AOL: An Offensive Waste of Cyberspace

Mo Rocca, a fabulous writer and humorous personality on NPR, has a website hosted by AOL. I found this so appalling that I was inspired to write the following to the invisible person who receives and reads those form-fill-out communications that some websites force you to fill out if you want to get their staff’s attention. Which is another thing I find appalling….

TO: Mo Rocca Webmail Reader
RE: http://www.morocca180.com/

Oh, Mo….
Today is my first visit to your website. And what do I see? A good-bye post. This is not surprising. Why? Several things:

1. Your website still has a link to AOL mail at the top. I bet I can count the number of AOL email accounts still in existence with a two-beaded abacus.

2. Your AOL website helpfully offers a “search the web” feature. Noooo, thank you. I think I can find it faster myself using the Dewey decimal system.

3. When I entered the website, the bottom of the page ominously flashed “errors on page” for awhile. Nothing against your blog posts, which are great, but….that is not an encouraging sign to new visitors.

In any case, I will continue to enjoy your participation in Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, The NPR News Quiz, and look forward to AOL letting go of you so that you can move on to more advanced online service providers.

Cheers,

AY