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Author Topic: Super-sized Newsletter for Sep 18, 2016 - Codename: Catching Up with Cody  (Read 54479 times)

mouser

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Super-sized Newsletter for September 18, 2016
"Codename: Catching Up with Cody"




1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings!  It's been just over a year since the last DonationCoder newsletter -- way way too long (if you check in the user-to-user section below you'll read about one of the reasons why).  As usual, you'll find below a selection of some of the top recent threads from our discussion forum, along with a sprinkling of news about the website.  You'll also see a very belated section devoted to last year's NANY (New Apps for the New Year) 2016 event, and since this newsletter was so long in coming, you'll also see an item about the upcoming 2017 NANY event.  I promise the next newsletter will not be so long in coming.


2. NANY (New Apps for the New Year) Event Roundup

For the last 10 years on the DonationCoder.com site we run a friendly event called "NANY" (New Apps for the New Year), where invite forum visitors to release a new free program on the first of the new year, to celebrate the new year.  We typically get a variety of entries -- some are genuinely useful tools designed to be shared widely, and some are programming exercises for new users.



3. Skwire Empire Software Updates and New Releases

DC member skwire is one of the more prolific coders of utilities on our site -- he roams the coding snack request section and pounces like a jaguar when he finds something that catches his eye. He's released a ton of updates to his software since the last newsletter, including some updates and a few brand new releases:



4. Mouser's Software Updates and Discussions

I've uploaded some updates to many of my large applications since the last newsletter. As always, you can find the list of what's new both in the online help pages (linked from each program homepage) or in the forum thread about the application (also linked from each program homepage).




5. User-to-User: Your Input Requested

We love nothing more than having interesting discussions on our forum -- and we love when new people participate in the discussions. In each newsletter we try to highlight a few topics that we think might interest casual readers and that are good candidates for making your first post.



6. DC Member Projects

We love to keep up with projects that our members are working on, and hearing what our forum members think of software they use. If you're working on something interesting -- let us know!



7. Coding Snacks

One of the more popular sections on our forum is the Coding Snacks section.  There, people can posts requests for small utilities that are needed.  Coders who find an idea they like write the utility and post it as freeware for all.



8. Mini-reviews by Members

We love to keep up with projects that our members are working on, and hearing what our forum members think of software they use. If you're working on something interesting -- let us know!



9. Website Discoveries, Debates, Essays, and Discussions

What's new in cyberspace? What exciting new sites have been discovered by forum members? What's the current hot topic and debate? Read on to find out..



10. General Software Discussions

Some noteworthy general software discussions on the forum since the last newsletter:



11. Specific Software Discussions

Some noteworthy software discussions on the forum about specific software applications since the last newsletter:



12. Entertainment, Games, and Humour

Here's a collection of some fun or funny web browsing links posted on the forum recently.



13. Developer's Corner

This section highlights some discussions that might be relevant for not just coders and developers, but also people interested in entrepreneurial issues.



14. Hardware and Non-Windows Software

While the lion's share of technical discussions on our forum involve Microsoft Windows software, hardware and linux threads are becoming increasingly common.

« Last Edit: April 02, 2018, 07:00 AM by mouser »

mouser

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IMPORTANT:

We no longer automatically put people on our mailing list to be notified about new editions of the newsletter -- so if you're interested in keeping up with DonationCoder news, please sign up at our official mailing list:

Needless to say we'll never send you spam or share your email address with anyone else, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

tomos

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It's always nice the buzz around here after a newsletter has gone out :)

thanks mouser :up:
Tom

mouser

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Yes it's fun to see a burst of activity on the forum whenever a newsletter comes out  :Thmbsup:

Is anyone finding that the newsletter is being marked as spam by your email provider?

Deozaan

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Is anyone finding that the newsletter is being marked as spam by your email provider?

It wasn't marked as spam for me. I'm using Gmail.

oblivion

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Yes it's fun to see a burst of activity on the forum whenever a newsletter comes out  :Thmbsup:
Is there an emoticon for a guilty look? Ah. Possibly this.
Is anyone finding that the newsletter is being marked as spam by your email provider?
Not here either: neither gmail nor fastmail.

Particularly good newsletter, I should say. Thanks! :)
-- bests, Tim

...this space unintentionally left blank.

peglegpete

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Is anyone finding that the newsletter is being marked as spam by your email provider?

It wasn't marked as spam for me. I'm using Gmail.

My copy was marked as spam in GMail.  I only found it while checking the spam folder a few days ago, a month after the date sent out.  FWIW, DC is sent to an old Yahoo email address which I have set up to forward automatically to my newer GMail address.  Maybe this is why my experience is different from Deozaan's.  I had been gradually updating subscriptions to the old Yahoo address across to the new address, somehow I must have overlooked DC in this regard.  Anyway, I will fix this forthwith.


Curt

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Re: When you make your 100'th Post
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2016, 05:27 PM »
After 9½ YEARS, peglegpete finally decided to make himself known to the forum:

[ Invalid Attachment ]

Belated, but not late, or is it late, but not belated? Hm...:
Welcome to the forum, peglegpete! 

------------
modified:
WHY on earth does it say "invalid attachment"? I don't know what could be wrong.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2016, 05:32 PM by Curt »

peglegpete

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After 9½ YEARS, peglegpete finally decided to make himself known to the forum:

[ Invalid Attachment ]

Belated, but not late, or is it late, but not belated? Hm...:
Welcome to the forum, peglegpete! 


I am pretty sure that I made a few posts at the time I joined, maybe got lost.  But I admit that it has been a long time between drinks  ;D

Deozaan

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modified:
WHY on earth does it say "invalid attachment"? I don't know what could be wrong.

Because the forum can now have attachments from quoted posts and you are trying to display your attachment in a quote, so it is looking in peglegpete's post for an attachment. Just move your image outside of the quote and it will work. :Thmbsup:

EDIT: The really interesting thing is that peglegpete's quote of your quote of peglegpete's post has the attachment working properly.  :huh: :tellme: :D
« Last Edit: October 31, 2016, 12:52 AM by Deozaan »

techidave

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out of idle curiosity Mouser, how long did it take to compile this newsletter?

dave

mouser

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It takes about 5 months to make a newsletter.

That's 4 months and 29 days of waking up and telling myself today will be the day I do it, and then one day of actually doing it.

The bulk of the work is in opening up every new thread since the last newsletter (which amounts to maybe 80 a month) and making a quick decision about whether it belongs in the newsletter.  So the longer I go between them the more daunting the task.  I've written some scripts to show me the new threads since the last newsletter, but it's still mostly a manual task of cutting and pasting links into the newsletter section where I think it belongs.  And then there is just a lot of little small tasks I need to do to send it to new members and to the mailing lists, update blog, forum settings, etc.

It's not actually a *lot* of work, but it is a bit tiring.

techidave

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my hat's off to you Mouser for doing the newsletter.  I figured it would take longer than 1 day to make it happen.

is the newsletter actually needed?  I mean is it something people have requested?

just wondering.

dave

anandcoral

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is the newsletter actually needed?  I mean is it something people have requested?

just wondering.

Yes. Maybe not for some but yes for me and some.
It is the newsletter which gives me scope to get all the goodies of DC in one place and scope to not check DC everyday lest I miss some gold here  :)

Case in point https://addons.mozil...irefox/addon/shelve/. I needed something like this for all the urls I have accumulated and was going to develop similar app for NANY 2017, no need now.

Thanks all to Mouser :Thmbsup:, we are always the beneficiary.

Regards,

Anand
« Last Edit: November 03, 2016, 04:54 AM by anandcoral »

wraith808

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my hat's off to you Mouser for doing the newsletter.  I figured it would take longer than 1 day to make it happen.

is the newsletter actually needed?  I mean is it something people have requested?

just wondering.

dave


The traffic to DC (especially on those threads that have been up to the newsletter ignored) increases quite a bit from what I understand- it gives a concise accounting of what has gone on with the website, and gives less frequent visitors impetus to visit.

Deozaan

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is the newsletter actually needed?

It's not needed. This is evidenced by the sometimes long gaps of time between the "monthly" newsletters.

But as others have pointed out, the newsletter is very useful to the community here. :Thmbsup:

Attronarch

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I like it. It provides good overview, reminds me of some good discussions, and points out if there was an interesting discussion I missed.

And people surely read it, since downloads for my Thunderbird cheasheet skyrocketed after the newsletter was posted.

tomos

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And people surely read it, since downloads for my Thunderbird cheasheet skyrocketed after the newsletter was posted.

yeah, there's always a surge in posting after a newsletter which is a nice thing
Tom