SERA was the other kind of AOL sign-on: a way for employees to reach the corporate intranet remotely. The enclosed user guide is dated November 8, 2001 and covers Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac clients. The archive includes the 19-page guide alongside platform-specific installers. The screenshots here come from that guide; the old software has not been installed or tested.
Leaving IRC wasn't enough. You needed a custom quit message so everyone knew you were leaving in a very specific and interesting way. A joke, a quote, something that made closing a program sound important. Nobody announced going to the kitchen with that much effort. Disconnecting from a chat server got a whole closing statement.
Backordered, canceled or shipped? AOL’s OrderINQ reference gave support staff a list of codes for checking an order’s progress. This two-page document explains statuses such as backorder notices, cancellations and completed payments. The pictured page is the original reference table, not a customer’s order history.
Somebody gave you ops in an IRC channel with six people in it and suddenly you had responsibilities. The topic needed updating. The rules needed enforcing. Somebody was using too many capital letters. Five minutes earlier you were asking how to change your nickname. Now you were management.
Not every file in this archive is a prog or publishing tool. This 27-page document is an employee insurance booklet for AOL, with an August 2000 effective date and a January 2002 revision. It belongs in a company-history collection rather than the AOL Progs section. This is a historical document, not information about anyone’s current coverage.
Lol sometimes the plan was to sign off AIM and sign right back on so one particular person would notice. Couldn't just say hey. Had to make an entrance. Nothing says casual like disconnecting yourself from the entire internet social scene for eight seconds.
AOL publishers had to think about reporting as well as the page itself. This three-page tracking document discusses URL construction, WebStats, ASPP, Media Metrix and Rainman reporting. It is a small behind-the-scenes snapshot of how publishing teams were asked to measure channels and coordinate a launch.
They couldn't answer your IM, but they had time to change the away message twice. Interesting. Very interesting. Apparently being away involved a lot of editing. You weren't going to say anything. You were just going to put up your own completely unrelated away message that was obviously about it.
This archive contains a full 334-page Eprise Participant Server Event Reference, copyrighted 2000–2001. It is developer documentation for the publishing platform, with events organized as a technical reference. Its presence in this collection is documented; the file alone does not establish exactly where AOL used it.
Somebody would type brb on AIM and disappear for the rest of the night. No explanation. No update. Just a conversation sitting there with a promise that had absolutely no expiration date. Meanwhile you were still online three hours later. At some point brb became see you at school.
Before publishing meant opening a browser CMS, AOL had Rainman. This French-language manual from September 1998 walks through pages, links, lists, mini-icons and images inside the service. The 32-page document also covers RM Grinder and ART Press. These are original pages from the manual, showing the tools and layouts publishers worked with—not a recreation of the interface.
