Keywords and Transitions for a Dust Bunny Gal

I have remained relatively low key about my unhappiness with AOL and the garish ads they have slapped on our journals.  I do not want to stomp and scream and respond in a way that will cause how I express myself to be dismissed as over reacting, drama or impulsive.  I have given this much thought and have been taking the necessary steps to prepare for my transition to another journal home. (It is a tedious process but one I feel is necessary.) 

Before I share the simple steps I am taking to make the move smoother, I want to tell you about a conversation I had with AOL yesterday.  While visiting with my parents over Thanksgiving, I told them of the recent events and how AOL was behaving with little apparent concern for their paying customers. One thing led to another and, after helping my dad obtain another Internet provider, we then placed the call to AOL to notify them of my father's decision to drop their service.  He let me do the honors and I eagerly waited for the question as to why AOL was losing a customer. 

I was gracious but firm when I explained to the customer service representative that since my parent's free trial period was coming to a close they had decided not to stay with AOL.  When the rep pressed me further I told him about my length of time with AOL and since I was leaving my parents no longer saw the benefit of continuing the service. 

The CSR had obviously had to explain about the ads and pop-ups many times and he proceeded to tell me how I could get rid of the ads through a plethora of options AOL offered.  "Yes, I have done that (and it leaves a big gap on the screens), but will it prevent anyone coming to my journal from seeing what I may or may not have eliminated?"  No.  They would not be able to block the ads but if they were part of the AOL community they could follow steps one thru fourteen and delete/block the ads themselves.  'Nuff said.  I asked the CSR to please pass my expressed unhappiness on to "the powers that be" even though I had little hope of a satisfactory resolution.  He then told me about an AOL option I have not seen posted onany other site.  (If you have already passed the word on this, I apologize for taking your time.) 

Go to Keyword and type in "Member Feedback."  This particular form is directed straight to the corporate office in Virginia.  Interestingly enough, you will not find Member Feedback on the "M"s when you are "exploring keywords."  You can find "Tell AOL" but that is handled by staff and not Corporate.

Please share this information to anyone you feel might be interested.

Here are the steps I am finding helpful when transitioning away from AOL.  I do not want to lose touch with so many of you that have become an important part of my life. I can already see that we are continuing our feeling of community with our blogspot journals and I expect to see it grow. 

1.  I registered for Bloglines.  This is the easiest way to copy and paste all the URLs of the journals I wish to read when they post.  Bloglines will then notify me when one of my friends adds a new entry.  [A plus to this option is you can see the name of the journal that has posted rather than a generic alert notification.]

2.  I started a new journal among the many free blogging sites.  I am very understanding of advertising when the journal service is free.  (That is why it never bothered me for the AIM journals to have the ads.  It was a trade-off in my eyes.)  I have chosen www.Blogger.com

3.  I am notifying interested parties of my new journal location.  http://dustbunnyprotector.blogspot.com/

4.  I have started copying and pasting my AOL entries into their new home.  With Blogger I have the latitude to back date the entries to the date when I originally posted.  This will also give my new readers a chance to easily read my earlier works as they are re-posted.

5.  Luckily I was already using www.photobucket.com for saving graphics and pictures to use in emails and my journal.  I am still trying to get use to the graphic side of my blogspot but then I had a learning curve at AOL, too, when I was new.

6.  I am trying to be gracious about leaving and not in your face about my decision.

7.  I will continue to post in both locations (as it is appropriate) until the transition is complete. 

I hope you will stick with me and continue to find my little piece of cyberspace worthwhile.

Thank you.