Firstly, forgive the lateness of the response to this thread. My tardiness is
due to,
one... I get my mail in digest form, so often don't even read these things
until the
fire storm is over, and two ... like one of the other readers of this thread, I
was
hoping that perhaps one of the officers of the two clubs would respond with a
statement
of their editorial policy. But as no response from any club official has been
forth
coming, I'll put in my two cents worth.
There is basically two different editorial polices at work here. The editor of
the
"Octagon" borrows liberally from where he can to fill his pages. From other
newsletters, national magazines and off Internet mail list like this one, and
there is
nothing particularly wrong with that, as long as you acknowledge the original
author
and/or source and not try to pass the borrowed stuff off as your own. There
probably
isn't a local club's newsletter editor in the country who hasn't done the same.
The editor of the "MGB Driver" has a much different outlook. He wants the
contents of
the "Driver" to be entirely original and/or previously unpublished material.
He feels
that this gives the newsletter a more professional appearance and results in a
publication of a higher quality. And I believe that this attitude is also a
perfectly
acceptable editorial policy. I doubt that "Time" would wish to publish the
same
articles as "Newsweek," nor would "PC World" wish to borrow from "BYTE." Yes,
I know
these are only club newsletters we're talking about, but that's the editors
feeling as
to what he wants the newsletter to be. And few can argue with the result.
The message you got from Indy, via your friend, was unfortunate, but I suspect
it's
apparent curtness is was due to it being an impromptu statement on the part of
the
person at Indy who made it, or due to some paraphrasing on the part of your
messenger.
In any event, you might want to contact the Editor of the "Driver" to clear up
any
misunderstanding regarding submissions, or bad feelings that may have resulted.
So ... you can see I trust, that this is not a matter of rivalry between the
AMGBA and
the NAMGBR, but a difference in their two editorial polices.
_______
/ _ \ JEROME ROSENBERGER
/ /| | \ \ < JeromeR@intrnet.net >
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|| | | _ | MG - The Marque of Friendship
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\ | |_/ / http://www.mgcars.org.uk
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