A death in the family has kept me away from adding new articles during the past week, but coverage of several important stories, including the Comcast usage cap and some updates on other providers’ plans, as well as more on the Frontier matter, will be forthcoming shortly.

I appreciate your understanding for the delay.   I will be adding additional editors and writers to Stop the Cap! in September to increase our coverage and frequency of reports.

Stay tuned!

It has been quiet here the last few days as work continues on our expanded Resources section.   Some sample Letters to the Editor are online already, but additional writing is underway to help people do more than just read about usage caps, but also fight them.   Keep an eye out for developments.

I am also contacting many of those who have written in who want to get more actively involved in fighting the cap issue, in addition to joining a team of writers to post articles, news, and links to other stories on this issue.   We welcome anyone who wants to help join the fight.   Just use the Contact form or reply with a Comment and I’ll be in touch.

Some important articles are in the works on the issue of usage caps, including at least one major wire service report which should land in newspapers around the country which should appear in the next few days.

It was a good thing we launched when we did.   The Working Families Party and the Alliance for Quality Education were stuck with Stopthecap.org for their new website to protest New York Governor David Patterson’s plan to cap property taxes in New York State.   They launched a high price advertising campaign across the state to get people to contact their elected officials and get them to say no:

Property Taxes are a real problem. But the tax cap gimmick will hurt our schools, and won’t even reduce property taxes.  

If you arrived here looking for that website, it’s because you reflexively typed stopthecap.com  into your web browser.   But before you go, take a moment and read up on an issue New Yorkers are likely to face in the next twelve months –  unjustified usage caps on your Internet access, now proposed or being  tested  by two major Internet providers in the state – Frontier Communications and  Time-Warner’s Road Runner service.

We’re devoted to protecting consumer interests, and as a fellow New Yorker that is already paying too much for everything in the Empire State,  the last thing we all need is to cough up $40 a month (or more) for Internet access that limits you to watching two movies a month, or  charges you outrageous overage fees for anything you use above the limit.

We have completed a software upgrade which should help improve the viewing experience for those still using Internet Explorer 6.   It also should have corrected a few minor formatting issues for certain browsers.

In other site developments:

1. I have cleaned up our categories and tags.   As the site grows larger, readers will find it easier to locate articles about their specific ISP or issues that impact them the most.   The Categories tab on the left of your screen will grow as articles appear relating to other service providers or broadband platforms.   When you click the category name, all articles regarding that category will be displayed to you in date order.   The tags and categories are also more uniform and standardized.
2. Our first wave of comment spam began about 24 hours ago so we enabled some spam prevention tools which should purge most of it before it becomes visible.   If you use our Comment feature, which is available on every article here through a link just below the headline, please note that occasionally legitimate comments may be held up until they are approved by me.   In most cases, doing things like putting more than two links in a comment or using key phrases or words which might be commonly used in spam may get the comment placed in the “waiting approval queue.”   Please allow a few hours for me to get that comment approved.   We do not censor legitimate comments, even if they disagree with the author (or other comments).   But please be respectful and avoid personal attacks on other people here.
3. The latest comments  across all of our articles  can now be seen  on the left side of your screen just below the list of recent articles.   I would prefer to see more of the actual comments displayed instead of just the subjects, so  look for an improvement soon.
4. Traffic on this site has grown dramatically since we went live at the end of July, and there has been some site drag because of the intense interest in this subject.   If you’re new, welcome aboard.   If you’re a regular reader, it’s greatly appreciated.   We will be moving to a new server shortly to provide a better experience for our thousands of readers.
5. If you experience any problems accessing or viewing the site,  find an error, or have any comments or suggestions, please use the Contact link at the top of the page and let us know!   Your news tips, story ideas, and ongoing participation really make this a better site for everyone.

Thanks again for the tremendous support and your steadfast opposition to usage caps and bandwidth limits.   Together we can continue to send a strong message to any provider that takes  customers for granted and attempts to manipulate the facts  to justify charging  more money for less service.   Keep up the fight!