I now blame AOL for more than I had previously considered.
Look up the phrase “eternal September.”
Comment on came across some family heirlooms today, hahaha!
bulwark@lemmy.world 3 months ago
So they were just giving away America Online by the 700 hour quantity? I now blame AOL for more than I had previously considered.
grue@lemmy.world 3 months ago
groucho@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
For a while, if you were broke, you got as much internet as you wanted as long as you left the registration screen open and the modem connected…
Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
It started small and they kept growing in how many free hours. It didn’t stop at 700. I’m not sure where it stopped, but I’m sure it was in 4 digits.
700 hours is around a month if connected nonstop, but back then it was more likely that many people connected a few hours a day at most, so that could probably last the better part of a year. Not a bad offer from AOL’s perspective, if you rolled into a subscription lasting years.
jqubed@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I seem to remember our first disks/discs coming in with 5 free hours. That might’ve even been included with a Packard Bell we bought.
bulwark@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yeah, I guess if they would have framed it as one month free it wouldn’t sound as good. I remember using it and completely ignoring everything but the actual Internet. Trolling on AIM back in the day was pretty fun.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 3 months ago
And I’m guessing enough boomers DID subscribe for years to make it worth it, if my anecdotal experience is anything close to normal.
Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I used to work for/with AOL in the 2010s. They still had a lot of grannies subbed to dial-up plans.
Psythik@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Can concur. My baby boomer dad was an AOL subscriber up until his death in 2021. He ditched dialup in 2002 but just never stopped paying for AOL.