AOL Locks Out AIM Screen Names

dshaw858 writes "According to a story on eWeek, AOL has mistakenly suspended a very large number of AOL Instant Messenger (one of the most widely used IM programs) accounts, by mistake. I don't know about you guys, but this happened to me and a large percentage of friends and coworkers. AOL says that a fix should be ready by Monday."

Ummmmmm

[kaedemichi255]

Why would they suspend accounts in the first place? I've never heard of anything like this. I guess the accounts of the IM spammers could be susceptible to suspension. Other than that, what else?

Re:AOL is sadly the standard

[bob65]

Sure, there are other instant messaging networks, but almost everyone uses AOL/AIM. Sure, there are other OS's, but almost everyone uses Windows.

Um, I don't think the AIM "monopoly" is anywhere near the size of the Windows monopoly. I personally don't know *anyone* that uses AIM - if we were to choose a monopoly I would say it's either ICQ or MSN Messenger (with the latter increasing in usage recently). Personally, all my contacts use ICQ (geeks and non-geeks alike).

Re:Ummmmmm

[malsbert]

America Online Inc. has confirmed that it mistakenly deactivated a number of AOL Instant Messenger accounts this week as part of its regular cycle of opening unused screen names to new users.

Re:AOL's fault?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jabber is actually getting kinda huge. You wouldn't know it because it's going the opposite route of most open source software... it's getting big in the enterprise first. Lots of big (and I mean BIG) companies that don't want to allow their users open IM access use jabber for internal communications.

It has relatively huge industry support, believe it or not.

Re:AOL is sadly the standard

[Anonymous Coward]

I have lived in three different countries and this is what I have noticed

All my American friends use AIM
All my Philipino friends uses Yahoo Messenger
All my Australian Friends uses MSN (used to be ICQ a few years ago)

In each respective country I have never seen any else ask for another network besides that and thinks noone uses the other networks (eg. While living in philippines almost everyone asked for Y!, while atm in australia everyone assumes you use MSN)

So it depends on the country really...

Re:Closed Protocal

[FireFury03]

But, once again, this has nothing to do with the protocol...

I agree that this incident was an administrative cock-up, but I'm saying that the design is flawed by the fact that the user's are not given the chance to choose their AIM service provider (or indeed run their own server) - if the user decides that AOL are not competent enough to run the server they have no choice but to switch to a different IM network (which is often not easy given that everyone you speak to is probably only on a single network)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Bwahahahaaa! Owned!!

[Tarential]

You know, you got modded as flamebait, and I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I have to agree. What is with everyone and just blindly using a network controlled by a company you hate? I, at least, have morals. I wouldn't use AIM any more than I'd buy a bunch of Microsoft products. I use Debian GNU/Linux and Jabber. Ok, I'm an extremist. But don't you think that using AIM is just a *little* bit hypocritical? I guess I'll just accept my modding down from the grumpy AIM users who won't accept the truth about AIM's owners.

Re:AOL's fault?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is with this integration craze. Why does your IM client have to do video and voice chat? Do you use a separate email client? Web browser? Then why not have a separate video/voice chat client too?

I use Firefox for the web, Thunderbird for email, Psi for IM and Gnomemeeting for video/voice chat and don't see a problem.

FWIW3

[selil]

Several universities utilize AIM for holding on-line office hours. In some cases it is professor preference, but in others there is a specified/required tool. Students who are not savvy computer users look for ease of use and AOL has the greater share of that market. If a student disappears from chat sessions that is one thing, but when this professor disappeared one week before finals it was not a happy time. Luckily us old Unix geeks wear a belt and suspenders and the odds of Yahoo and *Egads* MSN Messenger going down at the same time are minimal.

Re:Thank God For That!

[Anonymous Coward]

It actually does make sense.

If you intended to read news and ended up deleting all your files, then you mistakenly removed all your files by mistake.

If you intended to delete all your files on another machine and ended deleting all the files on your computer (because you were in the wrong terminal), you would have you mistakenly removed all your files on purpose.

The "It's a mistake" video by "Men at work" provides another example of an accidental mistake. The commander tried to butt out his cigarette in an ash tray but ended up launching the bomb. The "99 red balloons" video by Nina provides an example of a purposeful mistake. The 99 red ballons were assumed to be missles, so the retaliatory launch was intential but the reasons for the launch were mistaken.

The difference is subtle, but it does exist.

disgruntled

[spoonyfork]

Perhaps this is related to the recent layoffs at AOL?

Yahoo

[Kallahar]

Yahoo also did this a while back, I had an existing account (kallahar) but at some point it stopped working. No errors, no warnings, just "invalid username". I couldn't even recreate it or add a new number at the end.

Turns out they ban any username with the word "allah" in it, which my name coincidentally has.