Re: This From pcworld.com (About Time)

On Friday, February 7, 1997 at 12:00:00=E2=80=AFAM UTC-8, [email protected] wro=
te:
> About Time don't you think??
> AOL Seeks Increased Payments From Corporate Forums=20
> by Brian McWilliams, PC World News Radio=20
> (February 6, 1997) -- Frequent visitors to computer company tech
> support forums on America Online may find their usual haunts shut down
> Friday as some of the more than 300 forum operators protest sharp
> increases in charges by the online service.
> Protest organizer Jeff Baudin, owner of a Macintosh software company
> called MicroMat, said at least 30 other hardware and software firms
> with sites in AOL's Company Connection have agreed to hide their
> library files and message folders until AOL rescinds new annual
> charges of $55,000.
> In a news release announcing a so-called Company Connection strike,
> Baudin said participating forum leaders would post a note explaining
> that AOL's new policy "will make it impossible for us to continue to
> support you, our valued customers, on America Online" and urging users
> to complain to AOL management.
> AOL confirmed it has sent Company Connection site operators letters
> informing them that rent for the virtual storefronts, which were once
> free, is going up sharply. An AOL spokesperson said the charges are
> being levied because many of the companies are using Computer
> Connection not only to provide technical support but to market
> products and services.
> But Baudin said AOL users will lose because many of the smaller
> companies will leave rather than pay the high fees.
> Baudin, whose company was one of the first to offer tech support on
> AOL in 1989, said AOL has been slowly eroding services to firms in
> Company Connection.
> "We started out with pretty neat stuff, like we each had our own chat
> room, we used to get spots on that name sign-on screen," Baudin
> recalled.
> "We knew the spots were going to go away as AOL became more popular.
> We lost chat rooms=E2=80=94I know I lost mine to, I think it was MTV. And=
 then
> last year they said, 'OK, you can't sell anything here anymore.'
> Now...they want $55,000 a year for this privilege. The problem here is
> that the people really getting burned are the AOL clients, especially
> the ones that come in to see forums like ours."
> MicroMat and other firms that decide they've had it with AOL and want
> to migrate to the Web will have problems bringing their users with
> them, Baudin said.
> "It's the no-forwarding-address scheme," Baudin said, explaining that
> AOL has indicated it has no obligation to forward e-mail or give new
> URLs of departing Company Connection firms.
> Baudin urged companies or individuals who oppose AOL's new policy to
> send e-mail to [email protected].
I liked that software .It was real good diag tool.