Contact info and FAQs
The two main people behind TeleRead are:
- David Rothman, dr at teleread.org, 805 North Howard St., Alexandria, VA., 22304, telephone 703-370-6540. Use the @ mark between dr and teleread.org. David is author of six nonfiction books published by Ballantine, St. Martin’s Press and others. David serves as site coordinator. While David originates many posts for the TeleRead Web Log, aka the TeleBlog, we welcome contributions from others.
- Robert Nagle, (idiotprogrammer at fastmailbox.net) is a Houston-based technical writer with a background in literature and teaching. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and writes pseudonymous fiction. Robert is TeleRead’s Web administrator and frequent contributor.
Join the new Teleread Group on Facebook Group and the Teleread Librarything Group
Below is an FAQ, still a work in progress.
I submitted a comment, but it didn’t appear. What should I do?
What’s the deal about that sidebar on the right side? When are you going to fix that?
How do I submit articles for TeleRead?
How do I report problems with the website?
How do I recommend a subject or article for TeleRead?
Tell me a little about the history of TeleRead.org
Can I reprint articles from teleread.org onto my own website?
I am an author and want general advice about how to produce an ebook. Can you recommend something?
Do you accept advertising? Why or why not?
How do I contact any people who have written for teleread in the past?
What future plans does TeleRead have?
Do you have any rules/guidelines about posting comments?
What is the OpenReader project, and what does it have to do with TeleRead?
What are those strange icons that appear after each post?
When submitting an article, what are your rules and guidelines about content/style and formatting?
I submitted a comment, but it didn’t appear. What should I do?
TeleRead uses the Akismet spam-fighting service to detect and eliminate spam. If you are commenting for the first time, your comment is automatically put in the moderation queue, so you won’t see it immediately (And yes, it is not uncommon for people to submit the same post more than once when that happens). We typically check the moderation queue about twice a day, so we approve it relatively quickly.
Sometimes, if the personal data you are giving is different from what you gave on a previous occasion, Wordpress will treat your comment as one made by a first time poster.
Sometimes (rarely, we think), akismet puts your comment in the spam basket (even if you are a regular poster). We don’t have time to examine every comment in spam, but once every week we do a global search among the comments labeled as spam for terms like “ebook” “publish” and “DRM.” That is usually enough to identify any mislabeled comments. Not always, but a good amount of the time.
If more than several hours have gone by without your comment appearing, it’s likely that your comment went directly to the Akismet trashpile. In that case, you probably need to notify us so we can make sure to undo that action. Fortunately, spam comments are discarded every two weeks, so we usually have no problem undoing this spam.
To notify us about whether Akismet has swallowed your comment mistakenly, contact Robert Nagle at idiotprogrammer at fastmailbox.net.
How do I submit articles for TeleRead?
Reach David Rothman—see contact info above. By default, incidentally, “David Rothman” is the “I” in posts without bylines. The TeleBlog originally started out as a solo effort.
What’s the deal about the sidebar on the right side? When are you going to fix that?
We know about this issue, and it’s one of the first things on our To Do list.
Right now we’re working on a migration to a new content management system, and don’t want to solve that problem until make significant progress on the migration. In the meantime, hang in there.
If you have any thoughts on the issue, contact Robert Nagle.
How do I report problems with the website?
Contact Robert Nagle, the Web site administrator.
How do I recommend a subject or article for TeleRead?
Depends. If it’s about editorial content, contact David Rothman. Actually, a very effective way to recommend something is to mention it in context on a comment for another article. TeleRead has frequently invited people who comment to write a guest article.
Tell me a little about the history of teleread.org.
TeleRead goes back to the early 1990s when David wrote about TeleRead for Computerworld and then used CompuServe and the Net to distribute his proposal. TeleRead in that sense is a proposal for well-stocked national digital library systems in the United States and elsewhere. But nowadays TeleRead also means a major e-book site, to which you can contribute even if you don’t believe in the cause.
Can I reprint articles from teleread.org onto my own website?
Generally, this is not a problem if you are running a noncommercial site without advertising. TeleRead is currently published under a Creative Commons license.
I am an author and want general advice about how to produce an e-book. Can you recommend something?
E-book basics: Check out link to Wikipedia’s e-book entry. Also, see Robert Nagle’s list of e-book content creation links.
Do you accept advertising? Why or why not?
We expect to–in the near future to keep this site sustainable. It eats up an enormous amount of time, and there are Web hosting expenses.
How do I contact any people who have written for TeleRead in the past?
See the forthcoming contributors page. Please note that the TeleRead blog also includes posts from others, besides David Rothman and Robert Nagle, including:
- Branko Collin, a Web designer in the Netherlands. Reach him at collin at xs4all.nl.
- Roger Sperberg, a book author and Random House alum. Roger has written about publishing and computers since 1980, for such magazines as GQ, PC, PC Week, PC World and Datapro Reports. E-mail: rsperberg at gmail.com.
- Tom Peters, a respected librarian in the Midwest whom Library Journal honored recently as one of 50 Moves and Shakers in librarydom. His opinions will not necessarily be David Rothman’s and vice versa. Same for other contributors. You can reach Tom at tapinformation at yahoo.com
The above list is pathetically incomplete, given all the contributors who have enriched the TeleBlog recently, and new names will be added. Meanwhile we’ll be happy to forward e-mail.
What future plans does TeleRead have?
It is bad luck to talk about future plans until it is right upon us. However, there are immediate plans to introduce a storytelling podcast, reader forums and ebook recommendations/bookmarking systems. And possibly more.
Do you have any rules or guidelines about posting comments?
Generally no. Courtesy and no profanity are usually called for. It’s okay to link to your stuff or things you’ve written as long as you don’t overdo it.
What is the OpenReader project, and what does it have to do with TeleRead?
OpenReader was an effort to create a standard e-book format. It generated its share of attention and interest but not enough. However, it was a success in prodding the IDPF to take e-book standards seriously.
What are those strange icons that appear after each post?
In case you’re curious about those mysterious icons appearing with each post–like the nonfunctioning ones shown below–here’s the answer. No heraldry. No secret societies. Just icons for social bookmarking services.
When submitting an article, what are your rules and guidelines about content/style and formatting?
Go here for the details.
New FAQs: They’ll eventually be on the way to augment the existing one on TeleRead the cause. The present FAQ in some ways is out of date.
Disclaimer: We reserve the right to correct typographical problems and errors in grammar and spelling.
Range of opinions expressed: The TeleBlog represents a variety of viewpoints. TeleRead isn’t responsible for all the opinions here, and the posters aren’t responsible for TeleRead’s. Most any opinion goes–as long as it is nonlibelous and is civilly expressed when the topic is another member of the TeleBlog community.
Time stamp changes: We’ll sometimes change time stamps by a few hours in order to keep the most newsworthy items at the top. Somewhere there may be a WordPress plug-in to address this issue–we’re on the case.
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