New Newsletter

[Kjeldoran]

Originally Posted by JC

Lets try and keep this on the topic of the newsletter please. All this old Fury talk is very interesting, but if you want to continue the discussion go and make a new thread about it on AD.

it's ok, Zhil answered me

though what I said still stands but this isn't the thread to talk about such things.

Nway ... NEWSLETTER ROCKS !!! ... voila

rgds Kj

[wakey]

Originally Posted by JC

Lets try and keep this on the topic of the newsletter please. All this old Fury talk is very interesting, but if you want to continue the discussion go and make a new thread about it on AD.

It is however related to the Newsletter JC, after all its related to 'oversights' in one of the interviews in it which is probally more useful that just the throw away "I Like the newsletter" or "I hate the newsletter" that dont provide any kind of reasoning for that view as the latter views off no real feedback to improve the output where as the discussion of 'oversights' helps raise the overall standards because everyone involved can see where they need to improve

[Qdeathstar]

why not just close the thread ...i dont think ne new discussion about hte news letter is going to come about..

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Qdeathstar

why not just close the thread ...i dont think ne new discussion about hte news letter is going to come about..

Why not?

[Qdeathstar]

no imperical evidence today sry...

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Qdeathstar

no imperical evidence today sry...

Emprical.

And justification doesn't have to be empirical (for instance, there's not much you can do to prove whether one thread will continue, or sink, by past examples alone).

[Qdeathstar]

i wanted to sound smart :-/

[Blazde]

What happened to the newsletter? Issue 1 has been archived behind an admin console before I was even done reading it. And Issue 2 was published on 13th February 2004, tho it clearly wasn't.

[Ice-Lady]

What's happened is the first issue is now under "Archive" and should be accessible to you still. (please let me know if it isn't, as there might be a problem / bug in the coding which can be fixed )
I, during the week start to add new articles to the next issue and for some reason it keeps the date of the first article I put up. The news letter is published weekly and always on a Wednesday evening. If the general consensus is that once per week is too frequent, then maybe we can go to fortnightly issues instead. Your choice on frequency.

I hope that helps.


** forgot to add that I will ask Karmulian asap to alter the date problem so it actually gives the date the issue is published rather than just added to the site.

[Ice-Lady]

I have just checked the "archive" part of the Newsletter and it does indeed take you to the admin log in.
This is a bug and I will speak to Karmulian as soon as I see him on line today to get that rectified so the previous issue can still be read.
My apologies for the inconvenience.

[Blazde]

I suspected it might just be bugs not a big conspiracy

I click Archives and get the page entitled 'Archived Issues'. Then I click 'Connection Established' to try and view the first issue and all I get is the Admin Console page. The link is http://news.planetarion.com/admin.php?issueID=1 when it should be http://news.planetarion.com/archive.php?issueID=1.

[Ice-Lady]

Will get it sorted ASAP for you all.

Sorry again.

[Kal]

do i get shot if i say i think the newsletter should be more like the eveonline newsletter...

[Ice-Lady]

*prepares the firing squad!*


lol, on a serious note.. maybe you could pm me in #TheUpLink sometime with an URL for that, as here really isn't the place to be talking about other games as such. I would be interested to see their style etc.

[Blazde]

Now you're just plugging the #TheUpLink, any fool can type 'eve online newsletter' into google

Tbh, it really isn't that different, except that

a) They have a small piece of artwork by each section.
b) We have sexier graphics.
c) We have masses more content.

[Ice-Lady]

Err, no that wasn't a plug and I guess I'm not a fool then, cos I actually didn't think of using google.

The reason the graphics are minimal on the newsletter is because I was asked to keep them small so they'd be easy to download for those not on a fast connection. I did previously have more GFX and a logo but I was asked to remove it.
Content wise we could have more added if needed, but I thought that the amount we had wasn't too bad, there is after all 17 or 18 articles in this issue from a team of only 8 people. ( got 3 away with RL atm ) and there were around 15 articles in the previous edition.

I have looked at the Feb issue vol 1 for Eve and while I agree their graphics are pretty, it took a lot longer to load than TheUpLink does, also I note that there are only 9 articles, most of which seem to be announcement style articles rather than anything to do with the actual players unlike our newsletter. Overall it's a nice newsletter but in many ways it differs from ours.

[wakey]

TBH I think you would be better off having less articles. IMHO giving the writers longer to put together longer more indepth features rather than the short ones that do seem a little rushed would unltomatly give a much more rewarding read. The shorter articles generally left me feeling something was lacking and kind of felt they were a waste of time reading, while the longer ones felt like they were in depth on their subject and were worth readonh even though they required much longer to read it.

Overall it's a nice newsletter but in many ways it differs from ours

Not least the fact it is a proper Newsletter

[Ice-Lady]

So ours isnt a proper newsletter according to you Wakey?


and btw, the archived issue has been fixed so you should be able to access it all now.

[Karmulian]

The newsletter was designed in a newspaper format, eg its divided into regular sections


This is the case with the uplink, the difference being that it keeps all the archived stuff online, and its all pulled from a DB as opposed to being sent as an html email (which personally i hate)


From your point of view it may seem very portal like, but it is still published in issue, which a portal is not


Coincidentally rather odd that eve should launch a newsletter almost a week after we launch ours.. strange that.. but nevertheless i like competition.. that afterall is what pa is about

[Leshy]

Originally Posted by Ice-Lady

So ours isnt a proper newsletter according to you Wakey?

I presume Wakey means that there currently isn't any news on Planetarion itself in the Newsletter.

[Kal]

Originally Posted by Karmulian

The newsletter was designed in a newspaper format, eg its divided into regular sections


This is the case with the uplink, the difference being that it keeps all the archived stuff online, and its all pulled from a DB as opposed to being sent as an html email (which personally i hate)


From your point of view it may seem very portal like, but it is still published in issue, which a portal is not


Coincidentally rather odd that eve should launch a newsletter almost a week after we launch ours.. strange that.. but nevertheless i like competition.. that afterall is what pa is about

i personally like the fact that i got my eve newsletter in an html email.

It forced lots of things that i actually wanted to know on me.

the planetarion newsletter isn't a letter i.e. email, and is lacking on the news front

still i'm told to expect big improvments when the new portal is done...

but i still think the newsletter is more like a portal and the portal more like a newsletter

[wakey]

Originally Posted by Leshy

I presume Wakey means that there currently isn't any news on Planetarion itself in the Newsletter.

No in the fact Eve's newsletter is actually emailed out like a newsletter is supposed to be, A Newsletter in PA's format is just a website and a more accurate name for it would actually be Planetarion Online Magazine

[Kal]

wakey we seem to be agreeing on something for once

[Ice-Lady]

Once the portal is up and running we WILL be emailing people who sign up for it, they will get the headlines as such and then can view the site if they should choose to. Currently we don't mail people as the newsletter hasn't been merged yet with the portal.

The only PA news we have at the moment is what's happening in the speed games and the occasional development update, which are reported on in as much detail as possible. Obviously once PA round 11 starts up things will move along and there will be much more to report on. Next week I have some PA news about the portal development which I hope will interest people.

[Kal]

I reckon people should get the emaisl by defualt and opt out if they don;t want them, rather than vice versa

[Ice-Lady]

That is, of course an option to be considered.

[Blazde]

Have a checkbox when you signup a Round 11 planet 'I want to recieve the PA newletter by email'. That way you're neither forcing it on people, nor risking them not knowing it exists.

[Kal]

make it a opt out check box

[Blazde]

An opt-out checkbox that's checked by default? Or an opt-out checkbox that's unchecked by default?

[Qdeathstar]

the later.. ofc

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Ice-Lady

The only PA news we have at the moment is what's happening in the speed games and the occasional development update, which are reported on in as much detail as possible. Obviously once PA round 11 starts up things will move along and there will be much more to report on. Next week I have some PA news about the portal development which I hope will interest people.

It all depends on what you're thinking the newsletter should be for. Should it be for attracting new players? Keeping existing ones? Getting old ones to come back?