I actually got fucked really hard by Dell and AOL. When I bought a computer back in 1999, it came with a free 6 month AOL subscription, which then became a PAID subscription after that. And the account came preloaded on the computer, setup using billing information and personal information I had given Dell when I purchased my computer.

So, after about 3 months of paying for AOL, I realized what was going on and tried to cancel... but I couldn't. AOL was set up in such a way that you could not cancel your AOL account through the AOL service. You had to either call them, or fax or mail in a form you could print out. I think that sort of business practice should be illegal, but it's unfortunately not. Well, here was the issue. Their operators were trained to keep you on the phone as long as possible and basically waste your time so that you would give up on cancelling your account. I NEVER call customer service lines unless I absolutely have to, so I decided to fax in the form... and it was rejected. While my billing information was under my "real" name, the official name on the account was Syd Lexia, because I was already in the habit of registering my computers and software packages under that name for my own amusement. Any software packages I use are registered to:

Name: Syd Lexia
Company: Evil Things Like Death, Inc.

So, I signed the form using my "real" name, and I think I needed to provide a copy of some form of identification too. Well, sign the name on the account was Syd Lexia, they told me that I didn't have the authority to cancel the account in question, even though the person trying to cancel was the name on the debit card being billed for it. I tried to get my bank to put a stop payment on all future transactions to AOL, but they wouldn't. So then I called AOL to try and cancel, and I ended up hanging up after about 60 minutes. Then my dad called and he ended hanging up after 30 minutes. So I ended up paying 24.90 a month for almost three years because Dell pre-registered me for crappy online software I didn't even want or need.

The only reason I'm not paying for AOL now is because they started offering a free service years ago where if you're not connecting to the internet directly through them, you don't have to pay them anything.

He sent out a very basic virus, if I recall correctly. It was an .EXE file that would delete your hard drive or something like that.

AOL was a good time back in it's heyday, which was roughly 1993-1999, and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar. It was the Facebook of its time. Best feature: using the program's "Where Is" feature to catch friends/classmates in embarrassing public chatrooms. Always go to the private rooms!

And then there'd be the idiot who would always start the (Your Town) chatroom and start inviting everyone they could find from your town. It would start off okay, but then they'd invite someone who would just troll the hell out of the room. Especially if it was a private room, because those weren't subject to TOS.

I didn't say AOL was good, I said it was a good time.

Not really. For example, Facebook isn't good, but it's a good time. And it's for the exact same reason that was AOL was a good time: pretty much everyone you knew was on it.

No. Google+ is more like whatever fringe browser was competing with Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape Communicator 4.