Thursday, September 13, 2018

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Sept. 13, 1998 -- All-Starr Weekend (and an updated disclaimer)

September 13, 1998: We went all Starr Report for the weekend, with an otherwise standard text promo lineup.

However, below the fold, there's a change: the "100 HOURS Free*" asterisk, which previously pointed to a fine-print disclaimer in the footer, now points to a more visible disclaimer near the bottom of the column reading, "*For conditions and membership details, sign up now." Again, the change was probably given to us by Legal; and again, the only way to view the details was to actually go through the signup process.
  
1998_09_13
(There's also a new "Online Safety" item in the corporate links area, but that's just an artifact of the preview, which I did the following week when I took the screenshot, so I'll talk about it after it "goes live.")

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.] 

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