talking heads

Well, today I asked journalseditor Joe for my Christmas present and he gave it to me. All I wanted was one of the executive heads to speak with the journalers, just give us an email address or phone number. We would make sure that they would hear what we had to say.

My wish was granted... This is directly copied out of Joe's journal "Magic Smoke"

Folks,

Joe has told you that the senior executives here at AOL have been listening to your opinions and comments about the addition of ads on AOL Journals. I'm stopping by Magic Smoke to let you know he's been straight with you on that point.

I'm not here to report that we're changing our strategy on the ads. The ads are staying for the foreseeable future. Advertising is an important part of how we make money, and we're not ashamed of that.

I'll admit we'd all love a “do-over” when it comes to how this was communicated. On that score, the best we can do now is to work harder at making sure big changes don't occur again without proper communication.

We've learned a lot in the last two weeks... so thank you for your comments here and in email. We've heard loud and clear that you are passionate about what you write about in your blogs. Some of you are convinced that the addition of ads destroys that experience. I am less certain of that. I can't reconcile it with the fact that we have wonderful, passionate communities thriving in ad-supported pages in message boards, Groups, Chat, Hometown, Email, AIM... really across the entire network both inside the paid service and out.

Just like you, we don't all see eye-to-eye on this internally. That's understandable. Since AOL Journals had no ads for so long, I can understand why some believed that they never would. Some of you have moved on because of this and that's understandable too. We're sorry this change has affected the way you feel about us. We thank you for the contribution you made while you were here. We will miss your words. We will miss your passion. If you've moved on to another blog provider, we hope you'll maintain the relationships you've made here. You'll always be welcome in J-Land no matter where you choose to blog.

We've also learned how important the J-Land community is to the majority of you who have elected to stay. You are important to this community and to us, and we appreciate the understanding and support that you've shown. A special thanks to all the folks who have thrown a virtual hug around Joe here at Magic Smoke and in email. Thank you for putting this bump in the road in your rearview mirror. We're excited about moving on as well.

I've asked the team to double down and speed up the delivery of some new features you've requested. They are eager to get to it. Some of my favorites that are coming before the end of the year:

Buddy List Rostering: instantly set your Buddy List as the "roster" for your private Journal - changes to your Buddy List will update the roster automatically.
Blog This: a new feature that allows easy creation of new journals and blog entries that link back to other posts.
Partner Ping: makes it easier for 3rd party indexers such as Feedster, Technorati, BlogPulse, PubSub, Google and others to receive updates to your Journals. This will make your blog easier to find.

Early in 2006, we're working on mobile blogging, online presence, skinning, shared journals and other features that you've mentioned in the past. We would love to hear from you about which of these features you think you'd use the most and why.

Thanks,

Bill Schreiner, VP AOL Community Programming.
Email me at: CommProgramming@aol.com, or leave your comments here.

Boy am I glad I was a good girl this year and got my wish of a talking Head.

Good ole Bill talks about how AOL wishes they could have a "do-over" but only about how the addition of the ads took place. Come on Bill, I'm an adult, there are no do-overs in this world. I am the only one responsible for my actions, no one else. This played out the way AOL wanted it to play out. Now, be an adult and accept responsibility for your actions. The manner in which the ad's showed up is only one part of the problem... If AOL had addressed the issue 2 weeks ago with the paying members of J-land, things could have been made better, easier to swallow, but to wait 2½ weeks and then continue with the same rhetoric, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Face it, AOL sucks bog water! AOL doesn't care about their subscribers. They don't care about their own integrity. They don't care about public opinion. The almighty dollar rules their heart and minds. Bill said it himself, ::Advertising is an important part of how we make money, and we're not ashamed of that.:: So we have advertisements in our blogs, in our email, on our home pages, in our IM's, in the chat rooms, and message boards, everywhere where there is 1 bit of space, AOL has slipped in an advertisement spamming its paid members, all the while touting to the public that AOL is hard on spammers. What a joke! Tomorrow is officially the end of my connection with AOL. They can slide down that slippery slope all they want to now, but at least I wont be in the sled with them.
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