[Geany] RFC: Setting up a monthly newsleter?

Frank Lanitz frank at xxxxx
Mon Feb 7 02:21:46 UTC 2011


Hi, 

On Mon, 7 Feb 2011 08:24:52 +1000
Russell Dickenson <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 7 February 2011 03:00, Frank Lanitz <frank at frank.uvena.de> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Sorry for the late coming back. Somehow I missed this mail ...
> >
> > On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:08:15 +1000 Russell Dickenson
> > <russelldickenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I think this is a *great* idea and am willing to volunteer as a
> >> member of the newsletter team.
> >
> > Cool. Great to hear.
> >
> >> I'm happy to "give it a go" and will let
> >> others judge my work. My time is rather limited at the moment but I
> >> believe I could make a useful contribution. I speak (and write)
> >> only English, I'm afraid, so I couldn't contribute to translations
> >> in any way.
> >
> > As we should start in English, a native speaker could be a great
> > help beside of contributing content also on spell checking, grammar
> > and stuff.
> 
> I'll do my best. :)
> 
> >> In thinking about the format, I wonder if a blog-style format
> >> might be better than a regular newsletter. I say this only because
> >> a newsletter can be delayed solely because one item is not quite
> >> ready. I am the author and editor of the Frugalware Linux
> >> newsletter, so I have some experience in this area. For the moment
> >> I'll await further details and team members. :)
> >
> > Well, I'm not sure how this could look like. Can you give a more
> > detailed exampled?
> 
> For examples of "my" work for Frugalware Linux, look here -
> http://www.frugalware.org and click on the links in the newsletter
> announcements.
> 
> The question is: in what format would people like to see the
> newsletter published? The Ubuntu newsletter is published as a weekly
> email, for example. 

I prefer this way in combination with an optional HTML/PDF-offer.

> The Frugalware Linux newsletter is published on a
> web site in HTML format. Personally I would prefer that the
> newsletter's content be hosted on a web site instead of sent out via
> email. The hosted method makes it easier to correct errors which may
> occur occasionally. Of course we could announce the latest newsletter
> in the usual Geany ML(s).

I do see such a newsletter more like some kind of a snapshot with no
need for an update. 
 
> > Right now I started to put some content together into a LaTeX-file
> > which will be compiled to PDF and plain text and send out later once
> > its done.
> 
> Would you mind sending the finished product to me?

The current status is available at http://git.geany.org/newsletter/ 
There are still a lot of typos inside I guess. You will need to install
a LaTeX-distribution to create a PDF from it. 

> A question to Frank and others - do you mind in what format the
> newsletter's content is written in? 

Not this much. 

> I only have experience in using
> HTML and AsciiDoc (http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/). I would *much*
> prefer to use AsciiDoc because it "is a text document format for
> writing notes, documentation, articles, books, ebooks, slideshows, web
> pages, man pages and blogs. AsciiDoc files can be translated to many
> formats including HTML, PDF, EPUB, man page." I know that there are
> similar tools such as "plain text" markup languages but AsciiDoc is
> the one with which I have most experience.

In Geany context we using a lot of ReST. Personally I prefer LateX ;) 
I'm not sure about AsciiDoc. Maybe its worth a view but persoanlly I'd
prefer to don't have a look onto some other markup language....

> Assuming we were using AsciiDoc, we could have a master document which
> then draws in content from various contributors and is then converted
> to various formats. This method would make the job of the newsletter's
> editor a little easier since each piece can be edited separately, then
> combined into one document.

I don't care much about structure as long its a working one. When using
git, its not a problem two people working inside the smae document in
most cases differing from edit the whole page with e.g. typical wiki
software as Mediawiki. 

> Thanks for your reply.
> 
> Another question to everyone - since I am the only person to have
> volunteered so far I'm putting my thoughts out for everyone to read.
> Am I going too far in suggesting formats and tools?

No, its fine :) 

Cheers, 
Frank 
-- 
http://frank.uvena.de/en/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.geany.org/pipermail/users/attachments/20110207/6b53fb95/attachment.pgp>


More information about the Users mailing list