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.


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