Posted on 08/06/2006 7:53:47 AM PDT by BenLurkin
'AOL ruined the internet"
Did they clog them tubes with massive, massive amounts of material, Senator?
You think aol is bad, lol try quitting from a gym. I signed up for Bally's little two week trial and the manager himself assured me i could cancel at the end of two weeks. It took me almost 4 months to get it done and i had to audio tape the guy in secret and threaten to sue them if they didn't let me go.
Ah, another satisfied AOL user! Good for you. Now go back to sleep.
I had absolutely no trouble when I cancelled AOL. The guy I talked to was very nice about it, and the charges stopped immediately. I still get the AOL CD's now and then, but that's the extent of it.
AOL = the internet on training wheels !
"Ah, another satisfied AOL user! Good for you. Now go back to sleep"
AOL served its purpose in the early and mid 90's, getting millions of people online in a simplified, controlled environment. I don't happen to view that as having been a bad thing. You, on the other hand, sound rather like a perturbed, former CompuServe geek, pining for the good old days. In light of this, your frequent focus upon nap time is amusing.
LOL. Great post. I remember quite well when the hordes from AOL were unleashed upon thhe internet. It immediately degraded the entire network. Newsgroups, which were bad enough as it was became almost unusable.
One of the things that I think is funny, is that so many people who keep AOL do so mainly because they don't want to change their email address. I've tried to point out some superior services for that, like the email forwarding service I use, to varying levels of success. I've had the same email address for over 10 years now, and can't even recall how many different email providers and ISPs I've had.
Your post is a perfect example of a typical AOL poster. No content, all feelings, and puerile... And why discussion anything with one who defends AOl is useless. Now go back to sleep with the rest of your know-nothing tribe.
I really don't agree. BI (before Internet) there was AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Each vendor offered an external network that was was separate and unique. (We are talking 300 baud here!) Each provided a form of email but only within the bounds of it's own customer base. With the arrival of the Internet, Prodigy provided it's customers with a "gateway" from within their proprietary network to access the wider, Internet web. I don't know for sure but I expect CompuServe did also. AOL fought tooth and nail to keep it's customer base "on the plantation".
During the run-up to Y2K, Prodigy made the decision not to upgrade it's old software to make it compliant with the anticipated problems. They decided to focus entirely on the Internet and thus became an ISP when they dropped the Prodigy browser. I am not sure what happened to CompuServe but I suppose they went under about then as they were always the smallest of the proprietary networks.
AOL to this day tries to pretend that you need their browser software to access the Internet. They also do their damnedest to convince their customers that the only things available on the net are on AOL web sites. They have designed their software so that it's virtually impossible to un-install once it is loaded to your hard drive.
All in all, AOL is more like a senile old man sitting in his chair and talking endlessly about the "good old days" when he was king.
Regards,
GtG
"Your post is a perfect example of a typical AOL poster. No content, all feelings, and puerile"
And your flamebait posts are the epitome of mature, adult behavior. Oh, and startlingly fact-filled, too, lol!
Actually, one of the reasons I prefer Amex for autobill charges is that their customer service in this area is superb. Simply tell them that a merchant is no longer authorized to bill your card and you're done. The AOL dog can then bark at the Amex moon all it likes, it won't see another dime and no more billing headaches for you.
You tried, I know you did, I have tried too, but trying to discuss anything with an AOL used is like wading through molasses. It is not that they are stupid, it is just that they are too lazy to think. That makes them both ideal consumers and poor citizens.
Adults don't use AOL, that is the point, and that is the fact, lol. Do you know who uses AOL more than anyone else, by far? It is not your normal adults. Check out the chat rooms. YOu wanna' have a beer with these people? I don't think you would, and if you did, you sure wouldn't tell anyone.
As a republican and a capitalist, that's not a very nice thing to say.. My expeience with AOL has been great. To be sure I only use it as the portal to the web, because my access is via DSL, but for me its been great...
Of course he's correct. Everyone knows that in Heaven you get Dish Network.
L
"Adults don't use AOL, that is the point, and that is the fact, lol."
My elderly parents and other relatives still use it. I paid for their accounts. I haven't been "on" AOL since the advent of broadband. Now, would you care to explain your misdirected, asinine behavior?
Thank you for making my point. You set up someone else on AOL so that pretty much disqualifies you from any rational debate. You take one example, your parents in your case, and extropolate from that example to the general population of users. That is truly asinine. Of course every rule has exceptions. In fact, there is even a saying about that subject, something like 'The exception proves the rule.' Unfortunately in you case, having set them up, you are not the exception to the AOL population. Now go back to sleep with the rest of your tribe.
Thanks for the information.
I don't want to be harsh with a fellow FReeper so let me explain why you reply as you do. You have bought into a certain mindset and so it is only natural that you defend it. It is only human. But you have to be open to better ways of living life and sometimes you have to, with more knowledge about a subject of belief, be willing to admit you were wrong. There is no shame to being wrong as if you are never wrong you aren't doing much. There is shame in lashing out at what challenges your belief system and requires you to think.
It's all they know, and they're not technically inclined. They send and receive e-mail, maybe look for news, weather, a sports score or a recipe, and that is the sum total of their interest. They do not grasp anything other than the interface that they have been using for a decade or more. You may get some smug little sense of faux superiority by putting down people such as this, but I just go along. Changing is not that important to them; it's really more a source of frustration and confusion, and so I leave it be.
I hope you refrain from contacting any older people in your general proximity, with such a trifling attitude.
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