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From: matthews@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: MacTutor gripe!!!
Message-ID: <9423@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 21 Jul 88 18:08:49 GMT
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Reply-To: matthews@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jim Matthews)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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To add another data point: I sent MacTutor an article in February.  I
received the standard reply letter with a cryptic comment in the corner.
I waited a few months and finally called their offices.  David Smith
was in a conference but the guy who answered the phone explained that
there was a big backlog of articles and that Smith was trying to clear
it out by the August issue.  He also said that authors whose articles
were not printed by then would be sent a letter to update them on
their status.  He said that it was a good idea to submit a printed
copy of the article text, since that is easier to scan than the copy
on disk.

About a month later I received another form letter, this time with an
annotation by the assistant editor.  He promised to show the article to
Smith -- so maybe there's hope.

My advice to waiting authors would be to call MacTutor and find out
what's up.  If MacTutor is holding these articles because they aren't
good enough then the authors should be told.  If there are just too
many good articles, then either the magazine should grow or the MacTutor
people should be less enthusiastic about soliciting submissions.

Jim Matthews
jim.matthews@dartmouth.edu