MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - MobileRead newsletter

Alexander Turcic · 01-26-2007, 04:55 AM

A dedicated newsletter would be superior to RSS because it allows us to pull all kinds of content directly from the database. Example:

Newsletter:
MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed!
<reply 1>yvanleterrible said: ...
<reply 2>jæd said: ...
...

RSS:
MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed!
No replies.

Of course, you could try to write a program that would follow the RSS links and try to parse the replies via complicated regular expressions; but obviously this method is not as elegant as pulling the information directly from the database, plus the RSS + Regex method would cause more strain on our server.

A newsletter could also contain other information, sorted in groups. For instance, we could include a paragraph listing all new polls of the weeks. Another paragraph could mention all recently uploaded forum attachments.

And let's not forget iRex iDS. iRex offers us to host the newsletter via their iRex Delivery Service, meaning iLiad users can synchronize the newsletter directly upon connecting to iDS.

We'd try to keep the PDF as simple as possible from a formatting point of view. So no columns or other difficult structures. Even users with smaller screens, like PDAs, should be able to read them (assuming that they can read PDF). Of course, I am open to suggestion for different file formats. RTF perhaps?

So this is why I think a newsletter could be a lot of fun for most of us. Back to my original questions:

RWood mentioned two scenarios:
1. Weekly: all articles, including new and updated posts. Here, the newsletter could become quite huge which might be a problem. Plus, what do we do with an article whose posts span over several weeks? Should we just include the updated posts, meaning skip the old stuff? Take the Some suggestions for Software Updates article for example. Currently it has 178 replies. Assume we have two new posts by the end of this week. Should the newsletter only include the article's title plus the two newly added posts? What if these posts refer to earlier posts which were included in last week's newsletter or even before that?

2. Daily: all new and updated threads of the day. What about if you cannot download every day and hence occasionally miss a daily newsletter? Would updated threads still make sense if you missed the earlier updates and hence the posts?

I hesitate to generate the newsletter on the fly and customize it for each user. Firstly, it wouldn't work with iRex's iDS service. And secondly, it would generate considerable strain on the server.

This discussion is going very well.

01-26-2007, 04:55 AM	#11
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	A dedicated newsletter would be superior to RSS because it allows us to pull all kinds of content directly from the database. Example: Newsletter: MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed! <reply 1>yvanleterrible said: ... <reply 2>jæd said: ... ... RSS: MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed! No replies. Of course, you could try to write a program that would follow the RSS links and try to parse the replies via complicated regular expressions; but obviously this method is not as elegant as pulling the information directly from the database, plus the RSS + Regex method would cause more strain on our server. A newsletter could also contain other information, sorted in groups. For instance, we could include a paragraph listing all new polls of the weeks. Another paragraph could mention all recently uploaded forum attachments. And let's not forget iRex iDS. iRex offers us to host the newsletter via their iRex Delivery Service, meaning iLiad users can synchronize the newsletter directly upon connecting to iDS. We'd try to keep the PDF as simple as possible from a formatting point of view. So no columns or other difficult structures. Even users with smaller screens, like PDAs, should be able to read them (assuming that they can read PDF). Of course, I am open to suggestion for different file formats. RTF perhaps? So this is why I think a newsletter could be a lot of fun for most of us. Back to my original questions: RWood mentioned two scenarios: 1. Weekly: all articles, including new and updated posts. Here, the newsletter could become quite huge which might be a problem. Plus, what do we do with an article whose posts span over several weeks? Should we just include the updated posts, meaning skip the old stuff? Take the Some suggestions for Software Updates article for example. Currently it has 178 replies. Assume we have two new posts by the end of this week. Should the newsletter only include the article's title plus the two newly added posts? What if these posts refer to earlier posts which were included in last week's newsletter or even before that? 2. Daily: all new and updated threads of the day. What about if you cannot download every day and hence occasionally miss a daily newsletter? Would updated threads still make sense if you missed the earlier updates and hence the posts? I hesitate to generate the newsletter on the fly and customize it for each user. Firstly, it wouldn't work with iRex's iDS service. And secondly, it would generate considerable strain on the server. This discussion is going very well.