AIM WTF



  • I know I don't post much (if at all) but I need to get this WTF off my chest:

    I have been having a problem with AIM since sevral months back, it was never resolved until just now, The problem? it's with the Block feature, I couldn't even change a single preference option without getting a barrage of "duplicate entry in block list" messages, And Lo and behold, when I go to the block configuration option, EVERY entry on that list has been duplicated 3-4 times when I haven't even entered those duped entries! First thing most people would do to obsolve the problem is to delete the duplicated entries on the list. But what happens? The entire list re-appears as it was originally on clicking "OK" or "Apply". I have contacted AOL sevral times with bug reports, technical support requests, but they are being ignorant of the problem. I currently cannot unblock, OR block anyone due to this problem. and I can assure that this is a server side problem since I re-imaged my system since the initial showup of the problem and it has shown from before AND after of the re-image (the re-image was for a different reason, as to just start on a fresh registry, C: filesystem, etc.). I had to ultimately install GAIM to do this clearing of the block list that the Official AIM Client refused to do. This truely is a WTF in it's own right



  • Whenever you deal with anything that could at least imply AOL, you should be ready for an armageddon of WTFs.

     

    But I give you that it carries all dignity of a worthy sidebar WTF. 



  • The real WTF is that large block of unreadable text. Use some line breaks, please!



  • AIM is a WTF in it's own right, and the administration of it is another WTF.  Allow me to share my WTF with AOL/AIM that I had to deal with (which was just recently resolved).

    The only reason I have AIM is to occassionally chat (about once a month) with a couple friends.  They don't like any of the other IMs, so they have to be the odd friends out.  Anyway, since I don't log in very much, I tend to forget my password.  So, back in July when I thought I'd hop on and tell my friends about my good news (started a new job, bought a house, etc.), I realized I forgot my password ... again ... and couldn't locate my post-it note with the password written down.  No problem, I figured.  I'd just hop online and go through the hassle of having them send me my password a/o change it.  I get to the webpage asking all the security questions to verify I am who I say I am, and then there's a captcha system which must have been designed by Paula are someone related to her.  The textbox for entering the captcha only allowed 6 characters, but the captcha text displayed 9!  After several attempts trying to enter the captcha text (thinking maybe the last 3 characters were simply hidden or the textbox somehow automagically scrolled, or maybe they just wanted the first 6 characters, or maybe the last 6 characters), I became exceedingly frustrated with their inanity.  So, I decided to try to find an email address or phone number to contact them to report the problem with their website.  Looking through all the publicly available pages showed no sign of a "contact the webmaster" or similar email address and there was no "contact us" link anywhere to be found.  So, I decided I would check out the "help" webpages.  However, to get into the help pages, I had to login. *sigh*

    I had a friend find an email address (any email address) I could use, and eventually got a hold of the group that dealt with the webpages.  I reported the problem, and the first response I received was something to the effect "our security system uses graphical images to display a group of characters which must be entered in order to verify you are not a bot trying to hack into somebody's account. these characters must be entered precisely or you can't be authenticated".  I responded that I understood the purpose of the captcha, I was just trying to point out that nobody could be authenticated because nobody can enter all the characters displayed because they had limited the entry to 6 characters.  After several rounds of trying to get them to understand the problem, I finally sent "Please go through the webpage manually and let me know when you are successful."  Several weeks later, I received a response saying I should now be able to access the system. 

     



  • Yeah...  AIM's blocklist/budlist is stored on their servers.  So reinstalling won't really help...



  • I know a guy who used to program for AOL.  He's pretty okay at scripting languages and making simple UI mods for games like World of Warcraft (which is done in XML), but one time recently, he pointed out to me that the PHP on a web page I administer was a little messed up and that maybe he could fix it for me.  Only problem with that was there wasn't a single piece of PHP on the page.  It's all .NET (there isn't even any client-side Javascript on the page, just server side C# and VB.NET).  How he got the idea the PHP was messed up, I don't know and don't really want to know, but it sure seemed like a strange conclusion to come to.

    What he said was, "The page all works, and it's kind of neat, but there seems to be something really wrong with the PHP code.  I could fix that for you."



  • [quote user="Gsquared"]

    "The page all works, and it's kind of neat, but there seems to be something really wrong with the PHP code.  I could fix that for you."

    [/quote]

    Everyone knows that ALL true web application are PHP based.  The quote is a WTF all by it self; even if the page did use PHP it is still a WTF.  Depending on the sensitivity of the code I might just be curious enough to give him a copy to see what he does with it; could be entertaining. 


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