I agree with most of what you say, Eric. The usenet does allow for a much more individually configured setup. The tradeoff is usually a lot less easy central admin control, which is why we wanted this forum software to begin with. As I'm sure many have seen us state these forums are not usenet. Usenet has a way of becoming a free for all sometimes. If you can handle it, that's great, but we knew it wasn't for us at AVSIM. But then, you and I know that text communication was exactly what usenet was designed for, it should do it well. :-)Secondly, as more and more goes to the internet, most people prefer the easy learning path that internet based forum programs provide over the usenet. Usenet isn't that bad, but it takes a little while to learn all the ropes. As the programs get better and more people get high-speed connections, these kind of forums will work better.

Right. . . AND Thats slowing down that person's computer, NOT the forum. Dial-Up is 10 yrs ago, Broadband is available in many forms, and ARE available pretty much anywhere. Time to move on.

>Right. . . AND Thats slowing down that person's computer, >NOT the forum. Dial-Up is 10 yrs ago, Broadband is >available in many forms, and ARE available pretty much >anywhere. Time to move on. Wrong Josh, it affects how fast the forums can work also. It is a good thing you aren't running our website since the last stat I saw showed about 30% or more people still on dialup. As far as they are concerned, you'd leave them hanging with your take on website management. We feel it is still important not to sacrifice those that don't have the budget or means to get on a high-speed in order to appease some broadband users.

Josh,I don't mean to step on your line, but your statement "..Broadband is available in many forms, and ARE available pretty much anywhere. Time to move on." is simply not true. I am stuck with a dialup modem (56K) and I've been told that it will be 2 or 3 more years before anything other than dialup will be available where I live, not to mention that a large number of other internet users, particularly those living in some countries other than the United States or Canada, don't have the option of anything other than dialup either. When individuals load up 10 or more screenshots, it takes as much as 5 or more minutes sometimes for them upload on my system (with each jpg at 100Kb it requires 4:30 minutes to download 10 images, then you've got those out of control signatures that several people were using in the past, well you get my point). Bear!

"Time to move on" - I despair. Despite the WWW the human race still has very little idea of how things are outside our own sphere of experience.PH

Josh,Bear is quite right. If you lived where I live, you would be lucky to ever get broadband. I have enquired many times over the last 12 months. It is simply not available practically speaking. End of story. There is no cable, no ADSL, no nothing. The only option is to install a satellite dish that will enable satellite download and dial-up upload. At a probable cost of nearly half my yearly income to do this, I have to pass up on that offer. btw, I don't live that far way from the Sydney CBD in Australia and I am classified as a Sydney customer, not a country customer.

Josh, I ordered broadband a 2 weeks ago (planned delivery next month).That was 2 DAYS after availability here was first announced.And I live in the middle of a city with over 160000 people, growing by 5000+ a year.A lot of people in this country still don't even have cable TV, some have no sewer system or gas for heating (having to rely on tanks in the ground for sewage and gas or oil).If you think that's ancient, my parents had neither gas, sewers or cable TV until less than 10 years ago. They didn't have cable until they moved to another town last year (and their old house still doesn't have it). That old house you can't run the washing machine and the oven at the same time because the electricity hookup cannot deliver enough power...

Tom, could you make a statement whether that is 5 per message or 5 per thread?People are posting threads with dozens of pictures, just replying to their own original post endlessly with 5 pictures in each message to get around the restrictions.Still takes ages to download (and most of those threads time out on dialup connections).

>>Broadband is available in many forms, and ARE available pretty much anywhere.<100MB (Thunder Bay from Flight Ontario). You just have to be patient and, arguably, it does encourage you to appreciate the work of the authors rather more than perhaps faster d/l speeds would.So, don't give up on your trusty 56K modems just yet. Wait until the likes of BT get their act together and smarten up their technology. By then it might be cheaper as the competition intensifies :-rollMike :-wave

"Hey Tom, you grumpy old phart....",,,,,,, You O'le Mule! Reckon I've seen it all now,,, you should write a book onpolitical correctness, or perhaps become a diplomat :-lol :-loloh, and whose site is this anyway.Steve :-)

I just wanted to thank Avsim for the wonderful service they provide us. I find their rules to be very reasonable and clearly stated. I don't see why it is so hard for people to follow them. Avsim provides us with a FREE and wonderful service, for which they ask nothing in return except that we follow a few guidelines to keep the forums running smoothly. I am in the IT industry and I am amazed at how many people think that large computer systems just "run themselves" and never need any maintenance or fixing. I can only guess at how much effort it takes to keep this great site up and running. Thanks to the Avsim staff,

Here's a funny story...I live a mere 20 miles from New York City, one of the largest and most populated cities on the planet, and a cable connection did not become available until 2 months ago. So I was stuck with a 56k dial-up, but with a catch--it only connected at 22kbs because the line was cruddy. And not only that, but I was sharing the connection with 2 other computers :-lol! I was on the brink of insanity because the connection was so slow, the cable connection was like an angel sent from heaven :-). So, while I am bothered occasionally by the 700 pixel width restriction and the small file size requirement, I just need to think of the people who weren't as fortunate in their connectivity options.

Two thoughts;The first a suggestion. I frequently scroll though all the categories on this forum trying to find the screen shot forum. It's buried way down on the bottom in the miscellaneous section. My suggestion; Put it up toward the top of the forum right next to FS2002. Most folks use it for FS2002 anyway. That way, it'd be a lot handier and I know I'd use it more.Second suggestion: For all those who still have dialup connections, have you ever heard of or considered Satellite?? I struggled with dialup for years and considered Satellite (which is available most everywhere on the planet, isn't it?); and about the time I was gonna take the plunge, cable came along. About the same time, DSL came along. I chose cable because it was the cheapest, but hey; satellite is availabe to anyone who wants it or am I wrong there. Is the USA the only one who has a Direct TV or Dish TV satellite sitting above our heads??

Not to mention the number of people who thinks running a website doesn't cost anything...All they ever see is their own 'free' webspace at geocities and even then they don't see anything that goes on behind the curtains.

That is quite wrong! First, broadband costs about 3-5 times as much as dialup ($35-$50 vs $10 for dialup). Second, I have tried getting broadband, but neither cable nor DSL is available where I live. Broadband access has only penetrated to about 30% coverage of the metro areas (and almost 0% in the rural areas). Despite all the advertisements, one cannot simply call them up and say "I would like to sign up". For several people like me, even a satellite dish is not an option if you don't have a direct line of sight to the satellites available. I would suspect that at least half the people on this forum are still using dial ups.