At 06:59 PM 2/1/99 -0800, Stephen C. Nill, J.D. wrote:
>>>>

        Again, why dumb down the works for the sake of a few who refuse to
keep up?


Don't assume that everyone can afford to keep up. Even $250 for 12 gig is
expensive for some, for many, and while most list subscribers aren't going
to be looking for a 12 gig upgrade now, there are a great many people using
the Internet who do so on hand-me-down equipment or computers that they
managed to buy only through real hardship.

I run a mailing list for people who are disabled and chronically ill. While
they all keep their Internet access because this communication is extremely
important to them as homebound people, many months a lot of them have to
choose between paying for their medications and paying the rent. So I can't
take the same cavalier attitude that you have that people either have to
upgrade or forget about it. If I did, I would lose the people I started my
organization to serve. And some of them still come in through text-based
freenets and that is the only way that they can afford to be online.

So, please, let's no go out of our way to further disenfranchise these
people or anybody else who manages to get onto the Internet through sheer
willpower and not much hardware or software. And don't think that just
because email and browser software is free that everybody can run the
latest and (?) greatest on every machine. They can't.

And, let's face it, if you aren't reading the digest in HTML version, the
HTML markup is annoying and makes it extremely difficult to for the brain
to parse the digest.

So if the listserv software could strip out the HTML attachments (I wish it
could strip the inline code, too), and the Microsoft garbage attachments,
and the Netscape VCF attachments only for those subscribers whose email
programs couldn't parse it and create two versions of the digest -- with
and without -- then that would be a great and wonderful thing.

And one other thing ... here too, size matters. :-) T-1 lines are not the
rule for home users of the net. 28.8 modems are still common. Many people
in rural areas dial long distance to get an Internet connection, so size
does matter. Larger files, as you know, make for longer downloads, which
add up to more bucks.

And outside the U.S. phone calls are even more expensive, and computer
hardware/software is still at a premium.

So while you may be all ready for the latest and greatest and don't think
backward compatibility is important, the rest of the world may not agree
with you.

Karen Strauss <------ stepping off her soap box.
Executive Director
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Network
[log in to unmask]