Subj : Messages too long?
To   : Mark Lewis
From : Peter Knapper
Date : Thu Feb 16 2006 06:16 pm

Hi Mark,

 ml> i've said this for years... in fact, i've 
 ml> had this stance ever since the ^aSPLIT proposal was 
 ml> presented to the FTSC... i have /always/ believed it 
 ml> the responsibility of the -=recieving=- system to split 
 ml> messages according to _their_ capabilities rather than 
 ml> "forcing" everyone else to succumb to their individual restrictions...

I think you overlook some pretty basic human instincts here, and your ability 
to read so many 500KB messages is nothing short of staggering......;-)

If Fidonet were a 100% commercial environment then I doubt many people would 
disagree with you, but the origins of the network have forced all of us to 
accept that some things are historical and need to be accomodated in the 
interests of self preservation.

Message length has long been an issue, and in the case of Fidonet I see no 
reason to force everyone to change to a new method of handling these things, 
voluntarily perhaps, but not by force. 

Netmail and Echomail were constructed to allow people to communicate with each 
other, and stuffing 500KB of computer generated text into a message in which 
the text is NOT created by humans, but with the expectation that SOMEONE will 
read it, is nothing short of abuse of the medium (IMHO). 

I use and generate stats myself, but unless they are only 1 or 2 screens in 
length I do NOT output it via messages, the longer form of stats presentation 
is meant for a file (IMHO).

Cheers.........pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Another Good Point About OS/2 (3:772/1.10)

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