[Jon Westfall]

A long time ago, I opened an AOL account. Once I "graduated" into full geek status, the account was closed and I left my AOL days behind. Recently however, my job consulting for a web hosting business required me to have an AOL test account handy for those times when AOL doesn't like to play nice with outside mail servers. Since I only use the account when I'm working bugs out (once every few months) and only pay for the Bring-Your-Own-Access plan (Which is a resonable expense per month to save me the hassle of having to re-open an AOL account 3 or 4 times a year), my AOL account sits dormant most of the time. I haven't even installed the software since my last wipe-reinstall phase last august, and only login in to clear out the email box from all the SPAM it gets once in a blue moon.

So my question is, are there any features on AOL that a veteran like me would enjoy using? I have no pride about these sorts of things, and while being an AOL'er might not be all that cool, I'm secure in my geekhood that I may be uncool if some certain features were worth it.

So is there anything good out there? Anything PPC related? Anything besides annoying teenagers & soccer moms?

[Jon Westfall]

A long time ago, I opened an AOL account. Once I "graduated" into full geek status, the account was closed and I left my AOL days behind. Recently however, my job consulting for a web hosting business required me to have an AOL test account handy for those times when AOL doesn't like to play nice with outside mail servers. Since I only use the account when I'm working bugs out (once every few months) and only pay for the Bring-Your-Own-Access plan (Which is a resonable expense per month to save me the hassle of having to re-open an AOL account 3 or 4 times a year), my AOL account sits dormant most of the time. I haven't even installed the software since my last wipe-reinstall phase last august, and only login in to clear out the email box from all the SPAM it gets once in a blue moon.

So my question is, are there any features on AOL that a veteran like me would enjoy using? I have no pride about these sorts of things, and while being an AOL'er might not be all that cool, I'm secure in my geekhood that I may be uncool if some certain features were worth it.

So is there anything good out there? Anything PPC related? Anything besides annoying teenagers & soccer moms?

[David Prahl]

I still consider AOL to be the Internet on training wheels. It's becoming more and more bloated and slow as an application, although apparently the amount of spam has gone down.

For geeks and IT pros like yourself I think AOL should be left alone. It's...evil lol. :idontthinkso: Maybe install it on a virtual machine, but thats it.

[emuelle1]

I've always called it training wheels for the internet too. I have started to gain a little respect for them since they started giving away virus protection, but not enough respect to get another account, which I had for a short time.

I used to work with a guy who had AOL. I always teased him that I could tell when he'd been on a computer because the CAPS LOCK key was on. AOL people love their CAPS LOCK key.