Anybody have the rationale?

K9SQG wrote:
Anybody have the rationale?
They probably want to promote the use of their own groups like Yahoo
does. That way they can sell banner ads on the various forums.

Wayne, KEØBZ

Don't forget guys - AOL is just a net pipline like
anyone else. You don't need to use ANY of their
crap! Log on, minimize their 'toy' browser window,
and launch whatever net application you want. There
are numerous free Newsgroup servers out there,
and many free news readers. I use a free service, so
I know this to be true. Better still, ditch AOL and
get DSL/Cable or at least a cheaper dialup. How
do they get away with what they charge these days???


"K9SQG" wrote in message
...
Anybody have the rationale?

Alan wrote:
Don't forget guys - AOL is just a net pipline like
anyone else.

No, AOL is not a net pipeline at all. AOL was actually a messaging service
that was independant of the net, and with the huge publicity about the internet
in the early nineties, they gatewayed themselves (very badly) to Usenet and
then to the web services. AOL in fact does not provide complete connectivity
at all, but only a very simplified set of ports are available and many of those
are proxied in some way.

AOL is not really intended as a regular ISP, although over the years they have
done more and more thing to it to make it function as one.

My guess is that not enough people use Usenet and it costs them money to run,
so they are eliminating the gateway. Perhaps they should never have installed
it in the first place.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I have been in contact with AOL about the dropping of the newsgroups
and their official response is basically "not enough participation" but
my guess is that they are cheapening out. Everyone who reads this list
on AOL needs to write them about keeping it. I told them that this was
the last straw and I may go to a DSL which is actually cheaper. And
they complain about losing members.... makes you wonder which non
customer oriented MBA thought this one up. By the way, you can get the
newsgroups free by going to http://groups.google.com and signing
up.---Mike

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:58:43 -0800, tchrme wrote:

I have been in contact with AOL about the dropping of the newsgroups and
their official response is basically "not enough participation" but my
guess is that they are cheapening out. Everyone who reads this list on AOL
needs to write them about keeping it. I told them that this was the last
straw and I may go to a DSL which is actually cheaper. And they complain
about losing members.... makes you wonder which non customer oriented MBA
thought this one up. By the way, you can get the newsgroups free by going
to http://groups.google.com and signing up.---Mike
Losing money? Too expensive? I work for an aggregator and we re-sell
Supernews tp ISPs (we give it away to our retail customers.) We get $50 a
month from an ISP for news, no matter how many users they have.

--
Mike McGinn
Registered Linux User 377849
"more kidneys than eyes!"

AOL sucks.
You guys just now figuring that out?
Better late than never, I guess.
73
H.

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, K9SQG wrote:

Date: 26 Jan 2005 03:32:37 GMT
From: K9SQG
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors
Subject: why is AOL eliminating newsgroups

Anybody have the rationale?


There is a fundamental business principle involved. Since the mid 1990s
the big push has been to get people to go to _websites_ and participate in
chatrooms and blogs where four things are important: i) your
contributions can be (and often are) censored (your post will not be seen
if they don't like you and this can be automated), and ii) if you go to a
website, then the advertising will be _in your face_ and that makes them
money, and iii) they own and control everything on that website, and iv)
they can put cookies, tracking cookies, spyware, and even trojans
(directly or indirectly) on your computer.

On newsgroups, the whole mechanism of propagation, posting, reading is
_free_ and very difficult to _control_ (unless the NG is moderated, or
hacked) or monitor. Viewing and/or reading newsgroups: nobody can put a
cookie on your box, you can lurk anytime you want and you can't get a
virus (etc) unless you deliberately and voluntarily download an attached
file on a post (eg. in the binary NGs) or an encrypted part of the text
of the post (eg. warez NGs).

There is enough commercial incentive to "encourage" people to spend less
time on NGs and more on chatroom/blogspace because they can track you,
advertise to you, and collect more information on your behavior (so it
goes into databases and that information is sold and traded in commericial
environments. The govt "spys on" us, too.

AOL is like George Orwell's "Big Brother" (read the book "1984"). You have
to get to (maybe) google.groups.com but even they don't have them all and
sometimes the messages are not propagated as well.

Best is getting a shell unix account and learning half a dozen
unix commands. Its not that hard. I stumbled onto this all about 15 years
ago.

If you are interested, go to http://godos.freeshell.org for more
information on shell accounts. And, links to ISPs and URLs for shell
accounts. Some are free, some are very low cost, some cost much more. I
pay $32.50 per month for mine (I'm not posting from it now, but telnetting
to this domain from my panix shell account) and its worth every penny of
that. A good shell account is a very powerful access to the internet and you
can run executables on their machine. www.panix.com also has terminal
dialup; hackers can't get on your box if you live in an area where you
can use their terminal dialup instead of ppp dialup (or cable, dsl, etc).

You can also go to http://freeshell.org or http://sdf.lonestar.org and
learn more about SDF's ISP capability. They have their own national dialup
now.

w4pon

I've read all of the postings on this subject and like so many of you I have
no idea why anyone would use AOL as an ISP. That aside let me tell you this
story about how brain dead AOL is.

My wife's cousin died. He used AOL. He did because he was computer
illiterate. So be it. Anyhow, in November he died unexpectedly at 62. So
my wife and I proceed to shut down his accounts, one of them being AOL.
Each time we called to get the account shut down we ended up speaking to at
least six people, and twice we ended up with the same person who took the
call. To make a long story short, on the last call I got so angry with them
that I damn near shouted at the person. They kept saying that Mr. Shepard
had to call and cancel. It was at that point I raised my voice and said,
"He is D-E-A-D. He is NOT with the living any longer. He has met with his
demise. His heart stopped. He has been CREMATED and CAN'T CALL. What part
of D-E-A-D don't you understand?" To wit, the individual on the other end
of the phone, the one with a Room Temperature IQ, said. "I understand, but,
you will have to have Mr. Shepard call and cancel the account." I laughed
to myself and said, "I've have him call you at his earliest convenience.
Thank you for clearing this up for him." I hung up, shut down the credit
card it was billed to and forgot about it. Like what are they going to do
ruin his credit? Tim



"K9SQG" wrote in message
...
Anybody have the rationale?

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 11:33:53 -0500, Tim Patton wrote:

I've read all of the postings on this subject and like so many of you I have
no idea why anyone would use AOL as an ISP. That aside let me tell you this
story about how brain dead AOL is.

My wife's cousin died. He used AOL. He did because he was computer
illiterate. So be it. Anyhow, in November he died unexpectedly at 62. So
my wife and I proceed to shut down his accounts, one of them being AOL.
Each time we called to get the account shut down we ended up speaking to at
least six people, and twice we ended up with the same person who took the
call.

I wonder what will happen when the next AOL automatic draft bounces with
an "Account closed" message?

AOL was my first ISP (I didn't know any better then). When I quit AOL,
I expected to see the games that I'd heard about, like "losing your
paperwork" to get in one more bill. I was a bit surprised to get only an
email message begging me to reconsider. You obviously need to write to
them. At worst, you may need to have the estate's attorney write to them;
a registered letter on a law firm's letterhead should get bucked
up to people who are permitted to know what they're doing. Remember, the
people who answer the listed phones at mass marketers are, effectively,
idiots. They may be normal people outside the call center, but they are
operating under policies that make bots of them.