Pioneers in interactive, animated education Used around the world Founded in 1984 |
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Pioneers in interactive, animated education Used around the world Founded in 1984 |
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO AOL (AMERICA ONLINE) USERS:
We are unable to raise that kind of sum that fast. Unless some agreeable and well-padded investor comes along (and soon!) we will be leaving AOL whenever AOL decides they want us to, (but our understanding is that it will be at least 30 days after we have received a definite cutoff date.) (So far we have not been given a firm cutoff date from America Online.) [Actually, in late May, 1997, AOL closed our forum, without further notification. And they left no forwarding address.]
By no means are we the only company facing this situation.
A group of companies formed a "strike" to protest the sudden "foreclosure" of our AOL Company Connection Forums. In concert with this strike we have removed all our files from America Online and posted the notice contained in the letter below. What follows is my letter to the strike leader agreeing to join. This letter has been passed on by the strike coordinator to numerous Computer Press organizations and it is our understanding that a number of them plan to quote from it (thanks!).
Here is the latest version for members of the press who might want to publish all or part of it and need an original version, for other AOL strike companies to refer to, and for our own customers on AOL to understand what has happened. We did not downsize. (One-man companies seldom get any smaller anyway.)
Actually, in point of fact, 1997 so far has been an incredibly exciting year for us. We are experiencing our most rapid rate of growth ever and are having a wonderful time! I would estimate that at our current rate of increase in our growth rate, everyone on the Internet will have visited us electronically by the year 2000, and everyone on the planet will have visited us by the year 2005! (Don't you just love everybody's Internet access statistics? You can prove anything with them! At our present growth rate, by the year 2010, the entire planet will be doing nothing BUT visiting us!) So I'm not saying I'm going to whither and die from this. It's just a flesh wound. But it still cuts to the quick (wherever that is). And other companies might be having a harder time of it, and what did any of us do to deserve this? And what about our customers, AOL? Our MUTUAL customers? What did they do to deserve this inconvenience? Some of them will surely think we've gone out of business. But surely you didn't want to leave that impression -- so why can't you leave a forwarding address?
And for AOL, too, this letter is presented, so they realize how much this hurts, both emotionally and monetarily. I have this to say to AOL: I never really thought it could last forever. But I wanted to be able to walk, not run, to the nearest exit when the time came. I didn't suddenly start costing you a fortune, you know. There is no reason you should hurt the many small companies that helped you grow. That got onto your service and acted like big companies when you yourself couldn't even attract a tabloid newspaper. We were friends, remember? A "community". What happened to all that? I know the financial balance of everything changed when you went off hourly rates, but we were working together as a team at that time. We could have arranged something better than this. You blindsided us. Do you know I have had to change over 2000 individual files? I referenced our support area on AOL with EVERY DOCUMENT, EVERY FILE, EVERY BATCH FILE, EVEN VIRTUALLY EVERY .EXE PROGRAM WE SHIP. Now they'll all have to be changed in 30 days--A.S.A.P if possible. Changed, tested, recompiled, retested, and distributed. Thanks for the warning, and thanks for the wonderful choices: Either disappear as if it were I that were having trouble in my business, not you, or cough up $55,000 before the next moon.
Enough said, here's the document...
Your note deserves an immediate reply.
THANK YOU for sending me your "plan".
I agree with you that AOL's action was uncalled for and unwarranted, and penny-wise and pound-foolish too. And so, I have removed all our files and messages effective immediately, Saturday, February 8th, 1997 at 3:45 pm PST. I replaced it with an ad-hoc or lone-wolf message of my own, though, for now: Here is my message. Please note that it speaks of other companies' plights as well:
As with other a number of other companies who have unified in
their actions, The Animated Software Company has removed our files
and forum messages from AOL, at least while we update them to remove
references to AOL itself. We will be leaving AOL after some six years.
We were the oldest Company Connection on the block but significant new
price structures announced by America Online preclude small companies
like us. Please be sure to visit our World Wide Web site which will
NEVER disappear!
Here's the URL:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com
Thank you and thanks to AOL for our years together.
I had already posted the message in some form and began the file removal process when I got your email--in fact, last Monday I had first put that message up.
As to the strike starting Feb. 7th, 1997, I couldn't have made that anyway--sorry, but I didn't check my mail sooner. I've logged on a bit less since learning I'm leaving...
I told AOL I would not knock them. That if they must kick me off after all these years, oh well. I'll go. So I kind of agreed not to do anything drastic. They suggested I post a message but after I get notification of the exact date. So far said notification has not arrived. I guess it's too late now...
AOL's cool. I like AOL. I helped them grow. I recommend it to my parents and siblings to get them onto the electronic highway. I probably will still do all these things.
I am the oldest company in Company Connection. The oldest. Not the second oldest. One company started about the same time but they never built up their site and left after six weeks. We've been there ever since. Ever since AOL had less than 70,000 subscribers. I'm a "charter subscriber".
We "sell" interactive educational software for adults and children. For example a tutorial about the human heart called THE HEART: THE ENGINE OF LIFE which is available on AOL (for a limited time only!!!). It's shareware. Do you think I make a fortune and can cough up $55,000 from the dozen or so registrations I get for each couple of thousand downloads?
We offer a free tutorial on an environmental topic which has a delightful EARTH PUZZLE based on Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion Map. It's free. I don't make much ($0) from that either. We have a bunch of animated demos of mechanical pumps, and above all, the tool we use to create all these wonders of animated computer technology. Our animation is the smoothest on the planet. Our keyword on AOL is ANIMATED SOFTWARE.
You think I mind loosing the support area? What I really mind, what I feel in my heart of hearts like suing them over (but I guess I'm just too mild-mannered or something) is "stealing" (or is it ransoming? I forget) the keyword. I asked them about that. They wanted $55,000 to keep that too. They said it will be gone. They said it will be available to anyone else. The said it might be, oh, I would guess, two years before someone uses it. Or it could be the day after you go. No, it wouldn't be that. But they make no commitments and won't give me a forwarding address.
No commitment. What I really want from them is my keyword. If it just says "This company, the Animated Software Company, has moved all it's support and download files to their Internet Web Site at http://www.animatedsoftware.com" I would be okay with that. They don't even have to mention the CompuServe support--I send CompuServe customers back to CompuServe from our Internet Web site, so that's good enough.
But no. AOL is taking ANIMATED SOFTWARE away after hundreds of thousands of downloads on their system, and millions of files distributed elsewhere, that say that that keyword is mine. I have distributed millions of programs that say to contact me for support through AOL at our keyword. They just ruined all that. These programs will still be available--I can't control distribution!!!
That is costing me far more than the $55,000 AOL wants, but I don't have that kind of money.
If you wish to send a copy of this email to magazines, well, my company could certainly use some publicity to let the millions of people out there know that they can find me not at keyword ANIMATED SOFTWARE on AOL like it says on the disk/download/brochure/third-party listing, but on the Internet as www.animatedsoftware.com and on CompuServe as Keyword ANISOFT. I have cc'd AOL with this. There's no sense in hiding! But AOL wants me to go quietly in the night. It just can't be done and I told them that.
And if there's ANYTHING else I can do to support your movement, let me know.
AOL was my #1 file support area. I had more files available there than at CompuServe or the Internet or that are distributed to Shareware distributors. Well, that's changed.
Our products have had dozens of GLOWING reviews in major magazines like HOME PC and NUTS&VOLTS and DOS WORLD. And in magazines in the pump industry. We make really really good stuff here.
But how much money did I make from THE HEART: THE ENGINE OF LIFE since going shareware with the product last summer after nearly 10 years on the market? A couple of hundred dollars, if that. But through AOL, CompuServe (where I also have a forum -- and started it about the same time and still have it) our Internet FTP site and shareware distributors, 10's of thousands or perhaps 100,000's of thousands of copies have been distributed (no one can tell). [A cardiac medical center] in Texas will use a thousand copies of it later this month. CompuServe featured it one day last fall, and in the next two weeks we had over 1000 downloads of THE HEART: THE ENGINE OF LIFE. On AOL, it's hundreds of downloads a week, week in and week out, for 6 years or so. That's a lot of downloads, and of good, solid, useful, well-liked educational material. Each with AOL support featured....
Back when AOL had 70,000 subscribers and I was the only Company in Company Connection (this was true for at least a few weeks, as I recall) I could get publicity on their banners and stuff. Now, VISA gets the front page over and over and over, and unless I learn [AOL's scripting language] I can barely make an edit change.
So I told AOL, okay, if that's the way you want to be, send me off. I won't say bad things about you. I'll still support you in any way I can... Stupid of me, but I said it.
But neither, I said, will I in any way let the public think that I have downsized just because I have SUDDENLY been removed from AOL.
So I have supported your plan with action in addition to morally. Please drop me an email as soon as you get a chance (right now, if you've read this far!) and say 'hi' and tell me how it's going now. Who's participating (by numbers, I believe there are about 300 total. So I bet most of us got that package.)
She sounded SO ENTHUSIASTIC when she called. Yet somehow, I knew just what was up. The only question was: how much was this going to cost me?
It cost me my favorite support forum--MINE on AOL.
I'll probably post this at my web site as an explanation for why we're leaving AOL. Also, you might be interested to know that in a marathon 12 hours that came after they told me I was being kicked out (last Monday morning (Feb 3rd, 1997) I removed every AOL-related mention from my web site (except some download instructions) and from every master copy of every file I could find. I'm sure I missed a lot, too! I still need to rezip everything and then start testing the new zips (and that, as any programmer knows, is the long hard part), then upload them to AOL, CompuServe and my FTP Internet site. AOL has suddenly cost me a lot of money and a lot of time.
Thanks for making me not feel all alone.
Sincerely,
(signed)
Russell Hoffman
Owner & Chief Programmer
The Animated Software Company
2) Here is a quote from an AOL email document I received 2/21/97: "AOL's partner relationships are vital to our ongoing success as the leading brand in cyberspace..." If we're so vital, AOL, why are you making us walk the plank and then wiping our names from your ship's roster? It's a small world, AOL. Your reputation will follow you.
F.A.Q.'s. Master list of FAQ's for "P11" users.
 Table of Contents
http://www.animatedsoftware.com  rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
Written February 28th, 1997. Last modified January 12th, 2000 Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman Copyright (c) Russell D. Hoffman |