Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

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Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Randaconda posted:

Are you serious?

Unfortunately yes

What's interesting to me is that they've pretty much held steady in that 2.1 million number for at least a while. I guess if you still need dial up, you still need dial up and nothing's changed to stop that; discontinuing analog cell phone service certainly didn't help since it's very difficult for digital to cover as many places as analog did (at least not without spending a lot of money)

Unsurprisingly the dial up experience is pretty bad.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 20:22

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 22:38

ToxicSlurpee: Nov 5, 2003; -=SEND HELP=-; Pillbug

There are places in America that nobody has wired for any high speed internet at all. This is part of why the telecoms don't want internet to be a utility like phones are. The gigantic and often monopolistic ma bell very much didn't want to wire everybody up for phones as some places were not or barely profitable. Some reallyv remote places actually lost money. It took the government stepping in and saying "gently caress you, everybody gets phones" for that to change. Now phones are a utility and there are arguments the internet should be too.

If you have access to a phone you can get dial-up. Basically everybody in America can get a land line so it still works.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 20:33

Randaconda: Jul 3, 2014; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Rick posted:

Unfortunately yes

What's interesting to me is that they've pretty much held steady in that 2.1 million number for at least a while. I guess if you still need dial up, you still need dial up and nothing's changed to stop that; discontinuing analog cell phone service certainly didn't help since it's very difficult for digital to cover as many places as analog did (at least not without spending a lot of money)

Unsurprisingly the dial up experience is pretty bad.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 20:33

Xlorp: Jan 23, 2008

Rick posted:

Apparently AOL still has a healthy dial up business.

That has got to be more than autopiloting charges to as-yet uncancelled credit cards.

There are still active AOL accounts?

# ? Dec 11, 2018 21:33

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

ToxicSlurpee posted:

There are places in America that nobody has wired for any high speed internet at all. This is part of why the telecoms don't want internet to be a utility like phones are. The gigantic and often monopolistic ma bell very much didn't want to wire everybody up for phones as some places were not or barely profitable. Some reallyv remote places actually lost money. It took the government stepping in and saying "gently caress you, everybody gets phones" for that to change. Now phones are a utility and there are arguments the internet should be too.

If you have access to a phone you can get dial-up. Basically everybody in America can get a land line so it still works.

That makes a lot of sense, knew those people were cut off from "high speed" internet when analog callular went away (if you can call analog internet high speed)., even some of the most remote places I drive usually have telephone poles.

And yeah, Internet should be a utility.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 21:58

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

I think earlier this year AOL started charging if you wanted the standard desktop experience like they always had. Except for awhile it was free.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 22:13

Pope Corky the IX: Dec 18, 2006; What are you looking at?

I work for an international non-profit charity, so I'm privy to the contact information for a lot of people. Trust me when I say that plenty of people over the age of 50 still use AOL email addresses. poo poo, I've even seen a few Hotmails.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 23:21

Detective No. 27: Jun 7, 2006

I have a friend turning 30 this month and he still has an AOL email address.

# ? Dec 11, 2018 23:59

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

Detective No. 27 posted:

I have a friend turning 30 this month and he still has an AOL email address.

I have one that I keep as a backup email

# ? Dec 12, 2018 01:54

JnnyThndrs: May 29, 2001; HERE ARE THE FUCKING TOWELS

I use mine just to be contrary, plus I�ve had it since 1993, it�s a classic!

# ? Dec 12, 2018 04:14

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Pope Corky the IX posted:

I work for an international non-profit charity, so I'm privy to the contact information for a lot of people. Trust me when I say that plenty of people over the age of 50 still use AOL email addresses. poo poo, I've even seen a few Hotmails.

You can pry my Hotmail address from my cold, dead hands!

# ? Dec 12, 2018 05:14

Greatbacon: Apr 9, 2012; by Pragmatica

Detective No. 27 posted:

I have a friend turning 30 this month and he still has an AOL email address.

The person at my company that does payroll has an aol address. I'm pretty sure they're in their early 30s.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 07:57

90s Solo Cup: Feb 22, 2011; To understand the cup
He must become the cup

HisMajestyBOB posted:

You can pry my Hotmail address from my cold, dead hands!

Only had mine since 05, but :same:

# ? Dec 12, 2018 12:50

RandomPauI: Nov 24, 2006; Grimey Drawer

I made a Hotmail account to make it sound like an older account than it really was because v0v

# ? Dec 12, 2018 14:02

Iron Crowned: May 6, 2003; by Hand Knit

Balliver Shagnasty posted:

Only had mine since 05, but

Get on my level, I've had mine since like 1996, pre-Microsoft baby.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 14:03

ryonguy: Jun 27, 2013

I know a dude with a Prodigy account.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 16:54

Iron Crowned: May 6, 2003; by Hand Knit

ryonguy posted:

I know a dude with a Prodigy account.

Prodigy is a name I haven't heard in a very long time. I used to spend so much time playing Mad Maze

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:00

Sir Lemming: Jan 27, 2009; It's a piece of JUNK!

Hotmail sticks around because Microsoft absorbed it without making people change their address. Actually didn't Apple kind of do the same thing with AOL? I vaguely remember logging into iTunes with my AIM name or something...

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:05

vyst: Aug 25, 2009

Prodigy was my first ISP. Man

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:13

Neon Noodle: Nov 11, 2016; there's nothing wrong here in montana

I miss Sierra Online

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:14

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Sir Lemming posted:

Hotmail sticks around because Microsoft absorbed it without making people change their address. Actually didn't Apple kind of do the same thing with AOL? I vaguely remember logging into iTunes with my AIM name or something...

You can make any email address your Apple-ID and sign into Apple stuff with it, but, yeah at some point if you had a valid AOL account you didn't need to turn it to an Apple-ID at all.

RIP my free songs from that summer where Pepsi gave out a bunch of itunes songs.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:15

Cat Ass Trophy: Jul 24, 2007; I can do twice the work in half the time

I always had a grudge against hotmail. Before Microsoft acquired it in the late 90's, the only thing that came from them was porn spam.

Up until a few years ago, I had a Netscape email address, but Aol changed changed the period of inactivity clause from 6 months to 3 months, declared my account dormant, and converted it to an Aol account. I'm still pissed about that. Don't even remember the name of the Aol account they made for me. For all I know, I am still missing out on Nigerian prince wealth and dick pill ads.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:20

SubNat: Nov 27, 2008

I've always had a soft spot for Hotmail.
Because when I went to elementary and people started making email + msn accounts, a lot of people kept accidentally going to hotmale instead and were incredibly annoyed because they though people were playing a prank on them.
:allears:

Apparently nowadays it just links to a website with a smileyface on it and nothing else, so I guess someone's domain-squatting it.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 17:29

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

Rick posted:

RIP my free songs from that summer where Pepsi gave out a bunch of itunes songs.

I won an iPod Mini with those Pepsi codes.

If you tilted the bottle just so, you could read whether it had a code or not.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 21:07

ChickenOfTomorrow: Nov 11, 2012; god damn it, you've got to be kind

I still have and listen to a bunch of songs I got by tipping the diet pepsi bottles just so in order to pick out one with a code.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 22:20

BigDave: Jul 14, 2009; Taste the High Country

Everytime I tried to redeem a Pepsi code it would say the code had already been redeemed.

YOU ALL SUCK. :mad:

# ? Dec 12, 2018 22:51

bobjr: Oct 16, 2012; Roose is loose.
🐓🐓🐓✊🪧

There was the time Pepsi offered a plane if you got a ridiculous amount of codes, so one guy actually did and they told him to suck it, he�s not getting a plane.

So he took them to court and lost if I remember it right

# ? Dec 12, 2018 22:54

Pope Corky the IX: Dec 18, 2006; What are you looking at?

bobjr posted:

There was the time Pepsi offered a plane if you got a ridiculous amount of codes, so one guy actually did and they told him to suck it, he�s not getting a plane.

So he took them to court and lost if I remember it right

No, it was dismissed, and Pepsi took the hint that they better include some more fine print, especially if they're making a joke like that.

# ? Dec 12, 2018 22:59

Resident Idiot: May 11, 2007; Maxine13; Grimey Drawer

bobjr posted:

There was the time Pepsi offered a plane if you got a ridiculous amount of codes, so one guy actually did and they told him to suck it, he’s not getting a plane.

So he took them to court and lost if I remember it right

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc.

It's weird seeing websites from 2002 talking about this case, using phrases like "way back when".

# ? Dec 12, 2018 23:20

GodDamnArtist: Oct 11, 2002; Creating disasters and running away from them since 1981.

Resident Idiot posted:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc.

It's weird seeing websites from 2002 talking about this case, using phrases like "way back when".

My wife just took a course on contract law, and this case was used as a good example of an invalid contract. I vaguely remember the commercial, and even when I was a kid I knew it was an obvious joke.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 00:38

djssniper: Jan 10, 2003

GodDamnArtist posted:

My wife just took a course on contract law, and this case was used as a good example of an invalid contract. I vaguely remember the commercial, and even when I was a kid I knew it was an obvious joke.

Real version of where promotions go wrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion#Result

# ? Dec 13, 2018 01:18

Adeline Weishaupt: Oct 16, 2013; by Lowtax

That guy who sued Pepsi wasn't expecting to get a Fighter Jet; he noticed that the cost of the Pepsi that was required to get the code was much lower than the actual cost of the fighter jet. And also noticed that there wasn't any kind of fine print saying that the jet wasn't an actual prize.

So he concocted a scheme where he would convince investors to fund him to get the points; and then sue if Pepsi didn't deliver. Best case scenario, they got a jet to sell at a profit to a third world dictator; worst case, they sued Pepsi and got compensation for deceptive advertising.

As you can imagine that the investors didn't get a return on their investment.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 02:46

Volmarias: Dec 31, 2002; EMAIL... THE INTERNET... SEARCH ENGINES...

Resident Idiot posted:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_v._Pepsico,_Inc.

It's weird seeing websites from 2002 talking about this case, using phrases like "way back when".

This entire article is just such a beautiful read, lime an Onion article but real

# ? Dec 13, 2018 06:29

PERMACAV 50: Jul 24, 2007; because we are cat

Christ I remember my mom using CompuServe to check her doll collecting groups.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 06:32

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

ChickenOfTomorrow posted:

I still have and listen to a bunch of songs I got by tipping the diet pepsi bottles just so in order to pick out one with a code.

Mine are burnt to a CD because that used to be the only easy way to get things out of iTunes and the credit card I was afraid of accidentally buying a lot of music.

I guess I could just rip them back, if I could find it and the disc hasn�t degraded.

Krispy Wafer posted:

I won an iPod Mini with those Pepsi codes.

If you tilted the bottle just so, you could read whether it had a code or not.

Ha, I never figured that out. I bought so much Pepsi that summer.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 07:12

rndmnmbr: Jul 3, 2012

umalt posted:

That guy who sued Pepsi wasn't expecting to get a Fighter Jet; he noticed that the cost of the Pepsi that was required to get the code was much lower than the actual cost of the fighter jet. And also noticed that there wasn't any kind of fine print saying that the jet wasn't an actual prize.

So he concocted a scheme where he would convince investors to fund him to get the points; and then sue if Pepsi didn't deliver. Best case scenario, they got a jet to sell at a profit to a third world dictator; worst case, they sued Pepsi and got compensation for deceptive advertising.

As you can imagine that the investors didn't get a return on their investment.

IIRC the US government had a plan in case he won - he'd get a Harrier, all right, but they would gut it first. No engines, avionics, weapons, etc. Just basically a Harrier-shaped shell, additional purchases necessary, some assembly required.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 10:13

poopinmymouth: Mar 2, 2005; PROUD 2 B AMERICAN (these colors don't run)

Rick posted:

Mine are burnt to a CD because that used to be the only easy way to get things out of iTunes and the credit card I was afraid of accidentally buying a lot of music.

I guess I could just rip them back, if I could find it and the disc hasn�t degraded.

Ha, I never figured that out. I bought so much Pepsi that summer.

I went around on recycling day and cut off other people's points they didn't save. I was able to get so much loot from Pepsi that way. I had an awesome mountain dew backpack I used all throughout high school from that.

# ? Dec 13, 2018 14:07