>Are any of your subscribers having trouble with AOL?  ...
>Has AOL changed something?
 
Did they ever!  I have at least a dozen complaints from AOLers on just one
list ... many subcribers copied me on notes they sent to AOL tech support.
Very angry notes to say the least!
 
Here's what I think happened:
Previously, if AOL received a large mail file, it would split it into
several pieces, so the AOL subscriber would receive it, as Part 1 of 3,
Part 2 of 3, etc.   Each part was 15K or so.
 
Now they have "upgraded", and the large mail is delivered as an attachment
which must be downloaded.  No warning was given of this that I noticed (and
I sign on to AOL daily) and it confuses the heck out of non-techie folks.
Even if the file is successsfully download, many people have no means to
view such a file.  In Windows, Notepad ignores the returns making the file
unreadable, for example, and TeachText with Macs does't handle a file greater
than 32K.
 
I've received copies of AOL Tech Support replies to the subscriber's complaints
which were laughable - e.g. telling a subscriber to use RESEDIT to change the
creator of the downloaded text document.  (For the non-mac saavy, RESEDIT is
a highly technical and intimidating mac support program that does not even
come with the Mac OS - it's like telling a 6 year old who falls from a bike to
calculate the 2nd integral of the sine of the angular velocity of his rotation
or something like that...)
 
Anyhow, I have a *lot* of unhappy AOL subscribers, 1 of whom already cancelled
her AOL subscription and signed up with a new service.  (I have very loyal
subscribers :-)) I *do* think the file attachment is a good idea by the way -
it's just the way that it happenned - no warning - and the lack of support
that ticks me off.
 
After all, AOL prides itself in its simple interface and this totally blows
that away in my opinon.
 
Bill Gruber
City University of New York Computer Center