Bob Lang wrote:
> Nice segway...
Segue.
Sorry. But you ARE in a room full of editors. :-)
> (that's the real job of the newsletter editor, BTW - making the
> material look good)
You bet. I can make a dress out of a feed sack. I can make an article
out of almost any text they send me. I find that once I repair the
misspellings, incomplete sentences and run-on sentences, I am most of
the way there.
> 1. In order to get a standard accepted, you have to face reality and go
> for the lowest common denominator: text only files please.
Yes!
> 2. Train the submitters to provide unformatted text (that you can scan,
> for instance). Tell them that if they submit material in a formatted
> manner to submit hard copy to you so that you can see what they are
> trying show...
Right again.
> 3. e-mail works great, but tell them "no attachments".
Three for three! All I ever print is text material anyway. If makes no
sense for me to get it in some weird form. Get your email contributors
to put it right in the body of the email message. No tricks.
> 4. No matter what, if someone sends you something - try to use it. The
> positive feedback of having used it will cause them to submit more.
If people send it in and you don't print it, they will stop sending it
in. Simple enough. I will print anything that is not pornographic, not
mean-spirited and anywhere close to dealing with cars and autocrossing.
Phil Ethier
THE RIGHT LINE
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