[comp.os.vms] DECUS Combined SIG Newsletter

siegel@scivax.stsci.EDU ("HOWARD SIEGEL") (04/21/88)

In article <11230@ut-sally.UUCP>, ctp@sally.utexas.edu  (Clyde T. Poole) writes

> There are problems with both of these.  The DECUS Combined SIG
> Newsletters is a subscription based publication that barely breaks even.
> Subscriptions have been down in the last year and the Communications
> Committee has been looking at ways to improve the subscription rate.  If
> more people don't subscribe and if costs (like mailing) continue to go
> up, it is possible that the newsletter will cease to exist.

> If I posted the newsletter to the net, there are some people that would
> stop subscribing.  That in itself is not too bad since the purpose of
> the newsletter is to inform the reader and we would still be doing that.
> But if as a result of the loss of subscriptions, the newsletter went out
> of business as a publication, then there are a set of readers that would
> no longer have a way of obtaining the information the newsltter
> contains.  Not everyone is on one of the nets that INFO-VAX feeds for
> example.

I have been a subscriber to the Combined SIG Newsletters since it started,
and have noticed a few things about the Newsletter.  Since I am primarily
a VMS person, I'm interested in the VMS newsletter (The Pageswapper), as well
as the predecessor operating systems in the 11 line (RSX, RT) and UNIX(tm),
and for these areas, the combined newsletters are well represented.  However
I'd like to see more from some of the other individual newsletters which
for as long as I've been getting the combined publication have only managed
to generate a one page list of SIG officers.  Come on folks, lets get some
real articles going!  If I was interested in these areas and the newsletter
did not contain anything to read, I'd drop my subscription.

> A completely seperate problem is the format that the newsletter will be
> taking from now on.  Unlike the previous editor, I will be "typesetting"
> the Pageswapper using TeX (and soon LaTeX).  The embedded markup
> language does not lend itself to readability.  This also brings into
> question whether it will be on the SIG Symposia tapes in the future.

Yes, "typesetting" the newsletter will make it more readable (highlighting,
different fonts, etc.) but is it really worth the extra time and effort and
the attendant problems for further distribution via electronic means.  Not
every site has TeX and/or LaTeX, and even if they have it, they may not have
all the fonts in all the sizes you use.  I personally would like to see
nicely typeset pages in the combined newsletters, but I would also like to
continue to have access to online (or archived) versions, but I don't
currently have TeX to play with.

     +--------------------------------------+--------------------------+
     !  Howard Siegel - TRW, Inc.           !  "I am quite sure  that  !
     !                                      !  you could  elevate  an  !
     !  ARPAnet:  siegel@scivax.arpa        !  earwig to the level of  !
     !  SPAN:     SCIVAX::SIEGEL            !  a  nuclear  scientist,  !
     !  USnail:   One Space Park, O2/2751   !  but it would still  be  !
     !            Redondo Beach, Ca. 90278  !  a very stupid thing to  !
     !  AT&T:     213/535-5083              !  do!"                    !
     +--------------------------------------+--------------------------+
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