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AOL Reports Its First Drop In Subscribers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you've-got-broadband dept.

Flamesplash writes "Yahoo! is running this AP story about AOL's first drop in subscribers. 170,000 US subscribers have left AOL in their fourth quarter of 2002, apparently due to users becoming more comfortable with broadband connections. It should be noted though that 'AOL has said it has stopped simply signing up new customers for the sake of counting them.'"

10 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Does this mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We won't get as many free coasters anymore?

    1. Re:Does this mean... by DAldredge · · Score: 4, Funny

      Remember when you could request up to 99 of them?

      That was fun. Kept me in 3 1/2 floppies for years :->

  2. Evil Empires by TheSam · · Score: 5, Funny

    One Evil Empire beginning to crumble, one more to go....

  3. Re:Drop in Subsribers! by miu · · Score: 5, Funny
    Oh no! How are we going to easily identify the scum of the Internet without @aol.com on the email address!

    "Assholes always advertise."
    Days of Atonement, Walter John Williams

    No worries, this will hold true for the forseeable future.

    --

    [Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
  4. "The book, 'To Serve Webpages' - It's a COOKBOOK!" by Tsar · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's all a trick! AOL is actually involved in a conspiracy with RMS, Linus Torvalds and Lawrence Lessig to cover the dumps of the world with enough aluminized plastic discs to increase the continent's average reflectivity, causing a new Ice Age. Once temperatures drop to below freezing all over the globe...

    Penguins will rule the Earth!
    Of course, I could be wrong...
  5. Wow by long_john_stewart_mi · · Score: 4, Funny

    For its part, AOL has said it has stopped simply signing up new customers for the sake of counting them.

    Well, this disproves the "To them, you are not just a number" Theory.

    Signed,

    24783

    --
    ...oOOo..'(_)'..oOOo...
    1. Re:Wow by bradkittenbrink · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, your number is 549153.

      Signed,

      608877

  6. "for the sake of counting them" ?!?! by sdmartin101 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Umm... Maybe my grip on English is slipping, but I have no idea what the line "[they have] stopped simply signing up new customers for the sake of counting them" is supposed to mean. Anyone care to parse this for me? Best I can make out of is their saying "we aren't clever enough to get a current membership count at the same time as we are adding new subscribers." Am I missing something?

    (30 seconds later)Jeebus! I finally got it to parse: "AOL used to sign up new members, not because it would increase revenue, but because it would increase their total number of subscribers (which presumably had some marketing value on its own). They have stopped this, and now expect to make money from their users." Someone, please explain the concept of scope ambiguity to the author of that article!!!

  7. Re:$15 for BYOA by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 5, Funny


    $15 a month for all the sex you can get is TOO MUCH?

    Oh, wait, this has got to be a /. nerd...

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  8. An insight by superspoon · · Score: 3, Funny

    A rather old cartoon, but it makes scence
    Dad vs. AOL

    --


    YarrRrr