Tuesday, November 4, 1997
I wanted to thank you for putting together an excellent publication. I look forward to the new issue each and every week and wanted to share this with those who visit my Cybrarian web site as well. I'm assuming it's ok to link your page from mine? Please keep up the great work, it's deeply appreciated.
Steven Laboe - Minneapolis
Link away! - LN
First off, thanks for listing my dollhouse site in NSD. It's always nice to be recognized.
But did you have to title the write-up "More Dolls"? I know the phrase "dollhouse" includes the word "doll" but my page has nothing to do with dolls of any kind. No Barbies, no Raggedy Anns, no Smurfs, just scale-model miniatures. Like the printable calendars and envelopes on my resource pages. It took me a while to accept the fact that a guy like me could build dollhouses. But that's what scale houses are called and I've learned to cope. But "More Dolls"? I almost didn't read my own entry!
Jim "no dolls here" Collins
(chuckle) Sorry. - LN
You guys are good. There's a lot of stuff on the Net that isn't worth reading and by the time you find it out, it's too late. Thanks for sorting it out for us.
Emmett Smith
I just found out today from a visitor to my site that my "It's a Wonderful Life" tribute site is featured in NSD 3.33. I want to let you know how much I appreciate the link and the nice review! I especially appreciate the fact that someone at Netsurfer obviously delved into the site a bit - that's apparent from the review copy. I had been wondering why my traffic had been picking up lately - now I know, and I thank you! Here's a tiny "nitpick" though (sorry, I'm kind of a spelling fiend!): the word "gaffs" in the review should be spelled "gaffes."
I'm glad to find out about Netsurfer, as I had never seen it before, and it's a great service! I plan to subscribe to NSD and tell my friends about it. I've placed a prominent link to the NSD home page on a sort of "awards and reciprocal links" page in my site. Please let *whoever* know that I send my sincere thanks!
Karen Pecnik
Just finished the latest issue of NSD and feel compelled to drop you a line to say I've been reading the digest almost from the beginning and it is still one of my most valuable online resources.
The information is organized in such a user-friendly way. I always end up bookmarking several sites that take me the better part of a week to visit and they are almost always worth the effort.
But what I like and value most is how well-written the mini-reviews are. I'm generally able to scan other digests I receive and move on fairly quickly. With NSD I find I spend a surprising amount of time reading even the reviews of subjects I'm not particularly interested in, just because they are so well done and often so funny. Keep up the good work!
Bobbi Morgan
Thanks very much for giving me a second chance. It has already brought me some business - hopefully more before the holidays.
I would like to stress to you again that it would be really nice if you would contact webmasters in advance when their site's review is to be published. It would allow them to refresh links, spruce up their look and feel, and content before they are deluged with visitors.
My site has been up since mid-July, and the first announcement more than doubled my total hits in one week. It looks like the same will happen again. Thanks again for the exposure.
Mark Thogerson
You, damn it! Laurie, How can you be so damned clever and still have time to be a daddy? I bow to you this Halloween. You da man!
Bob Andelman (Mr. Media)
Congratulations on your fascinating NSD Halloween Edition. I received it this morning, and it is really marvelous. From Guy Fawkes to Lizzie Borden to geeks and all the stops in between, including Queen Victoria and Jack The Ripper, you have put together a GREAT experience for the Web surfer. Thanks so much for your ingenuity and for giving your subscribers so much fun!
Barbara Macauley - Chapel Hill, N.C.
Thanks for the positive and upbeat information on witches in this last issue (vs. the usual false stereotypes we endure this time of year) but we Pagans really would like to have it capitalized. Not "pagans".
Judithanne Young
Hallo, we en-joyed your witty issue this month. Perhaps not all that useful to me - I tend to be a bit a serious researcher-type user of the Net (boring!) - but entertaining all the same. Thanks to all at Netsurfer for the great stuff. From a fan in Australia, or Oz as we call it here.
Tim Walsh
Kirsty, NSD's Oz writer, is annually confused, delighted, and jealous come Halloween. We have got to get her to a civilized country one of these Octobers.... (Despite "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", Oz doesn't understand Halloween.) - LN
I can see why you are no longer supporting the text version of your fine journal, but there are many people who are going to be left with no other option but to unsubscribe. I'm referring to those subscribers who are visually impaired and can only read text because our browsers cannot yet support audio screen readers.
Instead of alienating us, how about if somebody were to offer to type the journal in text format for free or little cost at all? I am a long time netsurfer (11 years) and I want very badly to help keep alive the text versions of some of the better e-publications out there.
Sean Toth
As you might have surmised by the note we sent out, I'm not really in favour of going text-only. As far as converting the HTML version to text - for private use, probably no problem. For redistribution, probably there is a problem. I'm not the last (or even first) word on this. Arthur the Publisher needs to make a ruling. - LN
Laurie is correct, the marketing/advertising aspect is the main problem (or really an opportunity - for us to get more ad exposures). But the problems of maintaining two mailing lists, two versions, generating different mailing headers, storing two separate sets of digests on disk, consistency across several servers, etc. are not trivial. Most people think it's only a question of writing some filter which will convert HTML to text - it's actually much more complicated then that. Our filter is up to version 2.2, which tells you even filters are not all that simple.
The other important issue is that as publishers we really want to move everyone over to HTML just for the layout possibilities. Technology marches on, even though some people vehemently object to being dragged into the future - but then it's not our job to waddle along behind with them. Indirectly, HTML formatting options are a business plus, because we can become a more attractive publication, which believe or not is a selling point. Look for some changes in our design in the near future which will make the point.
Now, if you really want text, you can always generate it yourself. Go into the file menu of your favorite browser and choose "Save as". One of the options there is to save in text format. Bingo, you have your very own text version.
But, as Laurie notes, we won't authorize that for redistribution. Our redist terms are that whatever we send out has to be redistributed unaltered, which means HTML.
It's a business decision with a long term payback horizon. The pain has to happen sometime, and it's better sooner then later. You're already getting it for free, so it's rather unseemly to whine about it :) (Not a flame, just a gentle poke in the ribs). - AB
I subscribed for the text version since this works best for my speech screen reader. If I can't read the HTML format then I'll cancel my subscription and make this change of policy well known to the blindness related listservs and newsgroups.
Christos Hux
One way or another we'll find a solution for visually impaired people. The currently awkward solution is to save the file, open it in the browser and go to the file menu and Save As text. I realize this is not the best solution for folks such as yourself. I'm going to try to find out what resources there are for blind browsers and let you know what I find out. I'm sure we're not the only ones dealing with this problem.
I believe the latest versions of Eudora display HTML and may be able to do voice conversion of HTML text. It's probably worth asking the Eudora support department about that.
Anyway, we are aware of the problem and are looking for a solution. You could help by asking on the blindness related listservs and newsgroups about how other sites are dealing with this problem. We and our other visually impaired users can certainly use your help. - AB
This is to let you know that I was able to read the HTML NSD that came to my Eudora mailbox. It took Eudora a little longer to open up the message. I guess its doing some HTML to ASCII conversions. Anyway, my speech screen reader read the opened message just like it was the old text-based version.
My version is Eudora Light 3.1.1. All I did to read it was open the issue like any other message. I don't know about other blind or visually impaired subscribers' computer setups - mine is a Macintosh with the screen reader program called OutSPOKEN. There is a Windows version of this same program and other Windows screen readers. Can't say for the other folks with their configs, but for me this is the easist, most seamless interface of speech, computers OS, and applications.
Christos Hux
I really like NSD! One question: I'm unable to get it to display in my e-mail viewer (Internet Explorer 3.0) as HTML. It's still HTML source! Any suggestions?
Ted Galanti
I have no idea, but you're not the only person to mention this. - LN
Try chopping off everything above the tag with a word processor. If that doesn't work then complain to Microsoft :). Seriously, I'd suggest trying Explorer 4.0. It should work much better (I think).- AB
I signed up for the ASCII version because I use Pegasus, which currently doesn't support HTML (but allows me to quickly and easily change between a half-dozen different e-mail addresses - I've yet to see anything else that can do it that quickly and easily).
When I get most HTML e-mails, Pegasus automatically offers to open it in a Web browser - a really slick way to still get the full effect of these e-mails. Your newsletter, though, doesn't prompt such a response in Pegasus. I'm guessing you don't have the Mime type of your e-mail set, which is keeping Pegasus from seeing it as HTML and prompting me to launch my browser to read it. Any chance you could set this??
Earl Borah
Here are the headers which we send with each e-mail:
>Subject: Netsurfer Digest: Vol. 03, #34 (HTML)
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/html
>Content-Disposition: inline; filename="nsd.03.34.html"
>Precedence:
>bulk
As you can see, we do set the Content-Type. What do the headers of your other HTML e-mail which launches the browser look like? I suspect they may have the Mime separator characters, as opposed to our "Content-Disposition:" header. Could be that Pegasus does not support this header. - AB
In the latest version of NSD (3.34) I received by e-mail, all the links are listed twice in a row.
Pidge
That happens to me in Eudora 3.x for Mac when it doesn't interpret the HTML (i.e. when I hit the "blah, blah, blah" button). Eudora then sees the HTML coding (i.e the URL and the text in the URL tag) as two URLs. - LN
I just found a link to your page recently, and happily subscribed when offered the oppurtunity, but I was quite upset when I received the letter and neither Netscape 4.0's or MSIE 4.0's e-mail program was able to format it directly. Is there an easy way around this or do I have to save it and open it in my browser every time?
Mason Wheeless
Odd, I receive it with Netscape 4.03 with no problems whatsoever. I even receive it with Netscape 3.0 with no problems. Maybe you have some odd preferences setups? - AB
Arthur wrote: "This is all my doing. Laurie, our editor has no blame in this matter. He just works here. And besides, he's Canadian. So you pretty much can't blame him for anything."
That's alright, we Canadians don't mind taking the blame, especially since we all know it's you Americans who we really blame! (All global despair IS your fault, isn't it? :-) )
Little story for you: I was posted to Cyprus for a UN tour as a Humanitarian Officer (don't ask). While there, we met what at first glance (due to the Canadian flags liberally displayed on their clothing and packbacks) were fellow Canadians. When queried about where in Canada they were from, they told us to keep our voices down, that they were really Americans, and that the only way they could get served in restaurants and hotels was to dress as Canadians.
A little while later, one of our fellow soldiers was asked by a local whether or not he was Canadian, even though his T-shirt and shorts clearly indicated he was. He rather snidely responded that, no, in fact he was American. He was promptly warned by another local that unless he wanted to get beaten up, he wouldn't say that kind of thing too loud.
I'm not saying that I haven't met my share of great Americans and a good many idiot Canadians, just that I'm proud to be a member of the number one country in the world to live (according to the UN). Come for a visit, bet you don't want to leave. :-)
David Hicks
This message brought to you by the Canadian Armed Forces Tourist Board. - LN
You won't see me back as long as you insist on shipping e-mail with HTML codes. I know you don't care, and clearly have decided to go ahead and lose us e-mail text subscribers. Count me among those who you have lost.
What you fail to understand is that e-mail is supposed to be the universal standard, cross-platform way to communicate for all (not just PC/Mac/Windows users). Consider people who get their e-mail via:
1) E-mail to fax gateways
2) E-mail to BBS (FIDO) gateways... especially common in Europe and
elsewhere, where downloading a QWK packet of mail once a day holds
telephone bills to (barely) affordable.
3) E-mail to voice readers, as used by the blind
4) E-mail to alpha pagers
5) E-mail on mainframe, Unix, and other systems which use text-based terminals
I am strongly opposed to the assholes who make Web browsers (and here I'm talking about Microsoft and Netscape, and, yes, I consider both those companies to be assholes) trying to "up the ante" in e-mail, and put all other companies with e-mail software out of business by forcing them to upgrade their software with full browser capability. This will unquestionably narrow the choices in e-mail software providers too, just as the browser market has been narrowed (and they're both trying to turn that one into a monopoly). I do not want to see that happen to e-mail too; it's bad for our industry, and bad for the people.
I know you figured that those of us who refuse to accept HTML in e-mail are just being luddite (nothing could be further from the truth, at least in my case) but this is a very important matter of principle.
As for the "pain" of maintaining two editions, that's nonsense. It would be relatively trivial to write a program to strip out HTML codes and format a plain-text version of your e-zine. But hey, that's your business.
So, I'm outta here. It's not like you're the only way to find out about interesting Web sites, and I get more e-mail than I have time to read anyhow. There's no reason I have to put up with annoying and ill-advised shit in the mail I do get.
Gordon Peterson
Now that's a funny note! Liked the graf ending in "wastebasket" - nice touch!
Christopher Locke (RageBoy)
Hey, Rage! It was a good note, but it was all Arthur's. I wish I could take credit. Then again, he did misspell "lose" so maybe it's best not to.... - LN
What is a wastebasket?
John S. Galembush
It's a garbage can. - LN
Well handled, all except for spelling lose "loose".
Christian Crumlish
You know, when you take over someone's job, like editor you should be aware of the things they do well. Please be aware of your use of the word lose. It kinda sounds like loose but you can't lose if you let yourself loose from the roulette table.....
My daughter is in college and still writes "your" instead of "you're" and your going to get in trouble when your in the big leagues, my friend. I would immediately request you fill a position called proofreader or spellchecker for your company.
You'res sincerely,
Willim James Holst
My little note did not have the benefits of our grammatically and linguistically fascist copy editing first couple, Laurie and Elvi. Yep, we do have a copy editor, but, bonehead that I am, I did not run my mail through their throttling keyboards before sending it out (running ispell clearly does not do it).
Of course I should know better, having been bitten by this very moral failure on my part many times before. I can only claim innocence by virtue of being an engineer by training, and therefore not responsible for my atrophied verbal skills.
Now if I had written this note in Perl it would have been a paragon of logic and intentional obscurity (Perl motto: "There's more then one way to do it - each more obscure then the other.")
In short, guilty as charged. - AB
Bad excuse, A. Elvi's degree is in metallurgical engineering.... - LN
That stinks! I wish you would reconsider, or take some text ads within the digest. NSD used to be a great source of information. I guess I'll have to move on to other sources now.
Turgut Kalfaoglu
I have enjoyed reading and using NSD for some time now. But your recent decision to do away with the text version is one step over the line. I have no intention of reading your advertising. I use a simple blocking program that filters out the banner headlines on your Web page. but it will not work with downloaded HTML files. So I will go on reading your work on the Web ad-free!
Linmu
No outrage here. Disappointment? Yes. Perhaps even pity.
I did not subscribe to Netsurfer Digest "for text" but for content. Each issue came with entertaining and succinct commentaries on sites that I would not have had the time to find on my own. Since it was mailed to me in a plain text format, I could read it at my leisure using whatever application I chose.
Now, however, everything will be in an HTML format exclusively. This implies a few things: a digest with a larger file size to encompass the HTML tags necessary; specific applications must be used in order to read the digest; bandwidth issues in retrieving whatever offsite images in order to include icons, logos, and banner advertisements.
If your digest cannot be presented in plain text - the advertisements included - then you are choosing appearance over content. In most cases, the effort required to convert an online HTML document to plain text for mail distribution is trivial.
I will be using Lynx from now on to read NSD, whether it is online or the mailed copy. You should realize, of course, that I will not be seeing the banner ads which you are endeavouring to expose me to.
"More Signal, Less Noise?" Not any more.
Joe Creighton
Frankly, I'm disappointed too. But it's not my decision. The HTML version is only about 2 kB larger, and any decent e-mail reader will handle it. My Eudora Light (free, by the way) handles it just fine, and does not download the banner ads.
It's not all a question of appearance, it's a question of marketing and income. In fact, I put together NSD as plain text initially. We have a script that converts it to HTML. It would be ever so slightly easier not to do that, but we make no money from the text version. The encumbrance problem with the text version is that we need to have two mailing lists (one text, one HTML) and two servers occupied with the mailing. While I'd still like to carry a text version, but I don't think we're sacrificing anything with respect to my job when we don't. - LN
I switched to the text version after your HTML version started trying to dial my computer to get a picture. I have been subscribing since early Vol. 1.
Today I unsubscribe. I will not let my e-mail dial my computer like you want.
John Greenleaf - Waterford, Wisconsin
We have nothing to do with it. It's a configuration option somewhere in your system or e-mail program setup. Check the manuals and you can probably disable it. - AB
I am writing to tell you that I am very disappointed. I found the text version easier to read, less cluttered, and much more enjoyable than scanning through the HTML format. I imagine I am not alone in my dismay at the switch to HTML only format, and I hope others have contacted you to voice their displeasure.
Elaine Byrnes
You were absolutely correct that you will lose some of your readers because of this change. I spend about 40 hours a week online. I get about 1,000 e-mails and the rest of the time is spent surfing. Your text-only version was a gem. I can live without your site. I have already unsubbed.
StormeFire
With the formatting in place, NSD in HTML format does look like a plain text mailing. It doesn't bother me all that much but it may bother some of your subscribers.
David Eide
That's kind of our point. Modern e-mail clients interpret the HTML and make it simple. - AB
I should add that David is using Netscape 3.x on Windows 95. - LN
Just a quick note to say that I really like your new format. I am sure you have had your fair share stating otherwise but I feel that along with the much improved ease of reading - and, yes, the ads - that your service is now truly worth my time to read.
Thanks again and I sure hope that this will make you folks some money as its time for a bit of payback for all the free services you have done in the past.
Brian Watters
Hey, I like the HTML format of the Digest. It makes for nice easy reading. Good job!
Ross Knechtel - Guelph, Ont.
Thank you for forcing me to take the HTML version of your newsletter. It's a big improvement over the text version. Keep dragging me into the future.
Lionel Goulet
I really hated to unsubscribe, but don't like to get HTML e-mail. Sorry y'all had to go that route.
Sally Wallace
I was one of the plain text subscribers. As I recently became interested in HTML e-mails, I looked forward to being changed over to the HTML format. Since I use Agent for Email I set up Netscape as an Agent helper application to receive the HTML pages from Agent for reading.
So far so good. Agent received the first NSD with the HTML page as an attachment, which I launched into Netscape. But there's no gif/jpg image for the banners! Instead, Netscape dials in to retrieve the image.
Can't you simply attach both the HTML and the image to the e-mail, or is there an attachment issue relating to this?
Adrian Reedy - Dallas, Tex
We can't, because Flycast uses a system by which the ad you see can change every time you view it - it's essentially a random ad, even though it really isn't. Ergo, an attachment wouldn't work. - LN
I use Agent (V1.5) as my primary mail/news reader. I have configured it to use Netscape as a viewer of HTML docs without dialing in. The result, I still don't see your banner ads (much to my relief).
I can simply engage the dialer and connect if I decide to visit a link listed in your latest issue. Having Netscape already loaded does speed up the process. On the other hand, Agent could also start Netscape and dial in if desired. Anyways, I still enjoy the newsletter.
Barry O'Sullivan - Toronto, Ont.
As a long-time subscriber to the text-only version of NSD, I was a little uncomfortable when I was told that I was being transferred to the HTML version. I really don't want to haul my massive mailboxes and address lists over to Netscape's e-mail client just to read NSD (great though it is). I thought, well, I'll just have to do some sort of save-as-a-file-and-open-in-Netscape drill.
Imagine my surprise on receiving my first HTML edition in Eudora 3.1 for the Mac. "Voila!" There's bold text, there are bullets, there are colored internal links (they don't work, but hey! it's a look)....
And, just as before, the site links are hot and they're cool.
Thanks for this step up. Maybe there's something to this "advance of technology" stuff... nah, probably not.
Joshua Yeidel
It was with a bit of trepidation when I heard that your esteemed newsletter was going to switch over to HTML from the plain ASCII text. Well, dog my cat! It worked.
When I opened NSD 3.34, I was expecting the usual scattering of HTML coding throughout the text, making reading nearly impossible. To my surprise, everything was displayed correctly. Even the e-mail and http links worked.
My experience with other e-mail newsletters that have made the transition to HTML format has been abysmal. It is ironic that some of these newletters are from consultants/companies that are supposed to be Internet savvy.
What I found is that when I expand the headers in Eudora Light (Mac), the HTML code is displayed. (Quite neat, actually.) When I compress the headers, the HTML-enabled format is displayed.
Again, thanks for the pleasant surprise and keep up the good work.
Eric Bossieux
I won't pretend to be impartial. I use Eudora Light for Mac, too. I love it. You really ought to check out version 3.1.x and try PureVoice. It's incredible. - LN
I've been a Netsurfer reader since your initial beta back in June '94. I've been receiving the mailing list under several different addresses for over three years, as my employers, companies, and other ventures changed names, mail systems, and so on. I've been getting Netsurfer since before I had Web access - I used it for gopher and Usenet notices as well.
However, even though I do use Eudora Pro (on a Windows laptop, much to my chagrin) I despise the idea of HTML e-mail, and find it interesting that you've decided to drop the plain-text mail in favor of the HTML version. The justification you give, selling out, is a good one, and I have no problem with your need to raise revenue via advertising. The thing is, I can't see any ad banners from Eudora - it just makes my system slower to have to parse all the HTML and display the text it contains.
Why not just go to a "hey, something new!" announcement-oriented format - I have no problem going to your site, where I would see the ad banners and you'd be better off. But having to slog through this HTML in my mailbox sucks.
Bring back the text-only format, even if it's limited to an announcement of new material!
Steve Champeon
I just wanted to let you know that I wanted to change my e-mail address, but the link at the Web site did not work to actually do the change. I was able to get the "change e-mail" display, but it's submit didn't work correctly. I did then unsubscribe and then subscribe with the new address, but I thought you'd want to fix it for other people.
Wendy
We had a misconfiguration problem, compounded by another system problem. And of course it all happened when a large number of people wanted to change their text addresses to others which handle HTML. Don't you just love Murphy's Law? It's so consistent and downright predictable. - AB
That's a joke
The person who wrote the Cassini article (NSD 3.32) must not know third grade math. The risk of failure may be small, but the possible consequences, by NASA's own admission (even given their own padded figures), are enormous. Let's see, given Challenger, and being generous, 1/100 times the likelihood of an auto accident times a billion times as many lives at stake. That comes to about ten million times the risk. Did I miss a decimal point? I think I could have solved that in the third grade. What about you?
John Jensen
A billion deaths? One sixth of all humanity? - LN
This is not intended to slight the Beyond the Pale Web page (NSD 3.32) but to correct an error. The English language phrase "beyond the pale" was created to refer to areas in Ireland not under English control. This phrase (in English) goes back to the 1600s when the English began absorbing parts of Ireland. In heraldic symbology, the pale is the vertical band in the center of an escutcheon or shield and the Brits took that term to name the areas they controlled in Ireland. Even earlier English etymology of the word refers to the pale as the border or demarcation line. So, in English, at least, "beyond the pale" means areas outside "our" control (specific to the speaker's frame of reference).
Russ Smith
In reading NSD bok reviews, I had initially selected a few review links which led directly to the review of the book I clicked on. Thus I got the idea that there was only one review per page. When I started clicking on links which (initially) led to reviews of other books, I did not realize I had to scroll down.
Greg Shaffer
Sorry. This is just bad link design on my part. We really should have each link take you to the correct place in each file. I'll have to fix that in some elegant way and stop confusing intrepid readers like yourself. It's those kind of little things that are annoying and make people not come back. Another one on the list.... - AB
In addition to the site mentioned in "Disney's Lost Legacyland" (NSD 3.33), check out http://www.mcs.net/~werner/yester.html, a.k.a. Yesterland. It includes a lot of the same information.
Paul E. Musselman
Address your letters to
editor@netsurf.com.
Letters and signatures edited for clarity and brevity.