I’ve been using AOL Instant Messenger for around 10 years now and today marks the saddest day I’ve had online thanks to AOL. My buddy list containing over 200 contacts, has somehow disappeared from existence.  I tried the “usual” recovery methods including searching for logs/backups of my buddy list. I’ve also logged into AIM Express on the web to see if my list lived on somewhere or maybe it was a glitch. I even logged in from my HTC Droid Eris smartphone using IM+ to no avail.

I just sent an e-mail to AOL regarding this injustice that has been done. Sure, it’s my fault for not backing up my buddy list — but we’re going on 10 years strong of no issues when it comes to the most popular instant messenger client on the Internet. For whatever reason, AIM has set its sights on destroying my poor little contact list.

It’s not a major loss. The top 90% of the people that I talk to daily/weekly will be re-added without a hitch. But what about those random contacts you talk to once in a blue moon only because they’re on your list? Or the people you haven’t seen online in 5 years and maybe, just maybe they’ll sign in and tell you what adventures they’ve had.

No… this doesn’t happen to people with zero buddies. It’s a good thing I have MSN/Live, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook and MySpace to drown my sorrow. I think I’ll tweet this. Maybe AIM isn’t that important after all…