George wrote:

> A friend just got a cable modem because the cable co upgraded the system
> where he lives. I stopped by the other night to set it up. He is an aol
> user. He had to run out and when he came back I was using firefox to
> browse some sites. He asked me "how can you be on the Internet without
> using aol?". I asked him what he usually does when on line and showed
> him the equivalent non aol method. It took about 15 minutes before he
> picked up the phone and cancelled aol.

But that ignores the fact that AOL used to provide
come nice exclusive content. Message boards with
moderation was good for kids and people not quite
ready for USENET; easy to join moderated chats
(not the same as the "pick up chat rooms",LOL) and
the like. They now offer nothing that one can't
find elsewhere. It didn't used to be that way.
Goomba