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)