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| Newsletter of the Melbourne Novell Users Group | February 1998 |
| Newsletter of the Melbourne Novell Users Group | February 1998 |
Editor's Say
Welcome back for the new year, one and all !!!
Also, welcome to the new-look newsletter for 1998. As you can see the hard-copy version has been on a massive crash diet over the holiday period and has come out much leaner and meaner looking (some might say a tad anorexic ???).
However - don't despair. The real newsletter with all the usual tech articles, humour, etc. is going to be up on the Web site this year !
Some of you may recall last year we conducted a survey of the MNUG masses to determine the preferred method of delivery: paper, e-mail, or Web. The results came in as a rousing round of indifference (we had exactly 8 responses in total), so the decision to swap to Web as the primary delivery mechanism has been made largely on the grounds of attempting to reduce workload. The old paper newsletter simply took too long to produce (at least a day for a decent 12-16 page result) - and most of the time was needed to do the formatting rather than improving the content. Unless someone passionately wants the old paper form and is willing to step forward and volunteer their (substantial) time, Web is our direction !!!
It is understood that some members have concerns about moving to an electronic version of the newsletter, but there are several distinct advantages to going on-line, including:
A paper version of the newsletter will still be produced, but it will take on a different focus this year - more as a "meeting notification sheet" which will be distributed with the NetWare Connection magazine. We hope that the streamlined approach to the paper version will ensure more timely delivery prior to each meeting.
Some MNUG members may not even realise it, but the December edition of the newsletter was (and still is) available up on-line at the MNUG Web site. Check out http://www.mnug.org.au/copy/1997/ to have a look. I will need to check with John Simmons (our illustrious WebMeister) as to whether we will have the space to keep an archive of past editions available, and if so then for how long ...
The Web version may start off a little plain and simple, but as the year progresses we hope that steady improvement will result in a better publication than was previously possible on paper. As in the past, we would like to encourage any input from members. This may include suggestions and ideas as to how we can improve the structure/design of the on-line newsletter as well as the more traditional article submissions. So, if there are any budding guru Web programmers out there every contribution, no matter how small, will help enhance the site.
Oh well, I'm out of time (once again), so see you all at the Feb meeting.
Graeme Newey
(Editor-in-need of a holiday!!!)