Dead ‘Running Man’ Walking

August 6, 2008 1 Comment

In 1994 I bought my first computer, a Compaq Presario running Windows 3.1 with 500K of storage, a tiny amount of RAM, and a ridiculously slow 4800 baud dial-up modem.

Thus, a second career in online media was born.

The PC came with free trial versions of several Internet portals (did we call them portals back then?) such as Prodigy, Genie, ImagiNation, Compuserve, and (of course) America Online. And so I joined them all. As each trial period drew to a close, I dropped them one-by-one until there was only one left — AOL. It was version 1.1 and it had about 350K members at the time. Why did I keep that one? In a word — Community.

I was amazed at being able to interact with people from all over the country from my house in New Jersey. I got hooked on ‘The Game Parlor’ — a chat area of AOL where we would play online trivia and word games. It became, for me, “appointment computing”, as I knew each Saturday night at midnight there would be a crazy TV Trivia game with my buddies Kitteridge, Zazz, GoldenChild, HalliesDad, Catberi, Luv2Shag and the rest. People who, had we met in real life, I may never have given a second glance — or them to me.

But online community was the great equalizer. I used to say (before the fancy text mod tools came out) that, “Online, we’re all black and white and 10 points tall.” AOL was the leader in Community, and while working there for over 10 years (another story for another entry) it was Community that differentiated us from the competition. The old rivals from the mid-90’s faded away. New attempts to do “community” online were made, but never equaled AOL’s presence. Even within the company, community was alternately embraced and rejected several times over.

Yesterday, the last of the Mohicans Community professionals were shown the door. Since I left last October, Jen, Chris, Kenny, Joe (2), Kelly , Nancie, Bill and many others moved on to other (better?) things. Suz, Erin (2) and the rest officially put an end to AOL Community as we knew it, and with it an end to online community done right. I am saddened by the waste of it all, the mismanagement by corporate ownership that caused a thriving force to wither and die on the vine cable.

Oh well, maybe now Keith Haring can stop spinning in his grave and get his running man back.

Filed under AOL, Community Tagged with ,

Thanks for the Meme-ories

August 5, 2008 Leave a comment

My first meme (of this iteration!) I’d like to blame this on someone, perhaps fellow bloggers (“Ich bin ein blogger!”) Erin, Maria or Suzie, but the truth is I lifted it from them.

This mosaic of twelve photos represents me, or so says this meme:

1. My first name.
2. My favorite style of food.
3. My high school.
4. My favorite color.
5. My celebrity crush.
6. Favorite drink.
7. Dream vacation.
8. Favorite dessert.
9. What I want to be when I grow up.
10. What I love most in life.
11. One word to describe me.
12. My Grandmother’s first name.

For you graphically challenged, the answers are:

1. The sign the girl’s holding is a Weealeyian “I’m with Ron”; 2. Italian (of course); 3. Archbishop Molloy (that’s really it); 4. Gray (everything’s a shade of it); 5. Keira Knightley (and daily, too); 6. Rum & Coke; 7. Paris (France, not Texas); 8. Ice cream! (the chocolate souflee is a bonus); 9. A flawed superhero (I’m halfway there); 10. The fam, of course; 11. Crazy. (o/~…you know we’re never gonna survive… unles.. we get a little crazy…o/~); 12. May (maypole, get it?)

Your turn!

(From Erin)

  • Enter your answers into Flickr search.
  • Paste the URLs into this nifty mosaic maker.
  • Discover thyself in images.

Filed under Blog Mob Tagged with , ,

To Blog, or Not to Blog

August 4, 2008 4 Comments

To Blog or Not TO BLog So maybe you’re thinking, “Why is this guy starting up this blog again, here?” Good question. You see, I was part of the team that launched AOL Journals — AOL’s version of blogs — and so had an active one for a while. Like many of us, I kind of let it lapse, only jumping back in to mark the tragic passing of a former co-worker. And then I walked away once more. But I didn’t really walk away from blogs — just blogging. Let me explain. So many of my friends had blogs (both on AOL and elsewhere) and I spent many hours reading them on a daily basis. Frequently, I left the clever comment behind in my wake. And that’s my second evolution of blogging — commenting. I used to joke that I was part of a new section of blogger — the blogmenter — the person who made you all feel good that somebody was out there, cared about what you had written, and helped the conversation along. Then one day someone I followed asked the question, “Are you a blogger?” I felt that I was and so I explained my theory about the blogmenter and its value, and so I said that yeah, I’m a blogger. “Myth!”, came the retort. “You are not a blogger if you don’t have your own active blog!” And so here I am. Writing to right the wrongs so righteously flung my way. “Ich bin ein blogger!”

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The Awakening… Part Deux

August 3, 2008 Leave a comment

From July 15, 2003:

AOL Journals… a Blog by any other name. Web logging has been called the single easiest way for anyone to become published on the Web. A democratic equalization that turns any Joe Computer-User into a micro William Randolph Hearst.

Turn to these pages from time-to-time to see what’s on my mind. Beware, though, it’s not usually a pretty picture and is not recommended within 30 minutes of eating.

Life is like a Blog… it’s one series of short updates after another. So feel free to share your life here as well.

Long may we Blog…err Journalize!

Filed under AOL, Blog Mob Tagged with , ,

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