Hard copy or e-mail submission?

It's wrong to assume that because these agents won't accept emailed submissions and don't have websites they're "refus[ing] to take advantage of mainstream technology".

They do use email in their day-to-day business. They just don't accept submissions that way, for various reasons already discussed in this thread: one of which is that it keeps down the number of submissions received.

As for a website: why would they need one if they already have all the clients they feel they can reasonably represent, and if they're already so well-known and well-regarded in publishing that they don't need to advertise what they do?

What you seem to be forgetting, Al, is that making it easy for aspiring writers to send in their submissions is not the main focus for literary agents and agencies. They earn their money by representing their existing clients properly.

Old Hack said:

As for a website: why would they need one if they already have all the clients they feel they can reasonably represent, and if they're already so well-known and well-regarded in publishing that they don't need to advertise what they do?

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I don't mind that they don't have a website. If they don't have a website, it is unlikely that I will even have heard of them, much less want to submit.

Old Hack said:

What you seem to be forgetting, Al, is that making it easy for aspiring writers to send in their submissions is not the main focus for literary agents and agencies. They earn their money by representing their existing clients properly.

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In which case their practice of not accepting email submissions being used to discourage new submissions is working for both the agents, who don't want to take on new clients and me, who doesn't want to be represented by an agent who doesn't want to represent me.

Old Hack said:

It's wrong to assume that because these agents won't accept emailed submissions and don't have websites they're "refus[ing] to take advantage of mainstream technology".

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It's not wrong at all. The assumption isn't that a specific agent is "refusing..." It is that the agent is in a larger group of agents, most of whom are likely "refusing..." It's like a slush pile. Can't tell the good ones without going in deeper. I, for one, do not want to be sending reams of paper to folks whose heads are in the 20th century. It's a litmus test. And you know how those go.