Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 23:08:13 -0700
Monthly note -- online-news mailing list -- September 1996
- ----------------------------------------------------------
This monthly note to online-news subscribers is meant as an introduction to
new subscribers, a reminder for old-timers, a statement of list policies, and
an update of list administrivia and news about the list and its participants.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The online-news list is made possible by:
* NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS - How can you make your Intranet more useful to
employees? Netscape Navigator Gold - http://info.netscape.com/soln11_e
* Read STOP THE PRESSES! Newspaper new media news & analysis, by Steve
Outing - http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stop/stop.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NEWS
- ----
** online-news list is moving! **
The online-news list for the last 2-1/2 years has resided on the
marketplace.com server of Cyberspace Development in Boulder, Colorado. In
the coming days, the list will be moved to the servers of Nando.net in
Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'd like to thank Cyberspace Development for hosting the list, and thank
Nando for agreeing to host the list now that CSD's server is no longer
available to us.
The move will take place as soon as some minor technical issues are
resolved. It's possible that service may be disrupted temporarily as I move
the list over to Nando. Your patience is appreciated.
** List address - Use this one only! **
As a result of the move to a different server, the old list addresses --
those that use @marketplace.com -- will no longer work. Here are the
correct list addresses:
* Post a message to the list -- online-news@planetarynews.com
* Send a command to the list software -- majordomo@planetarynews.com
* Send a message to list owner -- owner-online-news@planetarynews.com
** ADDITIONAL LIST SPONSOR(S) NEEDED **
Corporate sponsors are what make ongoing operation of online-news possible.
The Christian Science Monitor just ended a two-month sponsorship, and
Netscape ends its run on September 15. Thus, I'm looking for a sponsor(s)
to take their place. Sponsorships cost approximately $1,000 per month, and
offer banner ad placement on the online-news Web archive site, as well as
text messages on list administrative notes (like this one), automated
new-member Welcome messages, and list digest messages. Please contact
Steve Outing, the list owner, if you're interested -- steve@planetarynews.com
or voice: 303-543-7810.
** online-news "pledge drive" update **
The effort to raise funds to upgrade the infrastructure of the online-news
list was moderately successful, raising around $2,300 to pay for a new
commercial list software application. I expect to use a new, state-of-the-art
list manager called Lyris, which won't be commercially available for several
more weeks. Some of the pledge drive money also will be used to pay for
new features to be added soon to the online-news Web site. I'll keep you
posted.
Contributions for upkeep and improvement of this valuable Internet
publishing resource continue to be accepted. The suggested donation is
$25 for an individual and $200 for a corporation.
Please send checks payable to Steve Outing/Planetary News to:
Steve Outing
Planetary News
1067 Marble Court
Boulder, CO 80303 USA
** List demographics **
I recently conducted a survey of who is reading the online-news list. In
response to a survey request posted to the list, I received about 210
replies. The results show that users of online-news are serious
professionals, involved in traditional media interactive publishing efforts
as well as ventures unaffiliated with a traditional media outlet. Results of
my survey can be found at this Web page:
http://www.social.com/social/hypermail/news/online_news/Aug_25_Aug_31_1996/0015.
html
EVERYTHING YOUR EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ONLINE-NEWS
- -----------------------------------------------------
1. About online-news
- --------------------
Online-news is a public list dealing primarily with the transition of
traditional news media into the online world. While we primarily focus on
print media activity in cyberspace, overall "new media" is fair game. If
this is not what you expected, now is the time to change planes!
Online-news is NOT a general journalism discussion list. Nor is it a place to
disseminate general-interest news tips to journalists.
2. How to send messages to online-news
- --------------------------------------
Send to online-news@planetarynews.com ; this will send your message to all
list subscribers around the world.
3. When you have trouble
- ------------------------
First, contact your local site administrator, who should be able to help you.
If that fails, then contact the list owner, Steve Outing, at
steve@planetarynews.com (or owner-online-news@planetarynews.com).
4. How to unsubscribe
- ---------------------
If you ever want to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to
majordomo@planetarynews.com.com and type "unsubscribe online-news" in the
body of the message.
5. How to subscribe
- -------------------
If you unsubscribe and later want to sign up again, send a message to
majordomo@planetarynews.com and type "subscribe online-news" in the body of
the message.
6. How to stop mail when on vacation
- ------------------------------------
Sorry, online-news does not currently have a "no-mail" or "vacation" feature.
To stop mail temporarily, simply unsubscribe from the list (see item #4) and
resubscribe when you return (item #5). We hope to add a no-mail feature at
some point in the future.
7. Can I read this list in digest format?
- -----------------------------------------
Yes. To get online-news messages in digest form, you will need to subscribe
to a separate list, online-news-digest. Send a message to
majordomo@planetarynews.com and type "subscribe online-news-digest" in the
body of the message. If you already are subscribed to online-news
(non-digest list), then you also must unsubscribe from that list (item #4).
Digests typically are delivered 1-3 times a day, depending on list traffic.
A typical digest will have 15-20 messages compiled into 1 email message.
8. How can I find archives of list discussion?
- ----------------------------------------------
#1 -- Point a Web browser at the online-news hypermail archive --
http://www.social.com/social/hypermail/news/index.html -- where an archive
of list messages is stored.
#2 -- All messages posted to online-news are stored on the server and can
be retrieved with an email command. Messages are grouped into month files
named like this:
online-news.9507 = archive file for July 1995
online-news.9508 = archive file for August 1995
To retrieve one of these files, send a message to majordomo@planetarynews.com
and include the following command in the body of the message:
get online-news
For example, to get the July 1995 archive, tell majordomo to "get online-news
online-news.9507"
Warning: These monthly archive files are large -- 2-3 megs, typically.
9. How to get a list of subscribers
- -----------------------------------
Send this command to majordomo@planetarynews.com (type in body of message):
who online-news
(Only list members can get a subscriber list.)
10. How to get files attached to the online-news list
- -----------------------------------------------------
To get a list of files attached to this list, send a message to
majordomo@planetarynews.com and type "index online-news" in the body. You
will be returned an email message with the names of downloadable files in
the online-news file storage area.
To retrieve a file, tell majordomo to "get "
11. This is an unmoderated list
- -------------------------------
Messages sent to online-news@planetarynews.com do not go through a human
editor. The list software automatically disseminates your message to all
list subscribers throughout the world.
12. List netiquette
- -------------------
Because this is an unmoderated list, you are responsible for what you post to
the list. Please take care in choosing your words, keeping in mind that you
are sending your thoughts to thousands of people -- many of them colleagues
in your profession. Here are some guidelines:
* Please keep flames off the list; send them privately, if you must.
* If you are quoting someone else's words, credit them. But please be careful
to make sure you are attributing excerpts of a message to the correct
person. A frequent error is for a previous message to be attributed to
someone else who contributed to the thread earlier.
* Keep your messages short to conserve bandwidth. (They're more likely to be
read by other list subscribers if you do.)
* Don't quote an entire message, only to add a "Me too!" note on the end. The
best technique is to quote only small portions of messages you are
responding to -- just enough to make the context of your reply understood.
* Stay on the topic. This is the most important rule of netiquette for this
list. General journalism topics and messages unrelated to online publishing
are not fair game. The list will be most useful to you as a resource if
everyone sticks to the agreed-upon topic.
* Use a descriptive subject line. Many people decide whether they want
to read a message based on the content of the subject line.
* If a thread changes topic mid-stream, change the subject line to fit the
new topic. (e.g., "Re: Delphi and MCI (was Re: Murdoch rumor)")
* Sign all your messages. You are more likely to get people to listen to your
message if they can associate a name with the words. Many return email
addresses do not indicate who you are (e.g., 71112@compuserve.com), so
please remember to sign your name -- and, preferably, professional
affiliation -- at the end of your message.
* Be tolerant of newcomers who make mistakes. We were all new to this medium
once.
* Remember, there are real people at the other end of this mailing list.
Please be respectful in your public communications with the members of
this list.
13. Respect copyright
- ---------------------
Please do not distribute copyrighted information to the online-news list.
Sending the full text of a New York Times article about online newspapers,
for example, is not acceptable and is a violation of the Times' copyright. It
is acceptable to send excerpts of that article to the list, under "fair use."
Repeated violation of this restriction is one of the few things that will get
you banned from participating in this list.
14. Press releases
- ------------------
Posting press releases to the list is appropriate in certain instances, such
as to announce a new product or service that is relevant to the topic of the
list. Press releases about unrelated products will not be tolerated. Post
press releases with moderation. For example, a weekly press release about the
latest content of an online news service is going too far; once a month
*might* be acceptable. (List members, rather than the list owner, are likely
to tell you if you've crossed the line!)
15. Posting policy/guidelines
- ------------------------------
With the addition of our hypermail Web archive for online-news, please be
aware that your messages posted to the online-news list will be included on
the online-news Web site operated on the servers of Guided Tour Software.
Subscribers to online-news agree to allow Planetary News and Guided Tour
Software to republish their posts to the list on the hypermail archive with
no expectation of financial or other compensation by Planetary News or
Guided Tour Software. Acceptance of this condition is a requirement of
participation in the online-news list. If this is not acceptable, THEN DO
NOT POST MESSAGES TO THIS LIST.
16. Statistics
- ---------------
Number of subscribers (includes gateways)........1,563*
Number of individuals who posted messages
to online-news in a recent 7-day period.............70
Number of messages posted to the list
in that 7-day period...............................157
Most messages posted by one individual
in that same 7-day period............................9
* There's no way to know how many people actually read this list. Many
subscribing addresses are gateways to multiple recipients at corporate and
educational LANs. From anecdotal evidence, I'd *guess* that at least 2-3
times this number of people read online-news. (Also, 80-100 people per day
visit the list's Web archive site.)
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Outing Planetary News
steve@planetarynews.com Boulder, Colorado, USA
owner-online-newspapers@planetarynews.com voice: 303-543-7810
owner-online-news@planetarynews.com fax: 303-543-1059
Consulting services for the newspaper new media industry
Read my Stop The Presses! column on E&P Interactive:
- ------- http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stop/stop.htm -------
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This message was posted to ONLINE-NEWS. http://www.planetarynews.com/o-n.html
------------------------------
End of online-news-digest V1 #775
*********************************
From owner-online-news@marketplace.com Wed Sep 4 04:17:59 1996
Received: from marketplace.com (majordom@marketplace.com [206.168.5.232]) by cnj.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id EAA03316 ; for ; Wed, 4 Sep 1996 04:17:58 -0400
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by marketplace.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id XAA04626 for online-news-outgoing; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 23:18:11 -0600
Received: from server.indra.com (server.indra.com [204.144.142.2]) by marketplace.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id XAA04621 for ; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 23:18:06 -0600
Received: from indra.com by server.indra.com (8.7.4/Spike-8-1.0)
id XAA02643; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 23:06:03 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com by indra.com (8.7.4/Spike-8-1.0)
id XAA00286; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 23:06:01 -0600 (MDT)
Received: from [206.214.132.86] (den-co31-08.ix.netcom.com [205.186.121.136]) by dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com (8.6.13/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA26141 for ; Tue, 3 Sep 1996 22:05:23 -0700
X-Sender: outings@ix.netcom.com
Message-Id:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
To: online-news@planetarynews.com