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From the publisher...
A.S. Waterman
April 2009
Your Questions
Answered
We've been getting a lot of email lately! This month, I'd like to depart
from our usual editorial format and answer some of our readers' questions.
Who publishes TheatreLouisville? How is it
financed?
TheatreLouisville is produced by A.S. Waterman Publishing, an award-winning
group specializing in marketing and technical publications as well
as theatre. Currently, TheatreLouisville is financed entirely out
of the publisher's pocket. When the site launched in 2007, we took
a pledge not to accept advertising for six months, and we've exceeded
that by nearly two years. However, the economy is what it is, and
we may have to accept ads in the future.
In the meantime, we gladly accept volunteer efforts as copy editors,
schedulers and coders.
Why doesn't [a particular show or audition listing]
appear on the site?
Most probably, because the theatre company didn't upload the information.
TheatreLouisville is user-operated. When we first started up, serving
only about ten theatre groups, we would upload missing show information
if a theatre didn't. However, now that we have more than 50 participating
organizations and 140 registered users, that's just not an option,
and we can't show favoritism by uploading some but not all.
If a theatre company did upload information but it's not showing up,
there may be a software glitch, or the information
may have been input incorrectly. We'll be glad to help fix that — just
send us an email. When a listing doesn't show up, the most common cause
is a problem with the dates that the show is running. We recommend using
the calendar-click method to input the opening and closing dates, rather
than typing text strings into the date-replacement field. For some reason,
the software occasionally has a problem interpreting those.
How are reviews assigned? How do you determine
who reviews which show?
We don't. We post a list of available shows, and
the reviewers choose which ones they would like
to review. Our intent is to get better match-ups
that way. It makes no sense to send a reviewer
who hates musicals to review one, or to ask an empty-nester
to review a children's show. We want our reviewers
to approach each production looking for things
to like rather than things to complain about.
I updated our theatre profile. Why isn't it changed
in the Theatre Guide?
The Theatre Guide is one of the few areas not controlled by the users.
That's because some theatre groups have multiple registered users
(one small theatre has six!), and this would result in repetitive
entries in the Guide.
When you update your theatre profile, just let us know and we'll revise
the Guide accordingly. (By the way, this would be a great time to check
your Guide listing and make sure it's up to date!)
I used carriage returns in my show description.
Why does it still show up as one long block of
text?
The site reads code used in web publishing. In order to print a carriage return,
it needs to see the code for it: <br> for a single line break, and <br><br> for
a blank line. (On the listing form, a reminder for this appears above the Description
block, along with buttons that can be used to create bold or italic type.)
Are TheatreLouisville reviewers paid?
No. However, each reviewer gets two "comp" (free) tickets to the show
he or she is reviewing.
Does TheatreLouisville always agree with what
its reviewers write?
Goodness, no! But that's what keeps it interesting. Personally, I
feel that the best reviews contain surprises, and our reviewers are
very good at including more than a few of those.
Please keep sending us your questions, and thanks for reading TheatreLouisville.
Based on reader feedback, the site provides a valuable resource for
the community. We hope to continue doing so, well into the future.
— A.S. Waterman
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Copyright © 2009 A.S. Waterman. All rights reserved.
Read previous Messages from the Publisher
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
June-July 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
November-December
2007
September-October 2007
July-August 2007
May-June 2007
Mar. -Apr. 2007
Jan.-Feb. 2007
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