On Tue, 15 Sep 1998 AIMSX@aol.com wrote:
Obviously you have a very high opinion of yourself and a low opinion of people who use AOL. Contrary to popular belief, there are a few intelligent people on AOL, but it looks as if you are too egotistical to realize that.
You're right. We have very high opinions of ourselves. We have low opinions of people who use AOL because they're typically scum, spammers, or idiots. You even admit this by saying "there are a FEW intelligent people on AOL." They're also paying $20/month for a shitty service with a bad reputation. If you don't like the stereotype, get your fellow AOLers to get a clue and reverse it which will probably take years if it's possible at all, or if you're actually an intelligent AOLer, go get an ISP which isn't synonymous with manure. Personally, I'm figuring very, very few AOL users who publish actively to the Internet have a clue. The traffic on this list just over the last month backs that up. The reputation AOL has is deserved, and there is a definate pattern of stupidity from AOL. In the future quote so we know what you're talking about, and don't use the "flick off the Internet" quoting style, either.
Have you ever thought to look at your own mistakes before you publicize everyone else's to the world?
I'm not sending requests for band stickers to cryptography lists. I'm not sending messages to cryptography lists which read "how u do that" with no punctuation. I'm not asking members of cryptography lists to sign me up to receive the news by email every morning. I'm not replying to things while not quoting, or by using some quoting system which was designed by AOL for the purpose of pissing off non-AOLers. I'm not publishing web pages which are unreadable without the latest shovelware from Microsoft or Netscape, and which shoots the finger otherwise. I'm not saying "AOL is the Internet," and I'm not signing up with a service because they send me a free mirror or coaster or because I'm too lazy to learn to do anything other than point and click.
Are you just suffering from some sort of dillusion of grandeur - thinking you are better than everyone else.
Not everyone else, but infinitely better than the average kool d00d, AOLer, or webber, and infinitely better than the president who the "average" American elected. By the way, the sentence I quoted above is what is known as a question. In English, you use a question mark for those.
Things like this are what many wars were started over, I am so happy the internet (hopefully) won't start a war in the real world.
From what AOL users send to the Internet from their service, one can easily conclude that AOL is a haven for wannabes, lamers, and k00l D00dz \/\/h0 tiPE l1|<E Th1s, but since AOL _is_ the Internet and is so filled with intelligent people, I suggest you go back there and leave all of us who are just deluded into thinking we're using the Internet and who only
I won't have anything to do with it, but I'm fully expecting for some new Unabomber to appear within the next few years. Instead of targeting technology centers like the Unabomber did, this guy will mail bombs to spammers, people who send "how u do that" to lists, etc. I, thankfully, am morally constrained enough to never do anything like that, but I would bet that there is somebody out there who isn't. think we know about our professions and hobbies. Yet another AnonMonger. (How many are there now? Man.)