The e-publishing support group

[Flyspeck23]

I think it's far more important to get publishers not to do silly things like white on black text, watermarks with darkness weights close to the font darkness, or fonts that requires a decoder ring to read. Baseline grid is unimportant. Uneven column heights off by a line are fine.

That's exactly the difference between a layout artist and a typesetter.
But you're definetly right: there are things much worse than a missing baseline grid (it's "great stuff, but the layout is somewhat lacking" vs. "don't know if it's great stuff, because I can't read half of it").
A missing baseline grid doesn't make the text hard to read, it may only disrupt the flow of reading. But that depends, of course.

Let's compromise and say: it's good to have a baseline grid, but it ain't necessary. Ok?

Oh, and Book of Eldritch Might 1 hasn't got one, too. Seems like it's a thing of the past for Malhavoc not to use it

We should start a new thread on this topic... "bane and boon of baseline grids"... or are you getting tired already?


[Note to self: stop using that many smileys...]

 

[Dimwhit]

FYI, we haven't given up on the private forum. I emailed Morrus last week, but I haven't heard back. I imagine he's either very busy, or he gets far too much email and it's just very backlogged. So stay tuned. We're still on.

 

[Mark]

Okie doke. I staying tuned.

I have an initial suggestion for the new forum, too.

One of the first things I suggest you have in the sticky thread explaining the NDA (which will need to be explained prior to entry, signed and returned to whoever moderates the forum) might also be a list (second post in sticky thread?) of the screennames, actual names, company (or project, or planned company) of everyone who has access to the forum.

This way everyone will know with whom they are sharing their ideas so they can decide how much they are willing to share (of their private info/company "secrets").

I'm fairly open online, personally, but I know that some others prefer to remain more closed. That's something that is unlikely to work very well if this new forum is going to be helpful to people beyond just simple layout suggestions, IMO.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Im with Mark on this one. A NDA, signed by all participants (and collected by Dimwhit?), would be essential.

The (sticky) "who's who"-thread is a good idea. Each participant could post not only real/board/company names, eMail, URL, projects, but also a quick summary of "fields of experience" - like "Hi, I'm John Doe, prestige class designer par excellence"...

 

[Morrus]

FYI, we haven't given up on the private forum. I emailed Morrus last week, but I haven't heard back. I imagine he's either very busy, or he gets far too much email and it's just very backlogged. So stay tuned. We're still on.

Could you resend it? I can't seem to find this email. Thanks!

 

[Dimwhit]

One of the first things I suggest you have in the sticky thread explaining the NDA (which will need to be explained prior to entry, signed and returned to whoever moderates the forum) might also be a list (second post in sticky thread?) of the screennames, actual names, company (or project, or planned company) of everyone who has access to the forum.

This way everyone will know with whom they are sharing their ideas so they can decide how much they are willing to share (of their private info/company "secrets").

I'm fairly open online, personally, but I know that some others prefer to remain more closed. That's something that is unlikely to work very well if this new forum is going to be helpful to people beyond just simple layout suggestions, IMO.

Actually, I was planning on doing that very things. Both of them. While we're waiting, anyone want to write up a simple NDA? What do you think is the best and simplest way to handle it?

 

[Dimwhit]

Could you resend it? I can't seem to find this email. Thanks!

\

Done. Let me know if you don't get it. Thanks.

 

[Mark]

We will need a name for the forum so it can be referred to in the NDA specifically. Is E-Publisher's Internal Conversation Forum (E.P.I.C.) apropos?

 

[Dimwhit]

We will need a name for the forum so it can be referred to in the NDA specifically. Is E-Publisher's Internal Conversation Forum (E.P.I.C.) apropos?

I was just thinking of going with the E-Publishing Support Group. But we can change it to whatever you all want.

 

[Mark]

I was just thinking of going with the E-Publishing Support Group. But we can change it to whatever you all want.

Your suggestion is better. (...less kistchy )

Besides, while I support the idea and would like to see it work, my participation time is severely limited.