I keep forgetting when blearily unable to sleep not to log into AIM. Especially AIM’s canned chat rooms. This is just a sad example of why the net has gone to hell.
A 2002-02-13 -0800
(00:47:25)godsgift4lady:hi
(00:47:38)lordandrei:hello
(00:48:05)godsgift4lady:hi
(00:48:08)godsgift4lady:asl
(00:48:11)godsgift4lady:please
(00:48:19)lordandrei:So, you didn’t actually bother to read my profile, then
Authors note: my AIM profile reads:
Before messaging me, you’d better read:
http://homepage.mac.com/life_magick/aim.html
(00:48:26)godsgift4lady:want 2 trade pics
(00:48:55)lordandrei:Well, try to prove you can actually read and we’ll go from there.
(00:52:43)godsgift4lady:ok sorry
(00:52:46)godsgift4lady:whats new
(00:53:10)lordandrei:Work has massively sucked of late. 110 hrs the last two weeks.
(00:53:41)godsgift4lady:i heard that
(00:53:59)godsgift4lady:would u like 2 trade pics with me ?
(00:54:05)lordandrei:tired of chat rooms. A bunch of HNG’s trying to top each other.
(00:54:15)godsgift4lady:what nationalty r u
(00:54:52)lordandrei:What nationality am I? I was in the L.A. chatroom. I’m local.
(00:55:03)godsgift4lady:o
(00:55:14)lordandrei:You?
(00:55:19)godsgift4lady:well would u like 2 trade
(00:55:28)lordandrei:Why do you want to trade?
(00:55:41)godsgift4lady:russian but born in chicago IL
(00:55:52)godsgift4lady:just 2 see what u look like
(00:56:11)godsgift4lady:i like 2 see who im taking 2 thats all
(00:56:25)lordandrei:Well, before I share…What do you think I look like…. Just a wild guess.. Anything?
(00:57:03)godsgift4lady:very sexy
(00:57:08)godsgift4lady:im i right
(00:57:26)lordandrei:And you know a sexy woman when you talk to her, yes?
(00:57:41)godsgift4lady:yes
(00:57:46)godsgift4lady:i think so
(00:57:59)lordandrei:Do you have any idea what the word “Lord” means?
(00:58:17)godsgift4lady:yes
(00:58:20)godsgift4lady:why
(00:58:22)lordandrei:What does it mean?
<godsgift4lady signed off (00:58:28)>
(00:57:59)lordandrei:Do you have any idea what the word “Lord” means?
heh.
Way back in the age of TinyMud and Broadcast I had the handle “Tristan Morgan,” to keep dumb-ass annoying guys from wanting cyber sex with me. It is sad to see that the net *has* gotten worse!
i believe the appropriate phrase here is “reduced barrier to entry”.
You just nicely outlined why I don’t accept chats from people I don’t know and why I no longer bother with any sort of online chatroom. My profile, in case you’re curious, reads something to the affect of “Happily married. Do not IM me if all you want is cybersex or photos.” It doesn’t deter them; I don’t think they CAN read.
Heh. Yeah, that’s pretty lame. It’s also a good example of why I’ve never done the chat-room thing, and why I require authorization before you can add me to your ICQ list. (Oh, and why I have never used “monica” as my user name.)
The net has gotten worse, but not quite as drastically as you might think. The net has always had its losers (used to be you could brace for them — September was always bad), and the barrier has gotten pretty low now (anyone who can type mommy’s credit-card number in can get online), but they’re still somewhat segregated, and so far the net has found ways to respond. I’ve noticed that over the last 5-6 years I’ve pretty much abandoned Usenet in favor of mailing lists, which you would think would be a step backward — but if those mailing lists require that you be a subscriber to post (which most do), then the list owner still has some degree of control. Mail filters of various sorts are becoming common. Here on LJ, we have permission lists and the ability to disallow unauthenticated comments — an issue that probably would not have come up 10 years ago. The web gives people a place to broadcast that isn’t necessarily in my mailbox or news stream or journal. I don’t like the fact that we have to keep finding ways to protect ourselves from losers, but at least we still can do so, to some extent.
When did people decide that the ‘net was a right and not a privlidge
I’ve been saying that the Internet in general dove into hell somewhere around the time that AOL made itself available. Then everyone and their Aunt Martha could have access to the net and began wasting bandwidth and sending around the same Urban Legends that they copied from the faxes that went around before there was email.
That being said, I have also liked the growth of the Internet, the Web specifically, because there is more information available on pretty much everything. I have been able to meet new people that share the same hobbies that I do, and to keep in touch with people that have moved away from me, without spending thousands on phone bills.
As far as your little chickie, didn’t the handle “godsgift” warn you that this person was an a**hole? She also did my least favourite thing, and that is replacing actual words with numbers/single letters. Yeah, takes less time, and tells me that you’re either Prince or a total idiot. Kick ass not suffering fools gladly.