Is there actually a newsletter being published, or am I just not getting it for some reason? I've had this account with my gmail account for about a month, and I signed up for the newsletter using my ISP email at least a month before that, but I've never received a newsletter. When I click on the "newsletter" link at the top right of the screen, there is a link for previous editions, but that only shows the first one. Am I missing something? When did the last issue get published? Maybe you should automatically send the most recent edition to new subscribers. Thank you.
New: DesktopSnowOK (Jan 6, 2025), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, 2024)
1,100+ portable packages, 1.1 billion downloads
No Ads!, Please donate today
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on BlueSky
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on Twitter
I also haven't recieved it. But I have gotten it in the past.
There's only been one.
This has been mentioned before... I think the answer had something to do with all the incoming subscribers and like, an overflow or something...
John said that he was going to have one "this week" last month. I don't know what happened to it.
Life... The biggest plan killer of them all = )
Seriously but, I think John's negotiations with hardware and software developers it is understandable the newsletter has been put on hiatus. Though I would like to see the PA.com newsletter and would enjoy submitting articles to see if they were included, the thing is there are higher priorities just at the moment. Please be patient and know that we are all looking forward to the newsletter but it simply is not available yet.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Some people did get one, obviously, but I've never gotten one.
Maybe if the module were swapped out with something that would automatically compile a list of all the recent apps in a month (though only mentioning the latest, e.g. if Firefox were updated 3 times it would only list the latest) and have a space for the admin in charge of the newsletter to type a few words, just a quick "what's going on in the world of PA.c and portability". If it could be some collaborative effort where, each month, by the end of the month, several contributors wrote a piece, the software could compile all that plus the updates and send it out. Another newsletter piece could focus on one flash drive or portable hard drive that either looks cool, does something special, and/or gets good benchmarks. Stuff like that.
I agree. If we could get something that would do that, then there'd be a newsletter all the time and no one's time would be wasted.
-------- JULY: SUITE 1.1, VOTE FOR PORTABLEAPPS.COM, UPCOMING APPS AND MORE
--
Welcome to the first edition of the PortableApps.com newsletter. Each month,
we'll go over some of the recent releases, talk about the upcoming apps,
highlight some of our developers and contributors, link to our press
coverage, offer special preview releases to newsletter subscribers and do a
contest or two along the way. This month we'll go over the 1.1 release, tell
you how to show your support for PortableApps.com by voting for us in the
SourceForge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards and more. So, let's get to it...
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. PortableApps.com Suite / Platform 1.1 Release Review
2. Vote for PortableApps.com - SourceForge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards
3. New Releases
4. Upcoming Releases
5. Recent Press: CNN, PC World, CHIP, GeekBriefTV, Gizmodo
-------- 1. PORTABLEAPPS.COM SUITE / PLATFORM 1.1 RELEASE REVIEW
-------------
As most of you know by now, the PortableApps.com Suite and Platform were
finally updated with a new stable release at the end of May. This update
featured several bug fixes and new features to the platform including
multilingual support, 120dpi support, wallpaper switching, personal pictures,
eject functionality and improved installer and more. All the included apps
were updated and a couple new ones found their way into the suite including
Sumatra PDF (and excellent PDF reader) and CoolPlayer+ (more in Section 3).
Response has been great and thousands began downloading within hours. Read
more here:
https://portableapps.com/news/2008-05-22_-_platform_and_suite_1.1 [1]
-------- 2. VOTE FOR PORTABLEAPPS.COM - COMMUNITY CHOICE AWARDS
--------------
PortableApps.com is honored to be nominated for the SourceForge.net 2008
Community Choice Awards. These annual awards recognize the world's best open
source projects. We've been nominated in many of the categories including
Best Project, Most Likely to Change the World and more; but we can't win
without your vote. Voting ends soon, so please vote today!
https://portableapps.com/vote_for_portableapps [2]
-------- 3. NEW RELEASES
-----------------------------------------------------
In the past few months, we've had a number of great new releases. Here are a
few of the highlights:
LBreakout2 Portable - a fun breakout-style arcade game
PNotes Portable - an easy to use sticky notes manager
CoolPlayer+ Portable - a great looking audio player
BonkEnc Portable - extract, convert and encode your audio files
GnuCash Portable - the ultimate open source financial management software
You'll find them all in the PortableApps.com App Directory:
https://portableapps.com/apps [3]
-------- 4. UPCOMING RELEASES
------------------------------------------------
A number of great apps are right on the horizon from our team of crack
developers, including:
Assault Cube - multiplayer, online first person shooter
DVD Styler - DVD authoring
Frets on Fire - like Guitar Hero, but with your keyboard
JkDefrag - defragment your hard drive
Lightscreen - the easy way to take screenshots
SpeedCrunch - an advanced algebraic calculator
Stellarium - a 3D planetarium on your computer
Xenon - a file manager designed to be portable
XN Resource Editor - hack your files on the go
You can find out more about these and our other upcoming apps on the Test
Releases page:
https://portableapps.com/development/test [4]
-------- 5. RECENT PRESS: CNN, PC WORLD, CHIP, GEEKBRIEFTV, GIZMODO
----------
The great press we've been getting continues with mentions in PC World, CHIP,
Network World, Gizmodo, lifehacker and more. We even made it onto CNN Live,
CNN's live webcast on their website. Check them out on our Press Page:
https://portableapps.com/about/press/news [5]
That's it for this month. Next month's newsletter will be bigger and better
and have a surprise or two. Thanks for reading!
- Your friends at PortableApps.com
[1] https://portableapps.com/news/2008-05-22_-_platform_and_suite_1.1
[2] https://portableapps.com/vote_for_portableapps
[3] https://portableapps.com/apps
[4] https://portableapps.com/development/test
[5] https://portableapps.com/about/press/news
Why is the sign up link still there if they aren't doing it? Someone could at least put a quick "under construction" warning so we could know something was up.
it happens when it happens.
Newsletters do get sent out every so often. At the moment though more emphasis is going into making PortableApps.com more financially viable - hardware bundling negotiations - and making PortableApps.com better - software development.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
All the Newsletters are here.
https://portableapps.com/taxonomy/term/42
So if you didn't receive one... there you go!
P.S. I think we should have somebody other than John (because he's so busy) manage the Newsletter, or at least a team to do it.
I reiterate my suggestion of letting users as well as devs submit articles for for selection by John or the Newsletter team? What ya'll think?
PortableApps.com Advocate
Once again, it is not an issue of content, it is an issue of being able to handle bounces. It's not automated. There will be approximately 5,000 per mailing. They must be handled before doing the next one or providers like AOL will entirely block us from sending mail.
And as for devs submitting articles, we don't really have much to report on until the release team starts getting releases moving, so it's moot. The newsletter is targeted at end users (not developers), so it's mainly information about the Platform, any new software that's been released, etc. Reporting on specific development tests wouldn't be appropriate. Of the 60,000 subscribers, I'd wager maybe a few hundred tops are developers or would-be developers.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Maybe the link at the top of the page that says newsletter could be changed to just "News" or something like that, with a simple page that lists some news not listed in the "What's New" section listing new apps releases. It could be updated once a month (or less). It doesn't have to be much, we are just a bit more interested in what is going on more than a list of new app releases.
I'm a bit surprised the bounce rate is that high considering that you force everyone to confirm their e-mail address before allowing them to join. Nearly 1 out of 10, really? And that rate would continue every month?
It would be nice if someone could simply put an "under construction" message or something in the sign up for a newsletter page, so we won't be wondering what is wrong with our account settings when we don't get one.
That's pretty typical bounce-wise. Some of the email addresses have been in the list for 2 years and are no longer active. Some of it is transient errors that can be ignored. Some of it is 'mailbox full' messages and other temporary errors that should be tracked and if you get 2 or 3 in a row on mailings treated as a permanent bounce. I've run mailing lists for other companies that do legit (read: confirmed opt-in) mailings and have similar rates.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The point is, "all the newsletters" is only one!
(edit: I keep trying to make this appear under gluxon's post titled "All the Newsletters are", but it keeps adding it to the end.... odd.)
It's a branching view; while you can put a reply above someone else's post (which I consider trickery itself), you can't pick and choose.
gluxon's post, the one you want to reply to, is the last top-level comment (as in they replied to the original post, not one of the replies. horusofoz replied to gluxon and started a branch; further replies to horusofoz or any of the posts in that line will further separate your post from gluxon's. Your post is the second reply to that and my post starts another branch. If you reply to me, it'll be nested under mine. If you reply to gluxon again, you'll still be under me, but up a level (at the same level as your last post). If you reply to the original post, you'll be under me still, but at the same level as gluxon's post.
Confused? So am I. I don't fully understand a branching forum system. I favor the straight line, date order, sort ascending... I think. Where the original post is at the top and every reply follows. I asked JTH about this a few months ago and he said he prefers the continuity and the tracking of discussions within a topic, even if it means you have to reply two or three times to the same topic to stay on-topic. Invision and phpBB have the right of it, where they do topics the way I like, and you can quote people, and the quote box has a "snapback" link which takes you back to verify the quote or see it in context. Snapback is sloppy; ideally the post quoted should appear in an iframe or floating popup or something equally clever.
If we did do a team that was in charge of the newsletter, what would the requirements be to join the team?
Maybe what we could have is a small, simple app that people interested in the newsletter could install with their other portable apps, and set it to run automatically when portable apps is started. There could be a web page with the newsletter on it, and the app could check the date the newsletter page was modified. If it is newer than the last date it had for a new newsletter available, it could show a message about a "new newsletter available... do you want to read it? Yes/No". If the user clicks yes, it could open that page in FireFox. If the date is the same as the last read newsletter, or the user clicks "No" (or if there were any other error, such as no internet connection, etc.) it would simply close. This would eliminate the email bouncing problem completely, as only people who are interested in the newsletter and who use Portable Apps regularly would get it. Maybe that could even be a feature built in to new versions of Portable Apps itself....