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FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

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FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby curt » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:48 pm

This may not be the best place to post this, but I thought I would try on our forum.

One thing the flightgear project has perpetually lacked is a newsletter. We tried to get something going once or twice, but the effort always fizzled out before anything was actually published. There is so much development effort, both with the source code as well as addition of new aircraft, livreys, scenery, 3d models, etc. that we have *tons* of great and interesting material for a newsletter.

All we need is a volunteer or two to assemble a few articles on a regular basis. This can be some work, but if we did this every month, we could keep it short and sweet ... maybe 4-6 pages max ... probably with several pictures taking up some of that space. I could imagine some regular features ... perhaps highlighting some of the best aircraft and scenery that have been released or significantly updated in the last month. We could have a report on any of the multiplayer events. If cool new code features are introduced we could talk about that. We could include tutorials on complex or slightly confusing features. We could even nic stuff out of the wiki if we got desperate.

There would probably be a bit of work initially to come up with a decent newsletter layout, but I'm sure we could find suitable templates as a good starting point.

Is there anyone out there that's looking for a way to contribute to the project, but who isn't perhaps a coder or an artist ... someone who is hopefully able to commit to building some newsletter momentum? I think this would be a great way to promote FlightGear and highlight some interesting features or capabilities or fun things to try that most people might not be aware of yet.

Thanks,

Curt.
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby Gijs » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:55 pm

I already proposed a newsletter last year (see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1586), but due to lack of interest and time I never got it off the ground actually. I did create some, but it was not worth releasing it at the time. However, I still think it would be a great addition to our user-friendlyness.
If there is still a place in the team, I would defenitely like to write some stuff for the letter.

One question: how will the letter be distributed? By e-mail, website, forum, wiki...

PS: I would advise to pick also some native English person, to check my grammar ;)
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby Fahim Dalvi » Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:32 pm

Gijs wrote:PS: I would advise to pick also some native English person, to check my grammar ;)


I'll be happy enough to Check it out, Though I'm not a native English Speaker!

If Needed, I can also combine it into a PDF, no big deal now a days, but just in case....

Regards,
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby Hooray » Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:01 pm

I mentioned this already the last time this discussion came up, but why not simply use the wiki for collecting newsletter contents, so that anybody can provide some news, and whenever someone decides to send out a newsletter, the best passages from the "wiki newsletter" can be copied/pasted into a corresponding email.

Last time we discussed this idea, everybody seemed to agree that this is the best way forward. It will only require a new page on the wiki designated "newletter" so that the whole community can help provide contents. In fact, users starting new
projects can also simply add themselves to the newsletter to spread some information about their effort.

If quality is really of such an importance, one could also use one "draft" area, where only raw text is kept, so that it's obvious that these passages need to be reworked.

IMHO, it would be wrong to have just one designated editor, allowing the community to collect FlightGear related news that will be regularly sent out to subscribers seems much better and also more likely to work from a workload point of view.

The FlightGear wiki has already a news section, some of this can probably even be borrowed for a future "newsletter" section.

Ideally, the newsletter page would be intuitively structured:
  • recent aircraft developments
  • recent scenery modeling
  • new scenery features
  • recent core development
  • projects using FlightGear (like the helicopter simulator)
  • plans for the future
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
Hooray
Help write next month's newsletter !
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:09 pm

Sounds like a great idea.

As Hooray points out, using the wiki as a basis should allow it to be put together very easily. In fact, I'm sure some of the existing wiki articles could be put together to create a first issue.

Of course, it would need to be placed prominently on the FG website to advertise it properly.

Some other ideas that could easily be contributed by users:
- Report on a recent MP fly-in
- Recommended Flights
- Who's who (introducing various people in the community)
- IRL flying (for those of us who are lucky enough to fly in real life and in FG), possible combined with a FG version of the flight!

In fact, I may just put together one of those myself this evening...

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:07 pm

Well, it took a bit longer than expected, but here's a contribution to the newsletter : A FG suggested flight from Edinburgh to Oban, mirroring a flight I did in April:

http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Edinburgh_to_Oban

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Sat Jun 20, 2009 11:09 am

OK, here's a draft Newletter with some content.

http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/FlightGear_Newsletter_July_2009

Feel free to edit as you see fit.

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby yurik_nsk » Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:07 pm

Hi Stuart!

May i write short description about new tu-154 model for newsletter?

It's not a CVS model, cause it freeware but not GPL.
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:20 pm

Hi Yurik,

Yes, absolutely!

In fact, that is exactly what the newsletter should be about :- bringing new developments to the attention of the community.

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby yurik_nsk » Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:55 pm

Hi Stuart!

I write announce for newsletter:
http://yurik.flightgear.ru/tu154b-release/announce.html

but imho, text should be corrected due my English not a good...
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:42 am

Hi Yurik,

Great. I'll add a link to your announcement to the newletter.

Unfortunately the aircraft won't load against current CVS. I get the following error:

Code: Select all
      Property fcs/at-throttle-cmd-norm[0] is already defined.
      Property fcs/at-throttle-cmd-norm[1] is already defined.
      Property fcs/at-throttle-cmd-norm[2] is already defined.
FGPropertyManager::GetNode() No node found for systems/electrical-ok
FGPropertyManager::GetNode() No node found for systems/electrical-ok
FGPropertyManager::GetNode() No node found for systems/electrical-ok
      Property hs/max-pressure is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-pitch-1 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-pitch-2 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-pitch-3 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-roll-1 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-roll-2 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-roll-3 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-yaw-1 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-yaw-2 is already defined.
      Property hs/ra56-yaw-3 is already defined.
FGPropertyManager::GetNode() No node found for fcs/absu-pitch
  In component: hs/consumers/ra56-pitch-speed unknown property fcs/absu-pitch referenced. Aborting


-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby MD-Terp » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:40 am

Stuart -- I had the same issue, but found via the forum that there's an alternate FDM file for CVS versus 1.9.1 you have to manually swap out. There's a README that specifies the exact filenames affected. It works fine on my end now using the 6/14 Win32 CVS build off of Fred's site.
Cheers,
-Rob.

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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:15 pm

That's great.

Yurik - can you update the announcement information with any instructions required for CVS please?

I'd prefer not to refer to a Forum post in the newsletter.

-Stuart
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby yurik_nsk » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:51 pm

Hi Stuart!

Yurik - can you update the announcement information with any instructions required for CVS please?


Done. Thanks for updating newsletter. Imho, it's a good idea for announce about FG news.
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Re: FlightGear newsletter editor wanted!

Postby stuart » Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:04 pm

Great stuff. I got the TU-154 working on my copy of CVS - superb work! I've updated the newsletter appropriately.

Curt - I think this is basically ready for publishing, unless you can think of more content we should add.

I guess we've got a couple of options for actually publishing it:
1) Leave it where it is, and allow people to edit it
2) Ask whoever is running the wiki if they can make it read-only.
2) Copy it elsewhere as a separate piece of HTML.

-Stuart
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