07-17-2010, 03:45 PM
FCIN Wrote:The main point I was trying to make (and rather poorly at that) was that if there was/is a way to get the program to spit out the data, there are ways to transform it for use in a database program.
Yes, that much is obvious. Problem, however, seems to be in finding some reasonably rational way of exporting the data in the first place.
FCIN Wrote:How much time and work is involved would depend on how much data could be output at a time. For instance, could the program output all listings for a particular publication at one time?
No clue. One would certainly hope that Kalmbach's computer people or consultants or whatever would be competent enough to evaluate the most obvious couple of ways of trying to export and transform the data, but I don't know what they have considered and what they have not considered.
FCIN Wrote:Once again, I apologize if I've upset anyone with my posting. Was not my intention.
Well. I did not feel "upset" about it. I just told you what I had read about the program in question in a couple of other forums.
FCIN Wrote:Kalmbach does seem to like to put information on their web site that is only available to subscribers of their publications, so I am guilty of thinking something might be amiss here.
Seems like a sensible business move to me. Any smart magazine publishing company will try to encourage subscriptions over single issue sales - that way they get their money before they produce the stuff they sell. Lowers business risk and transaction costs. Subscriptions are a tougher sell - so they offer something extra to subscribers.
Nothing specific for Kalmbach and Model Railroader. In addition to Kalmbach's MR and Carsten's RMC, I also subscribe to excellent British news magazine "The Economist".
They also offer a subscriber-only web site, with searchable archives of old articles. That service is not offered to people who buy single issues from a news kiosk. Up to each and every person to chose whether to fork over a larger amount once a year, get a discount, and get subscriber benefits, or whether to occasionally buy a single issue. Nobody is holding a gun to your head either way.
Of course, Kalmbach's competitor Carstens doesn't seem to offer much model railroading content at their web site - neither to subscribers nor non-subscribers.
MRH offers content for free - but that's their business model. Time will tell whether Joe Fugate and his partners call pull off the act that a lot of dot-coms failed at - user generated content, living by advertising income alone. I of course wish them the best of luck, but hope that they have not bet their homes on the success of their eZine.
Smile,
Stein