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No one I know has an AIM name. Everyone I know has an MSN name if they have something for IM, a few with only Yahoo, and some on Gmail Talk too. ICQ died out, but before MSN it was that one.

I have over 25 people on my MSN messenger, although of course some of them hardly use it.

I know not having an AIM account limits the people I can talk with or bump into online, but given what I see coming from AOL and the AOL community at large, that's not really a drawback. Every hear of the AOL.exe virus hoax? Look it up at http://www.jokeaday.com/

the complete kerfuffle you get when you try to help people get rid of it.

And this is bad news because ? :)
At least less people will be complaining about the AOL virus/

Vmyths ought to steer this OP right.
Mr. Gibson does about as much good for computers, as Symantec Antivirus does for JokeADay.com.

No? I didn't think so either.

AOLiens suck. There are a few people using AOL who are nice, but mostly they are people that drive the SUVs of the Internet. Over-hyped, wasting of resources, and likely to tip over if it is used for what it claims to do.

Jokeaday.com has been showing the true nature of the AOLien for many years now. I have encountered AOLiens both in person, and on the Interent, and I can tell you that what they seem to be in real life is in no way a reflection of the mosters they transform into on the "Internet".

If AOL dies a horrible corporate death, then I can only imagine what chaos it could cause. All the biggest freaks of the "Internet" will scatter, and we will not be able to discern an AOLien by a quick glance at email extensions, or the URL of a webpage. We must save AOL, even though we may be better off without it!

I totaly agree.But my example would have been The AOL Virus.
Boy, that made my stomach hurt from laughting.

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An Army grunt stands in the rain with a 35 lb pack on his back, 15lb weapon in hand, after marching 12 miles, and says "God, this is SHIT."

An Army Airborne grunt stands in the rain with a 45lb pack on his back weapon in hand, after jumping from an airplane and marching 18 miles, and says with a smile "God, this is THE shit."

An Army Airborne Ranger lies in the mud, 55lb pack on his back, weapon in hand, after jumping from a plane into the swamp and marching 25 miles at night past the enemy, and says with a grin,"God, I LOVE this shit!"

An Army Green Beret, Airborne/Ranger/Pathfinder qualified, kneels up to his nose in the stinking, infested mud of a swamp with a 65lb pack on his back and a weapon in both hands after jumping from an airplane into the ocean, swimming 10 miles to the swamp and killing an alligator, then crawling 30 miles through the brush to assault the enemy camp. He says with a passionate snarl, "God, gimmee Some MORE of this shit!"

An Air Force cadet sits in an easy chair in his air-conditioned, carpeted room and says,"The cable's out? What kind of shit is that?!?"

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Hey all,

Could someone please point out quite what is so good about AOL ? I work for a small internet company that is starting to get moving in the world, but in order to stop those from aol complaining we have to get an account ourselves to check out what the sites look like. It makes our lives such a hassle. Why do they have to do the micros~ and redifine the internet for their own capitalist needs ?

OK so it is a good thing that the (allegedly) simple controls are easy to use, but couldn't AOL at least *try* to explain that the internet is not owned by them ? I have read on many sites that people from AOL have attempted to report them to the "Internet Police" or the "Aol supervisors" for content which is not to their liking. For example "Joke a Day" at http://www.jokeaday.com is a site that features a free joke mailing list in which some of it's jokes are a little controversial. Some are about religian (but *all* religians are subjected to humiliation) some have rude words in. The signup letter shows clear instructions that state such jokes will be said. The guy running it has a letters page from those who write in... guess who complain the most ? Please understand that I am no way affiliated with this site... but take a look for true evidence.

So, to get to the point, AOL *PLEASE* start to get your act together and share a little. Free software is great and as such I am running Linux, but at the end of the day we all need to be fed. Therefore is it too much to ask for a decent service for these people that can point out the relevant infomation as stated above ? I am English so I don't know about elsewhere, but many ISPs websites have a brief guide to netiquette stating the simple request of being polite...

is it really too much to ask ?