What Would Get You to Subscribe to Dungeon?

[Darrin Drader]

I would love to go to Kinko's or a similar place to print out select articles. But I can't! It doesn't matter how many sales receipts I have, they won't print out a copy for me unless I give them some kind of formal permission on company letterhead.

You can actually circumvent the Kinkos clerks by using their online printing service.

https://printonline.fedexkinkos.com/

You just upload the PDF, they receive the order at the store, and they print it out/bind for you. I've had problems with them before when bringing documents to the store to print, but I have yet to run into a problem using their online service.

 

[justanobody]

That's a pretty good point. I have a decent printer but ink is seriously pricey. Maybe you could send some feedback to WoTC at dndinsider@wizards.com. Maybe they could post a blurb on all of there compiled pdf's that grants anyone the right to print them. I don't know if they will, but if they don't have a problem with people printing them, it only seems fair they facilitate this for subscribers. I can't imagine anyone doing mass printings in order to sell them. There wouldn't be any profit in someone deciding to print out pdf's and sell them as mags. It would probably cost more to print than they could ever sell them for.

Didn't they have to do that with the old minis cards that they updated and each page includes permission to print on it?

 

[joethelawyer]

regarding all the market research stuff, from my days in the corporate world, i have never seen truly objective market research. most of it tends to be for the purpose of:

1. do market research where the results support what i the executive want to do, so that

2. my butt is covered when/if it goes wrong.


the other bad research i have seen was based on faulty assumptions due to the marketing department drinking the kool-aid of the internal corporate rah-rah speak. in other words, they actually believed their own crap they fabricated about the company and its products when designing the marketing research program.

 

[El Mahdi]

You can actually circumvent the Kinkos clerks by using their online printing service.

https://printonline.fedexkinkos.com/

You just upload the PDF, they receive the order at the store, and they print it out/bind for you. I've had problems with them before when bringing documents to the store to print, but I have yet to run into a problem using their online service.

Hah, the internet defeats "The Man" yet again. Viva Le Internet!

 

[El Mahdi]

Didn't they have to do that with the old minis cards that they updated and each page includes permission to print on it?

They might have, with minis cards that is, I'm not sure. I do remember they used to put a statement on their pre-printed character sheets granting permission to copy.

 

[justanobody]

They might have, with minis cards that is, I'm not sure. I do remember they used to put a statement on their pre-printed character sheets granting permission to copy.

So even the cover would need the permission to print on it to print the whole magazine, or would there be option to print only some pages?

This is just silly to need something like that to have a physical copy of a magazine. I wonder how much that would cost to have printed. Does that online printing service give prices in advance?

 

[CarlZog]

Hardcopy might entice to me to subscribe again.

And more Alternity adventures....

Carl

 

[Baron Opal]

Well, quite frankly, this isn't WotC's problem — your copy shop isn't being reasonable.

In some RPGNow PDFs, a small watermark is embedded in the corner of every page that has your name and the purchase number on it. Combined with a receipt, this seems to be proof enough for reasonable printers.

I purchased the pdfs of OD&D and Sup I-III a little while ago and I decided I wanted to have Kinko's make a single book out of the files. I walked up to the clerk and said about three times in some fashion "print the file I purchased." She looked at me funny, I showed her the reciept I printed out. She scanned through my thumb drive and said "Is this a Dungeons and Dragons file?"

"Yes."

"Can't help you."

"Why not? I purchased it. It's paid for and I can prove it."

"Just because you bought it doesn't give us the right to print it."

"I'm contracting you for a service involving my property."

Blank stare. "You must present a signed statement on company letterhead stating explicitly that we can print this file as well as the number of copies. I'm sorry."

I showed proper decorum until I closed my car door. Then I threw my fit. Still, that's a good idea Darren, I may consider that.

There is a self-serve section, that runs ~50 cents a page. Having the clerk do it I'm only charged for the final sheets, not the mistake pages, and the rate is 9 cents a page.

 

[jdrakeh]

I purchased the pdfs of OD&D and Sup I-III a little while ago and I decided I wanted to have Kinko's make a single book out of the files. I walked up to the clerk and said about three times in some fashion "print the file I purchased." She looked at me funny, I showed her the reciept I printed out. She scanned through my thumb drive and said "Is this a Dungeons and Dragons file?"

"Yes."

"Can't help you."

"Why not? I purchased it. It's paid for and I can prove it."

"Just because you bought it doesn't give us the right to print it."

"I'm contracting you for a service involving my property."

Blank stare. "You must present a signed statement on company letterhead stating explicitly that we can print this file as well as the number of copies. I'm sorry."

Yep. This is definitely a shop-specific issue. Kinko's corporate policy regarding such prints only requires proof of purchase last I knew, not a physical, hand-signed, letter from the office of the Hasbro company offices. Regardless, such a request is absolutely unrealistic and unreasonable. My advice would be to find a different print shop. Your local Kinko's seems to be staffed by unreasonable, unrealistic, twits who don't deserve your money, anyhow.

[Edit: Of course, we are talking about the same company that once (years ago, prior to the FedEx buyout) charged consumers $10 to double-click a file in order to open it for printing, referring (dishonestly) to the process as "ripping" a file. ]

 

[Korgoth]

Original or AD&D support. (Yeah, I know...)

That and paper would get me to buy it.