Will AOL's take over of Propeller Finish up Sinking it? »
Posted By gamahuche 1 year, 4 months ago in Science & TechnologyAOL is apparently telling some of news blogs under its wing to cut back on posts in order to trim down its budgets. The sites that are impacted by the move fall under AOL's Weblogs division and include DownloadSquad , Diylife.com , and The Unofficial Apple Weblog . All have been asked to stop posting content until July 31, according to paidContent.org .
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gamahuche
"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...
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gamahuche1 year, 4 months ago
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Is the ship sinking, even as we continue to play?
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A virtual ship doesn't need lifeboats but it still needs a captain who is willing to enlighten the passengers of their prospects of survival.
To me the auguries don't look good, especially since the "promises" that were made have not been kept, and taking into account the way that AOL seems to be treating its other blog sites.
I'd be delighted, on this issue, to be proved mistaken. -
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gamahuche1 year, 4 months ago
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The takeover by aol was already a long time ago, when aol acquired netscape and propeller was a part of that package.
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It led to a lot of "bumpiness" on the site and for a long time it was working very badly and creating massive frustration for members.
At that time there was a lot of discussion between the "management" and the members and we were promised marvellous changes that would delight us all.. This new version represents those changes.
HOWEVER the joker in the pack is that in other blogging areas where aol is functioning they have been demanding that the blogs be "shrunk" - the amount of posting diminished.
Hence the question of what aol's commitment will be to propeller and what response in particular if the natives remain as restless as they have been this week. As someone who has been very disappointed with most of the changes - and massively underwhelmed especially by the format and the aesthetics I have a feeling that we have little clout as members and face a "love-it-or-leave-it" response from an organisation which is already applying cuts in other blogging space. -
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gamahuche1 year, 4 months ago
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I try not to be a mind-reader but aol has done some serious squandering of internet assets.
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netscape was left to die and buggy explorer ruled virtually unchallenged till foxfire appeared.
Serious promises were made that if we were patient we would love the "new" propeller..
I sincerely nope that I'm wrong but I wouldn't like to bet that this is going to get a whole lot better than what we've got now, which is clearly a bigger mess than propeller was BEFORE the bugs crept in.
Which doesn't mean that I'm ready to give up yet! -
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tchef1 year, 4 months ago
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Well my observation over the last couple of day is that the content has definately gone down. The same stories have been on top for 2 days now with little or no movement on them. You can't track your comments anymore without going through all the comments made on a story so you can't keep up with who's replying to you and reply in kind. That cuts down a lot.
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CORVIDIVS1 year, 4 months ago
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I have always felt that aol and the likes are beholden to special interests that needn't encourage too too much protest,so going on the cheap wouldn't be a biggie for them.Why spend money on such a thing as making political blogging attractive unless guaranteed lauding of this or that power bloc is part of the package...
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gamahuche1 year, 4 months ago
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Its not about TIME PHB, its about business - and aol has not exactly been making the internet running durung the last few years..
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I actually NOTICE when an aol e-address pops up[ in my mailbox these days. They used to be the predominant players in the market. Also the fact that aol took over netscape 5 years ago is also neither here nor there on terms of relevance to the issue. They did absolutely nothing with it is the issue.
I fear that they will put very little effort into propeller either based on what we have seen so far.
And believe me it makes me MUCH more sad than angry! Living in a land where we speak a language that is totally impenetrable for outsiders my English language communication and making of virtual friends is tremendously valuable to me. That's why I'm still here and will continue to be - even if it means fighting every inch of the way - as long as there is hope!
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drpolyphemus1 year, 4 months ago
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The loss of a rating system means we can't SINK anything anymore. This also means that any story that infuriates people and causes feedback will climb to the top. Propellor had interesting stories and insightful comments. Now it is looking more like a show run by Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern.
Propellor is now crap. Bring the old Propellor back!
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Poulenc1 year, 4 months ago
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If AOL intends to treat Propeller with benign neglect, let's call it, why the obvious cash investment in this total (very shaky) re-do?
Must have cost--and will continue to cost--a fat penny to wipe the slate clean start from scratch.
Though I'm no fan of the new design, one needs to let things shake down a bit before storming the barricades.
As for AOL's conserv political bent --well, one need only go to AOL.com and check out the slant on the news items posted there, including the way their "polls" are framed. ( I'm putting aside their bread-and-butter items, which always seem to involve celebrity "baby bumps.")
Here is mass-marketing at its mass-iest.
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Spadecaller1 year, 4 months ago
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The investment was made to increase automation and reduce the need of human involvment; while sacrificing function and performance, there will be less expense required to maintain the site. With the increased isolation among its members, there will also be less controversey and need for intervention. The bottom line is that this was a calculated change sold to us as an upgrade, which it is not. It is an upgrade for the RAndy FAlco's pocket. PERIOD,
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mmrhe1 year, 4 months ago
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The question I have is will they react to the obvious complaints or not? For example, everyone is complaining they can't track their comments or follow who voted for them so I'd expect that to be addressed pretty quickly IF they give a care....
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david_nwpa1 year, 4 months ago
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I tried to be fair about reading the articles and enjoying the new version of the site. I have been around here for over 2 years now, and by standards on this site, that is a long time. I am not thrilled yet with the experience, and I have no idea where to post the stories I want to upload. We had too few choices for categories before, and now we have even fewer. I will try to let it grow on me a while, but first impressions are not as good as they could be.
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SonOfTheMask1 year, 4 months ago
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Hi david. For posting stories, click on the "Submit" tab at the top of the page, just under the Propeller logo. Or, to the right at the top, there's a little section that asks "Got a Story?". Copy/paste the url of your story in there a click Submit.
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Poulenc1 year, 4 months ago
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mmrhe, I've "spoken" with a few Propeller Powers That Be, and I'm informed that the tracking comments thing--as opposed to the current Activity entries--will be back. Not sure that this will include the who voted for same or against.
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gamahuche1 year, 4 months ago
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Who the heck do we contact now when things go wrong?!
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This story keeps showing different number of posts 59 or 21, different ratings and different times of posting - switching back and forth from one to the other.
When the number of posts drops they ARE physically absent..-
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BLO2L1 year, 4 months ago
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I have never been a fan of aol. I equate them to a pusher. My first opservations came from friends. When they got a new computer they got an offer from aol. You had to give them your credit card info and then you were hooked. My one friend was double charged and then was only allowed to take additional months of service instead of a refund. I have tried to enter web addresses on computeres served by aol only to be told that address doesn't exsist. "You have reached the end of the internet" I guess they are trying tro keep the internet in its cage. I have even tried to open trust serve on netscape and it no longer can be found either. I'm really dissapointed with this change. But it seems like business as usual with aol. News presented by Elmer Fud. That's all folks.
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