Forgive me if this comes across as spam but I feel it
involves a situation that may very well determine if I remain
with this ML or not.  I am posting this to the ML as I believe it
affects more people than just myself.
     On 27 June, I was notified by a sysop that my latest chapter
of 'Nabiki - New Horizons' was bounced at his E-mail site due to
its size.  He went on to note that any file of over 100k
delivered to his site would be bounced and that bouncing would
produce an unrequested 'unsubscribe' from the FFML.  As this
would be highly undesirable from his standpoint, he went on to
request that, in the future, I break up my stories into smaller
chunks to prevent further trouble to his system.  He also noted
that he was passing on this request to the list moderator.
     As I have not heard anything from said moderator as to the
disposition of this request, I am in the dark as to how to
proceed - officially.  Needless to say, his decision will
determine my future actions as far as my relationship with the ML
is concerned.
     On one hand, I do understand the problem and have some
sympathy for the sysop's situation.  Getting bounced because of a
size limitation is a serious problem in a mailing list
environment.  Nobody wants to be 'unsubscribed' because someone
else sent a story to the ML.
     On the other hand, I am a little taken aback at the amount
of problems his request would create for me.  His solution was
for me to break up my stories into smaller chunks so as to not
cause the problem he described.
     On the surface, such a request is not outrageous.  But upon
closer examination, such, I believe, would be unfairly difficult
for me considering the environment this mailing list is supposed
to represent.
     We are supposed to be a 'writers workshop' environment where
stories are developed, previewed, reviewed, rewritten, and
polished.  Breaking up a story at an arbitrary point to satisfy
an artificial size restriction would be most difficult as those
stories tend to be complete parts, each dependant on the other
to stand.  If I were to chop up a large story into, say, 100k
parts on the first draft, what am I to do later when bits are
added to the first part that push its size over the 100k limit? 
Would I be expected to create a middle part of only a few 'K' in
size to keep the flow of the story going or should I sit down
each time I post and artificially chop the story up into
acceptable chunks?  I really don't feel like trying to guess
where 100k is in my stories as I go about my cutting and pasting,
trying to fit someone else's size limit.  Judging by the ML's
sometimes capricious resending of submitted items, I can see a
problem where parts 1 & 3 show up but part 2 gets lost for a few
days.  This interruption would not be fair to either myself or my
readers.  I post these chapters and stories as complete units as
that is how they were written and intended to be read.
     Furthermore, I don't feel I should be penalized because I
write stories larger than the average.  Some stories just require
more development due to their plot, characterization, and pacing. 
As I write my stories in WordPerfect 6.1 before converting to TXT
for posting, the only way to 'after the fact' break it into parts
is for me to cut and paste massive quantities (up to 100k each)
of the story into separate files - hardly a reasonable suggestion
to satisfy a single person's limitations.  To do it as I develop
the story would create the situation I mentioned above with
dangling bits that could get easily lost, deleted, or sent out of
sequence, thereby destroying the look and feel of the story.
     From an 'agreement' standpoint, WW sets the size limits for
this ML.  If he chooses to limit stories to 100k, then that's the
way it will be.  No arguments here.  As such a restriction (100k)
is not currently in place, I feel I have done nothing wrong
posting my stories and should not be put upon to change my way of
doing things to satisfy someone who has artificially low limits
on their own site.
     In any case, unless I hear otherwise, I will treat this
request much in the same manner as I have the 'moderation' issue:
I will continue to do as I always have and if I get tossed out of
the 'club' for being contrary - so be it.  

     I await the Commissar's decision.

     - Greg