TexasCHLforum.com

Dave, I don't want to speak for Charles...but I'll offer my opinion.

Charles didn't arrive at the rule lightly, and he's not trying to be simply inclusionary or politically correct. I gave a presentation early this year on "Building Your Business" at the Texas Firearm Instructors Conference. Part of my focus was on using the Web to market a small businesses, and one thing I wanted to explain was that Websites today needed to be tuned for both personal-computer access and access by mobile devices. If you didn't do the latter, it was a perilous decision.

The best data I could find last February was that sometime in mid-2011 we had a crossed a line: based upon polling information, more people had begun to regularly connect to the Internet using mobile devices than did so using PCs or laptops combined.

Then just three days ago, the global consulting firm Accenture released a study completed this summer about mobile device usage of the Internet: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/in ... ernet.aspx.

The U.S. was not included in this 13-country survey, but it's the most up-to-date information we have about mobile device trending. Some highlights:

• 69% of all Internet users accessed it through a mobile device
• 61% did so through a smartphone, 37% through a netbook, and 22% through a tablet
• 58% for personal matters compared to 20% for work-related matters
• 62% of all users polled said they used their mobile devices to access online communities...like the Texas CHL Forum; 61% for instant messaging; 27% for tweeting or blogging
• Mobile service usage is greatest among the younger population:
  • 82% for those 14-19 years old
  • 81% for those 20-29
  • 74% for those 30-39
  • 66% for those 40-49
  • 45% of those 50 and older

The recent change to automatically remove embedded images from quoted material and this new rule to shorten signature lines are small steps to help make the Forum more useable to the way the majority of members access it...if not the way they do today, then tomorrow. I fall into that 50+ group and admit that I infrequently use my phone for Internet access other than email or to check the news/weather. But it's all those folks in the 20-39 age ranges that are the future CHL holders and 2A supporters. And they do use mobile devices to access the Forum.

There is no practical reason for anyone to have a list spanning a dozen lines in his or her signature. That takes up unnecessary real estate even on a large PC monitor. We discussed two lines to five lines, and settled on a maximum of four, including blanks. We felt that was enough to convey any pertinent message.