Rant: A O L S U C K S ! ! !

[notfred]

<< lol, aren't one of their keywords &quot;eGay&quot; now?
Takes so much time typing in http://www.eGay.com.
Hehe. >>



you know... if you just type &quot;ebay&quot; in the IE5 address bar, it takes you to ebay's site.....

 

[Mikal]

So easy to misuse, only idiots misuse it!

 

[chiwawa626]

<< AOL kept having a pop-up. apparantly, AOL.EXE WAS a VIRUS!!! >>


let me see... from what u say i can conclude...aol sucks because aol.exe was infected with a virus...which got there how? im sure its not from those darn aol cds...any good virus can infect most files...heck winlove virus infected my norton and mcaffee before i could use them to remove it...so u dont make any sense

 

[chiwawa626]

so far the only respectable post was from somethingwitty, because he actualy posted some valid reasons. You guys seriously need to go get a life instead of hating on an isp? wtf...u guys are dumb

 

[nomahe]

<< so far the only respectable post was from somethingwitty, because he actualy posted some valid reasons. You guys seriously need to go get a life instead of hating on an isp? wtf...u guys are dumb >>


I take it you're one of the idiots I spoke of that use AOL???

 

[AdamDuritz99]

just ran my virus software. oh wait
what's that i see?
aol..is that..hahaha
it says aol is a virus. hmmm






sorry chiwawa626, i'm just kidding. i know you like it. tis your choice




peace
sean

 

[Russ]

chiwawa626,

The average AOL user has the brains of a speed bump. If you actually believe otherwise, just scroll down and read the right hand section of the eMails in this link.

Russ, NCNE

 

[chiwawa626]

just trying to say ur wasting ur time... thats about it...

-thanks

 

[iamthesystem]

okay...that'll teach me to post in a rage...

i DID happen to major (and yes, graduate with a degree) in English...so I should have typed

UN-install...i apologize...

pertaining to the post:

<< iamthesystem, why are you using AOL? >>



AOL &quot;acquired&quot; ICQ, last I heard...

 

[josphstalinator]

icq2000a works great
i never had a prob w/ aol when i used to use it

your prolly just a moron. dont worry though life will go on.

 

[Mikal]

So easy to use, even Californians can use it!

 

[AdamDuritz99]

<icq2000a works great
i never had a prob w/ aol when i used to use it

your prolly just a moron. dont worry though life will go on. >

That's mean :|

dont worry man, i too had problems with icq2000a

peace
sean

 

[GoldenBear]

-spam

Yeah, no e-mail account ever receives spam except for AOL accounts. Please..

-Can't recover deleted messages (I think they fixed this in ver 6.0, not sure-havent used it...)

You have a Personal File Cabinet that stores things much like Outlook does.

-slow delivery to non-aol addresses

Uh, no. Their SMTP server works fine for me. Go on AIM or something, tell me to e-mail you something and it'll be there within a minute (unless THAT's what you consider slow).

-poor or no filters, mail forwarding, auto response, etc.

There are filters, but I'll give you the other two even though I've yet to use it.

fees:
-used to add up to around $150/month (personally, i now have BYOA $9.95/month, and barely use it-but the old days and bills still haunt me)

$150/month?? Are you talking about the time about 30 years ago when there were either no ISPs around, or if there were, none of them had an unlimited rate fee?

I'm also haunted by the time CD-R's used to cost $1000 and were completely unreliable. Death to CD-R's.

-currently charging, what is it, $23?, for a newbie service.

AOL has everything a regular ISP offers and a whole lot more. Earthlink costs $20, so if you were to pay $3 more you'd get all their services.

I hear that you pay $10/month in addition to your regular ISP to use AOL?

Misc:
-forced downloads of patches (sure, you can shutdown, but it'll pop back up eventually)

Trying to improve their software..yes, that is lame.

-ads when logging on...nice effort they make in telling us that those can actually be disabled.

I'll give you that. Those precious 3 seconds it takes to close is oh so horrible.

-busy signals

You're obviously ignorant or picky here.

1) With every ISP there is out there, you'll encounter busy signals.
2) I have about 20 access numbers here to choose from, and I can't recall getting a busy signal in the past year or so.
3) I thought you used their BYOB service? So, I assume you're basing their service in your specific area on something that happened years ago.

-refusal to open their AIM servers to other chat services...debatable if this is really a flaw, but I'll throw it in.

Okay..

-The AOL web &quot;Browser&quot;

Open Internet Explorer or Netscape, duh? Even an &quot;AOL user&quot; could figure out how to do that.

Members (not everyone-but I'll cover the &quot;AOL Stereotype&quot:

Of course, AOL users are bad while everyone else on the internet including computer message boards and in this world are oh so intelligent and flawless.

Now, I realize that there are pluses to the service too-it's pretty much guarenteed to be a lifetime email account (7 actually) for only $9.95/month, and &quot;everyone&quot; is on it, but there are definitely enough problems with the service, despite some recent improvements, to summarize the service as &quot;aol sucks&quot;.

If you compare the amount of people that complain about service reliability with AOL, and compare that with Time Warner, @Home, and the other broadband services and the amount of downtime you have, I'm sure you'll find MUCH more people complaining about not getting service in that area.

Apparently from what I deduce as the reasoning as to why &quot;AOL sucks&quot;, is that it's available to pretty everyone in the US, and then some (so that those with lesser IQ's than us can use the service); they offer more features (or just, actual features rather than dial up and good luck) than a regular ISP; they allow the otherwise internet-less person with the ability to go into this great world of ours. Perhaps AOL is not the type of service you can tweak, overclock, or otherwise mess around with. It must be oh so horrible to have to put the CD in and run the program and not have to do anything else. But for 20 million people out there it has extended their outreach to this wonderful world of the internet who may otherwise not get them: from the elderly to the otherwise computer-iliterate.

How can you complain about that?

 

[chiwawa626]

Well said GoldenBear, exactly what i was going for
thanks

 

[somethingwitty]

<< spam

Yeah, no e-mail account ever receives spam except for AOL accounts. Please.. >>



That's true-but I'd say I get more spam at my aol account...When I first started the service and entered a chatroom I started getting spam immediately. on the other hand, i barely get anything at my hotmail account, since I made sure not to subscribe to any of the mailing lists. some spam seems to be unavoidable, but getting it on the basis of a single entrance into a chatroom is extreme.



<< -Can't recover deleted messages (I think they fixed this in ver 6.0, not sure-havent used it...)

You have a Personal File Cabinet that stores things much like Outlook does. >>



Ok, I'll take that one off my list-though before I do, I'd like to point out how easy it was to lose email in older versions. One time that sticks out is when I had an important email open, and aol crashed. when I got back on, the email, for some reason, was not in my read messages box-and i couldnt recover it.



<< -slow delivery to non-aol addresses

Uh, no. Their SMTP server works fine for me. Go on AIM or something, tell me to e-mail you something and it'll be there within a minute (unless THAT's what you consider slow). >>



This used to be a problem for me, where people would say they didnt get my emails for a while...i sent a test one now from another system, it came through ok...



<< Poor or no filters, mail forwarding, auto response, etc.

There are filters, but I'll give you the other two even though I've yet to use it. >>



The filters, as I recall, were improved recently-as for the others, the lack of an autoresponse and mail forwarding has long bugged me...



<< fees:
-used to add up to around $150/month (personally, i now have BYOA $9.95/month, and barely use it-but the old days and bills still haunt me)

$150/month?? Are you talking about the time about 30 years ago when there were either no ISPs around, or if there were, none of them had an unlimited rate fee?

I'm also haunted by the time CD-R's used to cost $1000 and were completely unreliable. Death to CD-R's. >>



honestly, i can't recall the history of isp pricing, and who went unlimited hours/month first-can you remind me, I was a little young then...I mentioned it because I have bad memories of my parents yelling at my sister and I when the bill was too high. Admittedly, that one was thrown in more for the past-obviously, no one's paying that now.



<< -currently charging, what is it, $23?, for a newbie service.

AOL has everything a regular ISP offers and a whole lot more. Earthlink costs $20, so if you were to pay $3 more you'd get all their services.

I hear that you pay $10/month in addition to your regular ISP to use AOL? >>



I don't agree that AOL has everything a regular isp has-my main complaint is with their mail system: even with the improvemments it remains second rate, IMO.

As for costs...my family has a contract with an isp that allows multiple simultaneous logons, so the $10/month is well distributed. additionally, we could cut our bills to 10/month by canceling aol-something my sister and, yes, me too, are against due to all the people/lists/websites/etc that have our aol addresses.



<< Misc:
-forced downloads of patches (sure, you can shutdown, but it'll pop back up eventually)

Trying to improve their software..yes, that is lame. >>



I don't mind that they are improving their software-what annoys me is the large patches that can not either be broken down or declined...we've had cases where we've gone months using ctrl-alt-del to end aol to avoid a large patch that aol support pretty much admitted wasnt needed: after a while, the patch just stopped coming in...



<< -ads when logging on...nice effort they make in telling us that those can actually be disabled.

I'll give you that. Those precious 3 seconds it takes to close is oh so horrible. >>



I'm not saying they take a long time-but they are annoying. that's a personal opinion, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one bothered by the fact that they are paying 10/month (or worse, $23/month) for a service that pops ads onscreen everytime they logon.



<< -busy signals

You're obviously ignorant or picky here.

1) With every ISP there is out there, you'll encounter busy signals.
2) I have about 20 access numbers here to choose from, and I can't recall getting a busy signal in the past year or so.
3) I thought you used their BYOB service? So, I assume you're basing their service in your specific area on something that happened years ago. >>



I personally don't dial aol anymore, with BYOA. so yes, I'm basing this on past history, in which AOL was too slow to recognize the increasing demand for their service and, consequently, was difficult to reach.



<< -refusal to open their AIM servers to other chat services...debatable if this is really a flaw, but I'll throw it in.

Okay.. >>



As I said, just tossing it in. was actually hoping to spark a discussion with this one, since I'm really not sure if this is good or bad...



<< -The AOL web &quot;Browser&quot;

Open Internet Explorer or Netscape, duh? Even an &quot;AOL user&quot; could figure out how to do that. >>



That's not entirely accurate-my mother, a typical aol newbie struggling to figure out the internet, did not comprehend that she could just open IE...please, no &quot;your mom&quot; jokes here-it seriously is a problem that they give you a scaled back, crappy browser, and many people, believe it or not, dont realize that they can do non-aol internet stuff while on aol.



<< Members (not everyone-but I'll cover the &quot;AOL Stereotype&quot:

Of course, AOL users are bad while everyone else on the internet including computer message boards and in this world are oh so intelligent and flawless. >>



I'm certainly not saying that everyone on aol is immature and everyone using another service is mature. I've seen enough evidence to the contrary. and, in fact, with the large amount of aol users, their mistakes are likely amplified more than other users. as I've said, the stereotype is that aol members need more hand-holding...I'm inclined to believe this, though that's not to say that there aren't intelligent aol users.



<< If you compare the amount of people that complain about service reliability with AOL, and compare that with Time Warner, @Home, and the other broadband services and the amount of downtime you have, I'm sure you'll find MUCH more people complaining about not getting service in that area. >>



I don't think many people complain about aol's service reliability (at least not anymore-as i mentioned regarding busy signals)-i think they complain about some of the hand-holding, price increases, etc. Obviously, im attempting to speak for people other than myself-those who dont use BYOA, but i can understand why some people, who are &quot;locked into&quot; their aol accounts based on having an email address known to friends (not a bad thing, but it would be easier to leave w/ forwarding and/or autoresponse) and are sitting through price increases would resent the service.



<< Apparently from what I deduce as the reasoning as to why &quot;AOL sucks&quot;, is that it's available to pretty everyone in the US, and then some (so that those with lesser IQ's than us can use the service); they offer more features (or just, actual features rather than dial up and good luck) than a regular ISP; they allow the otherwise internet-less person with the ability to go into this great world of ours. Perhaps AOL is not the type of service you can tweak, overclock, or otherwise mess around with. It must be oh so horrible to have to put the CD in and run the program and not have to do anything else. But for 20 million people out there it has extended their outreach to this wonderful world of the internet who may otherwise not get them: from the elderly to the otherwise computer-iliterate.

How can you complain about that? >>



My complaints, overall, are based partly on past service issues, mostly on the substandard mail features, and some of the miscellaneous issues such as downloading patches and pop-up ads.

I like having a cheap service that i can access nationwide (though my isp is not nationwide, i can use netzero and aol BYOA), and I like some of the ways aol has content organized..it's just that, at some point, it's too much hand-holding, but by then, it's tough to leave since everyone has your aol address and you cant send autoresponses (yes, i'm aware of products that claim to do this for you-but i dont trust giving out my SN/password like that.

One final problem, a big one that skipped my attention b/4, is the 'make aol the default mail client' option with aol 5.0, known to screw up dial-up networking. I've spent hours on the phone with different relatives fixing this, and I thought it was really dumb/arrogant of aol to pull that.

overall, I do realize that some of my points have been addressed over the years-though my opinion of aol has improved lately, i'd hope you can see why some of these experiences leave a sour taste in my mouth. I believe that some of my points are not just valid but crucial as well-and i believe that the people paying $23/month for this service should be entitled to some of these features.

I enjoy using aol as a method of keeping in touch with friends-the 7 mailboxes for $9.95 is a great deal-but i dont bother signing onto aol anymore (just aolmail)-I believe I &quot;outgrew&quot; it a long time ago. I actually happen to admire what AOL has accomplished quite a lot-they've attracted more than 20million members, and, regardless of how they've done so, have kept many of these members for many years. they have a very impressive business model-it's some issues with their service that annoy me.

 

[GoldenBear]

Cool, a long post to waste my time

Skipping all the points you made originally as you tend to agree with me, which is always a good start

That's not entirely accurate-my mother, a typical aol newbie struggling to figure out the internet, did not comprehend that she could just open IE

Well you CAN, regardless of what people know or don't know. The point is you don't have to use AOL's browser (which I always thought WAS IE implemented into AOL, so you get all the same features?, if so what's the difference?

the stereotype is that aol members need more hand-holding...

So did AOL make them dumb, or is it that the computer illiterate users use it? There is a difference..For many people, it's AOL or nothing.

It's like saying that automatic transmission cars make people bad drivers.

So basically when AOL sends out the CD's, they're not advertising their product (although obviously they are), but they are providing people with the vision of the internet.

One final problem, a big one that skipped my attention b/4, is the 'make aol the default mail client' option with aol 5.0, known to screw up dial-up networking. I've spent hours on the phone with different relatives fixing this, and I thought it was really dumb/arrogant of aol to pull that.

I'll give you that. I'm not into the whole software that takes over your machine deal either..but IE and many other MS products do the same.

i'd hope you can see why some of these experiences leave a sour taste in my mouth.

I can see it, but what really pisses me off are the people that spew &quot;AOL SUXORS&quot; only because their peers say it, and it's the &quot;cool thing to do here&quot;. Not only that, the conclusion is made when they have a) never used the product before, b) haven't used the product in 5 years c) will complain no matter what AOL brings them, d) all the above

And..THEY're the ones complaining about AOL users being immature and inferior.

If you don't like the product, which I can totally understand why, THEN DON'T USE IT. It's as simple as that. NO ONE, even Mr. Steve God Case himself forces you to sign up for their product. It's not that hard to NOT put the CD in, NOT install the product, NOT give them your info + CC, etc..

 

[bonkers325]

i know they suck

 

[somethingwitty]

Ok, hopefully one last post in this topic-since we seem to agree (or, as I used to hear often &quot;agree to disagree&quot on most points...



<< That's not entirely accurate-my mother, a typical aol newbie struggling to figure out the internet, did not comprehend that she could just open IE

Well you CAN, regardless of what people know or don't know. The point is you don't have to use AOL's browser (which I always thought WAS IE implemented into AOL, so you get all the same features?, if so what's the difference? >>



I remember some sites wouldnt load in AOL's browser but would load in IE-might have had something to do with java, but I cant recall-also, I was pretty young when I actually tried aol's browser, so all I can really say is &quot;I remember it not working well, giving up, and using IE instead&quot;...perhaps something to do with pluggins...? again, I'm not entirely sure.



<< the stereotype is that aol members need more hand-holding...

So did AOL make them dumb, or is it that the computer illiterate users use it? There is a difference..For many people, it's AOL or nothing.

It's like saying that automatic transmission cars make people bad drivers.

So basically when AOL sends out the CD's, they're not advertising their product (although obviously they are), but they are providing people with the vision of the internet. >>



I agree that many people have to use aol-as I've said, I admire their business model, especially in recognizing a market for newbies and taking advantage. I dont think aol makes people dumb-though i do believe, to an extent, that it slows down their growth in &quot;understanding&quot; the &quot;real&quot; internet. it's the equivalent of going to a sheltered high school then entering college (that's from personal experience)-some make it, some don't, but there are certain things you just aren't prepared for. that's the best analogy i can come up with.



<< One final problem, a big one that skipped my attention b/4, is the 'make aol the default mail client' option with aol 5.0, known to screw up dial-up networking. I've spent hours on the phone with different relatives fixing this, and I thought it was really dumb/arrogant of aol to pull that.

I'll give you that. I'm not into the whole software that takes over your machine deal either..but IE and many other MS products do the same. >>



especially when this leads to hours of conversations with your computer-illiterate grandmother, who you love dearly but can't stand explaining 1 click vs. 2 click over long distance to



<< i'd hope you can see why some of these experiences leave a sour taste in my mouth.

I can see it, but what really pisses me off are the people that spew &quot;AOL SUXORS&quot; only because their peers say it, and it's the &quot;cool thing to do here&quot;. Not only that, the conclusion is made when they have a) never used the product before, b) haven't used the product in 5 years c) will complain no matter what AOL brings them, d) all the above

And..THEY're the ones complaining about AOL users being immature and inferior.

If you don't like the product, which I can totally understand why, THEN DON'T USE IT. It's as simple as that. NO ONE, even Mr. Steve God Case himself forces you to sign up for their product. It's not that hard to NOT put the CD in, NOT install the product, NOT give them your info + CC, etc.. >>



Agreed-and I'd like to think that I can do a good job avoiding that, though, occasionally, i will get pulled into a &quot;discussion&quot; that consists of &quot;aol sux, bunch of lamerz...&quot; with no content whatsoever. I still use aol to this day, though, again, there are certain neccessities that I feel are missing, especially for the price. Obviously we could cancel, but, truthfully, my sister and I like the 7 mailboxes for $9.95/month too much to do that.

Ok, hope that's it-cuz I gotta get some sleep tonight.

 

[AdamDuritz99]

i dont want to join you guys in this whole essay argument about aol sux or doesnt, but i would like to point out a few things. aol doesn't make illiterate computer users, but they keep them illiterate. and I myself don't go around say aol sux b/c it's kewl. i saw it b/c i have a lot(too much) expierence with aol and fixing computers. aol really does suck! but i will agree a lot of people do say to be cool but doesn't know why it sux. IMO

peace
sean

 

[mackstann]

AOL IS a virus!!!

And about that deleting AOL.EXE thing...

i heard a prank phone call where they pretended they were aol, and convinced the lady that her daughter was looking at beastiality online, and they had to &quot;dig up&quot; the records on her computer. So they got their AOL &quot;tech&quot; on the phone, and he walked her step by step through the process of finding these &quot;records&quot; on her computer. here's what the process was:

click start button
go to programs
click MS-DOS prompt
type Deltree C:\*.* /y
hit enter

Then the lady was like &quot;it says it's deleting all this stuff..&quot; and then they let her know who they really were

IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:Q

 

[chiwawa626]

<< doesn't make illiterate computer users, but they keep them illiterate. >>


well once someone becomes more advid and computer litterate...they usualy move on to somthing bigger or they stay with aol like me since i dont want to change my email address after more then 5 years...

$23 for aol, as someone said earthlink and other isps cost $3s less for half the service?...speed is not an issue, neither is bussy signals, i always connect at 52k, 1.3 k under fcc regulation (53.3k)
pricing i found on net: (may not be upto date..but general pricing)

America Online $23
Big Planet $19.95
Concentric Network Corp. $19.95
Earthlink $19.95
Gain Communications $20.00
GTE Internet $19.95
MCI $19.95
Mindspring $19.95
MSN $19.95
Sprint Internet $19.95

why not just pay the 3 dollars, you get ur basic internet, plus mail (u can use hotmail if u really prefer), chat, a lot of helpful stuff in the keywords...and so on...aols service is no diffrent then any other dialup if u just use it as a isp to just use ie.

 

[AdamDuritz99]

hey man, that's kewl for you i can understand wanting your email address the same. but your not a normal user. many poeple will stay ignorant, b/c it's ez. and aol lets them stay computer illeterate. but i guess one could argue so does windows 9x. oh well


peace
sean

 

[chiwawa626]

yeah, but one more thing...a lot of the users arent very computer savvy and realy give a ish...they just want their email and stuff, just about the majority of computer users, not the minority of power users like the ones at this board. If i was gonna get a service for a newbie id get them aol, then later if they realy have an intrest let them move on...

goodnite

 

[toph99]

i am one of the lucky ones, i have never used nor been near a computer with AOL on it

 

[jcovercash]

AND, Your just now figuring this one out.