A request for the staff from a lazy guy.

Is there a way we can get an email or something to let us know when a new issue gets posted online?  

I'll run it past the council of wizened elders. Good idea.

The council has decided your fate.

(We like that idea.)

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Now I'm scared.

Stampie said:

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Now I'm scared.

That was your one good idea for hte year. Luckily it resets Jan 1

Wait!  Nicole is a member of the council of wizened elders?  How did that happen?  Isn't she like 12?  I must be 437  or so

In reply to APEowner :

The council also consists of most of J.G.'s birds–even the migratory ones.

(And no, bribing them with bird food doesn't work...believe me, I've tried.)

In reply to APEowner :

Lol, I'm turning 31 next week.

Although I think you might be confusing me with Katie, Tom's sister. I'm Tom's wife, so I've only been part of the GRM extended universe since I was about 16 years old. (we didn't get married at 16 that's just when we started dating)

Stampie said:

Is there a way we can get an email or something to let us know when a new issue gets posted online?  

Only if the notifications are optional.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Happy early birthday!  I'll be 59 next week which feels alarmingly close to 60 and is no doubt where my current weird perspective on age is coming from.  Well, that and I'm actually a little weird.

In reply to APEowner :

Thanks, and same to you!

I'll agree that getting an email when it's posted would be good;  probably less disruptive than a new thread for "the December Issue Discussion" when the digital edition gets uploaded (since some still get a print edition, and it'd almost certainly arrive at a different time than the digital?).

related, I'm curious how people tend to read the digital edition?

phone?  iPad / tablet?  laptop?  desktop?

this is probably an unfortunate admission, but I don't remember the change of the digital edition being an PDF vs the old "maginze display" webapp thing.  What's y'alls' tips/tricks for making the digital edition reading experience more... natural?

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

I'll agree that getting an email when it's posted would be good;  probably less disruptive than a new thread for "the December Issue Discussion" when the digital edition gets uploaded (since some still get a print edition, and it'd almost certainly arrive at a different time than the digital?).

related, I'm curious how people tend to read the digital edition?

phone?  iPad / tablet?  laptop?  desktop?

this is probably an unfortunate admission, but I don't remember the change of the digital edition being an PDF vs the old "maginze display" webapp thing.  What's y'alls' tips/tricks for making the digital edition reading experience more... natural?

Yeah the move to pdf was mostly to keep the files and pageviews local. Having it in an e-reader format took people off the site to go to the e-reader, andit just seemed dumb to send people across town to pick up something they boought here. PLus there was the added benefit of easy downloadability and some cost savings.

The flip side of that is a less feature-rich experience (although I hardly ever use any of the e-reader features except turning the page and occasionally zooming). 

But I am curious how people are consuming the digital edition. Right now it's displayed as single pages since we figure a lot of folks are using a vertical screen. But that also busts up spreads, many of which we feel adds to the experience of the magazine. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I read it on a PC.  For me in a perfect world I'd prefer a two page spread and slightly smaller as I have to zoom out to 80% to get a whole page in vertically.  I'd ask ya'll to do that for me but I'm afraid of the council deciding my fate in a negative manor.

I'll probably start reading it on "desktop" too.  and I'd agree that a two-pager for that setup would be ideal... although, I might have to look for a larger display so I could have it full screen across two pages and not have to zoom/pan around.

I guess there's not a real good way to reconfigure the normal magazine format to fit the ~16x9 format of most monitors... let alone the what 4:3(?) ratio of tablets or menagerie of screen formats that are phones.

all that said... it feels a bit "weird" to scroll through the pages the way they are; especially since there's a 'down, up, down' scroll action that feels disjointed in order to make through a page.

sidebar: in having this discussion, I just realized that the "default" resolution of my laptop is not the maximum resolution;  dunno how that revelation is going to impact any/all of this.

Losing the 'magazine format viewer' is no loss. It's not a magazine if it's on a screen. 

PDF is fine but I'd prefer if you keep the articles and photos in html so the article resizes for everyone's screen and font size settings. 

The input is definitely appreciated. We're taking notes.