[Ansteorra] Re: Electronic publishing

[Karie Mitchell]

>Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 11:06:14 -0500
>From: Sluggy <slugmusk at linuxlegend.com>
>Subject: [Ansteorra] Electronic publishing
>To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
>Reply-To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
>
>I agree that separating the Black Star subscription from membership >would
>be a great way to solve the problem, especially for the long >term.

>As the Chronicler of Loch Ruadh, pretty much all things printed in >Loch
>Ruadh have fallen to me. We have occasionally used PDF files to >facilitate
>email approval of the layout of such things as the ads for >last year's
>Lughnasad, various handouts and other such documents. This >was partly
>because of the size of Microsoft Publisher files, but >mostly because not
>everyone involved had Publisher but almost everyone >who a) uses their
>computer online a lot or b)bought their computer in >the last, oh, 2 years
>or so, most likely has Adobe Acrobat Reader >installed. If not, it's a free
>and reasonable download (6.5MB, about >20 minutes at 33.6K) ) by today's
>standards. There is even a PalmOS
>version of the reader software.
>
>Even if a reasonable majority of internet capable PCs have an Acrobat
> >reader installed, the electronic distribution would not be for >everyone
>and I would never advocate that the BlackStar be published >electronically
>only. There are several valid reasons why the paper >copies need to remain
>today and for the foreseeable future.

Definitely I agree.  We cannot go to purely "electronic" copies.  If someday
computers become like phones (ie _everyone_ has one) that might be possible.
  But for now it would be nice to offer this alternative.

>That being said, I must also explain that there are a few caveats to >using
>Adobe to publish a complete newsletter. Most importantly is that
> >publishing the same document to PDF or to printer often changes the
> >layout in small but sometimes important ways. It depends on the
> >specifics of the document. I experimented with putting The Scarlet
> >Letter in PDF format and the biggest layout problem I experienced was
> >the calendar grid. This can be alleviated with careful design of the
> >document, or maintaining two copies of each issue, but I think that's
> >lot to ask of the volunteers who publish the Blackstar.

That does sound like a problem.  Not insurmountable, but a problem.  Also,
the calendar would not need to be in the same file as the text of the BS.
If people have internet access, then they should be able to get to the
Kingdom Calendar.  Also, the page with phone #'s, etc. wouldn't have to be
listed if it's already on the webpage for the Regnum.  Just a thought.

>Another problem with the PDF format is more technical, dealing with the
>compression and display of artwork covers and such. Being a bit of a
> >resolution purist, I found that the default graphic display options
> >compromised too much of the detail in the cover art for The Scarlet
> >Letter. Changing the options recovered the detail, but at a cost in
> >filesize, making the file quite a bit larger. This would result in a
> >longer download time for modem users. In any case, the PDF filesizes
> >were typically only 5-10% of the Publisher files, often 15-20MB with a
> >high resolution scan of a detailed drawing for the cover.

Perhaps the electronic version could be "text-only" for now?  I know that
wouldn't be as nice, but if you could get a reduced price for an e-version,
some might sacrifice the "pretties" to have it sent regularly.

>Even with these quite addressable problems, the real problem with an
> >electronic version will be the maintenance of the subscription list. >Not
>only would there need to actually be two subscription lists (one >for each
>version of the newsletter), an email list of paying >subscribers is
>difficult to administer.  People are sometimes forced >to change email
>addresses with little or no notice.  Email is easy to >delete inadvertently
>and then how do to regulate the sending of extra >copies in such cases?

Maintaining the separate list for e-subscriptions has to be the most
difficult block I can see.  Especially as we transfer from one to the other.
  Or if a single household wants both paper and electronic copies.  As for
losing the electronic copy, well, I've accidentaly thrown out a perfectly
good Black Star before, and I cannot get another one.

>In short, an electronic version is not for everyone, but I suspect a
> >number of people would be quite willing to receive their newsletter
> >electronically and every person who did so would help alleviate the
> >financial strain of printing and mailing a physical newsletter.

I know a few who would be interested in such a thing.  I cannot say this
household (my husband prefers paper), but I have heard such sentiments from
others.  It may help if such a contingency requested this new form to help
alleviate the cost of printing & mailing.

Thank you for your words Sluggy!

Alessandra Desiderio
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