<< So yes, I've read though about a dozen messages that show less intelligence than I would find in what you all would generalize as an "AOL chatroom."
Figures. >>
Though I've gotten into the routine of simply saying "aol sucks" and moving on, I'll try to list my intelligent reasons...feel free to add any I may have missed...
Mail:
-spam
-Can't recover deleted messages (I think they fixed this in ver 6.0, not sure-havent used it...)
-slow delivery to non-aol addresses
-poor or no filters, mail forwarding, auto response, etc.
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)
-currently charging, what is it, $23?, for a newbie service.
Misc:
-forced downloads of patches (sure, you can shutdown, but it'll pop back up eventually)
-ads when logging on...nice effort they make in telling us that those can actually be disabled.
-busy signals
-refusal to open their AIM servers to other chat services...debatable if this is really a flaw, but I'll throw it in.
-The AOL web "Browser"
Members (not everyone-but I'll cover the "AOL Stereotype":
-chatroom dialogue rarely mature, too much "shouting"
-internet newbies: not neccessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but aol allows for an easy maintenance of status quo, and many people never "graduate" to the "real" internet.
-The people who actually deleted AOL.EXE (sorry, couldn't resist )
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 "everyone" is on it, but there are definitely enough problems with the service, despite some recent improvements, to summarize the service as "aol sucks".