Conclusion does not follow. Many of us skipped AOL entirely. That's not to say there weren't interesting things to do there if you chose to use it, or were forced to use it by circumstance.
Of course it follows. The OP said "no self-respecting hacker" would use AOL/AIM, which is a not only a "no true scotsman" fallacy but untrue. I, too was introduced to the world of programming through AOL chatrooms, and there were some really incredible hackers/programmers who hung out in them.
