Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Alert

Goodbye AOL IM, some good times for 2 decades

Oct 6, 2017 9:18AM PDT
https://www.cnet.com/news/aim-aol-instant-messenger-oath-verizon-is-finally-shutting-down/

One of the longest survivors throught many changes as the internet grew, but IM seemed to always be there with it's cheerful little yellow running man. Over the years I used it a lot at first, but increasing less and less, so maybe others have too. It seems many prefer to "PM" now through Facebook. I know some of my own acquaintances ONLY use Facebook for messaging now, and refused even to use AOL IM. Never understood that, although I usually for last 3-4 years used the IM servers with the Linux messaging program Pidgin with AOL IM.

So, goodbye to what once was an integral part of our internet experience, like the death of an old friend.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
I wonder if anyone still has an AOL account
Oct 6, 2017 9:48AM PDT

with an octal signin. Compuserve, bought by AOL, used octal coding, so your signins never had characters above 7.
AND ... real men don't use social media. Happy

- Collapse -
that's the reason...
Oct 6, 2017 9:56AM PDT

....I chose not to use AOL as my ISP during those years. I used to tease some on AOL, calling it the "pablum network". I think however they made a mistake by not keeping separate longer, because much of it was a closed system and it was due to that system of strong content control that many preferred to use AOL. Their content control though was based more on morality grounds than the political methods that Facebook and Twitter seem to use.