Newsletters

[Al B.]

Can anyone point me to where can I find the current and past newsletters?

Thanks

Alex

[Frederick Blais]

if you go on the front page http://fortheloveofport.com/ you'll be able to see the current newsletter. Just click on the image about the 2004 Port Forecast. Don't miss the guest corner with my article on Niepoort too 8)

For the past newsletter, still from the main page you will see an "article archive" section.

Since the update, the forum is incorporated with the main website, though you can still use it separately.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Alex,

We are working on making this clearer for everyone. Thanks for your patience.

The sections, or newsletter components are now seperated all over the front page of the homepage of the website. This makes it easier in the future to "publish" the newsletter and it is then plug and play and takes much less time from the time I finish it, until the time it becomes available. In fact, I can populate each part as it is actually completed, which is a good thing.

Unfortunately, there is no single document on one long page, like in the past. We are considering having a .pdf that folks can print out and take with them. It is still something we are mulling over. The issue with that is it is next to impossible to prevent the NON FTLOP PP members from seeing the areas that are now for "members only" and that is something we must protect.

Stewart and I need to get together after the holidays to make a final decision on this, but we appreciate all feedback.

[Guest]

For older editions of the newsletter, there is also a link at the bottom of the left menu to the old site.

As we migrate that content over, we will begin shutting parts of the old site down.

[Derek T.]

Hi Alex,
Unfortunately, there is no single document on one long page, like in the past. We are considering having a .pdf that folks can print out and take with them. It is still something we are mulling over. The issue with that is it is next to impossible to prevent the NON FTLOP PP members from seeing the areas that are now for "members only" and that is something we must protect.

Roy, does this mean that the newsletter will only be available to members who make a donation and achieve PP status? I thought the idea was that the newsletter would maintain it's freely available status to help spread the word and attract more people to the Forum?

On the PDF issue, my normal practice is to download as a pdf and then read the newsletter whilst traveling by train or plane. I think only having it available online and cut up into separate chunks will possibly limit when and how much of it will be read by people with busy lives. Just a thought.

Derek

[Roy Hersh]

Derek,

Thanks for you candor and well thought out post. However, your assumption that the newsletter will ONLY be available to those that support FTLOP by making a donation is not accurate. 95% of the newsletter and website will ALWAYS be available to Port enthusiasts whether they want to make a donation or not.

We have sought to encourage newsletter recipients, users of the Forum and frequent visitors to the website, to voluntarily make a donation, rather than start to charge a subscription ... in order to ensure that everyone would still be able to enjoy all 3 areas of the FTLOP. However, after 3 years of providing my "intellectual property" for FREE and moderating the Forum and writing the newsletters as my "full time job" it was a matter of asking for donations, or going back to work in the time consuming restaurant/hotel business and have to shut this all down.

To encourage folks to make donations, we have done a major upgrade to all components of FTLOP while adding additional "incentives" for people willing to join the FTLOP Partnership Program. The members of FTLOP PP will have full access to areas like the Marketplace, Photo upload site, the new searchable Tasting Note data base ... and more ... which is simply a bonus on top of their generous support of FTLOP. Again, there will be other benefits that will reach them "directly" in the coming months that will not be available to those that prefer not to make a donation. To repeat one more time, EVERYONE will be able to enjoy the website, newsletter and Forum regardless of whether they participate in FTLOP's Partnership Program.

After three years, I ran out of options and in order to keep FTLOP alive, the DONATION route seemed to be the least invasive. Mandating subscriptions is something that I really had NO desire to pursue and littering the website with advertisements was also an option that I preferred not to explore. I hope you will understand that if I did not ask for donations at this time, FTLOP would unquestionably have ceased to exist in 2007.

The generosity by those of you who have taken the lead in making donations is very much appreciated, more than I can express in this posting!

[Roy Hersh]

One more point, along with increasing the font in the Forum which we've already addressed, your point and that of others who have made it already ... a .pdf format newsletter would be great and we are considering how best to approach it while maintaining the "secured" aspects of the newsletter which will ONLY be available to FTLOP PP members. Once we figure out a way to do that ... we will proceed. Until then, the newsletter's components will have to be read one at a time and can be printed out too, for your leisurely perusal on planes, trains and automobiles (oh yeah, boats too).