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Below is the text of an email I sent out on November 9, 2000. In it, I announced my impending departure from AOL and my reasons for doing so.
Good-bye, farewell, so long...
11-09-2000
Hi! This email is going out to two groups of people:
�
���� 1) ex-QLinkers whom I personally know;
���� 2) the kind folks who have written to me regarding my "Remember� QLink!" web page.
If you don't fall into either group and you have by some chance received this email, please accept my apologies. I am no spammer, and this is a one-time-only mailing. You will never hear from me again.
I first signed on to Q-Link at 11:02:04 PM EST on December 10, 1987. I know the exact time because years ago an in-house friend was kind enough to look at my account and tell me. Unbelievable as it may seem, I still have the Post-It-Note on which I wrote the info. In fact, as I'm looking at it and writing this I just realized it's stuck to the unmailed warranty registration card for the CMD HD-100 hard drive that I bought in 1991. At any rate, I know that compared to some of you reading this, I am an online newcomer. Even so, thirteen years is thirteen years. Excluding the recipients of this email, I doubt that AOL today has many active accounts that go back that far.
Every new frontier has its pioneers. Most of us probably didn't realize it at the time, but we Q-Linkers were the pioneers of the commercialized version of cyberspace. Without some degree of commercialization, without the promise of a profit for someone, somewhere, the Internet would still be a comparatively tiny thing, populated only by researchers, computer science majors and horny 13 year old boys. What exists today exists, to a large extent, because of us. We Q-Linkers, you and I and all the rest, may not have invented or built the Internet, but we damn well paid for a big chunk of it, at 8c per minute. To paraphrase an old country western song, we were online when online wasn't cool.
Pioneers are always an odd lot, and I think you'll agree that we certainly were no exception.� :-) What sane person would be willing to give up the known, the comfortable, the safe, for something completely unknown and unheard of and, potentially, unsafe? Who would give up real life for some online world of bits and bytes and pixels? More importantly, who in their right mind would be interested in computer SEX? (Not to mention the most important question of all:� how the hell do you DO it???)
I can remember telling coworkers about Q-Link and all the really nifty (non-sexual) things a person could do online. I also remember their response, which was to look at me like I was some kind of nut and slowly back away. Today, those same people are addicted to the Internet, either via AOL or some other ISP.
I seem to be running off at the fingers here, a malady that I blame entirely on you, my friends. You taught me well your bad habits. O:-)�
To get to the point of what originally was intended as a short note, sometime on 12-10-2000 my AOL account will cease to exist. Already, UncleAl2 is my last active screen name. I must confess to having mixed feelings about leaving AOL, but I believe that it has to be done. I do not agree with Steve Case's vision of an AOL-controlled future, and I can no longer in good conscience help pay for his growing monopolization of the Internet. If you don't know what I'm referring to, drop me a short note. I'll be happy to forward you the latest issue of an email newsletter I subscribe to called "AOL Watch." I think you'll find it a real eye-opener. I know I did.
As Lord Acton said way back in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Steve Case is no more immune to the siren song of greed than is anyone else. A benevolent despot is, after all, still a dictator, no matter how broad his smile.
Remember Q-Link! will survive, albeit at a new location. The new address will be http://qlinklives.tripod.com/qlink.html. There is a placeholder at that address now, with a link you can click that will allow you to be automatically notified when the page is updated. I hope to find time to get the files uploaded there before my AOL account dies. My new email address will be [email protected].
I'd like to say it's been fun, but it really hasn't. No matter how many bells and whistles they add to AOL to attract and amaze the rubes, AOL never has been and never will be the warm, homey place that we once loved. Q-Link is undeniably dead. But... its spirit does live on, within each and every one of you who helped make it the special place it was.
Peace and love to you all.
Al
PS:� Since this letter seems to have turned itself into a mini-essay, I will be posting it to "Remember Q-Link!" in a few days. Accordingly, I'd like to point out that it is Copyright� � 2000 by Al Evans. All rights reserved.
Please feel free to forward this letter in its entirety to anyone who may be interested. AOL has once again nuked part of my address book, and I� know I'm missing some folks. Thank you. |
