AOL to charge money for Aim? (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

I got this message, spam or not, sent to me in my inbox. Considering this is AOL, I wouldn't put it past them. If anything, they should charge people to download the program, rather than charging for the service. Many people will just flock to the next best thing..

>>
AOL is thinking about charging money for the use of AIM($7.95/ month) , they maye start charging
sometime in july.
Due to its popularity they can cash in on it big time!Lets prevent this from happening!Ive made an online
petition, click the URL below to place your vote and stop AIM from becoming a paid service..
Thank you for your support!

Vote here>>

Any truth to this?

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm pretty sure this is spam. With the fact that there are a host of other messenger services out there that are free, charging for AIM makes zero sense. Plus this line right here: "Due to its popularity they can cash in on it big time!Lets prevent this from happening!Ive made an online
petition, click the URL below to place your vote and stop AIM from becoming a paid service.." kind of gives it away that this is someone trying to see how many sigs he can get. Real petitions, organized and with defined goals, are much better represented and outgoing messages are better thought out.

 

[Tony Whalen]

That is an old hoax that has been making the rounds since around 1998. Ignore it.

 

[Brian Mansure]

Tony knows what's up.

Read here:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar.../aa020300a.htm

 

[ThomasC]

I got this by IM from a friend in early April:

Dear AIM users,

Because of our overloading of our servers, we are being forced to extract our non-active AIM users. Because this is a free service, AOL has exceeded the budget for the AIM service. We are asking that you send this exact message to 20 other AIM users to ensure us that you're an active AIM user. Our system tracking devise will pick up this message to keep you on our active list. You have 72 hours to complete this task or your service will be cancelled immediately. Starting April 9, 2003, we will be charging a small fee for registering of a screen name for AIM. Thank you for your time and for using AOL or AIM.

I went to AOL's site to see if there was any mention of such a proposed action, and I found nothing.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

aol thinking about charging for the use of aim is like the home theater forum thinking of charging for the use of the forum. glad that idea was put to rest right quick.

CJ

 

[Dave E H]

aol thinking about charging for the use of aim is like the home theater forum thinking of charging for the use of the forum. glad that idea was put to rest right quick.

I'm not sure the analogy is the same. HTF is a non-profit/little profit private operation. AOL-TIme Warner is a huge multi-national corporation with a near monopoloy on IM. They are spreading from gadget to gadget - people can now use this on phones etc.

While this message is spam and there are no IMMEDIATE plans to charge for this, does anyone here think that it will ALWAYS be free?

There is no reason that this service would always be free. Basically, I think someday if you are not a regular AOL subscriber, then they'd want you to pay something for it, because you can't live without it.

You know, the first one's free....

(I do recognize that this is a feature that causes some people to sub to aol in the first place as an ISP, but the userbase of IM is too big to let be free forever. They'll have a little higher churn IF they ever charge for IM, but as long it's reasonable, they could stand to make a lot of money.)

 

[Tony Whalen]

There is no reason that this service would always be free.

Nonsense. Like I said.. this rumour has been circulating since 1998. The message Thomas got is also a similar hoax.

AOL isn't going to charge for AIM use. It's too popular, and it would cause them to lose business. People could just switch over to ICQ if they didn't want to pay AOL...

Personally, if I were an AIM or AOL user (of which I'm neither) I wouldn't worry about this until such time as AOL-Time-Warner actually issues a press-release, which I can't really see happening...

 

[Jeff Kleist]

People could just switch over to ICQ if they didn't want to pay AOL...

ICQ is now owned by AOL

 

[Jason Seaver]

While this message is spam and there are no IMMEDIATE plans to charge for this, does anyone here think that it will ALWAYS be free?

"Always" is a long time, but I tend to think that if AOL does start charging for it, they'll discover how much brand loyalty is worth on the internet as everyone starts using MSN Messager or Yahoo! Messager or whatever else pops up.

I mean, I'm sure Microsoft and/or Netscape would like to charge for Internet Explorer, too, but neither will blink as long as the other is free.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

Tony are you related to Ed Whalen?

 

[Christ Reynolds]

I'm not sure the analogy is the same. HTF is a non-profit/little profit private operation. AOL-TIme Warner is a huge multi-national corporation with a near monopoloy on IM. They are spreading from gadget to gadget - people can now use this on phones etc

well i was kinda joking anyway. but now that you mention it, i think the analogy is more similar than you think. just because aol makes a ton of cash, and the home theater forum doesnt (although those miles of ads and shit i must scroll through to get to the forums must bring in SOME money), doesnt mean that its a different story. both services are free now, both have a large user base, comparatively. comparing numbers between the two makes no sense. anyway...AIM barely has a monopoly in the IM game. they are way ahead, thats for sure. same with the htf. its not the only source of info in town, but i think its the best, and thats why i come here instead of somewhere else. same with AIM, he people who i know who use IM use it. i think there are few differences.

CJ

 

[nolesrule]

Well, I use Trillian, because it allows you to use AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and IRC all in one IM program. To me they are all the same, but some people are limited by what IM programs they are allowed to use at work. Trillian solves the problem of which one to use to contact people.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Tony are you related to Ed Whalen?

Mark... a question I've often gotten. Didn't expect it here though! Yes. I'm his son.

Joe... never heard of Trillian before. Interesting!!!

 

[nolesrule]

I love it. I've been using it ever since someone pointed it out to me about 2 years ago. They have free and pay versions. The pay version has extra features that go beyond the regular IM capabilities (mainly through plug-ins).

Most people I know that use any IM software have pretty much switched to Trillian, even if they only use it for their AIM buddy list.

http://www.trillian.cc

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Is Trillian named after the companion from Doctor Who?

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

No, but maybe because there wasn't a Doctor Who companion named Trillian? (Try "Hitchhiker's Guide" instead.)

Anyway, AOL/TW is a huge multinational corporation that is going to either collapse from its own weight or break apart into smaller corporations either spinoffs or sold outright. They're already starting to sell Ted Turner's sports teams, and didn't they sell Warner's DVD manufacturing plants?

AIM can't charge a fee as long as MS Messenger is free.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

plus, its not like aol doesnt benefit from aim because they dont charge for it. those ads they put on it bring in quite a bundle, plus ive noticed even more popup ads since installing it again. if they charge money for it, i'll just stop using it, no way i'll pay for it. its just a convenience to me, paying money would be inconvenient.

CJ

 

[nolesrule]

Yeah, Trillian is named after a character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series.

And Trillian doesn't have pop-up ads to annoy you while interfacing with AIM. I can't believe people would actually use the interface when something better and compatible is readily available.

 

[TedE]

Well, Trillian certainly is better and not just because it doesn't try to annoy you with popups. Having all the skinning options and a cohesive package for all the major IMs out there is great. I don't know anybody who has seen Trillian and NOT switched over to it. Immediately.

But compatibility is another issue although it's been relatively stable for the past few months. For awhile there you had to download a patch every few weeks as AIM changed something on their end and it took awhile for Trillian to catch up. Yahoo was really hit-or-miss until the last patch.