[Mason]

My @compuserve.com email goes thru AOL, and my @sbcglobal.net email goes thru AT&T. And AT&T let me keep the address, free, even after I canceled my AT&T land line and DSL.

 

[Caramon13]

Wow..didn't notice this, but I've been using adblock lately and just on the ONE page where I get my mail...45 ads...

 

[MikeS]

Just looked up Velcro shoes. Cool.