On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:36:36 -0400, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote to Freelance
Traveller:

>>hah!  As Jeff would probably tell me, that kind of 'simplicity' isn't
>
>> >easily come by.
>>
>> Indeed not; it is a fairly well-known aphorism among authors who Do It For
>> Money that says that you know when you've gotten the story Just Perfect
>> because... there's nothing left that can be cut out.
>>
>
>Wait... I thought the aphorism says "You know when yyou've gotten the story
>Just Perfect when someone has paid you for it and you've washed your hands
>of it..." ;)

Well, yeah. But there's always getting it to the point where they'll pay
you for it so you can wash your hands...

>At least, that's roughly analogous to what software is like (if there isn't
>a support contract...).

"If architects and builders designed and built buildings the way software
engineers and programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that came
along would destroy civilization."

>Can someone please explain Jeff's comments about embargo on/embargo off....
>but only once or ... what?

In publishing, a book is often shipped to bookstores prior to the official
release date so that it will be on hand _on_ the release date. If the
publisher forbids early release (e.g., Scholastic/Bloomsbury for the Harry
Potter books), they have "embargoed" or "placed an embargo" on the book.

(Except in _very_ rare cases, Baen does not embargo books. If it's shipped
to your store, you may shelve it and sell it, even if the website says that
the release date is next week).

Analogously, I "embargo" the web version of articles that appear in
Freelance Traveller until the following issue releases in PDF - that is,
for the approximately two months of the cover date on the issue, the ONLY
source for reading the articles is to download the PDF and read them. Once
I post the following issue, the articles become available on the website.

So, for example, if I hadn't screwed up, the day I posted issue 100 in PDF,
you would have been able to read my Prep Room article "Pacing an Adventure"
(which was in the PDF for issue 99) on the website. And had I not screwed
up, the Design Notes for T:17 would not have been on the website until the
end of August/beginning of September, when Issue 101 is scheduled to come
out.

But because of how and when I discovered the screw up, the easiest way to
fix the screwup was to say - for this issue only - "to hell with the
regular embargo", so when I fixed the screwup, I put up Issue 100's
articles on the website as well.

(What Happens When I Post: Immediately after the PDF "goes live", I open my
master [offline] copy of the website and start inserting the articles from
the just-published issue. I then start putting together the Publisher files
and PDFs for next issue, and once they're ready, I insert them into the
master copy of the website. Then, on the last weekend before the first of
the first month on the cover, or, if I'm running late, the weekend
immediately following the insertion into the master copy, I push the
updated website to my host, where it becomes visible to one and all.  This
time, I had mostly finished the insertion of Issue 100's articles when I
realized "Where are the inserted articles from Issue 99?". That's when I
posted O!M!G! to the TML, inserted 99 and finished inserting 100, and
posted the update.)

>I'm sure this would make sense if I grokked the context, but without that,
>I'm left wondering if Jeff is moonlighting for OPEC.....
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--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
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