Brad,
I would love to contribute something that would help AOL become
richer. But at the moment I'm spending all my free time cleaning up
after AOL.
There is a good concensus of the problem. However, it was you who
didn't want to discuss it. Like a good politician, you keep wanting
to misdirect the discussion. First by labeling it "AOL bashing". And,
then by saying, "Well others will be having problems, too."
The fact is, the "others" may be a problem in some distant future.
However, AOL is the problem now.
Sorry, Brad, as you can see this is a topic that many others, besides
myself have concerns about.
It's ironic that the discussion was dead for a week and it was you
who opened up the can of worms.
Perhaps if you took off your "AOL hat" and listened to the problems
which are being expressed instead of trying to have a "ready answer"
to each one or dismiss them -- you might learn something.
In fact, many of the problems you are attempting to defend are not in
your domain of influence. These are decisions which are being made by
those in charge and with AOL marketing.
Believe it or not, if AOL suddenly ceased to exist within the next
ten minutes, the Internet would barely blink. All the projects that
AOL is involved in, if they were of real importance to the Net, would
be picked up by others, and we would all carry on.
None of my lists have suffered from AOL taking us off of their
directory. In fact, we've grown because we have less interruptions
from the "clueless" and we get into some real discussion.
You assume AOL is much more important than it really is. The internet
grew without AOL's assistance. It will continue to grow, whether AOL
is a part of it or not.
As good as you are at programming and I take nothing away from that.
I have read your posts and learned, a lot. I am equally good at
marketing. I understand who AOL's market is. What they are doing and
why. I understand the decisions they are making and why. I also
understand the fallacy to their marketing and where it will backfire.
It's easy to say that everyone is "sue happy". But, there are some
real problems with AOL. Problems that AOL doesn't want to answer.
The subscribers are complaining to more than just AOL. They are now
contacting congressmen, state attorney generals and civil suits. Not
just to jump on the bandwagon but because there are some *real*
problems.
You see Brad, you keep asking people like myself to offer solutions
to your problems. That's not my job. I'm not getting paid to solve
AOL's problems. You on the other hand, are.
If you would like to hire me at my $500/hr. rate, I'd be happy to
provide some phone consultation. That's how much a consultant like
myself gets paid.
My job is not to solve your problems. My job is to point out the
problems for you to solve. When one of my clients hires me, they
don't pay me to ask them what the solution to their problem is. They
pay me to solve the problem they give me. I wouldn't stay in business
very long if I accepted my fee and then asked the client to tell me
the solution to their problem. If they had the solution then they
wouldn't need me, would they?
Brad, take off your "AOL hat" and step away from AOL for a moment.
Take a look at what people are telling you, on this list. Write down
the problems that people are having. List them. Take a real hard
unbiased look at AOL and see if these problems are valid. You might
be surprised at how many are valid points.
You won't be able to solve any problems until you first acknowledge
that there are problems. The problems don't go away, by continuing to
deny there are problems. They go away, when you acknowledge them and
then take steps to solve them.
There have been a few people who have offered the solutions that you
requested. However, you had a quick and ready answer as to why they
wouldn't work. Or, you ended up telling them "Well, this will be a
problem with others, like...."
So, you see the problem and frustration many of us are having with
AOL? First, like you, AOL refuse to acknowledge the problems.
Second, since there are no problems they refuse to listen to
solutions.
Brad, either AOL is the "leader" it claims to be or it is not. A
"leader" takes iniative and responsibility. So far, I haven't seen
that from AOL. There philosophy is, "We're not the only ones."
"We're waiting for someone else to give us the solution." "Well
everyone else is doing it."
Leonard
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