While the majority of the modern world enjoys the luxury of basically unlimited, cheap and modern high speed internet service provider prices, this simply is not the case for all users here on STEEM that enjoy utilizing the platform both as entertainment, self employment or socializing purposes. It may seem far fetched or even straight outlandish to most 1st world internet dwellers to even entertain the idea that not everyone has uncapped and affordable internet access it is in fact true and I myself fall into the category I've devised, playfully referred to by myself as "net gimps".
What exactly is a Net Gimp..?
Well for starters the average gimp generally lives their tortured existence under the oppressive stranglehold of low monthly bandwidth / high cost internet service providers which prey/capitalize on people who do not have access to sanely priced internet service packages. They may be found in remote rural locations, underdeveloped countries or located in areas where internet infrastructure simply hasn't been built up yet. Alternatively web gimps may have limited access to the internet through over priced mobile phone data plans.
Where I fit in as a Net Gimp
My monthly internet bill seems to hover just under $100 CAD a month for a whopping 50GB of combined upload/download bandwidth allotted in that 30 day time frame with download speeds reaching a STAGGERING 540kbps (If I'm lucky enough to appease the internet deities of course). This is AFTER I forked out over $400 CAD to have one of the local ISP ( thieves guild ) technicians come out to install a perhaps ~$50 CDMA radio unit to the side of my house (which he some how managed to bugger up the first install). All in all one year of extremely limited internet access (600GB/year) has costs me around $1600CAD plus taxs. For a self employed artist, web developer, entrepreneur and web dweller that attempts to make an honest living online paying such ridiculous amounts just to be able to show up to work has left me feeling demoralized.
In lesser developed / industrialized countries this ISP thievery is worse than in North America.
In Strides Steemit & its Users High Definition Pictures.. EVERYWHERE
Don't take this post as me whining about the pictures that I've burnt bandwidth viewing here on Steemit.. Some of the most beautiful and most moving photographs I've ever seen have been here on STEEM. However for someone who relies on his overpriced, sluggish and bandwidth limited internet as a gateway to making a living I have serious problems using up what little bandwidth I'm invested in each month due to the fact that most posts here on Steemit.com have at LEAST 1 picture (sometimes > 5MB or more a piece) that is loaded with the article...
My Proposal for Steem v0.15.x
Please @ned / @dantheman / @roadscape (and other awesome STEEM devs I fail to mention here) consider allowing some form of toggle switch that allows users to turn off the downloading and viewing images on others posts in order to allow those with "less than generous" internet offering in their area a chance to read more posts, curate with greater prowess and engage with more users and their posts given the newly granted ability to stop large, expensive images from burning up our limited bandwidth.
Included below is a rough sketch of how the image toggle implementation looks on the new STEEM:
As of now I'm currently only ranked around #65 on the list and do not show up on the top 50.
However you can still vote for me by scrolling to the bottom of the page and typing klye:
Starlink Currently Offering $0 Hardware Fee on the New 3rd Generation Dishes... Plans Starting from $90 a Month! Cast Off the Cable Shackles and Become a True Internet Nomad Today!klye ·
@ned / 
@dantheman / 
@roadscape (and other awesome STEEM devs I fail to mention here) consider allowing some form of toggle switch that allows users to turn off the downloading and viewing images on others posts in order to allow those with "less than generous" internet offering in their area a chance to read more posts, curate with greater prowess and engage with more users and their posts given the newly granted ability to stop large, expensive images from burning up our limited bandwidth.
@klye for Witness 