What happened to America Online (AOL)?

[Bible John]

"AOL, owned by Time Warner Inc., has reason to fight for every customer.
Although still the largest online service, AOL has lost nearly 6 million
customers in the last three years ‹ falling to 20.8 million subscribers
in the U.S. during the second quarter from a peak of 26.7 million in
September 2002."

AOL at one time was a decent service. I remember back in the days when
connecting to any ISP required me to create a login script, while AOL
was so simple. I remember the day when AOL had a decent service, but
these days their service sucks!!!

Why is it that the aol client I ran on my 25mhz LCIII over a 14.4 baud
modem in 1994 was faster, stabler, offered more features and such over
the bug ridden, sluggish version of AOL that is on my ibook?

AOL has lost it and I expect them to lose their NO#1 spot very soon.
They were not always a joke as the page below shows.

http://johnw.freeshell.org/aol/

AOL is dead. Their mistake of taking away the HTML boards caused a huge
uproar and lost them many. They will soon remove the chat rooms and
turn those into some HTML nightmare. Lets face it even on my new ibook
over a broadband connection HTML boards are slower than they were over a
25mhz 14.4K computer! HTML was never designed for such usage!



John
--
BA Church Education Ministries AS Business/IT specialist
CERM- Church Education Resource Ministries
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/unbeliever_list.htm

2 Tim 4:2
AIM: Crucifyself03
Spelling and grammar errors left
in for those that
need their life fulfilled by correcting me

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[George Kerby]

On 8/25/05 12:26 PM, in article

Post by Bible John
"AOL, owned by Time Warner Inc., has reason to fight for every customer.
Although still the largest online service, AOL has lost nearly 6 million
customers in the last three years ‹ falling to 20.8 million subscribers
in the U.S. during the second quarter from a peak of 26.7 million in
September 2002."
AOL at one time was a decent service. I remember back in the days when
connecting to any ISP required me to create a login script, while AOL
was so simple. I remember the day when AOL had a decent service, but
these days their service sucks!!!
Why is it that the aol client I ran on my 25mhz LCIII over a 14.4 baud
modem in 1994 was faster, stabler, offered more features and such over
the bug ridden, sluggish version of AOL that is on my ibook?
AOL has lost it and I expect them to lose their NO#1 spot very soon.
They were not always a joke as the page below shows.
http://johnw.freeshell.org/aol/
AOL is dead. Their mistake of taking away the HTML boards caused a huge
uproar and lost them many. They will soon remove the chat rooms and
turn those into some HTML nightmare. Lets face it even on my new ibook
over a broadband connection HTML boards are slower than they were over a
25mhz 14.4K computer! HTML was never designed for such usage!
John

All you have to do is consider who is associated with AOL. Time Warner
RUINED CNN because Turner was greedy. Hopefully, the whole conglomerate will
file for bankruptcy.


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[k***@aol.com]

I agree that the mac OSX version of AOL is very sluggish. The only
reason I have it is that is it bundled free with Road Runner and my
company pays for it. So, I can't complain on that end.

But, just checking email can be a chore. I click the "read" button,
(after the painfully slow Welcome Window, newsticker, menu, etc load at
sign on) the window comes up, beachball spins, AOL ads slowly appear on
the windows outer frame, beachball spins some more, and more, then my
emails begin to slowly appear in the window. Just crazy!

I've got 1.5ghz of RAM on my dual 1.25 MDD. It's not the computer, it's
a poorly written software application. Anyway, just my 2¢.

I hate AOL! But, it's free for me so I will compromise.....

Ken

[Michelle Steiner]

Post by George Kerby
All you have to do is consider who is associated with AOL. Time
Warner RUINED CNN because Turner was greedy.

Huh? Turner owned founded and owned CNN before the
merger/buyout/whatever with Time Warner. Turner no longer has anything
to do with CNN, by the way.

[George Kerby]

On 8/26/05 1:26 PM, in article

Post by Michelle Steiner

Post by George Kerby
All you have to do is consider who is associated with AOL. Time
Warner RUINED CNN because Turner was greedy.

Huh? Turner owned founded and owned CNN before the
merger/buyout/whatever with Time Warner. Turner no longer has anything
to do with CNN, by the way.

Turner sold out to Time-Warner and the employees were screwed, laid off and
treated like crap. I know that personally.
Case, in his desire to be more than a silly online CEO, figured a way to
leverage TW, and, since then, the whole thing has gone to hell in a
handbasket.

Yeah, Teddy is in the hills of Montana, sans his lovely bride, Hanoi Jane.


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[Cliff]

Post by George Kerby
Hanoi Jane.

One of the true American Patriots.

[Veszpertin - The Psychedelic Pope ~..~ His Most Enlightened Highness]

They sold out to $$$$$$$$$
decades ago.

[Reginald Dwight]

In article <***@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
"Veszpertin - The Psychedelic Pope ~..~ His Most Enlightened Highness"

Post by Veszpertin - The Psychedelic Pope ~..~ His Most Enlightened Highness
They sold out to $$$$$$$$$
decades ago.

Decades? Lessee...2005 minus 20 equals 1985. Were they around in 1985? :)

[Tim May]

Post by Reginald Dwight
"Veszpertin - The Psychedelic Pope ~..~ His Most Enlightened Highness"

Post by Veszpertin - The Psychedelic Pope ~..~ His Most Enlightened Highness
They sold out to $$$$$$$$$
decades ago.

Decades? Lessee...2005 minus 20 equals 1985. Were they around in 1985? :)

Yes, as Quantum, before altering direction and acquiring a new name.


--Tim May

[Dudhorse]

Post by Bible John
"AOL, owned by Time Warner Inc., has reason to fight for every customer.
Although still the largest online service, AOL has lost nearly 6 million
customers in the last three years < falling to 20.8 million subscribers
in the U.S. during the second quarter from a peak of 26.7 million in
September 2002."
AOL at one time was a decent service. I remember back in the days when
connecting to any ISP required me to create a login script, while AOL
was so simple. I remember the day when AOL had a decent service, but
these days their service sucks!!!
Why is it that the aol client I ran on my 25mhz LCIII over a 14.4 baud
modem in 1994 was faster, stabler, offered more features and such over
the bug ridden, sluggish version of AOL that is on my ibook?
AOL has lost it and I expect them to lose their NO#1 spot very soon.
They were not always a joke as the page below shows.
http://johnw.freeshell.org/aol/
AOL is dead. Their mistake of taking away the HTML boards caused a huge
uproar and lost them many. They will soon remove the chat rooms and
turn those into some HTML nightmare. Lets face it even on my new ibook
over a broadband connection HTML boards are slower than they were over a
25mhz 14.4K computer! HTML was never designed for such usage!

... corporate creative accounting did AOL in (the Time-Warner merger) - plus
their decision to marginalize their dialup users. They forgot or chose to
forget that the bulk of AOL's users were dialup users so to increase
revenues they aimed their service at the lucratitive broadband market and
the the dialup users are S.O.L.
I have used AOL v8. and v9. on dialup and both royally suck! IMHO v7.0 was
the last user-friendly version for us lowly dialup users.
I never could understand why AOL went for the broadband market at the cost
of the dialup people. If someone could afford high speed internet access
why stay with AOL??

[Stephen Henning]

Post by Dudhorse
... corporate creative accounting did AOL in (the Time-Warner merger) - plus
their decision to marginalize their dialup users. They forgot or chose to
forget that the bulk of AOL's users were dialup users so to increase
revenues they aimed their service at the lucratitive broadband market and
the the dialup users are S.O.L.

AOL was in trouble way before this. One of their first problems was
that they had employees stealing email addresses and selling them to
spammers. This has been going on for many years. They just caught one,
but others have been doing it for a long time. Many years ago I created
5 AOL accounts and only used 4 of them. The other one was never used
and never had a public profile. It got almost as much spam as the other
4 so someone had to be giving email addresses out.

The amount of spam on AOL was an order of magnitude more than other
ISPs. I kept two different ISPs and had websites on both. The AOL
email was unusable because of the spam.

The final death knell was when AOL was the last to jump on the digital
bandwagon. When I went to DSL, AOL didn't serve my area. Hence, it was
an easy decision to leave AOL. I could use AOL through my DSL supplier
for $6 per month, but AOL wasn't worth $6 per month.

To top that off, they were the last to adopt spam filters and virus
protection. Everyone else had it before they even realized there was a
problem. For a service provider, they don't recognize what service is
until everyone else has it.

The coup-de-gras is they use their proprietary software what has the
worst email reader and worst netnews group reader that is available.

AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

[Raff]

Post by Stephen Henning
AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

I fully agree. Needless to say, AOL makes it difficult to find out how
to drop service. Googling, I find calling 1-800-827-6364 mentioned (in
1999 posts).

Is calling this number still the most direct method to discontinue
service, or is there now some way to do it over the internet?

Raff

[Dudhorse]

Post by Raff

Post by Stephen Henning
AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

I fully agree. Needless to say, AOL makes it difficult to find out how
to drop service. Googling, I find calling 1-800-827-6364 mentioned (in
1999 posts).
Is calling this number still the most direct method to discontinue
service, or is there now some way to do it over the internet?
Raff

... I have heard some real horror stories about discontinuing AOL service
and especially the monthly charging against a credit card. I have a nephew
who works in a Wachovia Bank customer service center and the two biggest
categories of complaints/problems are the financial problems from the
aftermath of last years four hurricanes in Florida and the next is AOL still
billing a credit card after service has been discontinued.
Some have to cancel the card in order to get AOL from continuing to bill the
card - sounds like some big corporate weinie has decided to protect their
revenue stream(and his bonus!) by whatever means possible.
There are alot of pissed-off former users of AOL who say never again!!

[Cliff]

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:51:32 -0400, Raff

Post by Raff

Post by Stephen Henning
AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

I fully agree. Needless to say, AOL makes it difficult to find out how
to drop service. Googling, I find calling 1-800-827-6364 mentioned (in
1999 posts).
Is calling this number still the most direct method to discontinue
service, or is there now some way to do it over the internet?

Tried going to keyword "BILLING"?

[Raff]

Post by Cliff
On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:51:32 -0400, Raff

Post by Raff

Post by Stephen Henning
AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

I fully agree. Needless to say, AOL makes it difficult to find out how
to drop service. Googling, I find calling 1-800-827-6364 mentioned (in
1999 posts).
Is calling this number still the most direct method to discontinue
service, or is there now some way to do it over the internet?

Tried going to keyword "BILLING"?

Yes, and can't get further than the "Manage Your Account" screen,
which--- alas--- does not allow me to manage my account. I'm on
broadband; perhaps things are different for those on dial-up.

Raff

[Bible John]

Post by Stephen Henning
The coup-de-gras is they use their proprietary software what has the
worst email reader and worst netnews group reader that is available.
AOL's only utility is they have content that is available to everyone,
organized so it is easy to use. Since I left AOL, I have found better
content is out there for free. So with poor customer service, a late
arrival on the high speed scene, the worst email reader and the worst
spam problem in the industry, why would anyone want to stay with AOL.

Aol no longer has any content that you cant find on the web. At one
time they had nice message boards, file libraries, chat rooms,
slideshows, and forums, but those days are over.

They also had access to magazines and other information that these days
cost money to get on the web. Back then I could get MacWorld for free.

http://johnw.freeshell.org/aol/


John
--
BA Church Education Ministries AS Business/IT specialist
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/unbeliever_list.htm
2 Tim 4:2
AIM: Crucifyself03

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----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

[Cliff]

Post by Stephen Henning
Many years ago I created
5 AOL accounts and only used 4 of them. The other one was never used
and never had a public profile. It got almost as much spam as the other
4 so someone had to be giving email addresses out.

AOL allows wildcarding of addresses.
Anyone close to a bad address .....

[Bible John]

Post by Dudhorse
... corporate creative accounting did AOL in (the Time-Warner merger) - plus
their decision to marginalize their dialup users. They forgot or chose to
forget that the bulk of AOL's users were dialup users so to increase
revenues they aimed their service at the lucratitive broadband market and
the the dialup users are S.O.L.

Even on my ibook over broadband their service is way, way slower than it
was in 1995 when I used it over a 14.4K modem! No HTML boards, chat
rooms, file libraries, etc. It was was in the aol interface.

Post by Dudhorse
I have used AOL v8. and v9. on dialup and both royally suck! IMHO v7.0 was
the last user-friendly version for us lowly dialup users.
I never could understand why AOL went for the broadband market at the cost
of the dialup people. If someone could afford high speed internet access
why stay with AOL??

Amen. AOL used to have advantages because it was faster to get
information for dialup users.

I expect more and more will drop AOL!

http://johnw.freeshell.org/aol/
--
BA Church Education Ministries AS Business/IT specialist
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/
http://johnw.freeshell.org/bible/unbeliever_list.htm
2 Tim 4:2
AIM: Crucifyself03

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

[Cliff]

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:38:51 -0700, Bible John

Post by Bible John
Even on my ibook over broadband their service is way, way slower than it
was in 1995 when I used it over a 14.4K modem! No HTML boards, chat
rooms, file libraries, etc. It was was in the aol interface.

You probably have something wrong with your computer or
connection.

[Roseb44170]

I have to say that I'm getting more and more disappointed with them.
The latest thing that has got me mad is that they are changing the
format of their message boards because they say they want their
subscribers to be able to access them on the Internet. Their response
is something along the lines of even though some have expressed their
dislike we feel that we are doing a greater good?

I'm still reeling from them cancelling access to the Usenet Groups!

Rose
http://members.aol.com/Roseb44170/aol.com
"Yeah I'm still here!"

[Joseph]

Post by Roseb44170
I have to say that I'm getting more and more disappointed with them.
The latest thing that has got me mad is that they are changing the
format of their message boards because they say they want their
subscribers to be able to access them on the Internet. Their response
is something along the lines of even though some have expressed their
dislike we feel that we are doing a greater good?
I'm still reeling from them cancelling access to the Usenet Groups!
Rose
http://members.aol.com/Roseb44170/aol.com
"Yeah I'm still here!"

What's even more amazing is the people who continue to put up with the
bullshit that AOL continues to shovel at people. Instead of people
constantly complaining at how indignant they are at the latest crap
that AOL has pulled and waiting for them to increase yet again their
monthly rate to just get out of the "internet with training wheels"
known as AOL and find a *real* internet service provider. It's not
that hard to use a real mail application or use Internet Explorer or
Firefox. You can even get AOL Instant Messenger and still communicate
with all your buds who still cannot tear themselves away from AOL.

- -

[Cliff]

Post by k***@aol.com
It's not
that hard to use a real mail application or use Internet Explorer or
Firefox.

Gee .. You could even use Outbreak Distress ....

[Roseb44170]

I have to say that I'm getting more and more disappointed with them.
The latest thing that has got me mad is that they are changing the
format of their message boards because they say they want their
subscribers to be able to access them on the Internet. Their response
is something along the lines of even though some have expressed their
dislike we feel that we are doing a greater good?

I'm still reeling from them cancelling access to the Usenet Groups!

Rose
http://members.aol.com/Roseb44170/aol.com
"Yeah I'm still here!"