Newsletter Archives

• Running down bugs in our renewal notice system

  Posted on January 4, 2020 at 10:23 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  We just hit one year of AskWoody Plus memberships, and newsletters. And the bugs are crawling out of the woodwork.

  For some reason I have yet to discern, many of you are getting renewal notices, even though you’ve already renewed. Rest assured that the membership expiration date that you can see in the upper right corner of this site (after you’ve logged in) is the one we have on file.

  If you got an erroneous renewal notice, could you forward it to me? CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com

  Oh boy.

  AskWoody Plus membership, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus membership, renewal notice

• Coming up: A new Subscriber Status widget

  Posted on November 7, 2019 at 11:20 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Slowly, over the next few weeks, I’ll be rolling out a widget. It’ll sit over on the right hand side, where you now see the Plus Membership block.

  

  The widget shows you whether you’re a Plus Member and, if so:

  • When your Plus Membership subscription expires
  • Whether you’re signed up for the Newsletter.

  Here’s what’s going on behind the scenes….

  This blog (WordPress) and the Lounge (bbPress) work together remarkably well, but Plus subscription support and the Newsletters are handled by separate packages tacked on the side — three packages, three databases. They’re strung together fairly well, but juggling three databases leads to all sorts of interesting, uh, anomalies. If you’ve ever tried to keep three databases in sync, you know exactly what I’m up against.

  With this new widget you’ll be able to see exactly what data we have on file for you. The widget also makes it easier to become a Plus Member, extend your Membership, or Donate — and we can use all the financial help we can get.

  I expect the new widget will generate a deluge of inquiries, so I’ll be rolling it out slowly — just a few dozen users a day. And, yes, I’ll be handling the Customer Support personally, so please forgive me if there’s a delay.

  And awaaaaayyy we go!

  Other AskWoody Plus membership

• Where we’re headed with AskWoody Plus — an update

  Posted on September 9, 2019 at 01:15 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  

  LETTER FROM THE EPONYMOUS FACTOTUM

  By Woody Leonhard

  At the beginning of the year, we took over the then soon-to-be-closed Windows Secrets and made it part of AskWoody. It wasn’t an easy transition — and it’s still a work in progress.

  As planned from the beginning, we’ve been working to keep parts of the AskWoody site free to all, while making other parts available only to AskWoody Plus members — those who have supported the site and newsletter through financial contributions.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.32.0 (2019-09-09).

  Special note: If you’re a Plus Member and you didn’t get this newsletter in the past few hours, please drop a line to CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com. We’ll get you sorted out.

  AskWoody Plus membership AskWoody Plus membership, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Paid content, updates

• We’re easing into the Plus Membership benefits

  Posted on August 23, 2019 at 15:37 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Several of you have written to tell me that you can’t download Susan Bradley’s Master Patch List. There’s a reason for that.

  We’re gradually enforcing the Plus Membership restrictions: In order to get onto the Master Patch List page — and, soon, in order to download the latest Plus Newsletter and Alerts — you have to be a Plus Member.

  I’ve waited more than six months to clamp down. We’re starting now.

  If you want to get to Susan’s Master Patch List, or want to see the latest AskWoody Plus Newsletter, you need to:

  1. Sign up for an AskWoody account. That’s easy and free — just click Register.
  2. Log in using your AskWoody account.
  3. Sign up for Plus Membership.

  Keep in mind that we’re still on a donation model: You get to decide how much to pay for a one year’s Plus Membership. Really.

  The new Newsletter download page should be up early next week. We’ll bring over all of the old Windows Secrets Newsletters as part of the migration. Right now, it’s my intent to limit access to just the most recent Newsletter, and keep that block in place for a week. Everyone will be able to view or download every Newsletter except the most recent one — which requires Plus Membership.

  There are no plans to change our policy on Anonymous posting, or to limit the site in any other way. The big question is whether we can bring in enough revenue to keep the whole ship moving. And that, my friends, is up to you.

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Other, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus membership

• A special thanks to last year’s AskWoody donors

  Posted on January 10, 2019 at 11:41 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  

  We’re almost ready to roll out the AskWoody Plus membership system. Still have one technical hurdle — a bug in one of our partner’s signup routines — but it’s getting there.

  Before we go into high gear, I wanted to give a special shout-out to those of you who contributed to AskWoody last year, or earlier this year. Your name (or an Anonymous hash mark) should appear on the Thanks, Patrons! list — and if you donated before the 3rd edition of Windows 10 All-In-One For Dummies went to press, your name’s also on the thanks page in the book.

  For those of you who donated in the past year, I’m offering a free one-year AskWoody Plus Membership. I’ll have more details about Plus later this week, but for now suffice it to say that it includes a one-year subscription to the AskWoody Plus Newsletter (a revamped and greatly expanded version of the Windows Secrets Newsletter) plus a one-year subscription to AskWoody Plus Alerts (the email notification many of you have requested that goes out when there’s an important news story). We’ll have more benefits, but those are the immediate ones.

  If you donated to AskWoody in the past year, and you want to claim your free one-year AskWoody Plus Membership, here’s what you need to do:

  • If you have an AskWoody username and password, use it to log on. (If you forgot your password, use the Lost Password link in the upper right corner.)
  • If you don’t have an AskWoody username and password, create a new one using the Register link in the upper right corner of this page. (You’ll have to respond to an email that confirms your email address.)

  Once you’re logged on, click on this link: https://www.askwoody.com/plus-membership

  At that point, you can choose any contribution amount and click Join Plus Now.

  Up at the top, where it says Have a coupon? click on Click here to enter your code.

  Enter the coupon code

  PATRON

  Then click Apply coupon. It’s a 100% discount coupon.

  IMPORTANT: Make sure you use a “real” email address, so you can receive your Newsletters and Alerts.

  You’ll end up with a free one-year subscription, with our compliments. If we have any questions, we’ll email you.

  Thanks once again for keeping us at AskWoody afloat. We couldn’t have done it without you.

  UPDATE: We now have direct credit card support. That was the last big stumbling point. Watch for the rollout shortly.

  Didja notice the new Newsletter/Alerts and About menus, up above?

  Other AskWoody Plus, AskWoody Plus membership, AskWoody Plus Newsletter