Dear Guild of Messengers

ces · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:41 pm

Now that Uru is back, are you going to start publishing The Archivist again?

Or a "special edition" summarizing it's re-opening and current status? This would be wonderful for us old-timers reacquainting ourselves with Uru and for new players also (especially a history of the past 10 years).

You folks always did such a wonderful job with The Archivist.

Thank You!

Kalypso · **Joined:** Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:33 pm **Posts:** 68

The Cavern Today (http://www.thecaverntoday.org/), a GoMe affiliate was doing the Archiver. The GoMe produced the GoMe Newspaper/Newsletter.

I can't speak for the great Archiver team at the TCT, but the GoMe is still interested in publishing the GoMe Newspaper. But it all comes down to the amount of news available and having a moderate team(around 10 people) working on it. Currently, although there is a sufficient amount of news, the messengers are working on increasing our presence in the cavern and spreading quickly news on the internet rather than devote a lot of time to a written newspaper.

Of course, if you are willing to give us a hand with the newspaper, it would help us greatly. Until then, the GoMe Newspaper is on temporary hiatus unfortunately.

Jamey · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:59 pm

I'm still hoping for The Cavern Today to return as well...

I would like to see the GoMe monthly newsletters again!

Alahmnat · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:07 pm

Being the editor of The Archiver, I unfortunately have to say that for now, I wouldn't count on the publication coming back right now. I just don't really have the time to dedicate to the project with my current work load.

ces · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:21 am

What kind of help is needed? We have a lot of new people. Perhaps if you posted a "jobs list," including descriptions, you would find volunteers.

I understand Alahmat, I had the 2 publications mixed up.

Leonardo · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:29 am

The job list is already on this same Forum. Look for "The Guild of Messengers is hiring" thread in the Guild Section :wink:

However there we don't have included anything about the Newspaper Team. To restore the Newspaper we'd need a full team since the old one is no longer interested in making it.

A full team consists of about:
_An Editor: he's the head of the Newspaper, decides where to put things, makes deadlines for the articles, decides the structure of the Newspaper in conjuction with the Assembler and writes the Editorial Article
_An Assembler: He is the one who takes the articles and creates the read Newspaper, with full graphics, pics and so on. He needs to know how to use programs like Microsoft Publisher or Scribus (we were using Scribus)
_A proofreader: he is the one that reads all the articles for checking spelling, grammar, conherence errors.
_A Fotographer (optional): provides pictures for the articles
_Translators (optional): translate the Newsletter into other languages
_Technical Advisors (optional): don't have a real duty, they simply give suggestions on the Newspaper.

But more importantly:
_Writers: they are the ones who write the articles. The Newspaper needs some inside Writers to write interviews and other articles, compose News summary from the GoMe news Feed, etc. Then the Newspaper can also accept outside writers that submit their articles.

Whilyam · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 1:04 am **Posts:** 4134

During Live I provided editorial articles on a semi-regular basis and I would be willing to do so again if/when things start up again.

Szark · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:56 pm

As I walked away from working in the GoMe I only speak for myself. Mind you I never spoke for them in the first place. Don't hold what I say against them. I know them well enough now to know that they are all well meaning people who just want to help the community that they have come to love despite the politics.

From the old assembler/writer/co-editer/photographer of the GoMe paper I would like to advise that the assembler be responsible for images. It is so hard to rely on the providers of content to provide descent images. It does happen from time to time. But it is so much easier to assemble if you have some control on the images used. But it can work the other way if you have a good dedicated team who can work to Deadlines. It is no fun when you have to start chasing peeple each month. Bigger the team the less work one has to do which makes it more fun but from my time with the Archiver and Gome paper it is best to have one assembler per issue. However I think it best if you can have two assemblers, one month on and one month off. That is my opinion only.

Trust me I did get something out of the two years of helping out. More positive from a personal point of view. I learnt to do so much more than if I hadn't joined. I was kindly encouraged to pushed myself to try different things.

Writers is the one of the main problems. There are so many people here that write. On blogs mainly but most don't want to write anything for a paper. I don't know what it is but we had to go looking every month for content. Only a few offered. This dissapointed me more than anything. I see it as "it's cool to write an age" but not an article or a short story. An interview or show casing Myst related art.

We had to stop reporting on SL and There because no one wanted to keep us up to date with news laid out for us. I did ask people but to no avail. Toward the end for sometime we had only a handful of people and that went down more. If it wasn't for me being disabled and having the time I think the paper would have died a year or so ago. That is not ego just the truth.

This may come across as moaning, its not all I am saying is that if the coomunity wants this service then they will have to do something about it. Support it, read it, tell people about it, submit an article, artwork etc. Help out in some way.

If the paper team see that the community is behind them then I think you we see great things happen.

Szark · **Posted:** Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:33 am

Looks like the truth set this thread free.....................

Marten · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:02 am

In the past few weeks, several new people have joined the Guild of Messengers - in no particular order, they are Lunanne (Dutch translator), Dark Angel (to manage Facebook), Julee D (Guild of Writers' liaison), sythiar (Calendar manager), Dekar (MOUL liaison - if you post an event on the forum and don't contact him first, he will probably contact you), and Alaedrain (French translator). Many thanks to those individuals for the efforts they are bringing to the Messengers, and to Andros (Kalypso) for efforts in recruiting.

As you can see from the names and roles above, we have a lot of tasks we are trying to accomplish, and many communities to serve; we are also trying not to overburden ourselves because that kills our interest. The names above who have joined recently have more than doubled the active membership of the Messengers - there really have only been a few of us keeping the guild afloat consistently since MOUL's GameTap days.

The aforementioned Newsletter/Newspaper is another project we would like to resurrect, but without volunteers, it will remain dormant. Messengers who have worked on the Newspaper before are willing and happy to teach what they know to new members, but we do not require projects to be run as they were in the past; for example, if a future Newspaper assembler wants to use a different software program than we used previously, that is fine.

In a nutshell - and to try to put a positive spin on Szark's comments - if you'd like to see us do more, please get involved with us.... we can't presently take on new tasks all by ourselves, but we will collaborate where we can to help you realize your ideas.

Nalates · **Posted:** Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:41 am

I would say this...

Quote:

if you'd like to see us do more, please get involved with us....

a bit differently...

If you want to see the Guild of (place your choice here) do more, join the guild and do more. :lol:

Dear Guild of Messengers

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