Slashdot Mirror
AOL To Be Free For Broadband Users?
mikesd81 writes "AOL may give away more services including its AOL.com accounts reserved for paying customers. They have a proposal under consideration which calls for Time Warner's online unit to stop charging subscription fees to users who have high-speed Internet access or even dial-up service from a rival provider. Under the plan the company would continue to charge the fees for those needing dial-up access through AOL. The AOL software also would allow subscribers to continue using instant messaging, Web journals and other services without having to download separate software or figure out Web-based options. That would ease the transition and encourage them to keep using AOL services, the person familiar with the matter said."
then you'd have to use AOL.
Duh...AOL has always been the king of free shit. I don't think I bought a blank 3.5" floppy disk from the mid-1990s onwards because of them. Just plain white Avery labels to cover them up with.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
What is the point of AOL?
. . . only newbies would use AOL. Oh, wait! ;-)
Free crap is still crap.
A: Yes, but it sucks 10 times faster.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
If the editors can dupe the articles, us commenters can dupe the comments ... and to that end:
> > > > > Just because a bag of crap is free doesn't mean it's worth the hassle of obtaining it.
> > > > Horse shit!
> > > Free? My uncle sells manure at a good few pounds per bag. It's a good source of income.
> > Good source of income, eh? Must be good shit. Couldn't resist...
> I'll take a bag of the good shit please...
But as Heinlein would say... TANSTAFS.
From AOL's perspective, giving the shit away is probably a good business decision. AOL is as much a marketing organization / advertising agency than an ISP, and they probably make a lot more money selling their users' data as they do from ISP subscription fees.
Hence, give the shit away. The more eyeballs that stare at AOL's shit, the more shit comes through the tubes, and the more ad revenue AOL/TW brings in from advertisers eager to sell their shit.
I could get AIDS for free, too. That doesn't make it desirable.
Trolling is a art,
The AOL access may be free, but they are going to start charging for the install CDs.
Stabbing yourself in the face is free, too, but it's still not a good idea.
I guess too many people figured out AOL wasn't 'The Internet'?
My mother (in spite of my protestations) has used AOL for years.
She's stopping now though, because even though she pays a high monthly subscription, she gets bombarded with adverts from AOL, even while their addware and spyware 'zapper' is running.
There are even usually two adverts on the logoff screen.
I can't beleive it, but they've actually managed to suck more.
Yeah, but so is gum under your chair.
Tell me when they pay me to use that crap.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Bang that crayon a little further up my nose, Moe. Woo hoo! AOL! How can I lose?
This statement is solely an opinion. Kindly take it as such in all cases.
Now if only it was open source, then we could look at the code, comment out all of the code, then it would be a more worthwhile product.
this is the fourth "story" in a row that has a question for a title.
I mean they never let you cancel. "Please try AOL free for 50 more days"
http://sohilsblog.blogspot.com
I dont understand why anyone would do this.
Everyone I know that's gone to broadband from AOL did it as much to escape the confines/ads/annoyances of the AOL software as for the speed. Why would you voluntarily restrict yourself to using their browser when you could be using Firefox?
Furthermore, the people that have broadband (granted, not as much today, but still) are the people that are a bit more technically savvy and want more out of their internet connection/experience. Why on earth would any of these people want AOL?
AOL (the app) is simply voluntary spyware, the entire point of AOL (the company) is not to help or provide a "service" to users but to provide companies with a targeted resource in which to exploit for financial gain
open AOL (the app) and see what is more prominent , advertising or content ?
Sounds like yet another useless portal site, but with the added annoyance of having to use a special client to interact with it. If they're looking for market share, that's about the worst way they could go about doing it.
AOL is incentivizing people to leave their paid network. AOL subscribers would in effect be subsidizing people that use access through other providers. AOL lowers its own hardware usage and maintenance costs, all those modem banks out there, while still getting some eyeballs to come see the paid ads etc. on their services, which cost little per viewer to maintain.
A weird business plan. So weird, it just might work!
But is it still AOL.
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
Free as in speech? Or free as in beer? Hopefully, it's only the latter. I'd hate to have to start saying GNU/AOL all the time.
By what name do you wish to be mourned?
Does it still work with AOHell?
And anybody cares, why?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Aol may be proposing to provide free access to services to subscribers that already have internet access. That sounds like it makes alot of sense, if you want the aol service.
When I worked a short job in telephone tech support, I could never understand why someone would want aol in addition to DSL/cable/etc. I actually worked people through getting them connected to the Internet (and proved it by getting them to CNN/Yahoo/Slashdot/etc. but they didn't think they were actually connected until the aol software decided that it wanted to connect (I passed them off to aol for support since they are connected to the Internet).
I guess I just don't understand the business side of technology services. This proposed free access for highspeed subscribers should have been done years ago. Better very late (if they do it), than absolutely never, I guess.
Wow. Mark today's date, 4692 September 1993, on your calendars.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
But as for me I know my day wouldn't be complete without an announcement of yet "more" spyware that can be freely stuck on my PC or those of my "users" Thank you AOL. Really. I mean it :).
"The boy is dangerous, they all sense it, why can't you?"
0Back when the internet started picking up steam in Joe User's home, there weren't as many popular sites that the general people knew about. It actually took some effort to find something you were looking for. Now, you hear about every site there is to be soon from friends, TV news, and any other place you can think of. But then, these people saw the AOL screen. "Hey, buttons for Entertainment, News, Sports, this is so much easier." So now that all these URL thingamabobs are now common knowledge, who needs the crappy buttons and sloppy interface for double(or more) the price of any other dialup provider?
If we didn't want to use it when it came in the mail, why in the world would we care that it's free now??
A wise man once said nothing and simply listened.
and for you
Anyone else think that I should be an editor?
Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
...for TWC customers in Columbus, OH. I have a free account with them. I use it for testing.
They did notify me, however, that if I don't cancel AOL before I switch providers, they will begin to charge my account. Ahh, AOL...
vk.
Would you all use AOL if they redesigned their software and used Mozilla as the base for the browser?
I would consider it if the damn software didn't act like a virus like norton. Also, they can put all ads in an iframe.
\
This has something to do with that purchase of AOL stock by Google some time ago?
..."I wouldn't use AOL even if it were free" and people would know that I really meant it. Now I'm waiting for AOL to pay me to use it.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I just signed up for an aol account to see how hard it would be to cancel it.
I signed up online, gave my credit card info and such. I didn't download their software or anything and just called the customer service number that was on the post-signup screen and selected the "cancellation" option. They made me wade through a relatively obnoxious "privacy" screening in order to sit on hold for 7-8 minutes.
Finally a guy picked up and asked me for all the information all over again. He asked how he could help me and I said, "I'd like to cancel my account, please." He started going into a bit about asking me why and such and I repeated, "I'd like to cancel my account, please." He noted that I'd signed up that day and started to ask again why I wanted to cancel and I, again, repeated, "I'd like to cancel my account, please." He then said he would process my account cancellation and informed me that all the services would continue to be available to me through the aol.com homepage (as this article stated).
He said there would be an account cancellation confirmation email in the next 24 hours. Hopefully that actually happens.
I just hurt this guy's save rate.. if he loses his job, maybe it's for the best. Fight Club-esque, ya know.
...what you pay for.
I'm sure they try significantly harder if you've been a member for more than a day...
So now what is AOL gonna do when one of these free accounts wants to cancel? Offer 6 months of double-secret free service?
You just gave AOL your credit card number just so you could call 'em up again to cancel? Ummm... [shaking head]
"It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)
My initial reaction was somewhere between "Who cares?" and "Why bother?" - but there's one hidden gem in this pile of broken glass. A lot of my family members won't even attempt to quit AOL because they'd have to change their email address. If they could keep it, but change their ISP (either to broadband or to a dial-up service that doesn't suck quite as hard or b0rk their computer), then that might be the thing that gets 'em to switch. They'll be happier, I'll be happier, and we can all move on and forget AOL ever existed.
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
I have a good friend who is a senior comptroller for Time-Warner in Atlanta (worked his way up from Turner Sports). Shortly after the merger in 2000, AOL was looking for ways to "monetize" relationships with TW's vendors. They noticed that many millions of dollars were being payed each year to a satellite communications company.
"Tell them they must advertise on [the TW stations], or we'll open up a dialog with their leading competitor," they said. My friend had to explain to them, using very simple words, that this was the company which sent the TV signals to the cable systems around the world, and they had no need to advertise. It took multiple meetings with the PHB's from AOL to convince them that this would be a bad idea.
Like Ron White says, you can't fix stupid...
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
I think AOL is probably relevant to about .05% of Slashdot users.
.05% of Slashdot users who care are the ones that feel extremely sorry for the idiots still using AOL.
the
AOL has been obselete since the second half of the 90s and shouldn't be paid for in any circumstance, what AOL is finally doing is placing the proper price on its service.
AOL's main features are totally useless to anyone (but were revolutionary at the time of introduction)
- AOL Keywords: Wow, if I don't type WWW then I'll get a smaller web page with AOL logos all over it, and less information! If I click on any of the links though, it'll probably just take me to the rest of the internet anyway...
- Integrated web, email, and buddy list: It was a great feature when there was no taskbar.
- Spam/Spyware/Virus blockers: Besides being slow memory hogs, you could avoid spam and spyware a lot better if you just didn't install AOL.
Wow I didn't realize that AOL only had three features until just now. I'm so glad I dumped it 10 years ago.
This is the sort of turnaround that everybody wishes monolithic corporations could make. Well, now AOL / Time Warner is making one. It's pretty easy to recognize that charging people for access to AOL's information services alone is not a viable business model. We constantly make fun of them for it, or at least I did. AOL for Broadband?
AOL's brand has started to really hurt lately. Ma and pa are beginning to dislike them, and so this is AOL doing the best move they can: Cut the crap, scale down the profit drive, and return to services. AOL is still a very valuable brand name, and it can still be salvaged for future use. If they immediately stop aggravating customers and do their best to play nice while Time Warner scales them down, the brand can once again have value.
We always blast away at companies for driving themselves into the ground by refusing to change. And yeah, AOL has been and still is a pretty dark beast in some spots. But despite this, AOL is doing the hardest thing a mega-corporation can do: admit their blunder, and try to change. In addition to mocking their shameful past, some positive, if exasperated, attention should be spent to note this move toward the right direction.
I have to post a disclaimer to ward off the astroturf melters, though. No, I am not an AOL employee. No, I do not own AOL stock. No, I have no personal or professional stake in AOL at all. Yes, I -am- thoroughly intoxicated.
to accept the praise of personal wisdom is an affront to the very ideal i hold dear.
I wouldn't fsck AOL with Dr. Ruth's dick.
Help us build a better map!
AOL Customer Service: AOL how can I help you?
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
AOLCS: I'm sorry what part of our service were you unhappy with?
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
AOLCS: But you logged Umpteenzillion hours on your accounts last month...
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
AOLCS: Do you know we'll be hosting a live chat with Lionel Ritchie for paying users only next month?
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
AOLCS: Why won't you tell us why you are unhappy?
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
[three weeks later]
AOLCS: Please pretty please with sugar on top don't go!
AOL users: We'd like to cancel our accounts please.
AOLCS: Fine!! you can just have the whole d@mn thing for free!! We'll figure out some other way to fleece you!
AOL users: We'd STILL like to cancel our accounts please.
-- QED
Turd, meet polish.
I saw it on Slashdot, it must be true!
Talk about a brand with no respect in the market. Other companies would have rebranded or shown major changes. Seems that the longer AOL remains the longer it'll be seen as a pathetic company/product.
/Waiting for the next stories from future customers trying to cancel their account
Wait until it starts loosing more customers because of the stories they read on the media. The company will implode like a black hole, taking Time Warner with them.
Long, long ago, in a millenium far, far away, my partner and I wrote Upside Magazine's cover story "AOL Doesn't Suck". The title came because editor Richard Brandt emailed me saying "Everybody knows AOL sucks" and I wrote back "No it doesn't!"
But that was then, in the brief period when AOL shone as a dial-up ISP, when the chat rooms beat most alternatives, when alternate IM systems weren't widespread, when there were few good forums anywhere (Usenet had already been wrecked and the software for the alternatives wasn't there yet), when some of its content was competitive, and so on.
Now -- well, it's sucked for a long time now. What a waste.
That said, I've been meaning to do a piece on how net-nonneutrality would turn the whole internet into AOL. This throws a monkeywrench into that plan ...
To err is human. To forgive is good system design.
!!Nuff said
"(AOL praising) the person familiar with the matter said"
Let's not mince words. You've been talking to mr. Anonymous Cowards, haven't you?
Defining Statistics and Social Research
I transitioned out of AOL into the usual mix of webmails, etc. When I uninstalled AOL, it nuked my Satellite ISP which took me 6 months to fix. So they can't even write a decent uninstaller.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
NSA not CIA
My neighbor recently got a new laptop and it came with wireless, so I moved her over to using my WAP intead of her AOL dialup. She is of course loving the speed increase, but she still pays the monthly AOL subscription, mostly because she has not weaned herself off her AOL email and onto my mailserver. AOL's deciding to not charge for the service and only for the dial-up will be a cost saver for her and many like her.
I can't help but wonder why they are doing this though? I don't use AOL myself, but I was under the impression that they didn't get hit by a lot of banners etc while say, accessing their AOL email. Where is AOL making money on these customers if not by charging them subscription fees?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Now I'm not entirely sure on this, because I never lived in a city that had a local access number for any of the "big guns". But back in the pre-internet days there were these things called "BBSes". They were computers with an (often) dedicated phone line and a modem. You could call them with your computer and leave messages, play games, and download/upload files. At first, most systems could only support one caller at a time. Most were run by hobbiests out of their homes.
Eventually, some of the systems grew to support multiple simultaneous callers, and they networked with other computers so that message forums could span the country, or even globe. One of the big guns at this time was "Compuserve". Another was "Prodigy". I believe, but am not sure, that AOL was also coming around at that time. At this stage of the game, these big players were essentially still BBS systems, they just happened to be massively multi-line, had access numbers in many major cities, and were crudely networked with other systems.
The downfall of these big fish was that they did not own the pipelines they were using to network to other systems. They only owned the modem farms.
As soon as it became relatively easy for anyone to hook up a modem to "The Internet", Compuserve, AOL, and the like lost their lock on being the only way into the online world. At that point, they had to try and "re-invent" themselves as more than a mere ISP, but, rather, as some kind of "value adder" to the online experience. They only continued to exist as long as they did because they marketed extensively and profited off of ignorant users who didn't know that once you got on the Internet you could get any content you wanted with or without the help of an AOL.
Here's a neat history of AOL etc. that Google turned up:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall2000/McAtee/
Steve
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You have entirely too much free time.
Do AIM users get email? If I quit AOL, could I still use my email there via the web site? If so, is there anything special I'd have to do to make myself an AIM user?
I have used AOL for years, but only as my "permanent" email address for online registrations of one sort or another. I currently run "BYOA", or their Bring Your Own Access plan.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.