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A more interesting bit of AOL era ephemera was that we used away messages as people use Twitter today. In the AOL client you could set a short message (just a
by qbasic_forever 5y ago
A more interesting bit of AOL era ephemera was that we used away messages as people use Twitter today. In the AOL client you could set a short message (just a few hundred characters) as an away message that others would see if they had you in their contacts. People started to constantly set themselves 'away' with messages about what they were up to, how they were feeling, etc. I'm sure this likely influenced Jack Dorsey and the other early folks at Twitter since they were growing up and using AOL at the same time.
- freeplay 5y agoAlways had to find that perfect lyric to convey the message. What a time.
- soupfordummies 5y agoThis whole thread (including your username) is a warm nostalgia bomb. Gonna have to go download some ZZT files now. I’ve heard there’s somewhat of a community around it again.
- anthk 5y agoMore like finger from Unix.
- grepfru_it 5y agoMy friend once (23 years ago) sent a wall at a local community college and had a Unix admin angrily stare at him through the classroom window. I distinctly remember him saying “if they didn’t want me to do that they shouldn’t run walld” and I couldn’t disagree lol