Portal:AOL-Files/Articles/Etiquette

(Originally by AOL-Files staff member Tau)

As I sit in chat rooms and watch the way people act I cannot help think, "What the hell is going on in his mind?" Here I will profess my satirical thoughts including descriptions of certain chat room acts that annoy me and my way of looking at it. Everything here is my opinion, but if you take part in any of the things listed here I ask you to take a minute and think about the reasoning behind your act.

Scrolling

Scrolling is when a certain phrase or phrases is sent to a chat room with a very short pause inbetween the time each line is sent. This can be done either using an AOL prog or by copying and pasting it using the Ctrl+V method. The most common reasons for doing this are: Requests: You're either requesting information or a program. My thoughts are ask once, if no one answers no one has what you want or no one wants to give it to you. You can also search on a web search engine such as hotbot.com or altavista.com. If that doesnt work go to webhelp.com and get help from them. 90% of the time I ask for something they will give me the correct information and link me to a page with the information.

Macros: A marco is a series of lines comprised of non alphanumeric characters that when completed will form a picture. Macros are not as common anymore but people still use them. The problem is that most of these dont work due to the discrepencies between the maker of the prog's chat size and font type and the user of the prog's. Also, depending on whether the screen name of the user and the maker of the prog's is a different size, the tab will be in a different location and the individual lines of the macro will be pushed onto the next line, again distorting the final appearance. To annoy: Too many people just scroll anger everyone else in the chat room. The people who do this are just plan losers who have nothing to do except make other people angry. They are outcasts, exiles who sit on AOL all day with no point except to irritate others.

To all of you who fit this profile: Get a life.

Grammar

The thing I loathe the most about people are his or her grammar. People using "u" instead of "you" and "r" instead of "are" give me the worst impression and I really do not like talking to them. I believe that people who first get on AOL use this because it is a new "cool" way to talk; he or she gets to write however they please, without getting reprimanded by teachers on shitty grammar.

Most people don't even stop to think about it and continue to use this for the duration of their AOL life. The first sign of intelligent life in a person is his or her use of real words. Second, is his or her choice of words. Using sesquipedalians, big words, is good but of no one knows what it means then it is pointless to use it. So good for you if you knew what a sesquipedalian is, it probably will help or did help you on the SATs, but dont say it in a chat room.

Chat Now chat rooms

AOL's People Menu has a menu called "Chat Now". I hate these public chat rooms with a passion. Every single person has an IQ of about 50. Have you see the Jaywalk contest on Jay Leno's late night show? Well these are the people that are contestants.

Here are just a few reasons why I hate public chats:

Every person lies about his or her age.

Many lie about his or her sex which is just plain wrong.

A/S/L. Also Age/Sex/Location. First off, as I just stated everyone lies about his or her age, and sex. And for the 1% of people there who are normal, does it matter where the people you are talking to live? No, it doesnt matter. And whatever happened to "Hi, my name is ____, whats your name?" instead of A/S/L?

Most of the self-pics are nude and most are not even of themselves. If it was of themself, what the hell kind of person is this that would send a total stranger a nude picture of themself?

Many people use faders, which get borning after the first time you see or use them.

The one goody-goody in there will report you for saying "bitch"

Elite text (non alphanumeric characters acting as letters) are hard to read and are not cool, despite what many may think.

One question mark is enough, or is it????????????

I can go on and on... but I won't.

Idle Bots

Idle bots are progs made to keep someone online. First, shouldn't they be called anti-idle bots? Think about it. Second, why stay online if you're not at the computer? Also, there are other ways of staying online like using a program to click the "Yes" on the "Do you want to stay online?" window.

Instant Message Requests

I see people saying "IM me if you have..." No one ever IMs these people yet he or she continues to say it. I ask "Why?"

Broken Messages

Broken messages are when a person says one sentence in a chat room or Instant Message but only says three or four words per line. Its almost annoying as scrolling. Why not just type all the way to the end of the text box? Its not that hard.

Screennames

In my opinion, the entire point of "hacking" the CRIS, learning FDO, and exploiting AOL all together is to get cooler screen names. Eventually there will be one character screen names that are no alphanumeric. Thats what I want: the screen name "@". But, unless some major exploit is discovered, this probably won't happen for a while. Same thing with 16+ screen names. Eventually, but not for now. I eventually imagine a "indented one character non alphanumeric."

Also, I hate stupid screen names. Screen names with singers' names in them. "LimpBizkit254565", "Blink1823487", "KornLuvr84lk". I dont like number in screen names either. I suppose any screen names will do for the baby boomers who go on once a month to check his or her mail. But for those that go on everyday, and think they have a life, at least make an honerable screen name.

aoLife

Some people insist that everyone who sits on AOL all day has no life. Well, let me ask them this: What do you consider a life? Playing football all day? Watching TV? Movies? At least while on the computer learning is happening. Playing football gets the hell beat out of you, TV is pointless, movies are great, either way. But I have to admit though, some people sit in the same chat, with the same people day after day. Get out! Live your life. Time flies while on the computer. If you dont get out and have some fun you'll be out and having to work before you know it. Life is all about fun, right? So go have some fun.

95 Buddies

I've had 95 buddies, the max that is allowed for me, plenty of times. But go and look through the list. I usually find a great number of people on there I either don't know who they are, or never talk to them anymore. Everyone on my Buddy List I know by first name. There are those that fit into my real life friends, and a category for all my online friends. It's easier that way.

Downloading Movies

I was into this once. I recall going into mIRC and searching for free servers. Its easier now with Scour and all. I just dont see the point. Go out and see the movie. If you cannot afford it then you dont deserve to be online. Who cares if you have 35 movies on your computer? I'm going to laugh when you have to take it in for repair and cannot hide any of it. That is, unless you're smart and burn it (onto a CD; not the computer.) I watched the movies once, then stuck it in a drawer somewhere never to be seen again. It's a colossal waste of time, unless its a ...., nevermind.

Spamming

"The Internet user HotXXXGirls has sent you an Instant Message. Do you want to accept?"

No.

"From: CampusGirls@aol.com Subject: XXX teens want you make you horny!"

Delete.

Easy enough, eh?

Progs

Some programmers are the stupidest people. So many progs say things like "User: WhateverSN. Loaded at 12:00:38". Its kind of obvious who loaded it and no one cares what time it is. Other progs have features that are pointless. Like, "Open Instant Message window". Pointless. For these reasons and many more are why I stopped AOL programming. Plus, everything has been made.