He doesn't have web access? Really? I don't think I understand.
For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer.
(I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at
page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page
back to me.
It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.
In a more recent article[1], Stallman voices his opposition to web-based SaaS applications, as they take away your basic ownership of the data stored there, limiting your freedom etc.
I can understand him in this regard. I'm not that idealistic and love the convenience of some web apps, so right now that wins in the end. I think that's one of the reasons why a lot of people seem to be annoyed of RMS – we never like to be shown that we maybe compromise a bit too much. But I digress…
So you don't like webapps. You do most of your discussions in usenet or email lists (this might sound sacrilegious here, but we I don't think reddit/HN/4chan is a step up from moderated newsgroups). You can just download news, either via the above-mentioned wget trick or via RSS. That does eliminate most of your web-browsing needs, or am I missing something really important? Especially if you live in Emacs, an don't care too much about rounded corners, gradients and typographical text.
He's basically like the guy you know who tells you that he doesn't watch TV and rather reads a book. You tell him that there's quality programming and you read enough books, too, but then you remember this conversation and feel kinda guilty while watching Castle.
The web as a timesuck is I guess a good argument, but limiting yourself to checking e-mail surely won't harness any inclination people have to read news or watch media. Right?
This meant a ~36h turnaround for his responses (average): he'd get your mail ~12h (average) after you sent it and would only (be able to) send the reply 24h after that.