[Ti] AOL only does HTML

[Robert Ameeti]

>I realize that AOL bashing seems to be as in vogue as Apple bashing is in the PC world.  And just as a lot of misinformation gets passed around by the Apple bashers, it sure seems like AOL bashers pass around a lot of misinformation about AOL. 
>              Paula Rutledge

Apple bashing by PC users is typically done by PC users who have never used a Mac. They did not use the Mac at one time and then become frustrated at the difficulty to use the Mac.

AOL on the other hand, is most often bashed by users who were using AOL at one time in the past, and through their frustration at the difficulty that AOL intentionally designs into their product, became bashers of the AOL technology.

I was an original AOL Charter Member when it first started 10 - 15 years ago. The promise to me was ~$6 @ month for unlimited use as a lifetime member. I had my AOL account up until about 6 months ago. As such, I've had a bit of experience with it.

AOL intentionally designs in several items to prevent users from using other technologies or programs. An AOL user can not export their Address Book. They can not use their Address Book with any other program. They can not Forward their AOL mail to any other email address. They can not use any other e-mail program to retrieve, sort, store, or read their AOL mail. All of this is purposefully designed in to the AOL product to retain the customers. This is not nice.

When AOL released their recent update to Mac OS X, the mail client could no longer do plain text email. I confirmed this with their tech support. It was from this experience that I previously posted that when using AOL, the user no longer had a text only option. The belief that AOL does do text email by using their WebMail interface is certainly sidestepping the reality in that this workaround requires the AOL user to use two different interfaces to send mail. Silly, stupid, and ridiculous. But that is AOL (from a long time user who was very familiar with all of AOL.)
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Robert Ameeti
mailto:robert at ameeti.net

If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as part of the problem.
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