Hi there,  A threaded discussion group would be detrimental to me and
I would simply discontinue my connection and participation to MMD after
all these years.

I'm a crippled and sick old man that can't afford high speed Internet.
I'm using a 56 kbps telephone modem and an AOL connection that used to
give me a basic but still acceptable 48k access.  But lately AOL closed
all its servers and access numbers all around Canada and concentrated
all the connections across the country to a single telephone line in
Winnipeg, Manitoba.

All the AOL clients in Canada have only one modem connection line --
just think how slow it gets on busy hours of the day!  I have to
wake-up in the middle of the night to get a 44k transfer.  During
the day, let's say around 10:00 in the morning, I can get only 22k
connectivity.  Since two months getting to my Yahoo groups, to Facebook
or to any blogs are totally impossible to me.

I searched for another cheap affordable Internet provider in my area
and there is none.  Quebec is the most expensive place to be when
needing communication services.  Here you'll find that the cheapest
Internet, telephone, television, or cellular services are more
expensive than anywhere else on the globe.  That has even been the
subject of communication university students research papers.

CRTC authorities (radio and communication regulatory board in Canada)
are not doing their jobs and companies like Rogers, Bell, Videotron and
all others are free to charge whatever they want and there is much
collusion among them.  I live in a country that doesn't care much about
communication costs.  Sorry for me.

I'm glad MMD is still using an old "mailing list system"!  Please keep
it that way for another five years.  According to my doctors I won't be
here anymore then.

Long live MMD and it's mailing list!

Gilles Chouinard
Laval, Quebec, Canada