When I see this type paragraph I think “gee I wish I knew this guy so I could have a personal TALK with him". I have used AOL, though I hate it, since the days when there was little else. I have customers all over the world who may only look for me every few years. They may have changed companies and locations many times since we last spoke, do I just give them up? I also have thousands of posts on genealogical and history web sites that use the AOL address and often get answers to questions long after I posted.
I can give none of this up because of what people like you think.
AOL users have that welded-on training wheels approach to computing, by and large. They're always the ones, five years after they bought their computer, who endlessly ask dopey questions they should have figured out four years prior.
If I have to answer one more "how do I turn on FreeRepublic?" type question again, I'm going to pop.
If not exposed to the "real" Internet, stuck with AOL, people stay ignorant of how to be not only computer-literate, but actually productive, and fall behind even the 5th-grader next door.
It's not only a lame service, it retards users' brains. In My Humble Opinion, of course.