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Netsurfer Books Frequently Asked Questions

1.0 Where can this FAQ be found?

This information is available via FTP and WWW at:

FTP: ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsb/nsfaq.txt
WWW: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/nsfaq.html

2.0 What is Netsurfer Books?

Netsurfer Books is your guide to interesting books. It's that simple. We wanted to share with our readers some of the books which caught our eye, so we created Netsurfer Books to let you know about publications which you may not otherwise hear about. The selections reflect our editorial judgement and in no way do they attempt to be comprehensive. We like these books - if you share our tastes, so will you. Give it a try.

The Netsurfer Books home page is at: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/

3.0 How much does Netsurfer Books cost?

Netsurfer Books is free. However, we presume our readers are mature enough to understand that in the real world of bills and taxes a business such as this can't survive without sponsors. Thus you can expect to see advertising as part of NSS. Currently this advertising takes the form of banners embedded in Netsurfer Books. We do NOT send out spam, nor do we rent or sell our mailing list.

4.0 How do I Subscribe or Unsubscribe to Netsurfer Books?

Use our online subscription form at http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/subscribe.html

There you can subscribe, unsubscribe, change your delivery address, and check to see if you are still on our mailing list.

5.0 How is Netsurfer Books delivered?

Netsurfer Books is delivered via e-mail directly to your mailbox. Netsurfer Books can reach you at any e-mail address which is capable of receiving mail from the Internet. All back issues of NSS are also available on our Web site.

6.0 In what format is Netsurfer Books delivered?

Netsurfer Books is mailed to you as HTML-formatted text suitable for viewing with any World Wide Web browser. The HTML version has live links to all the books named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to Amazon.com and order the book you have just been reading about.

NOTE: You do not have to be connected directly to the Internet in order to enjoy the benefits of the HTML version. Any HTML browser, such as Netscape or Explorer, can be used to read Netsurfer Books in a nicely formatted style. However, if you're not connected to the net when you're reading Netsurfer Books you won't see any of the book cover pictures.

7.0 How do I read the HTML version of Netsurfer Books?

Reading the HTML version of Netsurfer Books is pretty simple. It may be even simpler if your e-mail reader has the capability to handle HTML text directly, or if it supports MIME extensions (see below).

If you use Eudora or the latest e-mail clients from Netscape or Microsoft, then there is nothing special you need to do to read the Books. Just read it like you would any other e-mail.

If your mail client does not support HTML we strongly suggest you upgrade to one that does. In the meantime, all you have to do is to save your e-mail copy into a file with a .html extension (or .htm for DOS and Windows 3.1 systems). Then simply go into any World Wide Web browser (like Netscape, Explorer, or whatever is your favorite) and load the file. If you are connected directly to the Internet via a SLIP or PPP link you can then read Netsurfer Books and follow all the enclosed links with the click of a mouse.

You may want to remove the e-mail header from the top of your HTML files to make the results look good in your browser. The header is everything above the first 

<HTML>
line and any text editor will do to snip it off.

Some e-mail readers have capabilities to take advantage of the MIME header entry which we send out in every HTML version of Netsurfer Books. This is the header field which reads: "Content-Type: text/html". If your e-mail reader can handle MIME extensions then you may be able to configure it to automatically open your Web browser whenever you want to read an HTML e-mail such as Netsurfer Books. Since there are so many e-mail readers out there your best bet is to check the documentation, contact customer support, or as a last resort ask for advice on Usenet.

8.0 How can I find out if I'm still on your mailing list?

Visit our online subscription form http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/subscribe.html.

Type in your address, select the Check Address button, and hit SUBMIT. Our system will let you know if this address is still on our mailing list.

9.0 How can I change my delivery address?

Visit our online subscription form http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/subscribe.html.

Click Change Address and hit the SUBMIT button. A change of address form will be displayed. Type in your old address and your new address, then click SUBMIT.

You'll get a new copy of the welcome message, FAQ, and the latest issue at your new address. That's all there is to it.

10.0 Why do you bother mailing the HTML version?

Why not just put up the Web server? Well, there are really two reasons for this.

First, the Web clients such as Netscape, Explorer and others make very nifty universal readers for all of our customers, even those without direct access to the Internet. Since we like our product to look good this seems the obvious solution to go with.

The second reason is that we do not want our WWW server to be a choke point for our readers. Why have thousands of readers trying to hook up to our machine and potentially wind up in a giant traffic jam, just to link to an unrelated site they read about in Netsurfer Books? From the standpoint of reliability and bandwidth usage it makes sense to mail out HTML source.

11.0 How come I did not get my last issue of Netsurfer Books?

We've been doing this long enough to know that there are a number of problems which crop up over and over again due to factors beyond our control (or occasionally due to our computers - it's never our own fault you understand)

On any given mass mailing we get between 5%-10% bounced e-mails. This means our software tried to deliver to your address but could not. Some of the reasons we've seen why this happens:

  • Your machine or mailing software was down when we tried mailing.
  • Your file system was full.
  • Your address has changed.
  • The link to your site was down somewhere along the delivery chain.
  • Our mailing software starts acting up for utterly unknown reasons (well, usually it's because we've been mucking with our machines).
  • A conspiracy involving aliens, Elvis, and the Trilateral Commission.

If all else fails you can always stop at our FTP or WWW sites to get the latest issue of Netsurfer Books:

http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/
ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsb/

12.0 How can I unsubscribe from Netsurfer Books?

It hurts us to have to tell you how to do that. It really does. If it comes to this it means we have failed you, our gentle readers. If you unsubscribe there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and someone will throw themselves on the point of their mouse pad. So don't. Just tell us how to get better.

But if you must ... visit our online subscription form http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/subscribe.html, type in your e-mail address, click Unsubscribe and hit the SUBMIT button.

13.0 Who publishes Netsurfer Books?

Netsurfer Books is published by Netsurfer Communications Inc., a small company of netsurfers interested in creating interesting and innovative products via the online medium. We also provide consulting services for businesses interested in creating an online presence or distributing products online in an ethical, responsible, and effective manner.

Go ahead and find out more about the people behind Netsurfer Communications..

14.0 How do I contact Netsurfer Books?

There are three major ways to contact us:

PUBLICITY: If you want to publicize your site, send information to nsb-pressroom@netsurf.com. See FAQ 15.0 for more information.

ADVERTISING: If you want to ask about advertising and sponsorships send email to: sales@netsurf.com. You can also look at our Rate Card: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/nsratecard.html

OTHER STUFF: If you want to write to the editor about content or administrative matters (letters to the editor, suggestions for improvement, broken links, flames about Cleveland or Quebec, free pizza, large bribes) send email to nsb-editor@netsurf.com.

Other business correspondence can be addressed to:

Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
333 Cobalt Way, Suite 107
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Voice: +1 408 249 6346
General business: netsurfers@netsurf.com

Web Site: http://www.netsurf.com/nsb/
FTP Site: ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsb/

15.0 How do I publicize my Web book with Netsurfer Books?

Send press releases and publicity information to nsb-pressroom@netsurf.com. This won't guarantee that we'll cover your book, just that it will go into our editorial process. Sending e-mail to any other address, or sending us faxes, snail mail, or singing telegrams, will not be effective and may even annoy us.

Make sure to give us enough notice. Sending us PR three days before an event won't do any good. We have a lead time of about 2 weeks. Anything sent with less notice is not likely to show up at all.

If you do send us material, give us some details. "Hey, take a look at my phat new book!" or "I'd like you to publish this link" will not work. Tell us what you've got and why we should go look, or just send us a standard press release. If you make a halfway decent effort to make our job easy, chances are we'll go look. Also take a look at this document from the Internet Press Guild for more info on sending press releases.

Finally, note that we don't review, preview, or publicize any non-existent content. You've either got a book published or event scheduled, or you don't. If you don't, it's pure vapor, and carries about that much weight with us. Get back to us when it's real.

16.0 How can I get your editorial calendar?

You can't. We don't have one. We're a more or less twice monthly publication with a rotating set of sections. Whatever you've got will fit into one of our broad sections. Send us your information whenever it's ready.

17.0 Where can I fax you?

Don't. Save a tree and send e-mail. We're seriously thinking of turning off our fax machine. We have yet to receive any fax which was worth the phone bill. That's since 1994.

This stuff goes straight from the fax machine to the wastebasket. If you do PR, get into the '90s and start using e-mail.

18.0 How come there are so many cookies on your web site?

You're probably running with cookie alerts turned on in your browser, and when you view our publications you see tons of warnings about cookies. The cookies are used by our advertising service to manage the display of advertising. The ads are dynamically generated and the cookies help keep track of which ads were displayed and how many times they were displayed. That accounting information is what determines how much we'll get paid.

Just about all major web sites use cookies in one way or another since they are the only viable method of maintaining state information between web site visits. There's really little point in running your browser with cookie alerts turned on. It's kind of like having your car telling you every time a cylinder fires - a waste of your time and attention.

19.0 What's your privacy policy?

The only individual information Netsurfer collects is the email address of our subscribers, which we need - obviously - to deliver our ezines. Netsurfer does not sell or rent its mailing list.

Any information which we may collect in our periodic demographic surveys is only used for aggregate statistical reporting of our readership as a whole. Individual responses are never made public, and in fact we try to make our surveys as anonymous as possible.

Netsurfer works with a third party (Engage) that serves ads to to our ezines. Here's their privacy policy statement:

"This site uses the services of Engage for the serving and/or targeting of ads, promotions and other marketing messages. To do this, Engage collects anonymous data typically through the use of cookies. To learn more about Engage, including your ability to opt out of the Engage system, go to http://www.engage.com/privacy."

Netsurfer Books is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc..
© 1998-2000, Netsurfer Communications, Inc.