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Random memory I need help with, was AOL the dial-up service available worldwide? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 week ago by SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net
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I recently had a memory come back to being on aol sometime in 2001 and chatting with someone who claimed to be from Japan. This was in an anime chat room I used to visit.

Was the service available outside the USA?

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[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

I recently had a memory come back to being on aol sometime in 2001 and chatting with someone who claimed to be from Japan.

Back in my Myspace days I was naïve about the net an naïve in general. At the time I lived in Japan. The Myspace search function was utter crap and one day I ended up at a forum for a random town in Massachusetts. I hung out there because I liked the posts made by people who I assumed where in the 20s if not younger. It took me an embarrassingly long time to connect the dots and to understand why I was met with hostility.

The reason they didn't like me was that they assumed my "Hey, guys - I'm in Japan," comments were ridiculous lies and I was a narc and maybe even a local cop spying on the young people of the town.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

That's pretty funny. I thought they could have been an expat like you living in Japan, never got to ask them more questions though iirc.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

I have fond memories of being on the net during the oughts. It was before social media and the mentality of people only willing to talk to people like them and it was before the rise of (toxic) conspiracy theories, nonsense, and highly aggressive anti-intellectualism - and the list goes on. I also miss blogs. The good ones were like somebody showing you their private notebook. Oh, well. That's progress for you.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago

It was before social media and the mentality of people only willing to talk to people like them and it was before the rise of (toxic) conspiracy theories, nonsense, and highly aggressive anti-intellectualism

Back in the day if someone clowned on you for being a dummy it was a badge of shame. Now creeps online wear the "I'm a massive dumbass" hat with pride and love to tell you how ignorant they are.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

And they are so proud of being racist and awful and obnoxious.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

"Hey, guys, I'm in Japan. But my girlfriend lives in Canada."

Just a typical 90's forum post. You did nothing wrong.

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

Poor developing country in Asia, late 1990s-early 2000s. Yes we had AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger. The latter two were far more popular than AIM though.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

Oh nice I didn't know about AIM! I knew ICQ was big in Asia though, right?

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

Yes most people used ICQ and then MSN Messenger became popular by the mid-2000s onward.

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

I believe they had international numbers but they weren't like a major presence outside of the US.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

I believe they had international numbers but they weren't like a major presence outside of the US.

Ah mystery solved then. I remember them being really into The White Stripes, so probably a western weeb.

[-] combat_brandonism@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

you could get AIM without having AOL dialup iirc

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

Was that always the case? I remember aim being an app a couple years after I had left aol and I still used it but I wasn't sure if early on it was.

[-] bortsampson@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

The AIM protocal (oscar???) was spun off around 2000 and could be used outside of AOL with the AIM client or a 3rd party utility.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I'm sure it was earlier than that. I'm in the UK, and I'm pretty sure I was using it at home in the mid 90s, and almost definitely when I was living away in 1998. I remember using Trillian to speak on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and a few others around the same time :)

[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

Trillian launched in 2000.

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

I must be thinking of one of the other chat programs then, Pidgin maybe? I could have sworn it was Trillian though.

I remember using some form of AIM after I moved in to my first place in 1998, because I was keeping in touch with friends on it without having the full AOL software installed.

[-] combat_brandonism@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

to add to bortsampson, I know I had an aim acct in the early oughts and I never had the dialup

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

They were pretty big in the UK in the 90s too 👍

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

Oh no shit. Did they flood your mailbox with floppies and CDs too?

[-] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I don't remember them sending out floppies, but the CDs were everywhere. I'm fairly sure that they mailed them out, but they definitely put them in newspapers and magazines. My parents had AOL dialup, so I'd get a CD every now and then to update the software :)

[-] Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 week ago

I suspect so. I remember getting a free trial from CompuServe when it eventually made it to Australia so I wouldn't be surprised if AOL did too.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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