On Tue, 2003-06-17 at 14:11, rm wrote:<snip>
It's of course their right to block whatever they want, but I too believe it to
be both poor business and ineffective spam control. Aol lost 1 million subscribers in the last 6 months, and are projected to lose another 1 million in the next 6 months.
They must be doing something wrong.
I have to say something here. While I have never subscribed to AOL I have an inkling of what it must be like to have such a large network. I
Having turned completely to the Dark Side once (I was using WinME AND AOhelL), I can tell you EXACTLY why they are losing so many userse to Real ISP's(TM).
1) When you log on, a banner ad automatically pops up. You can only turn this off for a set period of time, then it's back.
2) Passwords are forced to be short. Even with an alphanumeric password, my account was getting hacked on a WEEKLY basis (changed pw each time and I never downloaded anything off the AOL network) for sending spam to other AOL users.
3) Their tech support people are ultra-aggressive about keeping you as a customer no matter WHAT. I was talked out of leaving TWICE before I told them to fuck off (no seriously, I believe I told them the service is shit and to literally fuck off). Even then they tried to get me to stay. Two months AFTER I "unsubscribe" I get a "past due" bill for $77 (the past due being the two months it took them to send me the bill, even though I was unsubbed (btw, I have yet to pay it)).
I can tell you this, that come hell or high water I will never use AOL again. I don't care if they were the last ISP on the planet. I'd rather use my computer to write viruses in Perl to exploit purposely made security holes on my computer.
Like Luke Skywalker from the SW's novels that come after Episode VI (in one series, he is actually turned to the Dark Side, but he fights his way back), I shall never turn to the Dark Side again. The power/ease is an illusion.
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