The West Newspaper - help wanted.

nashy19

nashy19

Nashy (as himself)
Hellstromm said:
Ugh, you have got to be kidding. While rocneasta was a bit harsh with his/her initial post, he/she does have a point. If you work with limited software, you obtain limited results and you cannot readily grab a template and import it from a good program into a crappy one.

Also, Word, Publisher, and PowerPoint all really suck. Seriously, they're the most dang annoying programs out there if you want to produce quality presentation work. Part of the problem is that they hide much of the format information, so you spend half your time just trying to fight the program. Better to use OpenOffice programs, although they're not much better when it comes to desktop publishing.
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I have Microsoft Office 2008 but before that I used Openoffice , I found it slow and basically cheap. I expect it's to cover themselves but the way they have changed key words around randomly and swapped around toolbars/formatting is annoying, especially annoying with spreadsheet functions but we wont be using any of those.

Rocneasta was probably talking about a professional suite, but what do we need that we can't possibly work with in the average program. I'd expect a basic template, background and all graphics to be kept in the highest possible quality. Of course people doing graphics can use whatever program they like if it can handle the quality because all graphics can be incoperated into all programs. I don't think people will struggle with formatting, any professional is going to know all of the functions possible or at least they should do, programs don't do things without reason.

You don't need to have a template file, you just need a literal template image or whatever they choose. The designer should make it fit while everyone else is free to use the programs they have.

It's a newspaper layout though, it would be insanly easy to make a copy of whatever is produced in a program like word. This is all just common sense, no need to overplan.
 

DeletedUser

When I did my newsletter during tribalwars, I'd try to come up with quick-hit features so people could skip the parts they didn't want to read. Such sections included things like a Know Your Neighbor piece, highlighting 1 or 2 players in the tribe each week, and telling people things like where they lived, what they did professionally, how they got started in TW and what other hobbies or games they play. I'd sponsor a monthly contest for premium each month on how many enemy points a player could take in a one-week span. Then detail that effort in one of the sections. One section would be devoted to a Tricks of the Trade section, where 1 or 2 players offered advice on game play or how to time noble trains. I'm assuming some of the same things could be touted, provided some of the top duelers were willing to be interviewed. Lots of things to explore.
 

DeletedUser1105

Old western newspapers were very basic.....I just don't see that as something I would want to read here on the forums.
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We are basically going with a western 'themed' newspaper, not an authentic one.

I think rocneasta's point is valid, in that people with significant skill rarely like to volunteer their work just to watch it get butchered. Not to be critical, but I think they will need more to go on if you wish to obtain quality volunteers, including your expertise as an eic, in editing, layout, graphics, typography, English and/or journalism.
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We are not trying to be in competition with the wall street journal here, just make a fun newspaper/newsletter. With the templates provided by Da Twista and Gem, I am sure it won't be 'butchered' as I will merely be placing text and images on top of it.

Moving on --- as it seems sdjx22 is endeavoring to be the editor-in-chief of a community newsletter, I think the initial scale and scope needs to be predetermined. For example, do you intend on displaying it in this forum, or do you intend on merely providing a link?
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I don't intend to be editor-in-chief at all. I am merely helping to organise it whilst it is in its infancy. Once this is up and running, I will look for someone to take over (if there are no takers I will carry on). I am running with this merely because I don't see anyone else doing so. As to the distribution, Heftysmurf has offered to place it online, so it will be a link.

If it is the latter, I recommend converting to pdf.
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The plan has always been for a me to open a template in word or powerpoint, add text and image boxes and then convert to PDF.

You'll need to consider content editing.......
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My idea was that I would email a page across to whoever is writing, and then they can write using the space provided. Then they know what they are working with and the editing will be minor.

To keep people interested, I think you should consider publishing it at least twice a month.
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That's a good idea, but I don't think we will get enough content to do so.

And deadline is critical. There is absolutely no chance that you'll ever get all the content you wanted at the time you wanted it, so take what you have and run with it.
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I had thought of this, it is a good point. I had hoped I could have (in time) some back-up articles that are not time dependent so that in the event of people missing deadline I could still rustle up a good issue.
it from other means, thus making your newsletter irrelevant.



Actually, old western newspapers were notorious for poor grammar and spelling, so I think you'll do just fine. *smirk*
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Ok typo police. I'm not asking for this to be perfect, I just want to be readable and not in 'txt spk'. Plus, I'm not writing the articles so my grammar and spelling is not too important. As I have said, I am merely helping to get it started, becuase I don't see anyone else doing so.

Alright, that's enough typing for me today.
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Yes, it is. ;)

Look, I don't know what people are expecting, but you all seem to be thinking we are trying to win a literary competition. That's not the aim. The aim is to make a fun, informative newsletter that people will enjoy contributing to and reading.

If you don't think that is good enough, tell me and I'll ask a mod to close these threads down.
 

DeletedUser

Don't let the naysayers get you down, Sdjx. You sound enthusiastic, and that's more than half the battle right there. I'll help copy edit things if you'd like as well. I spent a couple years on the copy desk at my state's largest newspaper and I am well-versed in Associated Press guidelines. We can make this work.
 

DeletedUser1105

Your help is really appreciated Fargo. It doesn't bother me if people have constructive critisism, it's just that I don't want people to expect the world from this.

The first hurdle is to try and get enough people willing to go and hunt around and write up good content.

All of this 'professionalism' can come later - we need to nail down the people and content first, or we could be sat looking at a very nice, professional, elegant newspaper with nothing in it.
 

DeletedUser

Da Twista and I don't exactly see eye to eye, so if you'll excuse me for coming across as a 10 year old, but I'm well within my right when I say that I'm not much willing to participate in anything he is involved with. Good luck on your project though, I think it's a grand idea.

Two thumbs up.
 

DeletedUser3717

I am currently writing the sextion for campfire stories up in a word document.
 

DeletedUser

hey sdjx22, ive just got an idea i want to run by you. what about people who dont want to commit to a story every months, or even writing more than 1 story. what if you have just one really good article idea gripping in your mind, you could posibly include an article from a guest writer in the paper, someone who thinks of and writes an articles, then asks you if you could include it in the papers next issue, you think about, than say yes/no depending on quality or other standards. just an idea for concideration
 

DeletedUser

i could go with that idea. its good to have permanent article writers, but if you get 2 or 3 people a month to write a different article like game described, then you could make the newspaper interesting, and more variety. but i did like the interviews from newspapers on tribal wars.
i could help write a dueling tactics guide, as an article contribution that isn't time dependent.
 

DeletedUser8627

Revn said:
Da Twista and I don't exactly see eye to eye, so if you'll excuse me for coming across as a 10 year old, but I'm well within my right when I say that I'm not much willing to participate in anything he is involved with. Good luck on your project though, I think it's a grand idea.

Two thumbs up.
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I was actually enjoying your company, pity you don't want to stay. :(
 

DeletedUser

Hi sdjx22,

My comment about your spelling errors was in jest. The rest was provided for information, not criticism, although in rereading I can see how it could be perceived in the latter. On and off for the past 25 years I worked in virtually all fields in newsprint, including eic. I'll make myself available to provide preparatory information, if you're still amenable to my input (PM me).

nashy19 said:
I have Microsoft Office 2008 but before that I used Openoffice , I found it slow and basically cheap. I expect it's to cover themselves but the way they have changed key words around randomly and swapped around toolbars/formatting is annoying, especially annoying with spreadsheet functions but we wont be using any of those.
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Heya nashy, it's unfortunate that time, and Microsoft's advertising team, have done such a good job of blurring history. Openoffice's origins are 8 years older than Microsoft's Office. Openoffice was originally known as Staroffice and was a "real" compatibility of Star utilities since 2001 (as opposed to Microsoft Office, which failed to achieve the same until 2007). Starwriter (not to be confused with Wordstar), predates Microsoft Word by 8 years.

All in all, Microsoft products (operating systems, office packages, and individual utilities) were substandard throughout the competing years. But, in the early 90's, their marketing strategies started to edge their software ahead of their competitors.

So, anyway, point being --- Openoffice didn't necessarily copy Microsoft Office, they co-emerged, and there are features in Openoffice that make it superior to Microsoft Office for community-based hobbyist desktop publishing, including Openoffice's better compatibility between the provided utilities, PDF exporting for all their utilities, Flash export, and IT'S FREE! Granted, it takes a little getting used to, simply because many people are used to Microsoft Office, and you'll need to pick up an open source background-running grammar checker. -- http://www.languagetool.org/
 

DeletedUser

After all that's said and done, if you guys want to use a quality desktop publishing program, FREE, download Scribus --- http://www.scribus.net/. It's open source and has plenty going for it, including PDF export. For desktop publishing, it is far better than anything offered by Sun Microsystems or Microsoft.
 
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DeletedUser1105

Gamcmdr, that is exactly what we are after. A couple of people to write regular articles and then for people to submit stuff as and when they can/feel like it.

Kman, We won't be putting guides to the game in the newspaper, after HeftySmurf asked me not to, but we will definately be grateful for any content submitted by others.

Hellstromm, I actually used scribus at work to create our newsletter, but I found I actually got better results in Word, but that's just my preference and I wasn't doing anything difficult!
 

DeletedUser

Nashy, it might be possible but it would be the least standards compliant, ultra slow, 1998 method of doing it.

Notepadd++ however....;)
 

DeletedUser

sdjx22 said:
Kman, We won't be putting guides to the game in the newspaper, after HeftySmurf asked me not to, but we will definately be grateful for any content submitted by others.
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Why? It's a natural. There aren't many complete class/dueling/skill guides out there.
 
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