AOL Journals and AOL Hometown Will Be Closed

By Joe on September 30, 2008

Another day of product sunsets in the world of AOL — AOL will be shutting down AOL Journals (personal blogs) and AOL Hometown (personal web pages) effective October 31, 2008. In an announcement via Official AOL Mail, AOL gave users about 30 days to back up their personal life before they flush it all down the Internet tubes.

AOL Journals: 10/31/2008, R.I.P
AOL Journals was AOL’s response to Google’s Blogger and Wordpress.com, and had some lofty goals of engaging users into sharing their ideas on the Web. Journals had it’s ups and downs and even though I’m not an AOL Journaler at heart, there are about 100,000 users who are. On the plus side, the Journals community bonded really well and frequently held their own memes around various topics such as philanthropy, pets and animals, photography and including their own blog awards.

Later once AOL saw the rapid growth of AOL Journals, what did they have to do? Throw a nice 768×90 pixel graphic banner ad on the Journal. This caused as mass churn effect throughout the Journals community. In response, business owner, Bill Schreiner, responded basically that AOL must profit from display advertising in order to fund Journals. (The actual entry is here, read it before it’s gone!)

After the mass exodus, the die-hard AOL Journals users stayed, even as official AOL-branded blogs abandoned the platform toward the likes of Blogsmith (a Weblogs Inc., product). (Hint: If a company abandons their own platform with no promise to get features up to par, it’s time to move on, too.)

Personally, I’m unaffected; but I know many who are and I empathize with how frustrating this can be. Soon Learn how you can back up all your Journals content using a free application. For me it takes about 30 minutes to back up a pretty large Journal.

Note to AOL: PLEASE provide users a way to export content into a WordPress XML file. Otherwise a number of AOL users will be hitting your servers with a ginormous amount of bot traffic in an effort to save their personal contents. Please, if not for yourselves, do it for the users who made AOL Journals a success.

Alternative blogs for AOL Users: Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal

AOL Hometown: 10/31/2008, R.I.P

Many on the Web wonder why AOL Journals has been kept this long. According to the Internet Archive, AOL Homedown has been around since 1998, a whole decade. According to Google, when searching their various subdomains, that amounts to 1,416,400 web pages authored by AOL users.

The interesting fact however is that many Journals users often hosted their images, video and audio through Hometown. So, you really can’t have one without the other when it comes to AOL Journals ~100K users.

The Hometown product hasn’t been updated in a very long time. I suspect the last update to it was in 2002; when they made the assets match their AOL 8.0 software counterpart. Users have complained because of the lack of features offered. One thing AOL did to (whether good or not) was to raise their quotas from 10MB to 100MB per screenname.

Alternative Web hosting for AOL Users: Weebly or Get a Free Domain and $5.95 Hosting at Dreamhost (use promocode DYGISCAPE)!

****

For reference, I’ve included the e-mail below. It’s legit, and all AOL Journals and Hometown users should be concerned if they have any content that they wish to save. Later, in a follow-up entry, I’ll demonstrate how you back up all your AOL Journals content. With regard to Hometown, you really can’t since they killed their FTP access; except using that god-awful AOL FDO form found at AOL Keyword: FTP.

Subject: AOL Journals is closing October 31, 2008
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 7:10:43 PM (EDT)
From: AOLMemberInfo <aolmemberinfo@dc.aol.com>
Reply-To: AOLMemberInfo <aolmemberinfo@dc.aol.com>
To: [Screenname]@aol.com

Dear AOL Journals user,

We’re sorry to inform you that on Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Journals will be shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

It’s very important that you save your Journals content before the shutdown. We’re working on a way to easily move your Journal to another blogging service — you can expect an email within the next week with more details about how to do it. We want the transition to go as smoothly as possible for you, so you’ll have two choices. You can either save your information manually and find another place to blog on your own, or choose to automatically transfer your Journal to a different blogging service we’ve selected.

In the meantime, please bookmark the People Connection Blog, where you can find out more about AOL Journals. You can also subscribe to the People Connection Blog RSS feed to stay informed about any changes. We’ll be updating the People Connection Blog often, so please check it regularly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we make this transition.

Sincerely,

The AOL Journals Team

What are you thoughts? Share your perspective in the comments below.

UPDATE: Posted how to backup/index your AOL Journal. Check it out and share with fellow J-Landers.

UPDATE II: AOL officially informed Journals users to migrate their contents to Blogger.

Posted in Blogging, Geeky, Tech News | Tagged aol, Blogging, business, consumer advocacy, internet, web

Cecilia

I used to write in a private AOL journal every now and then just to vent out personal frustrations and then I'd look back on it from time to time. Apparently that is all gone now. I didn't get a notice because I stopped checking my AOL email account ages ago. It's kind of sad that things have to change but such is life!

Isabeau10

@Joe

Joe,

I, too, was touched by what you did for Virginia (and the rest of us, via providing information). The stories involving memorial and grief recovery sites (and I've now read several of these) are the hardest.

I think AOL needs to go to the wizard and ask him for a heart.

Unfortunately, I think it is too late for me. I did not receive email notifications and just found everything gone a couple days ago. I've since downloaded and tried FileZilla and the wayback machine with no success. The redirects are still in place, and my site name loads on the top of the window, so it seems something is still "there."

Does anyone know if the files are still there? Maybe I'm making some mistake with the FTP, being new to it? I don't understand about ports, so either left the port field blank or searched with "21," as I read about others trying that (on boards like this one). I followed the other directions (and yours, Joe) and tried several variations also.

I've just submitted a request for archive.org to scan my journal site just to see if that was still possible. The URL is journals.aol.com/isabeau10/nocturnaldescriptions .

It's a dream journal, most entries were not backed up. This loss has been very difficult. I plan to write books about dreams and would like to have had those records.

If anyone has any suggestions or information, please post. Even if it's just to settle the matter of whether the files are definitely wiped yet or not.

Thanks to everyone who has offered help in this crisis.

x,
Isabeau

Joe O

@Ayesha

[Thank you Marah Marie for your comment :-) ]

Ayesha,

We didn’t hear back from you if you got your files okay. I just now checked your Hometown directory. You presently have 111 HTML pages in your top-level directory, along with just a few image files, but your IMAGE Sub-Directory has 175 images. This represents a lot of your time and work.

These are still available to you if you want them.

I hope you got them okay. Let us know please.

Joe O

Marah Marie

@Joe: What you did for Virginia - and what you did for all AOL Hometown users by letting them know AOL is still holding their files on FTP - is pure awesomeness. Kudos.

Joe O

@Ayesha

Hi Ayesha,

If you simply follow the directions on my site, you can save all your files (including images) easily.

http://www.taimantis.com/get-my-aol-files.html

The WayBack Machine is great, but often times does not have a recent copy and, as you stated, images are oftentimes not always available.

Good luck,

Joe O

Ayesha

Hi fellow and former AOL members,

I too am severely pissed off by what AOL did to us. I didn't get the email, I checked all the time. And for people like me whose work takes us out of town or the country for long periods of time, I am mortified at what I lost. It took me so much time to put together what I did. Like everyone else. AOL will suffer for this in loss of members at the very least. Kiss it goodbye, I hate to say, you watch.

At least there is a glimmer of hope. I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, I read most of the comments, but try the Way Back Machine. Google it. Type in your full previous AOL http address. It brings up our sites basically in tact but no graphics. At least the site itself is still around like this, so then either copy and paste your info into Word files and get yourself a better site, or if you know html, copy that and edit it to exclude AOL code. I can still click on all my links and bring up pages like I did them. Thats how I plan to retrieve my stuff. Those of you who lost graphics, I'm not sure if there's a way to retrieve those, maybe search the net for another type of retrieval engine.

Ayesha

Joe

Virginia,

Sorry it took so long but I had to spend a bit more time and dig a little deeper into the Internet. Your story of losing your only son touched me. And the indifference of AOL in giving you your saved memories and images bothered me even more.

I have your entire journal saved (images included). Since AOL has done a redirect, it’s not available for viewing. I have instead copied it to another location and rearranged it as a new webpage for you to view. You mentioned it was private, so I won’t give the link here. I did however read the beautiful poem you wrote “If Only”. What a nice tribute to Daryk.

I’ll only give the link to Joe Manna (who provides this wonderful site) to guarantee the privacy of your journal. Either that, or he will provide you with my email and I can send it to you.

This journal was private. Aside from the beautiful poem, I did not read it. I only saved it for you.

Yes Virginia..... there is a Santa Claus
:-)

Joe

Joe

@Joe

Thanks for your support and desire to help others with FTPing their files. Knowing how AOL operates, someone either secretly left it on or they will leave the server up for Read-access only. I anticipate a storm of executive escalations from loyal users the moment they shut it off. It's probably in AOL's best interest to leave it on through the end of the year.

I agree with your advice - get it now before it's gone. AOL is notorious for not going back on a poor decision, so all should be advised.

~Joe

Joe

Gail M Feldman :
i got the email warning me journals would be shut down. not a problem. i also got the one about you’ve got pictures. never touch the stuff. never got anything regarding hometown and had no clue until it was gone. suddenly everything vanished. they may have sent out email to some, but if they sent any to me it was lost in the shuffle, and all my stuff, mostly still stored on the computer that fried during last summer’s big lightning strike, is GONE.

i am in the process of migrating what remains over to photobucket for graphics and usapages for pages, but so much was just destroyed.

why couldn’t they have forgotten to tell me about journals and made sure i knew about hometown?

i am much aggrieved.

g

To all the folks who never trusted AOL, kudos to them. I've always believed that products like YGP/AOL Pictures just "run on their own" without human input. To much disbelief, AOL kills this rather inexpensive product that keeps many people loyal. It even kept me loyal to their photo service due to the unlimited nature of it. No worries, all my photos are hosted on either Flickr or Google Picasa Web.

It is frustrating, but at least we have some time left to access the photos. Let me know if you need any help migrating photos to another (reliable) photo service.

~Joe

Joe

Hi JD,

Glad I could help. So far, though AOL has made several lengthly visits to my page, FTP access is still available for those that want to save their files and images. I’ve had a few folks write to thank me. I hope word gets spread before FTP access changes. Since AOL was one of the first visitors to the page, it tells me that they are monitoring this blog.

----------

For Virginia,

I think AOL’s setup for Journal and Journal Imaging is (or was) different. It appears the WayBack Internet Archive didn’t crawl your site, at least there is no indication of it. Google’s cache info on your journal entries has only a few lines mentioning Daryk (is this your son?) and no images. It shows 85 entries beginning Mar 20, 2006 and ending Sept 17, 2008. Only a few lines of the first 5 or 6 entries are shown. You would think that under the tragic circumstance of losing your only son that AOL would make an exception.

I'm sorry I couldn't help you further.

----------
All,

Might be a good idea to spread the word before FTP access changes.

Joe

JD

Thanks for the help Joe, FTP access is still available as of this writing.

Joe

@Virginia
Hi Virginia,

The method I provide works if you have any files stored in your top-level directory. Users who had built webpages had 2 megs of space per username, and there were 7 usernames per account. Many folks weren't aware of that and just used the one space, if they used it at all. Your directory (user vabush2) doesn't show any files (image/text/html) being stored.

It's been many years since I was with AOL and I never used their journal. Do you have a bookmark showing the URL address to the journal you can provide me? If so, I can look around and maybe come up with something.

At least I can try.

Joe

Gail M Feldman

i got the email warning me journals would be shut down. not a problem. i also got the one about you've got pictures. never touch the stuff. never got anything regarding hometown and had no clue until it was gone. suddenly everything vanished. they may have sent out email to some, but if they sent any to me it was lost in the shuffle, and all my stuff, mostly still stored on the computer that fried during last summer's big lightning strike, is GONE.

i am in the process of migrating what remains over to photobucket for graphics and usapages for pages, but so much was just destroyed.

why couldn't they have forgotten to tell me about journals and made sure i knew about hometown?

i am much aggrieved.

g

Virginia

I used the instructions Joe provided at

http://www.taimantis.com/get-my-aol-files.html

It worked except, of course, I had my journal set to Private so I can't dowload that file. Does anybody know what I can do to access/copy that private file? Below is a link to the screen capture of what I'm seeing when I access via FTP:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/virginiab...

Thank You,
Virginia

Jim

Would AOL care to share any method of accessing the files? A friend and colleague has asked if I can retrieve his files. Please RSVP to the email address jimscott at alum dot rit dot edu. Thank you kindly.

Virginia

Joe,

Are you saying that I can access my journal photos and writings? My heart is a-flutter with hope... Here's my AOL story:

I am devastated. Words can not express what I’m feeling with regards to AOL shutting down Hometown without, what I feel, is enough time and notice. I only used AOL for their journal service. I paid for the full-service ($14.95) because I wanted to keep the journal I’d set-up. I’ve been a customer since April 2001. I went online today to write in my journal and found that the service was shutdown. My heart sunk.

My 18-year old son, my only child, passed away on February 4, 2006. I created the journal site to share memories of him with family and friends and for them to do the same. If AOL doesn’t help me I will never get these memories back.

I know I am stupid for not backing up these memories in some way. I truly believe that it was unfair of AOL to only provide 30 days notice, especially when they have users like me that do not use AOL as their primary email. Why would I since AOL does not provide true high-speed internet connectivity? I use my high-speed ISP (Comcast cable) for my email. I’ve been a loyal customer to AOL for more than 7 years. They should have done something more than the supposed 30-day notice, which supposedly included sending two emails (although they're not in my inbox), to alert their customers for something as serious as discontinuing the journal service.

I have two and a half years of memories and entries on my healing and grieving process after the loss of my son. I wanted to share these memories later in life with my son whom I have since given birth, who will never know his brother. I will do the best I can to recreate but it won’t be the same and I won’t remember everything.

I chatted with an AOL representative after discovering this tragedy. Of course they were of no help and said there was nothing she could do. I asked if she would at least share my need with her supervisor. She said she would follow her protocol and it would be directed to the right party. I feel like it will be in a large stack of complaints that will never even be seen, given that AOL has many unhappy customers.

I pray that AOL will receive enough complaints to matter; and that they will open the service back up for a period of time. I don’t believe that they will, but praying is all that I can do at this point.

I am devastated.

Joe, I hope what you've posted can help me get to my journal entries... I'm going to try. Thank you!

@Joe

Joe

@Joe
UPDATE

There is so much negative press on AOL. Blogs are filled with complaints, especially now. I have to say one good thing about them, they were great in the beginning, very user friendly. When I left, they didn't delete the many files and pages I had, they instead left them available for viewing, but with limited access. So in reality, my page hosting has been free all these years. Can't complain about that. :-)

I noticed that my first visitor to the link I provided above was America Online themselves, they spent 4 hours. Almost a week later the limited access to the server still exists. If they wanted to, they could have changed that, so they are not all that bad. Better get your files while the getting is good.

Joe

Tony Casillo

Like most everyone else here, I had my web site on AOL Hometown too. Mine was on since May, 1996. I’ve been a paying member since 1995. When AOL went free, I continued to pay. I thought that, since I was receiving a derived benefit from my website being hosted on AOL, it was only fair that I should put something back into the pot. Stupid ME!!!! Well, I did get the AOL email notifying me about the shutdown and I retrieved my files before the power went off. But the search engine positioning & links to the site are gone forever. My new URL is http://www.typewriterdepot.com and is hosted by a more reliable company than AOL. I will start all over again.

My parting comments to the AOL staff that made this decision are, how dumb can you get? Why walk away from this business when you can charge for the service? Or sell it if you don’t want it. Are you in some sort of self-destruct mode? Are you actually getting paid to make these decisions? I am sure that folks would have paid for this valuable service. It’s no surprise to me that AOL is in the pickle it’s in these days. THIS WAS THE DUMBEST DECISION I’VE SEEN MADE IN A LONG TIME. I don’t know who’s steering this ship but it’s sad.
Amen.

Joe

I dumped AOL about 5 years ago, was surprised pages and images remained so long. I noticed only yesterday those pages (about 60) and their images are on longer accessible for viewing. Luckily I removed them safely when I left AOL. Now I read all the sad stories of people that have lost so much and I know how heartbreaking it can be after putting so much work into a page. The AOL Hometown blog if full of such stories and AOL is not answering any direct questions.

As of today, Nov 12th, 2008, nothing is lost. Though the pages and images seem gone, they are still there and available to download, only with FTP though. I built a quick page that shows how to connect via FTP and save them. Pages and images I had over 10 years ago are still there. There are no admin priviladges, only download is available. Here's the link.

http://www.taimantis.com/get-my-aol-files.html

My concern is that it too will soon disappear, in which case they will indeed be gone forever. The Internet WayBack Machine site is good for emergency purpose, but often times a site may not have been crawled and archived.

At least check out the site listed here, you've go nothing to lose.

Good luck,

Joe

Raj

AOL will be shutting Down..lol..They dont no about INTERNET MARKETING

Joe

@Jim -- Easy Designer was a web-based page builder. It is the ugliest editor for building pages and no it's not available to download.

Instead, check out Weebly or use an easy-to-use WYSIWYG editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver.

Stay far away from Frontpage, no matter what you do.

~Joe

Jim

I need a little clarification. Hometown uses easyDesigner to construct the web pages. If I transfer my web pages to another site do I need easyDesigner to display the pages or is it only necessary to build or edit the web pages? Is easyDesigner an AOL product or can it be purchased somewhere else? Where? Thanks

Joe

@amy -- AOL Hometown is the classic "members.aol.com" Web space. However, I think AOL just e-mailed all members.

It would be better if they just compiled a list of users who have ANY files uploaded and just send an e-mail to those folks.

I understand there are probably some Web sites out there which are pretty cool; but honestly, there was zero activity on it.

Personally, I think Hometown should have been put out of its misery ages ago -- BUT, do so after attempting to make it a better product. For that, AOL did not do, so it's shameful it's getting dumped along with ~30 other services.

~Joe

amy

Us members.aol.com website folks (before Hometown) didn't even get an email. I guess that was reserved for hometown folks. I only found out when a friend told me. I'm scrambling to move a huge site that's been online for years. We pay way more than 9.99 or whatever, it's what we signed up at years ago. The whole situation sucks. There are so many neat websites on members.aol.com that will just blink out, and the owners prob. don't know just like I did....

Tim

I've been with AOL since 1995, and never complained about the monthly. My students could access all of my course materials via ftp and a browser from anyplace on earth, now I'm looking at hosting elsewhere. AOL continues to amaze me -- how fast can you dilute a name/franchise?

Carolyn

Ok - I got the email (is why I'm here reading this today)- but I don't even remember having a Journal. How do I find out? -- I too have been with AOL since 1994 - nearly a charter member. I used to pay over $300/month (remember when we paid by the minutes used?) -- I have kept AOL all these years because it has what no other ISP has- and that is the community feel, (as has been mentioned), and the Software and Features it has have always been better than what others do. Sure some are outdated - which is actually a GOOD thing. "New" does not always equate with "Better". My husband,(Computer Clueless), has figured out ways to use the Application based email as a better Photo-shop style program than many new, expensive graphics programs. If AOL goes away, I can't say I'd miss Support as they've always been pretty awful, but it will change how millions see the Internet and Email. The flat aol.com will become extinct - as it's no better than all the rest out there. It's the Application that we paid for and I agree, would pay for again to keep it.

C Conley

I'm glad to see my aol site go. It's been embarrassingly out of date since we left aol years ago, and I was never able to get in and remove it. Now it'll stop showing up in google.

Joe

Harold,

I don't think Yahoo offers free Web space... but I think demonstrating to AOL that you will not stand for the constant abuse of their power will get the message across.

As lame as it sounds, boycotting AOL is effective. AOL will only generate revenue if users land on their pages and result in "page views." These page views are how AOL calculates the cost for the advertiser, who ultimately is their bottom line. No page views, no revenue. It's simple as that.

Best of luck on discovering the marvels of the Internet. Feel free to check out my free AOL Alternatives on my blog. (Yes, I need to clean it up, but worth bookmarking.)

~Joe

Joe

Brenda,

I can definitely say my former AOL Community team *was* accountable and responsible in communicating with AOL users. In addition to providing relatively higher customer service than the rest of the company, we also had regulatory compliance in order to meet the industry guidelines and best practices in handling abuse from users.

... I don't need to debate that with you. I dare you to find anyone at Yahoo, Google or MSN that you can write to in an e-mail who would actually read, respond and act on your message. The answer is no one will. I can confirm that when my team was there, we did. Period.

And yes, AOL staff does read my blog -- at least their corporate communications team. I get plenty of traffic from AOL's WAN, which indicates that employees still read it. That doesn't mean that they will necessarily act on it, but like anyone, I am allowed to share my personal thoughts on the matter.

(Besides, I at least warned them they will be receiving the equivalent of a DDoS attack from AOL users if they don't offer an export function.)

Brenda, please don't misunderstand me -- I'm not in any way defending the practices of AOL or any of their epic failures. I'm pointing out that our team treated members fairly and was open to feedback and would actually discuss the matter.

Comparing then to now; We didn't post the same Corp Comm release sent in e-mail on the blog. We actually did interact in comments and we actually did try to put fires out that erupted.

Thanks for your comment. Sorry if it came off defensive, I'd like to make sure folks have the facts.

~Joe

Harold

I've been with AOL since 1994
just for my websites. Now I will close my account and sign up with yahoo....
I know of folks who have passed away and left their websites for all to see....
AOL is making a big mistake, or their going out of business

Brenda

"the product managers of Hometown and Journals — LONG GONE. They bailed themselves out and moved to greener pastures before the company noticed their horrible performance. Zero accountability! Another day at AOL." Similar to many other departments at AOL, including CoMET/mishmashMESH.

: - ))))))))

In your "Note to AOL" -- do you really think AOL is reading your blog?

Tom Robinson

I have content at AOL Hometown, music related web pages, and its not just that AOL couldn't be bothered to keep the hosting (I'm paying more than $9.95), not that they could give decent notice (they haven't e-mailed me yet), not that they couldn't give reasonable lead time, and certainly not that they have so little disregard for me.

Because I can re-host the pages, but what will take time is the hundreds of sites that I am linked with, and contacting those folks will take time. Thank God, I don't have a page for a business on AOL.

However, I do reviews for and feature CDs and books and get promo copies as a result, and it isn't fair for me or those I help promote.

I liked AOL back when Steve Case was at the helm, but the corporate types running it now are something else.

Tom Robinson, Byrds Online (BOAS)

Jo Singer

I have been an aol subscriber since 1994. That is a LONG time. AOL was famous for building community, which is why I chose the service over many other providers.

It saddens me greatly that journals and Hometown Web pages are being forced to bite the dust. The community among J land folks was an awesome way to meet folks with similar interests, and sharing experiences, and very intimate parts of their lives.

While we will survive this loss and move on to other programs, this is a real "kick in the pants" for loyal subscribers and appears like a total lack of interest in them on AOL's part.

Thanks for all you do, Joe.

Jo Singer

Wally

Ive used AOL HOMETOWN for my Web Page for my Internet Radio Station DICEMAN OLDIES for many years and have had Web pages since 1997. Id of gladly paid an extra 5.00 a month for the service but again AOL flubbs up a moneymaker and now 0catch.com gets my money 5.95 a month for add free ftp space. It took me 5 min to transfer both Web Pages to my new FTP space now to the business card shop to change my cards for 35.00 for a thousand cards and Im back in business. As we say in the Radio business it takes 30 seconds to loose customers and 30 days to get them back. Unfortunately for AOL their is no return because there is no service!
Is AOL executives keep making these great decisions they will be right there with FANNY MAE and FREDDY MAC Finacially ruined LOL

Wally (The DICEMAN) of DICEMAN OLDIES RADIO

Wally

Ive been using AOL Hometown for my FTP space for my Internet Radio Web Page since 1997. It took me 5 min to cut and paste my web pages to my new site at 0catch.com I just wrote out all of the AOL text out of my pages. AOL is again making stupid decissions Id of gladly let them charge me an extra $5.00 a month for the FTP space so 0catch now gets my money LOL. By the way they have a free hosting plan but you have to deal with ad banners the 5.95 is for a clean ftp space (No Adds) Ive been with AOL since the beginning when I changed From PRODIGY <-- remember them ? In todays World one has to go with the ISP that provide them with SERVICE all I need them for now is an E-MAIL client. AOL Im afraid will go down with PRODIGY as having it all but mismanagement will tag them with the name LOOSER...

Wally (The DICEMAN) of Diceman Oldies Radio

Joe

Caprissa,

I agree with what you said to some degree. The problem is that half the company is based off of subscription revenue (aka, that $9.95), and the other half of the company is based on advertising.

So instead of making the [right] decision to offer a premium ad-free option; they just offer abhorrent customer support, ad-laden Web pages and upset users when they shut products down.

Their scythe hurts more than their users, it's also their brand and reputation.

I suggest users arm themselves against further issues from AOL by taking a stand and migrating over to GMail or Yahoo. AOL just is too risky to hold your information when they can arbitrarily choose to shut something down only because they couldn't monetize it.

... Oh yeah, and the product managers of Hometown and Journals -- LONG GONE. They bailed themselves out and moved to greener pastures before the company noticed their horrible performance. Zero accountability! Another day at AOL.

~Joe

Joe

Richard,

If you don't have a Web site (e.g., "Hometown" or "members.aol.com"), you won't lose anything. If you don't have an AOL Journal (blog), then you won't lose anything either.

However, look at the big picture -- AOL is dismantling and falling apart. I suggest you take your e-mail elsewhere before they take that away.

Already, AOL has killed (or soon will) AOL Pictures, X-Drive, BlueString, Journals, Hometown. That's not good, especially for a company that worked so hard to build up those products.

~Joe

Caprissa

Let face it.

AOL is shutting down or trying to sell very service they have. It was a mistake for AOL to stop charging a monthly fee. $9.95 a month is affordable by every user.

Now other than advertisments, they have no income at all.

Getting rid of Hometown is going to be the last kiss of death.

This is only the middle of the end. I figure some time around May or June 2009, AOL will annouce it is shutting down completely.

AOL, here is some advice:

1)Get rid of the Indians. Their support is worthless.

2)Charge at least a minor fee for your special services like Chat Rooms and Websites.

3) Stop taiking AOL apart piece by piece. Either do it right or just go ahead and shut down.

richard mcvicker

i do not have a website,but if i do nothing what will i lose?i don't even know what aol journal is and what pages are kept in it.will i still have an email and favorite place where i do keep a lot things i want to go to,can you help me on this?

Mark Agius

I have used AOL to upload some web pages since 1997. If AOL remove this feature then they will lose a lot of customers who want this function.
Also as they will no longer supply us this this service they should reduce the cost by at least a third as they will only support e-mail and viewing web pages.
Any web based business that uses AOL will go out of business unless they upload a new web site now.
This means that they will still lose customers as they will have a new web address.

AOL Journals and AOL Hometown Will Be Closed

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