We have been experiencing a recent surge in AOL users who aren't getting their validation emails, which means they can't validate and use their NG user accounts. While the idea of blocking AOL users from NG has always been tempting, we would like to leave that decision to us and not AOL.

It looks like AOL is filtering our emails as spam - which is complete bullshit. Blue Mountain (greeting cards) actually sued Microsoft (a competitor in the on-line greeting cards industry) a while back, because Microsoft had their software auto-delete Blue Mountain cards as spam. Think about how much that must have hurt their business, when everyone using Outlook stopped receiving greeting cards from Blue Mountain!

That is basically what AOL is doing to us - cutting off our ability to reach people with requested validation emails and "Tell a Friend" emails that help spread the word. It is really pissing me off. Could some AOL users help us figure out the exact problem? Is it a junkmail filter that can be disabled, or do you not even get a choice?

Perhaps NG will prosper from the sudden drought of AOL users, who are notorious for being the dumbest people on the web. No offense, AOL users... but your service sucks and you should switch before they go under. Not to mention they make you share your IP address with a gazillion other users, and it limits your ability to vote for stuff on NG and other sites that check IPs.

So there are two ways we can solve this - either get AOL to stop blacklisting us, or get everyone to stop using AOL. I would prefer both.

AOL.. so easy to use, no wonder everyone who uses it must be a dumbass!

Aol BlOWZ. Never had it. Im satisfied with my 2.5 Mbit upload and 3 mbit Download :-D

Well, we all know that AOL sucks, and they've sure done it now. I was once on AOL as a young boy of twelve and when i would try to load somehting big from NG it would take about ten minutes, I think more people need to make Flash about AOL sucking, I would.. but I'm not to good yet..

well I always hated AOL, coz there shit

Wow, I remeber when I had aol I got my email that let me use my NG account, but that was awhile ago. AOL is such a stupid thing man. people use it cuz they say it is easy and fun and they love hearing "You've got mail" I mean shut the fuck up. Now I know what some of you AOL users might say. "We can't get high speed net cause they don't have that in our area" that is fine just change to something else. like MSN or JUNO. When FDA came out with "ASSWARP" I read one review from a AOL user that said "This file is too big and takes to long to load" I think aol should be blocked from NG. Use juno it is only 10 bucks a month. Most of you can get ten bucks a month right?

Yea, Juno and NetZero have their new broadband service for something like around $15-$20 ... most people should be able to afford that too.

man I;m getting BB soon cost me like 70$ a month

At 5/7/03 09:20 AM, MissenLinx wrote: man I;m getting BB soon cost me like 70$ a month

What provider?!?

At 5/7/03 09:24 AM, Bon wrote:

At 5/7/03 09:20 AM, MissenLinx wrote: man I;m getting BB soon cost me like 70$ a month

What provider?!?

it has to be aol BB cause that is what I heard it costs. I only pay 40 bucks a month for cable modem.

well, whats the biggest software download on AOL?
The Access software?
If every NG user would download it a few times, i'll bet even AOL would have some traffic problems :-)

Of course this is just a theory, no one should do this, and NG is not responsible for this post :)

At 5/7/03 09:25 AM, RyoHahn wrote:

At 5/7/03 09:24 AM, Bon wrote:

At 5/7/03 09:20 AM, MissenLinx wrote: man I;m getting BB soon cost me like 70$ a month

What provider?!?

it has to be aol BB cause that is what I heard it costs. I only pay 40 bucks a month for cable modem.

Yea AOL charges a lot for not much.. I have Charter Pipeline and it came in a package, I get basic cable with HBO and pipeline silver, for about $50 a month.. i htink its fair. though I dont watch Tv.... it gives my mom somehting to do when shes not COOKING MY DINNER! lolz

IINET I think, BB is like just getting chpeaer around my area hey, it cost allot in AUSTRALIA

AOL sucks, but i've been having a problem. i tried making a new account, and i never recieved a validation email, and i know theres not block list from newgrounds cuz i still recieved an email from wade and one from liljim so far, so thats not it, i got a myownemail account. and just normal internet, so i dont know what the fuck is up.

Sometimes the confirmation e mail will come in the "Bulk" section in Yahoo! for those of you who always just empty the bulk look in there sometime..

No problems with Hotmail...although it's been quite a while since I recieved my validation. Eh. Just happy I'm not an AOL user.

AOL Is easy to use! Its also easy to catch a venerial disease!

Ok, seriously folks, i was with AOL for most of my yung life... every timei voted i was told a vote has already been submitted for this entry...

SWITCH TO SOMETHING ELSE!

AOL sucks.. haha.
tom. you could always sue AOL like that card company did to microsoft? lol.

Ok AOL users are desperate.I may have 56k but AOL is more like 11.0 barely.AOL has really done it now with this too.Well this 2 any AOL user right now.Get a different dial up modem now and listen 2 Tomp Fulp.

Get Hotmail, its more reliable than AOL.

Would be funny if everyone who uses AOL changed to another server. You would put em out of business( hopefully)

I guess you're right people, AOL real sucks. I hate saying that but it's real crap. Like a few people said, some programs cost less than AOL, and are WAY faster. Anyways, I would prefer paying less for better quality. They even cheated ! AOL says to people that may want to invest in it, they say that they have 2 millions members, for example, while they only have 200 000. They count each person that receives their damn free CD as a member, and not as "uncertainty"... However, some people had the birght idea of getting fun of their CDs, just like my friend Nick or Rob Lewis, known for the StickDeath site. Well, I'll end it HERE. ;)

no problems here... but then again I'm neither using AOL nor any other service that has been mentioned in some of the earlier replies.

I'd be curious to see what happens in a Newgrounds/AOL Deathmatch

At 5/7/03 10:23 AM, Malaguena wrote: I'd be curious to see what happens in a Newgrounds/AOL Deathmatch

It would be no contest... besides, Newgrounds isn't a ISP, AOL is.

However in Court, Tom and his group of lawyers would demostrate IN COURT with killer flash animations of how AOL is going to be pwned.

Jesus. That fucking sucks. Tom with all your money (insert laughter here) you should buy out AOL. What's their stock now? Like a two dollars a share?

At 5/7/03 09:17 AM, Bon wrote: Yea, Juno and NetZero have their new broadband service for something like around $15-$20 ... most people should be able to afford that too.

WRONG!!! I have Juno so I definately know about this. It is not broadband. It is a new technology that uses your current 56k line, and makes website loading faster. It does not increase the speed of images, video, music, or anything like that. That is why it only costs only 5 dollars more than regular Juno/Netzero subscription. I get Juno for 10 bucks a month. You have to be a dumbass to believe that broadband can ever get anywhere near the 15 dollar range this decade.

Sounds like an IP ban for the users of AOL :)

Maybe they hate Newgrounds *AOL = All the Origen of Lies.

At 5/7/03 10:42 AM, Mushroom_Clock wrote:

You have to be a dumbass to believe that broadband can ever get anywhere near the 15 dollar range this decade.

Not really. The cable connection I use is about 20 euros a month(20 bucks). In the US it's probably different, though...

At 5/7/03 09:05 AM, TomFulp wrote:

<<Could some AOL users help us figure out the exact problem? Is it a junkmail filter that can be disabled, or do you not even get a choice?>>

In short, Tom, it is not an option to the members. You can try and appeal AOL's decision to blacklist you, they are actually a very reasonable company (they just hire idiots to do tech support, something about equal opportunities for the mentally ill).
We have this 'great' new button that instantly reports a spam to AOL, and in their great efforts to please us (I think it's called desperation), they prolly blocked you for everyone just because a small group of people reported you, either intentionally or accidentally.

In more (and useless) detail...

The American service is now blocking 2 billion mail a day automatically, about 49 mails per US account per day, they say. As I write this, they claim to have blocked over 500 million 'spams' since midnight US Eastern Time this morning (there's actually a live counter in the 'security' section). There's no way for us to unblock those, we can only add more addresses and domains to a personal blacklist. If enough people asked them, they'd unblock NG, or allow us to toggle their whole bulk filter shit, I bet. They have really been doing all they can to please the customers lately. I think it's called "debt."

As for the IP Address thing, that's from people using the integrated AOL internal browser, which uses AOL's Proxy (ie3.proxy.aol.com). I don't use that shit unless I'm being paranoid and sneaky. I use the real MSIE externally, and my unique IP gets passed on.

I won't really get into AOL sucking (it used to really blow and crash often) or it being slow (I like my AOL DSL -- cheap and a megabit a second) or us all being idiots (everyone but me, perhaps?) ... but I will say I use AOL because I've tried everything around and the other ISPs seem so sterile and dull to me.
AOL's a great super-integrated product, with a strong user community. I feel it is worth the few extra bucks for dialup to get the savings on DSL and to log in _one_ time and be able to get all kinds of content and features near-instantly...and not a bunch of spam from the 50 websites I'd have to sign up at to match AOL's content.

Of course, they don't have a damn thing like NG. :)

If you don't like AOL, that's OK ... but we aren't all idiots here, just 99.99% of us. ;) When you have 2 billion (claimed) customers worldwide, that only leaves 200,000 with the ability to boast that they have Brain One or greater when it comes to anything. Of course, I'd say that out of everyone on earth, only 0.01% have Brain One or greater, anyway. :D

Hope that helps a bit, Tom. No one else seemed to have a damn thing constructive to say ... just want to talk shit based on something so lame as an ISP. Ooh, I'm so 1337, I'm on ATTBI! Hooray for Cable, never mind that I share my bandwidth with half my neighborhood, and when my neighbors become 1337 like me and join ATTBI, I'll lose all that precious bandwidth I'm so proud of...and whine to ATT about it. Without my bandwidth, I'd lose my main justification to be a dick online! I can't be reduced to reasonable connection speeds!

The irony of being called stupid by these people is self apparent for anyone with, dare I say it a third time, Brain One or greater.

Oh, one thing about AOL DSL that might suck for gamers -- the ping is indeed abysmal. If it is powered by SBC, why do SBC customers ping 10 - 20...but AOL customers ping 120 - 200? Methinks SBC reserves priority packet forwarding for customers foolish enough to pay them 2X the cost, and directly.
Perhaps AOL Cable powered by ATTBI would be better...until, of course, the rest of the neighborhood gets cable and you're sharing ten meg with everyone on the block.

~Rennegadde