[BC] Re: Why AOL

[Ron Youvan]

> The explanation is quite simple. Before I get into that, I cannot FATHOM why 
> anyone would discredit AOL without having thechnical/business grounds for 
> doing so. Why not share them with us?

   OK

   AOL was the every LAST ISP to jump to 28.8 kbs dial up speed.

   AOL has been engaging in the "don't let anyone quit us" game from the
beginning, to felony levels.  I have met several dozen people that told me
"I can't quit AOL, I never use them, they won't let me cancel."
(Eventually word spread as to ` how to quit them,' the customer service
department became "surly" to stem the bleeding, they got caught on a
audio/video blog that made it to broadcast TV and they dropped out of
the ISP service business, to keep from going to jail.)

   AOL puts a html tag (a self advertisement) at the end of all outgoing
messages "plane text" or html, which will not pass through some "mailing
list" VIRUS filters.  This is a recent development.
Any clever programmer could have chosen to put a "plane text" advertisement
at the end of all "plane text" messages.

   AOL does not support the "use groups" as in: AOL does not provide the
service to their customers, this should reduce their price by 50%.
"Use groups" is what became of the "bulletin boards" traffic of pre internet
days.  "Traffic" here is meant to mean "messages between users."
("use groups" or "use net/usenet" is also called "news groups")
(I believe they started with them and became so lame at maintaining them
that they dropped the service.)

   AOL charged $22.50 for half of what most ISPs charged $19.95 for and
"economy" ISP's charged $9.95, until recently.

   AOL made a lot of people think they were getting a bargain when
they paid $22.50 (or what ever) for half of the Internet.
I don't understand how they did it.

   My understanding and opinion.
I never used their services or was interested in using their services.
-- 
    Ron  KA4INM - My Florida property tax is 7 times what it was
                  3 years ago with no change on my part. OUCH!