100:. The plaintiffs argued that the Community Leader position required a significant amount of effort and detail to qualify the position as having an "employee relationship" with AOL. The plaintiffs specifically demonstrated how Community Leaders had to undergo a thorough, 3-month training program and were required to file timecards for shifts, work at least four hours per week, and submit detailed reports outlining their work activity during each shift. When AOL first started the program it charged for access to its services by the hour, thus Community Leaders, i.e. those who were heavy Internet users saved hundreds of dollars each month. This fact actually hurt AOL when the lawsuit began, however, as the reception of benefits (along with whether the work is full-time and displaces regular employees) is a factor that helps the Department of Labor determine if a volunteer should actually be paid. The
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done by
Community Leaders. Leading up to and following the AOL Time Warner merger, AOL did not have the time or money to invest in building and maintaining its online community. The company's later focus on advertising as its major source of income rather than high quality bespoke online content, an intention that began earlier in 1996 when subscriber hourly rates were replaced with a single unlimited-use monthly fee, provided the company little apparent profit incentive to monetize community forums.
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The
Department of Labor investigation, which, at least in part prompted AOL to limit Community Leader responsibilities, caused issues for the company. Without unpaid volunteers, the company would have to hire employees to manage and post online content and run effective online communities previously
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service in the mid-1990s. Because they were usually recruited from the more active users of a particular online forum, Community
Leaders were often very passionate about the area for which they volunteered their time. This enthusiasm usually resulted in a greater sense of community and a higher level
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Community
Leaders had a wide variety of responsibilities, ranging from hosting chat rooms, monitoring message boards and file libraries, providing customer service, teaching online classes, and particularly creating and managing forum content. However, toward the end of the program, Community Leader
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In
February 2008, the court in which the lawsuit was filed denied AOL's Motion to Dismiss and certified the case for class-action status. The court has ordered AOL to provide the names and contact information for all former Community Leaders to notify them and give them the opportunity to join the
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Along with the DOL investigation, and with less need for well-managed communities and membership in serious decline, AOL decided to terminate its volunteer program. In late May 2005, AOL informed its
Community Leaders that they would be released from their positions on June 8 of that year. AOL
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investigated the report, but came to no conclusions, officially closing the investigation in 2001. In response to the investigation, AOL began drastically reducing volunteer responsibilities. By 2000, nearly all
Community Leaders had lost content-editing rights and no longer provided customer
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provided free service to their volunteers. Community
Leaders also received special accounts (Price Index 77 or Overhead Accounts) that allowed them to restrict disruptive chat, hide inappropriate message board postings, and access private areas on the AOL service, such as the Community Leader
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offered volunteers 12 months of free service in compensation for their services. While many
Community Leaders left the service after this announcement, others stayed with AOL and continued their efforts at building community, albeit in an unofficial role.
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In May 1999, Kelly
Hallisey and Brian Williams, two former Community Leaders, filed a class action lawsuit against AOL, claiming that AOL volunteers performed work equivalent to employees and thus should be compensated according to the
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In February 2010, the United States for the Southern District of New York gave preliminary approval to a settlement between AOL and the Community Leaders totaling 15 million dollars. Final approval was granted in May 2010.
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at its start in 1985. The system which became AOL established the Community Leader Program officially in the early 1990s, and discontinued it in 2005. At the peak of the program, it is estimated that
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service or technical support to AOL customers. Additionally, in many AOL forums, Community Leader supervisors became more lax about paperwork and shift hours.
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Although at times controversial, the Community Leader program arguably played a substantial role in the rapid growth and success of the
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duties were generally restricted to monitoring chat and message boards. In exchange for their services,
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of professionalism in that forum. This in turn gave the AOL service more value over the less organized "
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The program's roots dated back to the use of online remote volunteer "guides" by AOL predecessor
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had approximately 14,000 volunteers, including 350 non-adult teenagers.
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282:. CNET News, Retrieved on 26 May 1999.
280:Former AOL volunteers file labor suit
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149:adding citations to reliable sources
293:"The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt"
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91:Department of Labor investigation
243:"Inside AOL's "Cyber-Sweatshop""
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265:Collier, L. (August 2000).
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485:Community Leader Program
102:U.S. Department of Labor
98:Fair Labor Standards Act
109:class-action lawsuit.
419:ART image file format
66:Headquarters (CLHQ).
199:Virtual volunteering
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206:(& Wikipedians)
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241:Margonelli, Lisa.
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297:Priceonomics
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332:2016-02-02
303:2016-02-02
252:2016-02-02
34:chat rooms
30:volunteers
569:Radio KOL
515:GameDaily
475:Alto Mail
414:AOLserver
83:" of the
609:Category
525:Hometown
505:FanHouse
500:Explorer
444:Ultravox
386:Websites
188:See also
85:Internet
81:frontier
520:Gravity
510:Ficlets
407:Related
393:Aol.com
318:"Cases"
278:Hu, J.
22:AOL CLP
480:buy.at
463:Former
449:Yahoo!
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564:Radio
554:press
530:In2TV
247:WIRED
211:Notes
574:Seed
495:DMOZ
225:ISBN
70:Role
16:The
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470:AIM
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