AOL (Was: Substituting DSHD for DSDD disks (or DS2D

[COURYHOUSE at aol.com]

AOL was a good  model  for general consumers.  also  remember    many 
people  used  AOL before the  www  was all the  rage so... you stay  with 
something you have alreay  learned.and  AOL was  accessible anywhere in the world 
for the  most  part  whereas  podunk mom and pop   ISPs   had  local phone 
numbers. This was important if I was say  going  to  UK or  France   for more 
than a  few days  as   dialing back  to a podunk in phoenix would not only 
be   damn expensive but the quality of connection  thru  the long  distance   
would no  doubt be horrible...  
 
Aside from  our  AOL account  we  had a podunk   that  had  two brothers 
that seemed as stupid as Daryl and his other  brother Daryl in the Bob Newhart 
show that ran it. Eccch!
 
The  game changer   for  local residents though was the  cable  companies 
and telecoms offering  Internet service... same   bill as  their telephone or 
 cable  tv  easy  to sign  up... and  remember at  first   the   hi  speed  
 connects  were  though  the telco  for us  and we had  AOL but after I  
quit  travels  just had  a  minimal AOL account... why?   lots of  people I 
have  known  for  eons  can still contact me there.
 
Why do I still use it?  because my friends know to reach me  there.
 
Why will I always have an aol account  forever?  well until all  my friends 
 pass on or  I  pass on   it is a connection  medium!
 
 
Ed #
 
Uptime seemed to be  better on also than  some of the  podunks
 
 
In a message dated 10/25/2015 12:40:46 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim,  
cisin at xenosoft.com writes:

[AOL]
On Sun, 25 Oct 2015, ben wrote:
> I suspect the  reason they failed was not service
> but a) PC's had games b) Ma Bell  wanted a arm and a leg
> for long distance connections.

Some of  their early efforts to COMPETE AGAINST the internet helped 
establish  outfits like Netcom, and were a boost to ISPs.


Perhaps Ed (still  using AOL) would have some insight into what caused 
their  decline.



--
Grumpy Ol' Fred           cisin at xenosoft.com