Revenge of the AOLHoles

[Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>]

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998 AIMSX@aol.com wrote:

> 
> I truly hope you don't stereotype all AOL users for this idiot's insane
> ramblings.
> Unfortunately, some people are just morons, but you get them on every ISP
> anyway, they just aren't so obvious on others, because unfortunately, AOL
> makes it easier to communicate.

AOL makes it easier to communicate. This has the intended side effect of
attracting every moron with a home computer. Thus, AOL has a
disproportionate number of morons. They get what they ask for. 

The problem is that most of the AOL users who publish to the net seem to
be morons. They use some annoying Russo-Germanic quoting style, they can't
use English, they're clueless, they post off-topic, or something else. 

Examples of AOL catering to morons:

1) "AOL is the Internet!"
2) Using the fact that their software *says* "You have mail!" as a selling
point.  
3) They use a platform-specific client package. Further, "AOL is the
Internet,"  therefore AOL-specific conferences and newsgroups must be "on
the Internet" or "on the net" *and are advertised that way*. Uhh...
4) They make no effort to educate their lamers...err, users.
5) They send out tons of "free trial" disks, trying to snare every idiot
they can find.
6) They make their service as easy to use as possible, which is fine,
except that it attracts people who don't have the mental capacity to use
it when they venture outside of AOL. Witness the drek they pour onto the
Cypherpunks list.

I'm sure Mr. May could expand on this with a few dozen additional points,
if not a few hundred.

Now maybe this stuff is good marketting practice, but it's a lousy way to
serve the community which gives them life. It's the equivelent of a swim
coach bringing his students to a public pool and instructing them to
release their bowels whenever they feel the urge. If you use a site which
caters to morons, expect to get treated like one, especially if said site
celebrates the fact that they're defecating in the pool.

They've earned the stereotype that they have.

While we're at it, maybe some of the statistics-types out there can
analyze the archives for, say, the last month. Remove postings, if any,
which are routed through an anonymous remailer at AOL. Then remove random
or systematic spam (ex: the New York Times, that Javascript
"child-molester" exploit). Then compare the number of clueless postings to
Cypherpunks by AOL users to the number of useful and on-topic postings to
Cypherpunks by AOL users, and compare that ratio against other ISPs. When
determining clueless postings, include postings which use Russo-Germanic
("<< >>") quoting, or which are completely off-topic (ex: "how u do
that"). Count postings which are clueless but were originally from another
site and got forwarded here as originating from the original site. Maybe
repeat for Juno and Hotmail. Exclude flames and subsequent discussions
concerning these clueless postings (ex: don't include AIMSX's response or
this response in either category). 

Then again, there probably isn't any need.