HarryKeogh said:
is it me or are the major improvements in AOL "animated super-buddy icons" and new "emoticons"?
wow! sending business correspondence through e-mail just got more fun!
i get AOL for free through work but does anyone here actually pay 24 bucks a month for this???
I've got a little story to tell...
I dont know the motivation behind it, but my family appears to be rendered "stupid" when it comes to Internet Service Providers.
I began using the internet years ago, I first started using AOL 3.0. I hated it, then AOL 4 came out, it was so much better than the last version, it looked very sleek and userfriendly. Since then, the AOL versions have been less than what I would consider to call a new version. AOL 8 was only version that really "renewed" AOL, it fixed a lot of glitches(like that one that freezes your computer for no reason), it added much more "customizability" (albeit limited), but it also added features I could never imagine myself using such as "AOL shopping", "AOL Radio", "AOL Horoscopes", "Remind me" controls, other stuff.
I only use AOL for signing online and checking mail, aside from that it serves no purpose on my computer. I pay US$24 a month for this piece of trash.
No, the fun doesnt stop there...
My ma isnt one to pass up a bargain. She bought herself a new computer (a Presario something or other). She saw that we could get a free scanner if we only signed up for 3 years of MSN dialup. Clearly a bargain if I ever saw one.
Now we pay US$24 for AOL and US$21 for MSN. No one uses MSN except for my ma. Oh, and we've never touched the scanner. Oh, and the 3 year contract we're bound to managed to hike the price of MSN to more than the average MSN user, in 3 years we are going to end up paying more money via this contract than if we never took the printer and signed up for MSN anyway.
Better still...
My pa didnt like the way AOL continually kicks him offline. So we decided to get PeoplePC. Its only US$10 a month, all it does it put you online, it doesnt have AOLs trademark habit of making your computer sick enough to spontaneously restart on you.
At one point, we were paying for AOL (which only I use), MSN (which only my ma uses), and PeoplePC (which only my pa uses). The rest of my family doesnt use the internet as much as I do.
Dont worry, my family has a habit of making expensive but pointless purchases (we ordered Tai Bo and Windsor Pilates, never used them once).
Hee hee hee, funny bunch we are.
