I wasn't sure this worked but I just checked and it does.  It may not give a
100% accurate reading but it will certainly tell you what size category the
message falls into and approximately how long it will take to download.

Now I don't want to get off on a rant here, but:

- The size posted in the message subject is almost always wrong, since
people quote the binary size and ASCII encoding bumps it by about 30%.

- The follow-up messages all have the original posting size in the subject
even though they are usually much smaller, potentially causing some
confusion.

- Sharing multimedia is a high-bandwidth endeavour, regardless of whether
you download music, photos, animation, or other content.  If you download a
lot of large files/messages you should consider getting an appropriate
connection, ISP, and rate plan.

- POV people have generally been good about reducing there work to the
smallest size (maximum compression) that still allows the image to be viewed
and enjoyed.  Some don't, but they tend to get nasty follow-up messages.

- If appending the file size becomes the norm and somebody forgets he will
be reprimanded (like those who include binary attachments in non-binary
groups or post in HTML format) and I would prefer to keep the number of
rules that generate negative postings to a minimum.  We get enough already.

And my (elitist, unpopular) conclusion:

Adding the binary image size to the subject line adds little value and
should therefore be considered completely discretionary.

Of course that's just my opinion.
I could be wrong.

"Ryan Constantine" <rcc### [at] ucdavisedu> wrote in message
news:3A93FA30.CFF09E94@ucdavis.edu...
> Richard Speir wrote:
> >
> > Some news readers don't display file sizes.  At least, Netscape doesn't,
unless
> > it's a feature I've disabled.
>
> but what you can do is compare the number of lines that an unknown
> message has with the lines in a message with a given size.  just make
> the lines count visible in your header summary by clicking the arrow in
> the top right of that window.  you still won't have an exact number
> until you download, but it will give you a good idea of how long you'll
> have to wait. :)

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