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DRAGON'S BREATH |
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The Official Newsletter of Heroes and Dragons |
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Issue # 8.0.2 — Welcome to Our Newsletter |
CONTENTS
Quick links may not work in all e-mail
readers,
but they will work when you view this newsletter online.
What Is Dragon's Breath?Dragon's Breath is the official newsletter of Heroes and Dragons, delivered to you by e-mail. In this newsletter, we cover all facets of H&D:
Dragon's Breath keeps you up to date on all our activities, including:
How Did I Get on This Mailing List?You're receiving this e-mail for one of the following reasons:
If you don't want to continue receiving Dragon's Breath, unsubscribe instructions are below. We'll miss you. :_( How Do I Subscribe/Unsubscribe?Links to subscribe and unsubscribe appear in every issue of Dragon's Breath: SUBSCRIBE: UNSUBSCRIBE: If you continue receiving Dragon's Breath after dropping your subscription, e-mail us for help. How Often Will I Receive Dragon's Breath?Dragon's Breath arrives at the beginning of each week. What If My E-Mail Program Can't Read HTML?Dragon's Breath is sent in HTML format. This allows us to send you pictures and hyperlinks without attaching them to the message and weighing down your inbox. If your e-mail program can read HTML (and occasionally a small JavaScript), you'll be able to see our logo at the top of this message. If your e-mail program doesn't read HTML, don't worry — we also post every issue on our web site. If you receive an e-mail you can't read, just visit the Newsletter > Archive section of heroesanddragons.com. Every issue of Dragon's Breath begins with a hidden link to the online version of the newsletter. If your e-mail program doesn't parse the HTML correctly, you should still be able to find the e-mail address of that issue Is My Information Safe with You?Absolutely. We pledge to never sell or release your personal information to anyone — and yes, we have been asked on a couple of occasions. Your privacy is completely safe with us. What If I Change My E-Mail Address?If you still have access to your old e-mail address, use the unsubscribe page to remove it from the list. Then re-subscribe using your new e-mail address. If you no longer have access to the original e-mail account, go ahead and subscribe using your new address. Then send an e-mail to our list administrator to have your old e-mail address removed. (Don't forget to specify the old address in your e-mail!) How Can I Contact Dragon's Breath?Use this link to contact our list administrator. (It helps if you include the words "Dragon's Breath" in the subject line of your e-mail.) Please DO NOT send e-mail directly to the list address, [email protected]. This is a dedicated e-mail account that sends, receives, and processes messages pertaining to the mailing list. It is not artificially intelligent, and it will not respond to personalized e-mails. [What it does is process subscription requests and commands sent to it using the subject line of your e-mail. For a full list of interactive commands you can use via e-mail, send a message to [email protected] with the word "HELP" (no quotes) in the subject line.] What Are E-Mail "Probes"?Probes are occasional messages sent out by the mailing list to verify your e-mail address. You may receive one of these probes if an issue of Dragon's Breath has "bounced" back to us or if your e-mail inbox is full. "Probe" e-mails will always have the subject line "[DRAGON'S BREATH] - E-Mail Address Verification." You do not need to reply to these e-mails; simply delete them. The probes are harmless and do not send us any information about your system. They are merely a tool for us to periodically eliminate those addresses which have gone inactive or been cancelled since signing up for Dragon's Breath. What Does "Issue # 8.0.2" Mean?That's the issue number of Dragon's Breath. The first number is the volume number — we renumber Dragon's Breath every time we do a major overhaul to the mailing list, so we can keep track of its history. The second number is the actual issue of the current volume. The third number, when it appears, reflects a change or update to that issue. For example, issue # 6.2 was the second issue of our sixth volume. There was a delivery problem with that issue, so revised the code and send it a second time — the re-sent message was issue # 6.2.2. Our FAQ document is always numbered zero, so the issue you're reading right now is # 8.0.2. What Were the First Seven Volumes?
Dragon's Breath began its life as a printed newsletter — more accurately, a flyer — that was distributed in the Heroes and Dragons chain of comic book stores in Columbia, South Carolina, in the early 1990s. Over the years, Dragon's Breath grew with each editor's ambitions, and soon it was a bonafide 8- to 10-page newsletter. Although it was only distributed through the stores (and not in the mail), the Dragon's Breath proved popular enough with our customers to warrant publishing it semi-regularly — i.e., whenever someone on staff could find the time to do one! Dragon's Breath went through four volumes as a print newsletter between 1994 and 1998 — each one marked by a new # 1. The print newsletters went on hiatus in 1998 and disappeared for several months. During the hiatus, we began experimenting with e-mail newsletters. While the response was positive, we couldn't sustain the effort with no one one on staff to devote their full time to content and administration. (I sometimes refer to the brief period of electronic newsletters in late '98 and early '99 as "Dragon's Breath v.4-1/2.") In 1999, we launched a new electronic version of the Dragon's Breath, based on our original mailing list but with an agressive new marketing campaign. We updated the volume number to match the computer-centered format, and Dragon's Breath v.5 was born! Within a couple weeks of sending out Dragon's Breath # 5.1, our mailing list grew from around 30 initial subscribers to over 100 — and from there it was a short step to 200, then 500. By 2001, we were e-mailing Dragon's Breath to over 1,000 customers worldwide, and I'd been asked to offer it in Italian and Spanish! Facing a large influx of subscribers, we stopped administering the newsletter manually and migrated our lists over to ListBot, a free service on the World Wide Web for mailing list administrators. Unfortunately, our timing was horrible: As soon as we moved the list, ListBot announced their plans to shut down, and Dragon's Breath went on another hiatus. The ListBot-driven v.6 sent out only two "issues" before being closed. Dragon's Breath v.7 was administered locally, using Arrow Mailer from Roger Smith Software. The e-mails remained text-only for two years before Dragon's Breath morphed into its current form. In its latest incarnation (v.8), our newsletter is a weekly HTML-rich e-mail newsletter. Where Can I Read Previous Issues?Previous issues of this newsletter are available online, in our Archive area. |
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Dragon's Breath is
written and administered by Scott
Simmons. To contact us, please
visit this page. |