Personally, I prefer plain vanilla text. IMHO (and we all know there's no such thing as a humble opinion) if you can't express yourself without resorting to crutches like fancy fonts, color, animation, graphics and sound, do you really have anything much to say?
My mail client software is the venerable Pine program from the eighties, running on my Linux mail server and it's great. I like the e-mail format where the messages come to me and I don't have to remember to log in to some outside service to stay up on things. I can't stand most web-based forums, and I sure as hell am not interested in using such a thing when it's plastered with winking, blinking advertising that takes up most of the message space (like the nonstop examples we see on Directions Magazine.) Plain text is amazing stuff. And really, you *can* do a lot with it (consider GML, SVG, and XML-based protocols in general.) But I'm bang along side of Thoreau when he wrote (in plain text) "Simplify, simplify..." However, I'm not opposed to seeing innovation. I wouldn't mind seeing somebody else offer some alternative channels. If it's good and serves a need it will grow. The one thing about the Internet is that it thrives on variety. So if anyone wants to try something new, go for it! I think it would be cool if some matrix-riding cowboy or cowgirl could build a screaming server farm and finally give us the Holodeck. "Ask not what your cybercountry can do for you, but rather what you can do for your cybercountry..." Still, I like my simple text medium -- pure and honest as the sunshine, clear mountain water and oatmeal. YMMV. - Bill "Walden" Thoen On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Neil Havermale wrote: > I was wondering if a list like this one might one day lift the "List" game a > bit? With all the really neat stuff going on related to faster and faster > internet connections generally, it might be informative as well as fun if > the visual stuff we get so involved in might be shared and issues > illustrated? Or are we so intimidated by spreading internet diseases that > we must continue to exist only on TXT oatmeal without even raisins or brown > sugar? --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 17363
