I did a test of including the URLs (when available) for every story in last week’s Premium edition, and asked readers to give me feedback: did they like it? Hate it? Or…?
True Business
What the HELL?!!?
The Briefest of Backgrounds
For those coming in from other links, This is True is a pioneer in online publishing. Since 1994, it has been the email leader of “weird news.” Subscribers get stories every week by email with true tales of human stupidity, all tagged with humorous, opinionated or ironic commentary by me, Randy Cassingham.
Not Just Dumb, But Hella Dumb
When reviewing the logs for my autoresponders I sometimes find people arguing with them, even though the messages they get clearly say that they are an automatic response to the email they sent. I thought you’d like to see an example.
Rocket Science?
I personally assign very great value to “job satisfaction.” I mean, I’m a space nerd — I grew up watching the astronauts skipping on the moon — and managed to get onto the engineering staff of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working 10 years there before I quit to devote full time to This is True.
Reduce, Reuse — Then Recycle
On Friday, we finally caught up with the pre-orders for the reprints of Volume 1 of the True book collection. One recipient complained: “I was bummed that my books came packaged with Styrofoam ‘peanuts’. I can’t believe that any world-conscious business would buy those dang things and pollute our planet! Can’t you use something else? There is a new product out that uses recycled newspapers, for instance.”
Steve Wozniak: a Satisfied True Reader
(Updated: See below.)
Stealing is Still Stealing, Even if It’s Easy
There has been a disturbing increase in theft online lately, of True and other material.
I’m Being Watched
The Online Journalism Review (published by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication) did an interesting story on “Value-added email: A Publishing Alternative to the WWW”.
Niche Masters Who Can Kill You
My remarks to the second (and last) Online News Summit in 1998.
Honorary Unsubscribe
Without any announcement, the first “Honorary Unsubscribe” runs in True.
No Contest
For awhile, I ran contests among the readership, with various little “games” to play.
Roto-Reuter
Every once in a while I get a note asking why I use the credit “(Reuter)” instead of “(Reuters)”.
I Finally Nail a Copyright Infringer
One of the most irritating things about publishing online is people who think that if it’s online, it’s free — and they can copy it. Wrong! Copyright infringement is stealing.
H.U. — A Prequel
The “Honorary Unsubscribe” doesn’t exist yet, but this week’s Premium issue — the first Premium edition ever — had something at the top that previewed the idea:
A Premium Idea
The daunting task of using poor-quality email software finally make it too hard to publish True by email every week, so I came up with an idea: publish it every other week.
No Looking Back
My business plan for True predicted I’d be able to quit my Day Job two years after launch and work online full time.
The First Hundred
This week Jordan becomes the 100th country (that I know of) on my distribution list, less than two years after the publication’s launch.
Another Year, Another Dollar
Clearly, the “commercial activity online” taboo is a bit slow to die off, but my first paid ad is a good one. I wasn’t depending on ad income to survive …which is an awfully good thing! That’s what enabled True to survive in the long run.
True Joins the Web
Nearly a year old, This is True didn’t even have a web site until this week.
Trademarked Out of a Title
Around the first of the month I asked my lawyer to trademark “This Just In” — the title of the column and newsletter that is coming up on a year old. The request results in the first “uh oh” of the publication’s short life.