[MR] Is the Acorn the reason you're a member?

[Morvyth verch Morgan]

And the answer to that is (in my case), no way!  The Acorn alone is not 
worth the cost of membership.

My Acorn (I pay for first class) gets here far later than I think is 
appropriate (I still don't have the December issue).  I've complained 
to the Post Office, but my mail carrier is (to be polite), an ass with 
an attitude who also REGULARLY misdelivers mail within my townhouse 
cluster and along his entire route.  (Yes, there are complaints against 
him, and as prez of the townhouse cluster, I'm trying to get the local 
postmaster to get off their duff and DO something about this...so far, 
to no avail.   Oh and this week alone I've had two packages in my 
mailbox that aren't for me and whose addresses don't even remotely 
resemble mine, just to give an example of how bad mail service CAN 
be.....).

So if the Acorn WERE the reason I joined, I'd be sadly disappointed.  
Whether its the fault of the SCA or the US government, snail mail in 
the Washington DC area is no longer timely and I don't count on it if 
there is a deadline.  I used FedEx or UPS...  or rely on couriers.

While I do have a permanent mailing address, I'd be a MUCH happier 
camper if the Acorn were available electronically (PDF) for download at 
the time the issue was mailed to those who want/need snail mail.  I'd 
HAPPILY give up the paper copy... it's one less thing to shred/recycle.

Yes, I know there is the matter of SCA policy.  SCA policy needs to be 
revisted in these times of less reliability of snail mail and more 
caution/security/paranoia which causes it (and allows lazy slackers to 
get away with bloody murder while "working" for the Post Office, but I 
digress....).

I'm all for RSS feeds.... as soon as they're available, I'm there.  I'm 
even more for making electronic versions of all documentation 
available... as soon as they're legal, I'm there.

~Morvyth



On Dec 18, 2004, at 1:42 AM, atlantia-request at atlantia.sca.org wrote:

> Message: 5
> Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 01:00:35 -0500
> From: Joshua Thomas <joshua.r.thomas at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [MR] In revieww
> To: deepfatfriar at mindspring.com, atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
> Message-ID: <380f9a790412172200156eda1c at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>>
>> The Kingdom Chronicler and all webministers involved are doing the 
>> best possible job  they can given the nature of applicable law and 
>> policy, and the exigencies of their mundane lives. (Good on 'em.)
>>
>
> Actually, the Kingdom Policy is the hold up. The society policy says
> you can't transmit the "Acorn" by electronics means. The
> interpretation seems to be as a whole, as we and many kingdom's
> transmit parts electronically. This does not mean we can't web the
> letters earlier, if the Kingdom Policy were to be changed. I am
> curious who really joined because of the Acorn since it is
> overshadowed by more real benifits. (pay to play, fighting, the
> surcharge) Do we really gain a more significant membership growth
> through handicapping our information flows? (slowing the flows down to
> snail mail speed) Thats what we should be asking here.