Why am I Still With AOL?

Okay, this idea comes from Doug Bain, who has a website called startswithstory.com. He wanted to know why I still have an AOL.com email address.

Well, Doug, I’ll tell you because anyone who lives in Fountain Valley is all right with me because that city has a park with a simple name, “Mile Square Park.” Why? Because it is one-mile square. But I digress.

I started with AOL way back in the early dial up days. Back when no one really knew what the heck the internet was, much less that it could be better or worse. Heck, back then Microsoft Word and even the Associate Press insisted that the word internet should be capitalized, like a proper name similar to a city or whatever.

I disagreed, and when I was a journalist I went to war with AP style folks and said “NO!” The internet is a noun, as it is a place. But it is not a “proper” noun like a city or a street or a person.

I knew I was right and frequently frustrated editors as I refused to write it as “Internet” as Bill Gates wanted.

By the way, that’s how that got started – Bill insisted that Microsoft Word’s spell check had it like that because that’s the way he wanted it.

Well anyone with any grammatical common sense would tell you that it incorrect.

Anyway, AP eventually recognized that I and other English language experts were right and surrendered to the correct usage and said it could be “internet.”

So, why do I still have an AOL email address? Because. Okay, there’s more to it than that. I was early to the internet and email in that I wanted my own email address. And my name (with the letter of my middle name) was available, so I grabbed it.

Now, many folks back then would use artificial names and hide behind them. Say what you want about me, but not me. You know it’s me and if it’s my opinion, I don’t shirk the fact that I’ve voiced it. Disagree with me all you want, but you know I said it. Others stayed hidden. Cowards!

But that doesn’t answer the question of why I still have and use it beyond, “Because.”

To me it’s kind of like moving. I hate moving and having to deal with the change of address thing, and mail that gets lost in the shuffle. I think of my email address in the same way. I want people who might want to get in touch with me after a few years to still be able to reach me.

In fact, I’ve had a few people, even at Walt Disney Imagineering, send me an email to clarify some point of information many years after I left my employment there.

And I still get emails from others I’ve known for years and years. (I hate saying years and years. It means I’m getting old!)

I do have a gmail email address now, and have used it for some other things. I have another email that only I know for some super-secret stuff. (Bank accounts and investments. Sorry, no love trysts!)

Oh, and one more thing. Years ago, because I was an early person. AOL made the account free, for life!

They also have a great spam filter. Though I do admit I find reading the emails from the Nigerian Princess saying she has $17 million that she would split with me if I can help her fascinating.

So, feel free to email me at my AOL email address: markaeades@aol.com. I might reply to you.