Appendix A - Production of the Hip Webzine

Michael Hayward (May, 1995)

This brief write-up attempts to document the production stages which are followed when putting together an issue of the Hip Webzine. The write-up describes the process from the point of view of the Macintosh environment, since that is my platform of choice. However the Webzine production can be done on any other platform that has a text editor which is capable of saving in text-only (ASCII) form. If the text editor in question has some built-in HTML tools, so much the better.

Hardware Environment at Hip Communications Inc.

Note that the hardware environment at Hip is in a constant state of evolution: things may have changed since this was written! Beware!

As of this writing, Hip Communications Inc. is home to the following computers and workstations:

      Machine (DNS) name   IP number       Operating System   Function(s)
      hop.hip.com          204.94.123.4    ??                 DNS gateway
      goofy.hip.com
      info.hip.com         204.94.123.8    Windows NT server  AppleShare server,
                                                              Windows NT server,
                                                              RAS server,
                                                              WWW server for
                                                              "info.hip.com",
                                                              Webzine mirror
      www.hip.com          204.94.123.12   Windows NT         Webzine,
      web.hip.com                                             Focus catalog,
                                                              workstation
                                                              (Wei-Yuen)
      elmer.hip.com        204.94.123.117  Windows NT         Workstation
                                                              (previously Greg)
      infoshare.hip.com    204.94.123.104  Windows NT         workstation
      hudson.hip.com                       (hardware:
                                           Pentium 90
                                           32MB/1GB)
      ?????                204.94.123.133  Macintosh          workstation
                                           System 7.5         (Michael)
                                           (hardware:
                                           Centris 660AV
                                           16MB/230MB)
      ?????                ?????           Windows NT         workstation
                                                              (Dick)

Figure 1: Hip Communications Inc. hardware environment
(All machines are connected via Ethernet)

Thumbnail view of Webzine production

The machine named "goofy" runs an AppleShare server, and serves up a network disk named "Webzine" that appears on the Mac's desktop at boot time. Since this disk can be accessed from both the Mac and the Windows NT machines, it is used to mirror the "live", production Webzine material, and to prepare the next issue of the Webzine before it too goes live.

Briefly, the Webzine production cycle goes like this:

Shift the current issue ("THISWEEK" folders) to back issue status
The structure of the "WebzineMirror" folder is shown below. Back issue material is retained for the "Best of the Net" (folder "bestnet") and regular Webzine columns (folder "col"). Back issue folders are named with the publication date of the issue.
Before starting a new issue, the current issue material (kept in folders named "THISWEEK" in both "bestnet" and "col" folders) needs to be shifted to back issue status by renaming them: e.g. "THISWEEK" would be renamed "95wk18" in the example below. Back issue versions of the zodiac columns are not retained.
Create THISWEEK folders for the new issue
Simply duplicate the previous issue's "THISWEEK" folders (the ones you renamed to "95wk18" above) and rename them to "THISWEEK" again. This way you can simply modify the contents of the individual files as you go.
Fix up the forward links in back issue material
In each Webzine issue, there are backward links from the current column to that column in previous issues. There are also forward links from back issues to that column in later issues. When a current issue is shifted to back issue status, these links need to be fixed to reflect the new names of the folders. The following links need to be fixed:
2 issues back ("95wk15" in the example above):
1. the forward link from page 1 of each column needs to be changed from pointing to the "THISWEEK" folder; the links should now point to "95wk18".
2. the forward link from the "Best of the Net: index needs to be changed from pointing to the "THISWEEK" folder; this link should also point to "95wk18".
1 issue back ("95wk18" in our example):
1. a forward link needs to be added from page 1 of each column. The link should point to the "THISWEEK" folder (the issue you're about to put together). Of course if you're going to drop a column from the next issue, skip the forward link!
2. a forward link also needs to be added from the "Best of the Net" index to the current issue's ("THISWEEK" folder) equivalent.
Start putting together the new issue: gather the material
Gather all the articles together and get them into electronic form (i.e. on disk). It helps if you keep all original material intact (perhaps in an "Original Material" folder) and work with copies. This allows you to refer back to it if needed. Occasionally you will receive material by fax or other hard-copy: you'll have to re-key it.
You may need to contact the writers directly to badger them into submitting their material in a timely manner. Promise them anything: champagne, caviar, weekend trips to Reno, but don't promise anything in writing (writers are an unscrupulous lot...) Contact phone numbers are given in the Rolodex table below. The goal is to resume publishing the Webzine on a regular basis, so it would be a good idea to get hip's stable of writers into the habit...
Mark up the regular columns
Follow the existing layout and markup style conventions for Webzine articles (i.e. level of headings, placement of horizontal rules etc.). Each column is broken into two "pages" as a way of determining how often a given column is read right through. As another general guideline, try to keep paragraphs "bite-sized." Our readers are the pick of the litter, but eyes tend to glaze over when facing an unbroken wall of text.
Gather and mark up the "Best of the Net" material
In an ideal world, the "Best of the Net" material will stand out so much from the usual net-surfing dreck that there will be no question as to what to include. And in this ideal world you won't ever have to find the stuff: it will just magically appear during your usual Net browsing.
In actual practice, however, you'll often have to go out and forage for material. The hot list of the Netscape browser on the Mac has a few useful sites configured in: they'll do as a starting point. These include:
1. Ben Cotrell's humor page: a selection of humor items, as gathered by one Ben Cotrell. Your mileage may vary. URL: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~benco/humor.html
2. alt.humor.best-of-usenet and alt.folklore.computers newsgroups (accessible through Netscape's Newsgroups interface).
Mark up the Zodiac columns
The astrology columns usually arrive in a single computer file. Simply open all of the zodiac columns and the index, and use "cut and paste" to insert the new material, Make sure that you retain the existing HTML tags while you're doing this.
Write and mark up the "Dear Dick" column
Dick usually receives a bunch of tongue-in-cheek questions from fans: yes, believe it or not, the "Dear Dick" material is actually based on real questions sent in by real readers! Pick the best 4 to 6 of these, brainstorm a suitable tongue-in-cheek response among the staff, mark 'em up in the usual two-page format, and you're done.
Hint: Keep the "house" style in mind: be Hip; think Jane; be Jane...
Prepare the new cover page
Build the new Webzine cover page on the previous one, in the file "default.htm". Sometimes the columnists provide you with a little "teaser" quote to include on the cover page; sometimes you just have to be creative.
Hint: Keep the "house" style in mind: be Hip; think Jane; be Jane...
You may be dropping a column; you may be adding a new column. If you're adding one (O fortunate author!) it is useful to use an existing column's page 1 and page 2 files as a template. You'll need to change the obvious author related information (obviously) and add a biography to the "bios" folder. Don't forget that anything you add to the mirror site will need to be added to the production server when the new issue is ready to go "live".
Proof the entire issue
Use the Netscape browser to view the new issue. Things to check for: make sure that all the links work, and that all the graphics are correctly displayed. Since the "WebzineMirror" on goofy will not necessarily contain the full set of non-Webzine material on the production server, some of the links (for example, the links to the focus catalog) may not work at this point. This is OK: if they work on the production server, they should continue to work when you roll your work into production - provided you haven't stepped too heavily on the links with your Doc Martens while marking up the copy!
Clone the cover page into "COVER.HTM"
"COVER.HTM" is a duplicate of the "default.htm" file. it is used as the back-link from all of the columns etc. It allows us to distinguish between initial hits on the Webzine, and hits that are the result of references from within.
When "default.htm" is all ready to go, simply duplicate it and name the duplicate copy "COVER.HTM"
Write Jane's letter
Jane's letter is located in the file "JANE.TXT" (a text file: no HTML tags, as you've probably gathered). This is what is sent out to all registered subscribers of the Hip Webzine when the new issue goes live. It is usually a re-working of the cover page: pointing out the highlights etc., in a way that makes the readers want to go and read the stuff!

Going "live" with the next issue of the Webzine

When you've done all of the above, the next issue of the Hip Webzine should be ready to go live. Before moving it into place, get someone else to proof it: another pair of eyes can sometimes catch things that you've missed.

When you're really ready to go, "going live" involves copying the following folders and files from the "WebzineMirror" folder on goofy (the AppleShare'd disk) onto the production Webzine WWW server (DNS name www.hip.com - check which machine this is within the Windows NT naming scheme - things are in such a state of flux that this document will not be able to keep up...)

Run the link-checker script on the new issue of the Hip Webzine
The link-checker script runs through a WWW publication and verifies that all of the links work.

Copy the changed pieces into the WebzineNextIssue folder
This step allows the actual "publication" of the Webzine (step 3 below) to occur at a later time, and by another person if necessary. To simplify things, you'll need to isolate all of the pieces of the Webzine directory structure that have changed since the previous issue, and collect them into one place.

Essentially this consists of the following pieces (this could serve as a checklist):

       Name           File or folder   Comment
       default.htm    file             Webzine cover page
       COVER.HTM      file             duplicate of Webzine cover page
       JANE.TXT       file             Jane's letter
       ZODIAC         folder           horoscopes

Into the "col" folder within WebzineNextIssue:

       THISWEEK                        folder	
       <previous issue>                folder   Forward links changed
       <issue before previous issue>   folder   Forward links changed

Into the "col" folder within WebzineNextIssue:

       THISWEEK                        folder	
       <previous issue>                folder   Forward links changed
       <issue before previous issue>   folder   Forward links changed

Move the items in WebzineNextIssue folder to the production directory
When you're ready to go live with the new issue of the Hip Webzine, all you need to do is copy everything you'd placed in the WebzineNextIssue directory into the production directory of the Webzine. You should do this from one of the Windows NT machines: under Windows NT, a "copy" operation will interleave folders and subfolders: adding new files where they appear within the tree structure, and replacing older version with any new ones which exist. (On Macs, the same operation will replace identically named folders: including any sub-folders and files enclosed within them).

Congratulations: you've now published an issue of the Hip Webzine!