Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: AOL is AWESOME!!! -- OK maybe not.

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Topic: AOL is AWESOME!!! -- OK maybe not.

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-16-2001 06:01 PM

I conducted a little experiment last night. I created a new screen name on my AOL account. I did not give it a profile or anything. I wanted to see how much junk mail and how many instant messages I would get just by existing in a chat room for awhile. So I went to keyword: chat and clicked on "chat now" which placed me into a chat room called "Town Square - Lobby 6". I never said anything in the chat room. I left it there while I slept. I was in the chat room for 8 hours and 2 minutes. Here's what I got:

212 E-Mails - Mostly porn solicitations and credit card scams judging by the subject. One had a file attached. I didn't open any of the e-mails.

96 Instant Messages - All of them were porn solicitations. The senders had thoughtful screen names like "BigBoobBetty69" and "ButtHunger34". I didn't respond to any of them.

I have since deleted this screen name. AOL is a spammer's paradise.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-16-2001 07:18 PM

Wow...that's insane. I average about 15-20 email spam messages per day and I thought that was high. With only about three procmail filters, I can dump more than half of those, but it's still horribly annoying and spam costs me time and disk space to deal with it.

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 10-16-2001 07:32 PM

Scott, I don't know what I am doing wrong, but I rarely get spam even though I have a couple of websites and am on usenet regularly.

I have to think that the spammers look for easy marks - especially with Joe's AO Hell experience where he just logged on and off.

Earthlink has spaminator. Since the 6th, I've had a total of 16 spams, this from all forwarded accounts. Then again, I regularly complain to host ISPs about spammers, so I could be on some clandestine do-not-spam lists. <shrug>

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James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 10-16-2001 07:33 PM

I only use the Instant Messenger and never have to deal with any of it.

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Rachel Gilardi
Madam Moderator

Posts: 2214
From: Peabody, MA, USA
Registered: Dec 2007

posted 10-16-2001 07:47 PM

I use AO-HELL and rarely get spam emails or messages, don't know why. Most of my friends complain about the # of both they get.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-16-2001 08:32 PM

Jerry -- I guess you're just lucky.

The 15-20 per day is, admittedly, spread out over several accounts (all of which forward to the same place). I have posted to Usenet many times from most (all?) of them. The oldest address has existed since 1995 and, unsurprisingly, seems to get the most spam. I'm not including mailing lists and other sources here.

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 10-16-2001 10:47 PM

Could that be how I get so much junk mail to my Yahoo account, just by being in the Yahoo chat rooms? Mostly porn. Can't stand it. I never could understand how they are getting my address, but now it makes sense.

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James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 10-16-2001 11:59 PM

I use excite for my e-mail as opposed to aol or yahoo and hardly get spam and no porn mail.

but i do get alot of offline porn messages

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Aldo Baez
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 10-17-2001 02:12 AM

I've had the same email for 3 years and I rarely if ever get any spam or porn mail, I think because I rarely if *ever* gave out my mail address to any sort of public forum. Only time I used my email is to register for a reputable online vendor or website, I would never give my email out to anything I didn't think I had to, or I would put a fake one.

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Freddie Dobbs
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 115
From: Pinson, AL, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 10-17-2001 08:07 AM

I've been on earthlink for a couple of years now, and the spam has been at a reasonable rate, 2 or 3 a day, I like Jerry complain to the about it, but it does no good.....

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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 10-17-2001 09:17 AM

I've been on AOL for almost 5 years now, and I finally figured out a way to stop "most" of the "porn spam".

Whe I first signed up for AOL I was single, hanging out in bars and trying my best to pick-up 19 year old college girls. My AOL profile stated I was single, enjoyed dating and dancing, hung out in chat rooms, and most of the other BS that people put on their profile pages. While I was single, I didn't mind getting email with the subject line "Hot Spanking Teens", but when I got married - my wife didn't think too much of it.

One night I was surfing the net and I got an "instant message" from a girl in Clarksville, TN who was on her way to Nashville and wanted to meet up with me at a local bar. I told her I couldn't because I was married. She replied back and said "Your profile says your single". Once I changed my profile from single to married, the porno spam stopped almost instantly.

Yeah, I still get some occassionaly, but rarely.

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 10-17-2001 12:06 PM

When I logged on to AOL last night it said now I should upgrade to 7.0! They still haven't got the bugs out of 6.0 and every Regal Cinema across the country (along with Kinko's) are handing out 6.0 discs.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 10-17-2001 03:22 PM

The Mac version of AOL is still on 5.0. I should sell my Mac and get the 7.0 version for Windows simply because AOL makes life worth living. Oh wait I already have a PC. That's a relief... I thought I was gonna have to kill myself!

I pay $9.95 a month for UNLIMITED access! Ha! Oh wait... I'm on the "bring your own freakin' access" plan. AOL is not my ISP.

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Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 04-29-2002 05:56 PM

Of course AOL is awesome: $54.2 billion loss for 1st quarter 2002.

Yes, a $54.2 billion loss!

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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 04-29-2002 07:42 PM

What? When did they buy a theater chain?

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