As a MagWeb member, you are allowed to download, print out, or save to disk any article you find on MagWeb for your own personal use. Please respect the copyrights held by the magazines and MagWeb. We have priced MagWeb so that everyone can enjoy a membership, and the royalties paid to the magazines assist them in continuing to publish. 'Nuff said. Thank you.

Clever Bit: Color Bars

You will notice that every article contains a colored bar on the left hand side. According to ergonomic studies, such a line serves as a stop for your eyes, allowing you to read content on the screen up to 25% faster than screens without such a colored line. This bar will not print out (at least using Netscape and a HP printer).

And here's the clever bit. If you print out and organize articles of interest, you might use a three-ring binder to store them. Well, I've always hated photocopying something and then using a three hole punch that punctures through the text. So, we've shifted the text over a bit so that when you do print out an article, there's space for the three-hole punch.

Overview

Organizing MagWeb gets to be a tougher and tougher job each year as we add more and more magazines, bonus items, and features. Yet the basic structure is the same as when we began:

Magazines: Text and graphics from them all.
Bonus Articles: like sample chapters, extra reviews, war lore, and interviews.
Features: like the Search Engine, Discussions, and Membership Status Check.

The idea is to make it completely transparent to use--just point and click away.

However, a quick tour around MagWeb may help familiarize you with how the service is structured and how you can navigate quickly around it.

Most Important: Broswer Cache

Different browsers behave differently. We try to make MagWeb as broad-based as possible, but sometimes, browsers contain little quirks that can baffle us. The browser cache stores pages on your hard drive. In short, when you click on a link, the browser checks to see if that page is on your hard drive. If so, it pulls it from the drive. If not, it pulls it from the web site.

So far, so good. However, MagWeb updates pages--like the "Latest Postings" page, where there is some new information placed atop information that essentially remains unchanged. We insert a "meta" command to force a browser to pull the new and updated page from our server , but some browsers do not recognize such a command, which then forces you to manually click on the "reload" (or equivalent) button to pull the updated page from the server.

But there's a catch. Sometimes, the "reload" function doesn't seem to force a reload from the server. Then, the only thing to do is clear the cache (both the drive and memory caches) manually. In Netscape, select the "Options" menu, then select "Network Preferences" and then "Cache." Then, click on "Clear Memory Cache Now" (click OK to confirm), and "Clear Disk Cache Now" (click OK to confirm), and then click "OK" to set it in motion.

No doubt different browsers will put these options under different menu structures, but you get the idea. Sometimes, you just hae to clear the cache. And this goes not only for MagWeb, but for all the other sites you visit as well.

So, if you believe you see something too old to be believed, hit the "reload" button. And every once in a while, clear your browser cache.

Now, on with the tour...

MagWeb Master Magazine List

The core of MagWeb resides in the magazines that joined our coalition. Not surpisingly, the gateway to them is the MagWeb Master Magazine List, which lists every magazine as well as icons and links to the search engine, discussion software, and "bonus articles." This is also the first page you see after entering your username and password.

Note the date at the very top. This is when it was last updated.

In some cases, this date is "in the future." Basically, we have a schedule to meet at MagWeb, and we often mimic the magazines to place things up on MagWeb a little bit early. There is a considerable amount of behind-the-scenes work to update the site, actions and processes we have to do and run, and if we can combine some of these processes and post issues up a tad bit early, well, so much the better.

Down the left hand side of the page are links to various features: New postings, search engine, discussions, this help file, etc. The magazines are listed in alphabetical order in two columns to the right. Below these are links to "Bonus" articles.

New Postings for (three months)

One of the most popular spots in MagWeb is the "New Postings" page. This is a reverse chronological order list of all the new issues and bonus articles we posted for the months shown. Clicking on an issue link brings you to the table of contents for that issue. In the case of individual articles, clicking on the link brings you to the article. Previous months are available.

Note that some dates listed are "in the future." However, all links are active and will take you to the appropriate page.

Article Postings by Subject

Although we suggest you use the search engine to find specific articles, our members suggested that we post a list of articles by subject. So we did.

This page lists subjects, most by historical era, some by different subjects. Clicking on one of the subjects brings up a page of article title links. Clicking on the article title brings you to the article.

There is no order to the links. Wide-ranging articles of a general nature, letters to the editor, editorials, and such that are not instantly recognizable as being in a specific topic are NOT included in the list.

Picking A Magazine and Article

The magazines (along with a short description) are listed in alphabetical order in two columns. Click on a magazine name and you come to List of Issues. Click on an issue, and you come to the table of contents for that issue. Click on an article title, and the article loads.

This navigational sequence carries through for all magazines.

Likewise, at the bottom of an article, under the horizontal line, are links to bring you back through these layers in a single click. We also have to sheepishly admit that some of our earliest articles posted back in 1996 do not have all these links--we listened to our members' feedback and put in these links in response.

Articles which contain maps often come with different size maps--small ones for download speed, and larger ones for detail (although slower and take longer to download). The links are usually adjacent to the map, or else just below it.

Some articles are very long and need to be divided into smaller segments, or, some include a number of sidebars (sub articles). The links to these other parts are at the end. On accasion, we'll also place links to "related" articles from the same magazine, but perhaps a different issue.

We usually repeat the links from segment to segment. Why? Because you might find the article via the search engine and select a segment "in the middle" so to speak. This way, you always can backtrack to the beginning.

Some articles are part of a series that occur over a span of issues. Where possible, we link back to past issues with parts of the series.

Search Engine

If you want to find all articles on a topic, click on the search engine. This will bring up a screen with a blank box. Enter the topic you want to find, check to see whether you want to search concept or keyword, and click to start the search. This will, after a bit, return a list of article title links. Click on one of the titles, and away you go to the article.

Do NOT click on "summary." We have yet to figure out why that is there--it is a useless link that we also can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Remember, click on the article title.

That said, also remember that search engines are not exactly mind readers--what gets returned may or may not be exactly what you are looking for. Sometimes, we just don't have an article match on a particular topic. Othertimes, the topic you typed in needs refining. For example, you can type in "WWII" , "WW2", "World War II" , and "World War 2." Depending how an author refers to the war, each is valid, and yet articles can be missed with a search. The more specific you are, the better.

Discussions

This is another member-only feature, where you can post and answer messages from other members. If you log in with your username and password, you can take advantage of the "check messages" function and retrieve only the "new" messages (those posted that you have not yet read). We know there are flame wars going on in other areas of the Web--we hope our MagWeb discussions acts an oasis for our members.

You don't have to log in, you can just peruse the messages by clicking on them.

Membership Status Check

Want to know when your membership ends? Click here, enter your username, and find out.

E-mail MagWeb

This pops up an e-mail box so you can dash off a comment or request. Remember to include your return e-mail address, so we can reply.

Bonus Articles

Russ' Radar: My personal selection of the best article from an issue. Even if you don't usually read this particular magazine, I believe this article is worth reading.

News: Events, press releases, and other happenings of interest.

One-Drous Chapters: A sample chapter of a book or rules set. It might be the introduction, it might be in the middle. Whatever it is, it will give you an example of the style and scope of the book. Three main areas:

Historical Non-Fiction Periods: Divided into historical categories
Fiction: Novels and such
Rules and Other Game-Related Publications: Historical, sci-fi, and fantasy rules

Travel: Virtual visits to battlefields and historical sites, museums, etc. We'll tell what they offer, specify you should be on the look out for, and provide the atmosphere of the locale. Member contributions are welcomed and encouraged. There are four categories inside Travel:

Battlefields: Where battles and sieges were fought
Conventions: Where history buffs and gamers gather
Historical Sites: Primarily musuems, but also including cities and other places
Snap Shot Sites: Brief descriptions and ratings of places from our members.

War Lore: Historical accounts of actual battles, recaps of tabletop battles, scenarios, recounts of role-playing games, puns, jokes, and anything else members wish to contribute. Member contributions are welcome and encouraged.

Book Reviews: Selected books are reviewed. Member contributions are welcome and encouraged.

Game Reviews: Selected games (computer, board, miniatures, card, etc.) are reviewed.

Interview: We bring designers, authors, and other celebrities to you with our questions and their answers about their work. We mix a few amusing questions in with the serious ones.

MagWeb Heroes: We recognize members who have contributed articles and other services for the betterment of MagWeb. They are enshrined in the MagWeb Hall of Heroes and their decorations noted.

More Help

If you have a question or comment, do not hesitate to drop us an e-mail at our magweb@magweb.com address. We'll respond as quick as we can with the information you need.

How is MagWeb Done?

We're often asked "How do you do it?" The answer is: "Daily."

Seriously, MagWeb is much like any other site. We scan in text and graphics, do a rough code in our format, then meticulously code everything together so that each on-line article comes as close as possible to the printed version. On top of that, we deal with testing, customer service, background maintenance, advertising and marketing, taxes, more paperwork, and all the other things a corporation -- even a small one -- needs to do to grow and prosper.

How Long? Well, that depends on the publisher. As we've paid out increasing royalties quarter by quarter since 1996, they are starting to provide MagWeb with more electronic files. Otherwise, it is laborious hand scanning.

The biggest myth is that scanning is like a photocopier -- the page scans in 10 seconds, and some magical software program automatically converts the text, sharpens up the graphics, formats the page, and inserts links. Well, not exactly. A typical 40-50 page magazine takes about three to four days (about 24-30 hours) from start to finished release.

First, OCR programs are notoriously fickle. Even the manufacturer claims that a laser printout on white paper with typical 11 or 12 point text is 99% accurate. Or, put another way, 1 out of 100 characters will be incorrect. The smaller the text, and the funkier the font, the lower the accuracy. Even at 1 out of 100, consider just how many characters are on a page and then you have to track down 1 out of every 100. And that's on well-scanned articles. When it gets to 1 in 10, a not-uncommon occurrance, the time expenditure starts piling up. If the publisher provides the electronic files, then knock a day to a day and a half off that total.

So, it takes a while to craft and make the pages minimal size to speed up downloads. We try an awful lot of software to speed things up, and we've found some that do OK, but by and large, the scanners only go at a certain rate, spellchecking/proofreading OCRed text goes so fast, sharpening and resizing images takes time, and yet it all comes together -- at least 10 issues a month although we've been doing twice that -- on MagWeb for one heckuva low price.

Thank You

We strive for simplicity, consistency, and intensity. In short--perfection. We've come far since we launched in 1996 with one issue each of 8 magazines, and we have even farther to go. With your support and efforts, we will continue to build the pre-eminent military history and gaming site of the web--a ever-growing resource for the historian, armchair general, and gaming enthusiast.

Russ Lockwood
CEO
Coalition Web, Inc.
161 Lambertville-HQ Rd.
Stockton, NJ 08559
tel: 609-397-4265
fax: 609-397-9433
e-m: magweb@magweb.com