MEW Digital Archives

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

Hi David,

 

I
subscribed to the Model Engineering Workshop Digital Archive on December
19, 2009, but I *still* don’t have access to the archive.

The MyHobbyStore web page indicates that you don’t need a Model
Engineering Workshop (paper) subscription, but when I log into my account
on:

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/members/digitaleditions/

I get the following message:

Subscriber
Only Content

Sorry, this is
Subscriber-only content…

Some of the
content on our site can only be accessed by magazine subscribers. We
do not currently have a record of a subscription number associated with
this account. If you are currently a subscriber, please register your
subscription number* in your member
profile.

* Your
subscriber number can be found on your original confirmation letter and
email as well as on all of envelopes containing your magazine

The irony is that I *did* renew my Model
Engineering Workshop subscription with ExpressMag on January 12, but
have yet to receive an issue.

Could you please
activate my account for both the Model Engineering Workshop Digital
Archive and the subscriber-only material?

Thanks,

Robert

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi Robert I can’t activate your subscription.

You need a subscriber number to do this.

When you purchased the digital editions you should have been enailed a subscription number.

regards david

 

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

Thanks David — that did the trick!

 

[OwenParticipant @owen]

Well Robert all I can say is “aren’t you lucky”. I’ve been trying to get access to the back issues for a couple of weeks with no luck. E-mails to customer service go unanswered or worse still just put off. I’m pretty well fed up with this outfit.

Owen

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Owen, I feel that you’re doing the management an injustice.Their predecessors were noted for not getting it right on the paper copy deliveries, so you really need to wait a few years cos of the black arts of electronickery

 

 

  Regards  Ian.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi Owen

Email me direct at

david.clark@myhobbystore.com

Then we can get it sorted.

regards david

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

Owen, it’s somewhat confusing, but the “trick” is what David mentioned (that they didn’t explain on MyHobbyStore): there’s a numeric code in the confirmation email you get when you sign-up for the Digital Archives.

 

Open up that email, and write down the 8 digit code.

 

Now click on the member profile link here:

 

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/members/details.asp

 

Toward the bottom there’s a “Subscriber Numbers” section — add the 8 digit code to the box that says “Model Engineers’ Workshop Archive Subscription.”

 

Make sure to click the “SAVE” button at the bottom, and now try to access the digital archives here:

 

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/members/digitaleditions/

 

Now if only I could get my paper subscription to Model Engineering Workshop that I paid for 6 weeks ago, I’d be happy

By the way — hey Ian!  I’m Lazlo.  Buy Sir John a pint for me

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By Robert George on 20/02/2010 15:22:24

[OwenParticipant @owen]

Hi Robert

Its a paper subscription that I,m on so I got my subscription number by e-mail from them. I’ve sent an e-mail to David as requested above so we’ll see.

Hi Circlip

There are more issues then just the website, A long story I’m not going into here the topics have been put forward on other threads by other people with no results so I’m pretty sure I’m not doing the management an injustice. It seems that the only one working there is David, he can’t do it all.

[OwenParticipant @owen]

suddenly today I can access the digital back issues, Thank you David.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi,

 

Re The ‘free’ Digital Issues of MEW available to subscribers. 

 

Today when I visited this section there was only one page of issues (back to no 146).  I’m sure that there used to be three pages back to around issue 122 or thereabouts, or am I suffering early onset dementia?. 

 

Have these other pages been removed? Or is there just a problem in accessing them and will access be restored or is there a new policy on access we haven’t been informed of?   Has anyone else had a problem accessing the ‘free’ issues?

 

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 25/05/2010 05:57:24

[AndyPParticipant @andyp13730]

The goalposts were moved – the digital subscription now goes to issue 145.

 

Andy

[Geoff AnsteyParticipant @geoffanstey74460]

When I subscribe to the Archive edition I was able to view the magazine and print out stories that could be read whilst not sitting infront of the computer. I have recently logged on to find that the ‘eMag Creater’ i.e viewer is now different and I am no longer able to print these out.

 

 

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by AndyP on 25/05/2010 11:51:58:

The goalposts were moved – the digital subscription now goes to issue 145.

 

Andy

 

That’s sad. Just to increase income I expect, well they won’t get mine now, I’ll find another way round it.

 

Terry

[Chris BanningerParticipant @chrisbanninger89672]

 

With previous version of MEW digital archive I could easily print pages, to keep a paper copy of my favourite articles to read even without having to be connected to Internet, nor having to carry back my laptop. With the new magazine player now I couldn”t, is there any fixes? I”ll be glad if digital issues will came in *.pdf format, it will be fantastic to keep a copy on hard disk of entire collection!

Many thanks

 

Luca

Posted By Luca Rossi on 28/05/2010 09:18:29.

 

 

Hi Luca,

 

– download the free open source software “PDFcreator” and install on your computer
– open it’s PDF Print Monitor window
– go to the ME digital archive and open any magazine
– print the cover page. A window PDFFCreator 0.9.9 will pop up.DO NOT hit the “Save” button, hit the “Wait-Collect” button instead. The printed page will appear as a line entry in the PDF Print Monitor window
– skip uninteresting advertisement pages, print all pages with real content, each printed page will show as an added line in the PDF Print Monitor Window. I found I have to wait until a page is loaded, before printing it, otherwise the eMAGcreator software will hang up.
– when finished, press the menu icon “Combine All” on top of the “PDF Print Monitor” window. The program now takes some time to compile all pages that you printed into one single document.
– when finished, press the menu icon for “Print”.

 

You now have created a .pdf file that contains the WHOLE MAGAZINE (less the advertiser pages if you choose to skip them. It does not take much longer than it did with the old reader. But you cannot let it print in the background and do something else, you have to be there and press “print” for every page you wanted. On the plus side, the .pdf files created are smaller and the resolution just as good as before, and you can skip the useless advertiser pages. Moral of the story for the magazine management: where there is a will, there is always a workaround. Especially when they try to change rules less than halfway into a subscription, which was not a fair thing to do. They should be happy that they can sell us the old magazines for a second time as a digital edition. Expecting us to pay once more for every year we enjoy to look at the digital edition is just pushing it a little too far for me. I honestly think it will not work, because it makes us all feel ripped off.

Chris

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Chris,  (no matter how you, I or anyone else feels about it) MHS has signaled in no uncertain terms their intention to limit significant copying of the digital archives. May I suggest that, under those circumstances, publicly describing a method of circumventing their restrictions, while showing us how much you know, is not perhaps the smartest thing in the world from any side’s point of view. I imagine you ticked off quite a few members with that post.

 

Edited By Sid Herbage on 31/05/2010 01:35:32

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

But how many have been ticked off by the bait and switch method employed by MHS.

 

We all had a chance to download one demo copy of the mag to see what you were getting before you paid.

 

In my case I liked what I saw and paid up promptly, in a few months time my yearly subscription will expire and because of the new Emag software I will not be renewing, just my take on this.

 

I do have all the paper copies from issue 1 and have religiously bought them but having access to the digital copies AS PERSONAL PDF’s when I don’t have access to internet connection is worth the £29 annual payment.

 

Chris’s method will not work for me other than a few pages because Flash causes my computer to run slowly with an error message saying a script is not working on the page and after stacking about 8 or 9 pages it crashes the computer.

 

I only have one computer that will run Flash as I flatly refuse to have any Adobe software on the other machines as they are complete resource hogs.

If the original software would have required Flash I would definitely NOT have bought it.

 

All that will happen now is that previously downloaded copies of the mag as PDF’s will do the rounds as bootleg copies because of the problem, something they are working hard to  stop.

 

 

The best way to attend to this problem is to sell the DVD’s at reasonable cost.

MHS answer to this is that they will finish up on Ebay but after a few block attempts it will stop, they did it with JRE’s yahoo articles.

Proof of this is the mag’s that are on DVD at the moment like Fine Woodworking, it’s not on rapid share and not on Ebay

 

John S.

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said, John which is why I included the disclaimer “no matter how you, I or anyone else feels about it”.

With respect to the original viewing software (which I thought was flash-based incidentally – at least I used to get the occasional flash errors on my machine) Personally,  I inferred from day one that it was done that way (rather than as pdf’s like most of the other material) to deter people from making offline copies. I was also sure that at least some people would realise there was a way around that. Of course, I also assumed those people would be smart enough not to rub MHS’s nose in it publicly  …. I was sure wrong about that! The result was predictable.

Re:

 

“MHS answer to this is that they will finish up on Ebay but after a few block attempts it will stop, they did it with JRE’s yahoo articles“.

 

It would be nice to think so but “eBay”, which is cooperative in blocking copyright violations, is just an example. There are other avenues which it is much less feasible to control.

Edited By Sid Herbage on 31/05/2010 14:30:13

[Fred MillerParticipant @fredmiller19582]

Hi everybody with a MEW Digital Archive gripes. Is that true it only goes to 146 ? I thought it was just one of the many problems I always get on MEW website. I payed me money but can only get to 146 onward and I’ve got all them on paper issues. When I have a look at the ones you can get, it takes for ever to get a page first its a plain white and you wait ages for it to come up if I wanted to see the whole issue it would take hours.  The whole website is like this some times it takes 4-5 minutes just to get started, and trying to go from item to another some times is impossiable. Even this letter is a second attempt , yesterday I hit  “Add Posting”  the ‘indicator’ went around and around and in the end  the the computer window came up “Window Explorer cannot read this website” I do not have these problems with other advertised websites (Chronos, ArcEuroTrading ect ect,). I know Australia is a longway from Orpington and my computer is a bit old but there must be somene out there who can find an answer to these problems.  FRED.  

Edited By Fred Miller on 01/06/2010 08:20:53

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Can’t really answer your question on this Fred but this site is the worst one I visit as regards opening, time taken to load etc,

When I return to a page the back arrow has to be pressed twice, the first time does nothing and it’s been this way all thru.

 

I have all the adverts and flashing images switched off. I know this rather defeats the object of taking paid advertising but the operators of this site won’t listen to readers issues.

 

John S.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Which Issue John?? 23, 57 or 88.05.63.01A

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

I’ve been exchanging email with John Stevenson, and he says that he still sees issues 146 – 163, but they’ve gone missing on my Digital Archives.

 

Have the recent back issues (not the paid Digital Archives, to which I’m subscribed and can read) been moved to a different link?

Edited By Robert George on 01/06/2010 14:41:16

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

AFAIK there are two separate sections:

 

– The recent issues which you have access to automatically if you subscribe to the paper copy of the magazine. This is approximately the last 20 issues and is a “sliding window” – i.e. when a new issue gets posted, the oldest is transferred to the archive section. Currently I see this as running from 146 – 164

 

– The archive section which consists of all the issues from Issue-1 to the issue preceding the recent issues section. The archive section is by an additional subscription (although I believe you still have to be a paper copy subscriber). Currently I see this as running from 1 – 145 (with also Issue-163 tacked on the front but that seems to be an error).

 

You can get to the links to both of these (assuming you have appropriate subscriptions and are logged in) by clicking on “Extra” in the title bar then scrolling down the left hand “Digital Archive” column and clicking on “Go to digital archive”

[Robert GeorgeParticipant @robertgeorge91087]

Thanks Sid, but the problem I’m having is that when I click on “Extra” and go to the Digital Archives, I get issues 1 – 145, but the recent issues are nowhere to be found.

 

They used to have two links there; the recent issues, and the Digital Archives.

 

I’m an active MEW subscriber, and I’ve obviously paid for the digital archives of the old issues, which I can get to…

 

To add to the confusion, issue 163 shows up on the Digital Archives, so I’m actually seeing issues 1 – 145, and 163. 

 

Anyone else having this issue?

Edited By Robert George on 01/06/2010 15:50:32

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by Robert George on 01/06/2010 15:49:08:

They used to have two links there; the recent issues, and the Digital Archives.

 

 

Strange …. I’m seeing both links. To be clear, this is the page I’m seeing both links on:

 

 http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/members/digitaleditions/

 

I think the Issue-163 being in the archives is probably just an error. Someone has moved the wrong issue there.

Edited By Sid Herbage on 01/06/2010 17:27:34

[Author]

Posts