Saturday Morning/Afternoon Update to the Exodus Report
I just wanted to update you all of what is happening at this point with the report. The first one to respond was Vince. He’s linked to the Exodus report from over at his place, as has done Gabreael. You two are too wonderful! Thanks! In addition, Gabreael has not only posted the report on the AOL Journal message board, but she has also emailed a copy to 50 other “moved” journalists. What a girl! Thanks, thanks, thanks. I have emailed the report to a few special people. This list included: TSGERKIN, DEABVT, VivianSulliNwank, His1Desire, Judith HeartSong, GabreaelInfo, Pattboy92, ArmandT, LAB2401, Muse nLA, NICURNmama, RepublicanJen, SisterCDR, Upseted
From what I could see these are either just some of the important people I know, or people who have gone an extra distance in presenting their views as to why they have moved. I have heard back from Tianka and Vince their unparalleled support. Viv said, "I thought it was an excellent idea to give them something quantifiable. I think many people feel the Exodus is just something emotional...but it's much more than that!" Pam wished us good luck, Armandt has stated that it is a “Great Report,” Jen passed along a Thanks, and Judith let us know she has passed on the report to the Washington Post. Jen has invited people who left AOL to join a web ring, I'll post her address below. Also, I’ve written a couple of additional comments this morning. The first was a post at the AOL journal message board, the second was a response to “Bill” over at Joe’s smoky place, and the third was a similar comment of the first two left over at Jason Calacanis' Weblog.
I think I am done commenting to others blogs, but I wanted to make one more note here as of the day's events. While walking through our familiar blog neighborhood, we found at Sensational Maria's a short list of blogs that had written about the AOL situation with the banners. I wrote similiar messages to each. These additional postings went to:
The Blog Herald http://www.blogherald.com/2005/11/24/aol-users-criticize-blog-ads/
Stephen Baker from BusinessWeek Online
http://blogs.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/
11/jason_calacanis.html
and, the Folks at Paidcontent
http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/cat_aol.shtml
I also wanted to thank Christina because she made me feel warm and fuzzy when I read her message about this last couple of weeks out there in the blogosphere, and to personally thank Bon and Mal for placing in the comment section of a previous post, basically the message, ok, you've completed the report, what next? Thanks guys I needed that foresight!
I invite you to volunteer your efforts to further communicate-out the message. I’d like to think the numbers represented are of value to the community and a clear communication to AOL.
That’s it, V is pretty sure, I should be getting back to some school work. Thanks for all the support you give just by being here. SMOOOCH!
Us
AOL Journal Message Board this morning:
Thank you Gabreael for posting this report. At first glance the report may not seem significant, however the numbers are very telling. I’ve read some of what has been going on with the message board, and there seems to be confusion with numbers as journalists try to figure out their significance after AOL’s claim to a “600,000” number. It is, I imagine, hard swallowing, because there is simply not a shred of evidence to support that claim. It is somewhat threatening and demeaning, which I believe is AOL’s intent on our emotions.
Although, we can know not everyone has registered over at Pam’s directory, we can trust that the 995 people (journals) that had one time registered ARE real. It is a good representative survey. I believe that it is a first of its kind, in that, there has been no report, thus far, on AOL Journal numbers, or our impact representing the time and heart AOL journalists have devoted at their journals, or in visiting their peers as a byproduct of community spirit, or for that matter customers for AOL's advertisers.
I hope that more people take the time to read the report and that it gets passed around. In summary of the report, approximately 1/3 of the AOL community is staying with or without anger over the ad banners and treatment from AOL. 1/3 of the population hasn’t bothered to comment in their journals for over a month, and many of these have given clear intent on not coming back. 8% of the Journalists have been out on vacation during the uproarius 2 weeks, but had posted to their journals within the last month. 15% of the journals have quit the AOL journal experience directly. That reduces the number of journalists either having gone private or in having moved to 8% and 6% respectively.
While the 6% movers may not seem a large number, it needs to be pointed out that is a number in addition to other obviously dissatisfied customers. This is something we are asking you to help communicate to AOL. Not only have they grossly misrepresented themselves to the media and us, they simply aren’t recognizing their damage to the spirit of their paid constituency. Good will is hard to come by, and in this factor they have and are failing miserably.
Our best,
Ayn
From Smoky Joe’s Place this morning:
Hi everyone. Bill Schreiner, VP for AOL Community Programming (he's something like my boss's boss's boss) would like to address the ad banner situation:
Hi Bill,
I'm Ayn. I have been an AOL subscriber under Aynetal, Aynetal2, or Aynetal3, back to '93 when you were all charging per minute. This last week a few friends and I put together, what we are calling the Exodus Report. It can be found on my new Blog site over at Blogger, or at my old AOL Journal site, which I had maintained for 27 months. The report can also be found at a few others such as the message board, Vince's, and Gabreael's. It is my hope others will pick up the report, to know better where we are at as a number on your ledgers and sold to advertisers.
Basically, what I am saying is giving you all the most benefit of doubt and according to the numbers generated by looking at 995 journals(journalists), AOL's number of 600,000 journals is highly inflated even if it did include worldwide numbers. The representative number of journals that could be counted at Pam's directory suggests that about half the journalists have turned away from your Journal product. I invite you to look at the reports, and to speak more clearly on your relationship with the declining number of journalists (customers of your advertisers goods).
Sincerely,
Ayn(Ann) Garvey
http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=534372&func=3&channel=Computers+%26+Electronics&is_mod=1
http://aynetal3.blogspot.com/2005/12/numbers-like-friends-can-be-counted-on.html
http://journals.aol.com/aynetal3/AynsMPDWorld/
http://deabvt.blogspot.com/
http://gabreaelsbodymindandspirit.blogspot.com/
Comment from aynetal3 - 12/3/05 10:08 AM
(Web Ring Invite from Jen)
http://journals.aol.com/republicanjen/RepublicanJen/entries/1707
posted by Ann Marie @ 12/03/2005 09:26:00 AM
Comments: 11
