To print or not? your responses

To print or not to print?

Navvies: print or electronic?

We had a number of replies to our editorial asking whether (given we’ve already temporarily shifted to online publication until it’s practicable and safe to return to paper printing) the time had come to go all-electronic. In fact the replies were solidly in favour of continuing as a paper magazine. Here are the points made...

.“As someone working in a record office I would be very reluctant to lose the paper edition as this will be available to and readable by researchers in 50 / 100 / several hundred years. Who knows whether an electronic version will still work OK in a decade, let alone 50 years.” . “Electronic is fine for short and simple. Paper is great for long and complicated... but I like to make things long and complicated. Perhaps that’s because I’m 6’3” and worked in Whitehall.” . “I read your editorial with a heavy heart. Now at the mature end of life, I cut my teeth volunteering in the early 1980s (though I have been on the canals through holidays since I was 7) and have been an interested WRG reader ever since. I‘m a bit of a stick in the mud with regards the modern world and communications and living in an area up North for 18 years with very poor internet and mobile connections hasn‘t helped. I‘m also afraid if you do go digital that I will lose the connection email to the link (I‘m poor at sorting my emails!!) - having Navvies to hand is always helpful.” . “The big advantage of the electronic version, of course, is that you can have colour on every page. However commercial colour printing is now a lot cheaper than it was just a few years.” . “I very much prefer reading text of any length from printed paper. To be honest I have only skimmed the electronic version because I hate reading from a computer screen. When I worked in an office and was sent anything of any length, I would always print it, and many others did the same. If you go back to printing, I’ll resume giving a decent donation to cover the costs.” . “Thanks for the sterling work keeping Navvies going in these difficult times. For what it’s worth I prefer reading the paper version. We found the ISSUU version tiresome with the necessity of changing ‘magnification’ and scrolling around - and how do you put your bookmark in when not reading it all in one sitting? We then downloaded the PDF which we found better but still involves rather too much use of PageUp and PageDown - and still no bookmark!” . “It’s all too easy to forget whether (or which issue!) you’ve read, hence I have just remembered to finish 303 (now, where had I got to....) before starting 304 and deciding to respond before I forget that too!!” . “If it’s paper then it goes in the ‘to be read’ heap when a nice bookmark can be used so you know where you are - and can’t forget whether you’ve read it or not because it’s still in that heap and not ‘filed’ in the study!” . “I struggled to view the online version as I couldn’t get to view it properly on my computer. I could probably solve the problem given time, but instead I asked Alex to send me it as a pdf file, which he kindly did.” . “The main reason I prefer the paper version is because I usually read it in bed or, occasionally, in the lounge. However I can only read the electronic version on my desktop Mac in my office, which isn’t that convenient. I have tried viewing on my iPad, but so far haven’t had any success. I guess I could find a way of doing it, but it’s so much more convenient to just pick up a booklet, rather than go to an electronic device, switch it on then look for the file, open it and work out where you got up to last time you were reading it. A physical bookmark is so much easier. So what I tend to do is to print it all out and then take it to read in bed, though in black and white, as colour printing is expensive at home.” . “Perhaps it is time for me to catch up with the times. Or should we remember that ebooks had a bounce for their novelty, but people have gone back to enjoying actually having the book in their hands to read?” . “In the work environment, we are told to take breaks from sitting in front of screens, and yet it seems that we are also being guided towards spending more time doing just that.” . “One of life’s simple pleasures is curling up on the sofa with a cup of coffee and reading the latest edition of Navvies. I find it rather difficult to curl up holding a mug, monitor, keyboard and mouse.” . “Personally, I always feel that reading an electronic copy of a magazine on my computer is like ‘work’, whereas reading a printer copy is relaxation.” . “I do not own any goats. [See editorial, issue 304 ...Ed] I am not, and have never been involved in their upkeep. Technology has many uses, but just because it can be used for a particular task, doesn’t mean that it should be.”

Just a few comments: (1) we’re aware there were some issues with ISSUU asking people for a sign-on, hopefully now sorted; (2) a PDF version is also available and (3) see the editorial on page 4 of this issue for more thoughts about the magazine. The Editor page 25