NYT's Saul Hansell asks, "Who uses AOL and Why?"

The service is planning some changes, but does anyone care?

Hansell's readers respond by the score. Any exec charged with building and maintaining a web brand should read this thread and shudder. Amid the predictable "I kept my age-old email address" responses (best line: "Inertia rocks") and some dead-horse-beating net snobbery toward the once-proud service, a few people say they like AOL's security features and music service.

The most positive statement:

Yes I use AOL.
So do all the people in my TV commercial production company because:
(1) You can send 16meg files.
(2) You send, it's there. Immediately. No waiting for it to come.
(3) There is no such thing as a too full mailbox that rejects files.
(4) Less server problems than anyone else.

Another reader says it works well for dial-up. How's that for an endorsement?