Delay to Issue 299

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

"Dont miss an issue". It's like that other silly slogan by British Rail, "We're getting there".

Daft and some, pathetic company slogans usually come back to bite the directors arses. BR didn't quite get there b4 Maggie sold them off.

I keep a year planner every year with publication dates crossed of when received as I've missed out in the past so everything now closely monitored. Also use it for track days, members BBQ days, traction engine rallies etc in normal times. Have to say got no axe to grind, latest ME,MEW both arrived Wednesday, so like a pig in muck.

[Dennis WAParticipant @denniswa]

Pocketmags copy available! Thanks to Beth for keeping her promise.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If you are feeling cold, see the other thread on late arrival.

Plenty of heat generated there!

Whether or not justified is a different matter.

Some of it smacks of the devil making work for idle hands, in my opinion

Howard

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Ian, you may have missed it as I think I wrote in the other thread that the reason repeats are being published is not so much due to lack of incoming new articles but due to budgets being cut which limits what can be paid out to authors for new material. So unless the author is willing to submit an article for free there will be a limit on the amount of new material per issue.

I've offered Neil something for free and as you say others may want to do the same.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi folks,

I'm afraid I've been trying to get some non-MEW related work finished this week (still trying… the client keeps getting hold of more data )

Thanks to everyone for your patience and especially Jason for keeping you informed.

On DMB''s slogans… how about "MEW – well worth waiting for!"

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian B. on 04/12/2020 10:39:09:

Having read this thread through and commented heavily on the "other" thread I am a little concerned as to the comments about repeat articles. The remedy is entirely in your own hands gentlemen and ladies.

[…]

.

Sorry, Ian but I think it needs to be said:

MEW is not a ‘Club Newsletter’ … it is a commercial operation.

MichaelG.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Well, 299 has NOT reached me yet. Postie has been and gone so is it missing? Should I put in a complaint?

Articles. As someone who submits the occasional article, after being paid for the first ever article which caused me some problems with Her Majesties Thieves & Robbers, I asked for all future payments to be made to a charity of my choosing. I did this after discovering that this was indeed possible – I think it may have been a comment by the then Editor of MEW, although to be fair, he did suggest that they could (should?) use a charity of their choosing.

I didn't realise that articles could be submitted for publication without payment, and given the problems today, this does seem like a good idea if it helps to keep MEW alive. Ok, it does not seem right supporting MTM, a commercial undertaking, like this, but given the choice between nil payment and a magazine, or no magazine, then I know which way I would go. Unfortunately, illhealth & the cold are combining to prevent me completing the one article I have in progress.

Peter G. Shaw

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Ian B. on 04/12/2020 11:38:30:

[…]

However Michael, I do not need any lecture on what is a commercial operation and what is not. I take your implication that I treat ME and MEW as monthly club rags as insulting. Please withdraw.

.

No offence or insult expressed or implied, Ian

If I have inadvertently offended you then I apologise sincerely.

I cannot, however, withdraw what was a simple statement of fact.

MichaelG.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 04/12/2020 11:18:56:

Posted by Ian B. on 04/12/2020 10:39:09:

Having read this thread through and commented heavily on the "other" thread I am a little concerned as to the comments about repeat articles. The remedy is entirely in your own hands gentlemen and ladies.

[…]

.

Sorry, Ian but I think it needs to be said:

MEW is not a ‘Club Newsletter’ … it is a commercial operation.

MichaelG.

Absolutely, Michael …. couldn't agree more!

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Peter Shaw – you have a 3 page ‘lockdown story’ in #299 so maybe charity will begin at home

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

I take it that Peter Shaw, like me, donates his fees for articles to one or more charities. So he would seem already to be charitable.

Howard

[David CauntParticipant @davidcaunt67674]

Cutting corners on a Bandsaw seemed to start in the middle of a story. Air pressure on a bandsaw? I can just make out it is a vertical saw.

Edited By David Caunt on 04/12/2020 22:21:16

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

I assume #300 will include the prequel to several of these stories.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

David, Frances. I do wonder why you complain about the non delivery of magazines as you clearly don't seem to read them when they do arrive.

You will find the prequel to the bandsaw article in 298 where the first part of the article is printed

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Still hoping that my copy of MEW 299 might arrive today

MichaelG.

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/12/2020 09:04:35:

Still hoping that my copy of MEW 299 might arrive today

MichaelG.

Ditto – and ME 4653 – 4652 definitely not coming and 4653 o/s at MTM – hope mine are in transit!

At present being offered extra ones in the future is no consolation if one has no confidence they will arrive!

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Frances IOM,

Thanks for that info, 299 hasn't yet arrived here (Sat 12 48pm, West Cumbria). I do find it interesting that all the begging letters do still arrive!

I must admit that my charitable donations are to a choral society with which I was associated for 21 years or thereabouts. As my singing days are now over, I have been wondering about changing to another charitable organisation, namely one of the historic railways, but here again I should declare an interest in that my elder son is currently the chairman of said society. Perhaps that makes me not as charitable as one might think. Having said that, I have, certainly in recent years, always tried to make donations via gift aid wherever possible, unfortunately, in some respects HMRC appear to have got wise to this and now expect that some of my Gift Aid donations are actually for training purposes.

Peter G. Shaw

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/12/2020 09:04:35:

Still hoping that my copy of MEW 299 might arrive today

MichaelG.

.

[ Time passes ]

… maybe Monday, maybe not …

MichaelG.

[David CauntParticipant @davidcaunt67674]

Jason

Thanks for that kicking I do read them from page to page including the adverts. Not everything stays though and as it didn't say continued from …… I didn't think to look back and so read it as a new article.

Oh.  and by the way I've never complained about a late issue.

 

Dave

Edited By David Caunt on 05/12/2020 14:51:08

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/12/2020 14:44:20:

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/12/2020 09:04:35:

Still hoping that my copy of MEW 299 might arrive today

MichaelG.

.

[ Time passes ]

… maybe Monday, maybe not …

MichaelG.

– or as Snow White never sang in the Disney film 'Someday my print will come…………'

Sorry.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 05/12/2020 15:21:02

[Michael BelferParticipant @michaelbelfer47979]

OMG. Is there no end to Pocketmags problems and aggravations?

299 has turned up, at last. Happily flipped through its pages, only to be told, after the last page, that they hoped I enjoyed reading "This sample edition" and would I like to pay $7.99 for it, or to take out a subscription. ( which I already have, needless to say)

Where did MTM find these cretins? Was a competition held internationally to select the very worst possible magazine repository that would, kicking and screaming all the way, display the magazine with the barest minimum of functionality. Heaven forfend, for example that it should allow printing of even the current page, or cutting and pasting it into an email . The list of what it wont do is long and infuriating, given that the cost even after buying a print subscription, trivial.

Dare I repeat the long-discovered wisdom that using industry standard formats such as PDF, far from encouraging piracy, makes it not worth the bother? Or that having to sledgehammer the content into the format these rascals insist on makes far worse the problems when "technical glitches" like the delay 299 encountered?

MTM management seem to think that making the reading customers the lowest priority in delivery and convenience decisions will enhance their business position. I think if they read the outrage between the lines in these last few weeks of posts properly, they will see the opposite is the case. Magazines that respect paid subscribers survive – penny pinching policies that find piracy lurking behind every service they provide, in the long run, dont deserve to and frequently dont, no matter how captive their reading public is.

I would love to see readers here post their thoughts on MTM being encouraged to switch their digital format to an industry standard, and allowing it become available offline; that is, stored on your own device – promised but not delivered by Packetmogs

Michael ….. way down under

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Michael Belfer on 06/12/2020 00:17:58:

I would love to see readers here post their thoughts on MTM being encouraged to switch their digital format to an industry standard, and allowing it become available offline; that is, stored on your own device – promised but not delivered by Packetmogs

Not sure about that Michael. I can access every issue of ME from 2013 to current offline which is when MTM started to use Pocketmags, don't subscribe to MEW

[Roger ClarkParticipant @rogerclark]

Posted by Michael Belfer on 06/12/2020 00:17:58:

OMG. Is there no end to Pocketmags problems and aggravations?

299 has turned up, at last. Happily flipped through its pages, only to be told, after the last page, that they hoped I enjoyed reading "This sample edition" and would I like to pay $7.99 for it, or to take out a subscription. ( which I already have, needless to say)

Where did MTM find these cretins? Was a competition held internationally to select the very worst possible magazine repository that would, kicking and screaming all the way, display the magazine with the barest minimum of functionality. Heaven forfend, for example that it should allow printing of even the current page, or cutting and pasting it into an email . The list of what it wont do is long and infuriating, given that the cost even after buying a print subscription, trivial.

Michael ….. way down under

Hmmm, just checked my Pocketmags and I have the standard end of mag 'please consider sub' message, the same as on all my other subscriptions.

As far as not being able to copy/paste items from the mag I'm able to snip parts of page or convert up to 2 pages at a time to pdf quite happily so maybe this is an Aussie thing!

I see you've only done 6 posts all about one magazine, maybe this forum/hobby isn't for you, possibly one that does rant management?

As far as the rest of your message I decline to reply to your warped views.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 06/12/2020 10:27:58:

Posted by Michael Belfer on 06/12/2020 00:17:58:

[…] promised but not delivered by Packetmogs

Not sure about that Michael. I can access every issue of ME from 2013 to current offline which is when MTM started to use Pocketmags […]

.

Eureka … I see the answer to Michael’s problem:

He has been conned into using a spoof site

MichaelG.

.

[ sorry, couldn’t resist that spot of levity ]

[Roger ClarkParticipant @rogerclark]

Hahaha, nice one Michael, if that isn't a typo 'Pocketmogs' maybe he's accessing the dark side where cats reign supreme! (avoiding fishes currently)

[Author]

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