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At the start of the 21st century many, if not most, sailors who
use e-mail for contact with family, friends and the world in general,
rely on Internet cafés for access to their e-mail accounts.
Since one is paying according to time spent online and letters have to
be opened before downloading if they are to be accessible offline, it
can be daunting to find a large number of letters awaiting one, however
cheering it may be to know that people care! Composing and sending letters
to others can also be time-consuming. It can be hard to know how long a
letter will be satisfactory to a recipient - neither too long nor too
short.
People worry about whether one has arrived somewhere, they want to
know where one is and how one is doing. It's only natural. One of the
problems with having mail accumulate with a free service is that the
amount of data which can be stored in your 'inbox' has its limits. The
server will erase files to keep your data within those limits and may
remove letters you really want, or need, to see. When you save letters
to folders, this adds to your cumulative total and it doesn't take long
to reach the limit.
In response to suggestions from cruisers, we have come up with 'Keeping
Track' as a means of resolving this problem in a splendidly easy way.
Cruisers can write a newsletter, include photographs and anything else
they wish interested parties to see (scanning in or attaching anything which would not be
out of place in a family publication, as we will not give space
to anything which should not be where children might see it) and mail it to us at whatever frequency suits them.
It can be a couple of lines, e.g. "Arrived in Aroma Bay,
Pongoland on Tuesday the nirth of Octember. Had a great trip down, made
six knots average. Photographed this whale spouting, about 200 feet from
'No Limits' (picture of whale, sent as attachment which we insert via a
thumbnail). Longing for a pizza! Plan to leave for Jingle Bay,
Clangerland on Thursday the nirteenth of Octember, don't expect to
arrive there in less than three weeks. Jack and Jill on 'Well Hill"
were here when I arrived, they left for Pailowater the next day. No
other news, I'm fit and well, hope you are too. Love to everyone,
John"
You can write a full, in-depth, blow-by-blow account of your every
(publishable) waking moment if you want to - only you know how much your
contacts want to know!
You might wonder why not just open a free web-page on one of the
handful of other sites which make that facility available, rather than
'Keeping Track'. Indeed why not? There are, however, a couple of reasons why this
option may suit you better:
a) Most of the free sites insist that you update your site once a month if
you wish to retain it. We will keep your page(s) open for three months,
automatically, or longer if you ask.
Unless your circumstances merit an alternative, every three months we
will remove anything which has been on your page(s) 90 days or more,
giving your contacts plenty of time to catch up with your activities. If
you are on a special adventure and running an account of it, we will be
glad to keep the whole lot up until three months after the conclusion of
your 'mission', in return for your permission to point our readers
towards your page(s) from relevant pages in the magazine.
b) Although you can mail us ready-made 'web pages' as attachments
to brief covering notes if you prefer, we will be happy to put
your material onto the site for you if you haven't the time, inclination
or facilities to do your own. On the usual free sites you are
expected to create your own web pages. You might like to mail us a
home-made template for your pages, or trust us to provide you with
something suitable. If you're creating your own, bear in mind that the
more complex it is the longer it will take to load, frustrating your
contacts and slowing down the whole magazine - we reserve the right to
make technical improvements to the pages you send or refuse to carry
them...if you are uncertain of your prowess as a web page creator, trust
us to look after you - send us details of how you'd like the page, e.g.
colours and style etc., your text and any pictures you want included and
let us put it together for you.
So, you can reduce the quantity of mail in your inbox to messages
from those who know what you are doing and are updating you on their
activities (if they are sailors, you could suggest they use 'Keeping
Track' too!) and keep interested parties informed all with one single
e-mail at whatever frequency suits you. All you have to do is give them
the address: http://www.linnetwoods.com/marinezine/keeping_track/names
and tell them approximately how often to take a look. If they add it to
favourites they won't have to keep typing it into the address bar and when they reach
the page, they just click on your name, or boat name, and hey presto!
If you're wondering how fellow cruisers you've met along the way
are doing, you'll be able to check the list of names/boat names and see if they're
listed with us. It may take a little while to get going but it could be
fun seeing how each other is doing without locking up our in-boxes with
enquiries!
Who will pay for this? Just as we look to advertisers to place
one single, small and static advertisement, (with or without a link to
their website) on any other page in the magazine, so we will on your
page(s). If you know of businesses who may like to advertise on your
page, you can suggest they visit the advertisers site - they can reach
the Advertising Department from any page on a visit to the magazine
by clicking on the blue advertisers button near the top of any page which doesn't yet carry advertising.
Every page has the same blue button at the very top and bottom, regardless of
whether advertising is present on the page or not, so it couldn't be
easier! In the meantime we may
substitute a small link to one of the businesses we are affiliated
with or a small 'ad' promoting one or more pages elsewhere in the
magazine. Whilst your visitors are under no obligation to patronise any
advertiser who is, basically, sponsoring your page(s), we'd appreciate
it if they would take a moment to visit sponsors as a means of
encouraging them to continue in their rôle!
We hope you like this service and will make full use of it.
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