[ATMoB-discuss] Emailing Monthly Newsletter

[John R Stansfield]

Bernie..

I agree with your views on the NL issue. I especially concur with what
you said in your second item that paid members should receive the NL
first long before the general public has access. 

John Stansfield


  
On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:32:02 -0400 Bern Kosicki <kosicki at verizon.net>
writes:
> My opinion,
> 
> 1. PDF is the way to go, as commented.
> 
> 2. I thought that one reason for being a member was timely 
> acquisition of 
> the newsletter (ie, in the same month that it is released).  Putting 
> it on 
> a public site at the same time as release means timely acquisition 
> of the 
> NL is no longer a benefit of membership.  (Maybe I was mistaken in 
> this 
> idea?)  But we ARE looking for more active members and reasons why 
> one 
> should join....  So, I'd advocate postponing posting of the NL  on 
> the 
> public website until the next month, as an archive.
> 
> 3. In receiving an attachment, those with limited bandwidth (or in 
> fact 
> anyone) can instruct his/her email application to not download any 
> applications above XX Bytes.  So, downloading can be done at the 
> convenience of the receiver, and doesn't have to automatically tie 
> up the 
> application when email is opened.  So, there should be no 
> disadvantage to 
> sending an attachment to those who want to control downloading at 
> their 
> convenience.
> 
> 4. The work of putting the NL on a website, and sending out an 
> announcement, vs. just sending it as an attachment, is about the 
> same ( 
> true or not?).  So, no difference to the person posting the NL.
> 
> So, my personal vote would be to continue to receive the NL as an 
> attachment.  My bias- I tend to overlook links more than email 
> attachments, 
> which are somehow more insistent.
> 
> Bernie Kosicki
> 
> 
> 
> At 08:41 AM 6/13/2006, Bernie Volz \(volz\) wrote:
> >We are not planning on changing the format - it would continue to 
> be in
> >PDF. As an example, click on
> >http://www.atmob.org/newsletters/200606.pdf.
> >
> >As a URL would be included in the mail (as per above), this should 
> be no
> >more steps - today you click to open the attachment; with this 
> change,
> >you'd click on the URL, a browser window is opened and the PDF 
> document
> >is displayed (yes, both the browser and Acrobat need to run, so 
> the
> >computer is doing an additional step but you are not). The 
> newsletter is
> >PUBLICLY available, so there is no need for you to log in to the 
> web
> >site.
> >
> >There are also advantages to NOT sending it. The size of the PDF 
> varies
> >- from 50KB to 1.5MB (the average size for the 65 newsletters I 
> have is
> >400KB). If you're still a dial-up user, this means it takes a while 
> for
> >the email to download (at least 1 minutes for 56Kb dial-up). If 
> you're
> >interested in reading it, that time will always be there. But, if 
> you
> >don't want to do it right away or at all (hopefully not the case!) 
> ...
> >Of course, the down side is that you can't view it offline if it 
> was
> >never downloaded.
> >
> >We are also discussing increasing the size and content of the 
> newsletter
> >(as the core reason for the current format has been the
> >paper/copying/mailing costs) - with electronic distribution, there 
> is
> >virtually no increase in cost for more pages.
> >
> >As we now have more advanced technology with the new web site, a
> >solution might be to allow you to select whether you want to 
> receive it
> >as an attachment or as a URL (so, you may three choices - the 
> third
> >being to receive a paper copy via US Mail).
> >
> >- Bernie
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Bruce Gerhard [mailto:bruceg at theworld.com]
> > > Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 10:12 PM
> > > To: Bernie Volz (volz)
> > > Cc: atmob-discuss at atmob.org
> > > Subject: RE: [ATMoB-discuss] Emailing Monthly Newsletter
> > >
> > > Bernie,
> > >
> > > The reason for sending the news letter as an attachment is that 
> it can
> > > be in PDF format.  PDF allows the recipient to print a high
> > > quality hard
> > > copy quickly and easily.  The Adobe Acrobat reader (which 
> handles PDF)
> > > can be downloaded free, so anyone can handle PDF.  This is not 
> true of
> > > any other format I know of.
> > >
> > > Sending the newsletter as an attachment to email is a minimal
> > > amount of
> > > work for the person sending it (I did it for another 
> organization for
> > > several years) and very convenient for the person receiving
> > > it.  Putting
> > > it on the web site would be satisfactory if -- and only if -- it 
> would
> > > be possible to download if in PDF format.  It would probably be 
> more
> > > work for the sender and certainly be clumsy for the receiver,
> > > involving
> > > at least one additional step. What is done now is very 
> satisfactory.
> > > Why change it?
> > >
> > > Clear skies,
> > > Bruce Gerhard <bruceg at TheWorld.com>
> >_______________________________________________
> >ATMoB-discuss mailing list
> >ATMoB-discuss at atmob.org
> >http://lists.atmob.org/mailman/listinfo/atmob-discuss
> 
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