#560..here's what fark.com people are thinking..

a fark quote:

"As America Online turns more toward advertising dollars to offset the shrinking number of subscribers who pay a monthly fee, the company may be upsetting the longtime customers who have remained faithful over the years."

The lesson here? The best way to save a floundering business model is to alienate your remaining consumer base.

When your mass-marketing strategy for delivering 1025 free hours of AOL into the hands of every man, woman, child, orangutan and flying squirrel on the planet fails...DON'T think to update your marketing strategy. NEVER adapt. REFUSE to change -- all while the amorphous internet continually reshapes itself.

Cheers to you, AOL. If the Cretaceous era taught us anything, it's that adaptation is overrated."

http://beyondmediatv.com/

 

#559...newsflash: Intelligent life detected at AOL!

newsflash:  

intelligent life detected at aol:

http://www.calacanis.com/2005/11/26/on-the-aol-journals-advertising-mini-brouhaha/

my comment:

Thanks for this post Jason - I appreciate your ability to think through the issues and see the bigger picture.

For me, the ads were a wrong move, but the disreguard of customer loyalty, and their wishes and desires is even worse.  And AOL's blatant inability or lack of desire to communicate and negotiate is unforgiveable.

I've been through all the aol growing pains - all the way back to the days of paying by the minute.  I've earned the right to protest. And so I do.

It's unfortunate that the execs are ignorant to what the customers already know - which is that AOL is a train wreck happening in slow motion - obscenely fascinating, but at the same time, horrifying to watch.

Some of us are just here to mourn the death of something that was once good.

And some of us are just hanging around to see it finally crumple.

And the real shame is that the whole thing was/is totally preventable.

But they'll never learn that.

 

yah. go ahead  - you can comment too!

AntiJournalsAds

#558...on being un-"ad"-ulterated

 

un"ad"-ulterated posts continue here---->

http://journals.aol.co.uk/floralilia/FreelyFloraliliadoesEurope/

#557...and AOL can't count either.

"The decision to implement banner advertising on AOL Journals is consistent with our business and advertising practices," AOL spokeswoman Kathie Brockman said in an e-mail. The company, which hosts about 600,000 blogs, received several dozen complaints about the advertisements and is taking suggestions into consideration, she said."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201648.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

HEY AOL, try adding a few zeros' behind those complaint numbers..

several dozen my royal arse....

Tag: AntiJournalsAds

#556...Righto, I'm moving out of the Country.

Meet me under Big Ben...

http://journals.aol.co.uk/floralilia/FreelyFloraliliadoesEurope/

 

git yer ad-free plane ticket rightcheer:

http://edit.journals.aol.co.uk/_do/create_blog

 

need to find someone?  go here-->

http://journals.aol.com/pattboy92/TheGreatExodus/entries/802

 

Tag: AntiJournalsAds

#555...(or is that 666?)...on movie quotes and aolhell

                                       

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's AOL. Everybody's out of commission or scared of losing their journals. The dollar buys a nickel's worth of aol time, journals are going bust, journalkeepers keep a hidden alternate blog under the counter. AOLPunks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our journal is unfit to read, and we sit watching our screens while some local aol hired blogger tells us that today we had fifteen outages and sixty-three violent crashes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the journals we've been writing in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the corporate greed and the ad banners and the programmers and the crime in the control room. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
Howard Beale: [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BLOGGER, Goddamnit! My journal has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting]
Howard Beale: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL,AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the ad banners and the non working buttons and the slime lords. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

from now on, you can find me here:

http://floraliliahere.blogspot.com/

 

Tag: AntiJournalsAds

#554....Aol only thinks their shiza doesn't stink....

snifff....

 

i smell a stampede.

http://floraliliahere.blogspot.com/

oh, and guess how I had to post this....jump on at Explorer - go to aolmail.com, sign in - go to my journal - and then add an entry.

yah.

why would I think I should just be able to post here at aolhell...

oh, "they're working it. "

yeah. well work on this aol!

 

Tag: AntiJournalsAds

#553...Good morning, AOLHELL

Good morning aolhell.

Thanks for waking me up with yet another kick in the ass.

Thanks for whoring out my journal for me in the middle of the night when I wasn't looking.

Thanks for yet another day of customer UNappreciation. You really are king in that department. You must mistake me for a masochist. I'm not.

Thanks to the advertisers, who once again, found a way to jam their sh*t down my throat and any other dark orifice they can find...

For that service, you can most assuredly assume and damn well bet that I won't be visiting or patronizing ANY of your services. So continue wasting your money on useless ad campaigns like this if you like. Pissing off a potential customer is not a good way to do or make new business in case you didn't know. But you should have already learned that one if Marketing 101.

Perhaps you were distracted by your greed.

Thanks AOL for once again, giving me a chance to stretch out my legs over at BLOGSPOT a very pleasant, fully functioning, customer friendly, FREE journal community that even has prettier backgrounds than you do - I'm getting to like it there.

Thanks AOL.

Yah, Thanks for nothing.

TAKE THE ADS DOWN IMMEDIATELY

OR PAY ME

TO PROMOTE YOUR ADVERTISERS HERE.

update:  a reply to my complaint letter

Dear Andrea,

I understand from your recent e-mail that you are requesting for the advertisements to be removed from the AOL Journals.

Unfortunately, it is not possible at this time to resize or remove the advertisements on the window. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.

We are sorry to receive your complaint, though we know that honest and constructive criticism is sometimes necessary to help us fix our mistakes. We are sharing our members' comments with the people who design, build and program the service. Your input is the key to helping us improve the AOL® service.

We know that AOL isn't perfect, and we're working every day to make it better. Though we don't like for our members to be dissatisfied, we're still grateful when they go out of their way to let us know what improvements are most important to them.

Thanks again for your comments. The more we hear from members, the more we know what you think works, what should be improved and what you'd like to see next. Please continue to share your thoughts on how we can make AOL an even better service for you.

Charlize
AOL Customer Care Consultant

hold it...

customer care consultant?

care?

oh, "you...wagging my finger,...you.  you're good."

 

 

Tag: AntiJournalsAds

#552...on cat primers and sleepy kitties.

                                   

See Lucy.
See Lucy sleep.
Sleep Lucy, sleep.
Sleepy kitties sleep in sunbeams.
Sunbeams make kitties sleep.
Sleeping is good.
Sleep Lucy, sleep.
Lucy sleeps in sunbeams when it's sunny.
Sunny sunbeams make Lucy sleepy.
Sunny sunbeams make me sleepy.
Sleeping kitties sleeping in sunbeams make me...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

           

#551...on being tied up..no wait...

                             

...While waiting for the votes to be tallied, Queen Flora ponders the memories of the last few days of her having to defend the realm of 'Tudicity"....

                          

Which, if you remember, all started with a little nomination....  

that immediately turned into a little sparring with the Italian stallion of
Co-Grandiosity, Madam Glinka ...

                            

    that was then refereed by Andi, also known as the Official Court Biographer, 

                          

Which naturally turned into a little fun mudslinging (or maybe that was just lung mucous) over at Mortimer's Cafe...who then cleverly turned to the pity vote, by  attempting to disqualify himself from the running... 

                           

                     but upon hearing this news the natives grew restless...

                         

Until Sir Superfly B came to her rescue in a brilliant display of chivalry and undying support of the Queen.

(plus, we all know he always up for the chance to wear spandex.)

(and a cape.)

 

                    

then it was off to the realm of Sir Remo, which found Remo being, as usual....

 well, Remo...

               

 Until word got out that Albert developed a nervous case of flatulence -

         

          that seemed to thoroughly annoy the crochety ol' Yakvette to no end...

                      

   As Mortimer and Albert nursed their colds with a more than a few victuals...

                          

The lovely Flora and Mrs. L tastefully coordinated their formal VIVI attire and rehearsed their acceptance speeches...

                             

and incredibly - still there were some of you out there who just couldn't decide...
(or whose price had yet to been met...) 

 

                           ...but ultimately the votes were all counted...

                                          

                          and the final announcement was .......read.

             

                                        

                                            and then again..... re-read...

                          

                          and after a moment or two of contemplation...

 those two dirty little words finally sunk in.  "A tie."

                                 a tie?

               a tie?????!!!

 

                       

well, I suppose it makes for good entertainment....that is - if I were up for the best entertainment, which I wasn't.  You people better pay attention next year.

sheeze.

        

                  Congratulations to yet another evil Co-Queen in the realm,

                              Sir Mortimer the Co-Queen of 'Tudicity!

 

oh, and congratulations to uh...to me too, I guess.

for I dunno -  the best use of journal attitude or something...

                              

                                                        whatevah.

you people are crazy. 

                                                   (but thank you.)

#550...two things..

picked this up from Charley over at Courage

Two Names You Go By:

1. Flettera Floralilia, Queen of the Universe,

2. and, uh...Mom.

Two Parts of Your Heritage

1. my eyes,

2. and my hungarian hips.

Two Things That Scare You

1. tatphallasaurus's,

2. and Albert's eyebrows.

Two of Your Everyday Essentials

1. Coffee, 

2. and uh, coffee.

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now

1. slippers,

2. and a hair-net.

Two of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists (at
the moment)

1.  perfect circle , Tool

2. Enigma

Two of Your Favorite Songs (at the moment)

1.  A perfect circle -  counting bodies like sheep

2.  A perfect circle - imagine

Two Things You Want in a Relationship (other than
Real Love)

1. real estate,

2. and the husband's body hair cleaned up in the bathroom.

Two Truths (confessions)

1.  I'm not really blonde.

2.  I'm really harmless.

Two Physical Things that Appeal to You

1.  abundant synapses,

2.  and experience.

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies

1.  eating small children,

2.  and teasing kittens.

Two Things You Want Really Badly  (assuming this means material things...)

1.  a personal attendant,

2.  and a personal attendant.

Two Places You Want to go on Vacation

1.  the moon,

2.  and beyond.

Two Things You Want to Do Before You Die

1.  recover from whatever is making me die,

2.  and finish cleaning out the closets.

Two ways that you are stereotypically a Chick/Guy

1.  I can multitask,

2.  and make babies.

Two things you wouldn't normally admit

1.  I like old people.

2.  and hate babysitting.

 

#549....fair warning

#548...i'm addicted.

egad...

and I had to do this even before I finished my morning coffee...

oh, I can see, I'm not going to get anything done today...

check it out:  http://artpad.art.com/?ipaesq1i79u0

and another:  http://artpad.art.com/?ipbbqk1lkgc

 

 

 

#547...voila! c'est magnifique!

                                       "...In truth - we all can paint." ~sark.

Okay, so I originally intended this entry to be Halloween related, but instead I found myself stumbling onto Andi's entry, Surrender to creativity: Be an Artist for A Day  She discovered this cool site artpad.com -  where you can create a painting with a virtual paintbrush, paintbucket, or pencil - and scribble and dabble and spatter to your heart's content on the virtual canvas.

You can also tour the gallery and send your friends a link to your creation. The best part is that, afterward, you can watch your painting come to life with every stroke of your brush as you designed it.  Hmmm...kinda like ghost painting...

hey!

Now see, this is a halloween post after all - isn't it? 

Here are the links to a couple of my paintings - check them out here:   http://artpad.art.com/?ip9kvnqiv2s

and here:  http://artpad.art.com/?ip9rr0c4xs8

 Make one of your own and leave me a link!