I understand that, I was *POINTING OUT INFORMATION*. Please read entire post.

Also - "standards" are what keep modems in the US at 56K, even though the EXACT SAME WIRING can handle DSL! It's the LAW in the US. As the US goes, so goes the world, otherwise we'd have greater than 56K modems everywhere else. Speeds are *actually* limited to 53K but that's another story. Initially the laws were passed because the telcos were afraid that faster modems would burn up not the wiring but the switching mechanisms. This has been solved with better equipment, but now we are stuck with a *STANDARD* that is motivated by laziness on the part of the US telcos, and it's further perpetuated by everyone else on the planet.

In other words, "We do it this way because we've always done it this way." I don't subscribe to it, and neither do a LOT of people. In fact, rebelling against that attitude is why so many people switch to Linux. If enough people lobbied their congressmen about this in the US, the law could be changed. Imagine DSL speeds over regular phone lines, utilizing current POTS. Easy enough - just change a couple of chips in already incredibly inexpensive modems. It could be done easily and it wouldn't be TOO expensive for the ISPs. Not to mention they could charge for it, etc.

If the US got 1.5 meg dialup modems, you can bet the rest of the world would follow.

So again, I point out the WHY things are the way they are. I understand, not everyone has DSL (or even the faster cable). But people in the US do, and they tend to spend more time online (and posting) than others do. TEND to. Realize that if you continue to be the posting police when there is no official policy from Novell, you're mostly wasting your time, as people WILL continue.

And top-posting has ZERO to do with having a 56K dialup connection. It takes LONGER to read messages that are bottom-posted. (Scrolling MANDATORY vs. no scrolling UNLESS you want to see the rest of the context.)

Then there are middle-posters, an entirely different animal.

Snipping, however, should be taken seriously. That's a bigger waste of bandwidth.

As far as servers and space, the world no longer runs mostly on 386s and 486s. I have three 100 gig HDDs in my notebook - they are no longer expensive. Desktop machines under $1000 can EASILY have 300 gig drives, the least expensive Dell I could find was $599, 15" flat panel included, free S/H, and an 80 gig drive. Yes, much larger and greater quantities of e-mail are handled than were 10 years ago. But the handling equipment is larger and faster as well.

RP

jdd wrote:

Renegade Penguin wrote:

I know that old nettiquette *required* bottom posting, but the truth of the matter is that societal conventions can actually change.

not anybody have dsl links. please follow the standards

jdd