Re: What IS is with people from America On-Line?

[Kris Olberg <KJOlberg -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

In a message dated 95-09-11 10:54:25 EDT, titanide -at- MICRO -dot- ORG (Patrick
O'Connell) writes:

>AOLers (people connecting to Internet resources via America On-Line) have
>a bad reputation among more experienced Net users, and this guy is a
>REALLY good example of why. Not to lump in anyone non-clueless folks here
>from AOL! By no means -- I'm not saying all AOL Net users are clueless,
>just seems like the majority of them are. OK, "a great many" of them are.
>Enough that it's quite noticeable.

Why don't we just do some "ethnic" cleansing and get rid of all of the
AOL'ers right now? You're making some dangerous assumptions about the quality
of person who uses AOL. Consider this: AOL has a VERY LARGE user base and
uses aggressive marketing techniques to get its software onto machines. I
think I personally have about 5 or 6 AOL software diskettes I have picked up
in magazines, through the mail, etc. This means you're bound to see more
"clueless" 'net users coming from AOL.

Be patient with new 'net users. You were new at this one time, weren't you?
One suggestion for dealing with the common questions (subscribe, unsubscribe,
where's the FAQ, etc.): When you see a commonly asked question, write a
generic reply and store it where you can easily access it whenever the
question appears. Then when the question reappears over and over, you can
reply courteously and with the information the person needs without spending
lots of time writing an e-mail.

Regards...Kris