[RITSlist] A Rocket Survey

[Arkrail at aol.com]

David,
 
As we discussed in our several "off-list" exchanges, you have NOT been a RITS 
member for most of the time in question, and you indicated to me that you had 
seen only "a few" of the past Digests produced by RITS.  Given those 
circumstances, I find it rather curious that you are able to come to such strongly 
held conclusions without benefit of having ever seen, much less contributed to, 
the publications we are discussing.  How can you judge value, appropriate size 
of articles, or much of anything else without having even seen the product?  
Once you have had a chance to look at all the Digests and compare them to all 
the Rockets, then you will have some basis to comment on the relative merits of 
the two publications.
 
You state, "As an author, I would think that you would appreciate the ability 
to be able to spread an article over a couple issues thus relieving you of 
the demands of a single hard deadline."
 
Have you ever authored any articles, either history or model, for RITS or any 
other rail publication?
Spreading an article over  a couple of issues has very little to do with how 
the article is written.  The article needs to be substantially completed, to 
determine length, and to see where it is appropriate to divide it into pieces.  
When divided, there must be a paragraph or two lead-in or introduction to 
recap before starting the second half, and there has to be some sort of wrap-up 
at the end of the first half, letting readers know what is coming "next issue." 
 As an author, I see all that as an unwanted complication which makes the 
article more work for the author and less appealing to the membership because of 
its "to be continued" format.
 
Feel free to "wait to see what the publication committee comes up with," if 
that is your preference.  My preference is to make sure that all interested 
parties have an opportunity to provide input to the committee during the process, 
rather than just complaining after the fact.
 
Bill Pollard
 



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