Part of the reason AOL was successful was the limitations of dial-up and the inclusion of high quality art assets on AOL CDs, that made it more fun and visually

Part of the reason AOL was successful was the limitations of dial-up and the inclusion of high quality art assets on AOL CDs, that made it more fun and visually interesting to be on AOL vs the WWW in the mid-90s. Browsers were pretty bad (AOL's own internal browser included), HTML was quite limited, etc. Broadband is what killed AOL. The moderation was pretty loose on the forums and chat rooms, and it felt like a pretty free place to be.