Abbuc membership card

[NuY]

 

Got my membership pack from Abbuc today, and that is a tasty membership number. Anyone got other significant numbers? Off the top of my head, 11, 12, 65, 80, 130, 410, 810, 800, 400, 551 are the obvious ones.

[Wrathchild]

“I am not a number! I am a free man.”
“(maniacal laughter)”

...

though I'll probably subscribe at some point  

[Dmitry]

When did you join, a few months ago?  Just curious cause I joined on Jan. 4 and my number is 1094.    I didn't get a cool number; but are they growing by that many members? that's awesome.

 

hmmm  1200 coming up...lol

Edited January 11, 2021 by Dmitry
stop putting the commas at random

[+skr]

About the numbers:

 

When we took over responsibility for the memberlist, @8Bitjunkie (the ABBUC cashier) started the counter for new members at 1000. It´s Auto-Increasing with each new member now. The "old" one to three-digit numbers stay free, if a member leaves the club.

 

For returning members I try to give them back their old number, but that´s not always possible, as in the past numbers were choosen manually. We just passed 1050 (Floppy) and 1088 (XEL), so you can guess, what the next "cool" number is. I think, the binary numbers (1100, 1101, 1110) are kind of cool for someone, too. You MAY ask for one of those, when you think about applying. As they are not too far away, I would be willing to apply them manually.

 

@Dmitry: Your welcome letter still is not send, as I prefer to wait a week or two, to see, if there are more new members. This is, because I print the membership card on perforated business card paper and it´s easier, when I can print a full sheet. So please be patient, it will ship no later than next Monday.

 

And to all new members who are native english speakers: Please correct anything, that might sound strange to you in the welcome letter! As I´m from Cologne, my first foreign language was German (  ), then Latin and English came third.

 

In general: If something looks strange, let us know!

[spookt]

Do returning members get a new membership card and welcome letter?

[+skr]

4 minutes ago, spookt said:

Do returning members get a new membership card and welcome letter?

Yes, they do. And as said: If the number they had still is free, they can also have that again, instead of getting a new, autoincremented number.

[Dmitry]

26 minutes ago, skr said:

 

 

@Dmitry: Your welcome letter still is not send, as I prefer to wait a week or two, to see, if there are more new members. This is, because I print the membership card on perforated business card paper and it´s easier, when I can print a full sheet. So please be patient, it will ship no later than next Monday.

 

@Skr, no hurry, take as long as you need. 

[spookt]

8 minutes ago, skr said:

Yes, they do. And as said: If the number they had still is free, they can also have that again, instead of getting a new, autoincremented number.

Ah - I rejoined a little while ago and have received  the last magazine and disk but didn’t receive a new card. Is the membership number still printed on the envelopes too?

Edited January 11, 2021 by spookt
Spelling

[+skr]

There were some delays on my side and I was so busy with finishing mag 143, that new members of the last quarter 2020 might get 143 BEFORE mag142/smag52, as I first wanted to ship mag143.

 

Additionally the short phase with the complete closing of the UK borders impacted shipping heavily.

 

Did anybody in the UK receive 143 already?

 

Everybody, who is missing something: Let me know!

 

The start was a bit rough for us, as we were (positively) overwhelmed by the number of new members.

[cwc]

I am in the UK and received #143 last week and #142/Smag #52 today (I joined ABBUC in October).

[+skr]

5 minutes ago, cwc said:

I am in the UK and received #143 last week and #142/Smag #52 today (I joined ABBUC in October).

Thanks.

 

So, anybody in the UK who does not receive their letter with the membercard until Friday please send me a message then. Will send replacement on Monday then.

[+skr]

Update: Postal service is kidding me. Got some returns, mostly from UK and Poland. The sticker said, the stamp was too cheap. Kind of funny:

 

When sending out the magazines I buy online stamps and have them automatically printed on the envelope in one turn with the address. That´s a stamp for 3,20EUR.

 

When sending out replacements or letters to new members, I simply use a standard stamp which I have to lick (ok, actually I put it on a wet spongue, no DNA from to be found ) and most of these letters are delivered. But obviously not all. I just bought stamps for 0,5 EUR (the amount they said would be missing) and added them and sent it out again. The postal sticker from Deutsche Post says, that would be sufficient, even if the 3,20EUR stamp was already marked.

 

So if one of you gets an envelope with two stamps, where one is a 3,20EUR and the other is 0,5EUR, please let me know. Just to make sure, that at least this works.

[+Stephen]

I'm beyond unhappy with the USPS right now.  I still don't have anything post issue #141.

[+skr]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

I'm beyond unhappy with the USPS right now.  I still don't have anything post issue #141.

Is this a typo and you´re saying "past"? In that case I would consider #142 (with SMag 52) as lost in Space and will send a replacement immediately.

#143 was shipped on Dec 23rd, this one probably still is on the way.

 

That adds the point "put some extra envelopes and magazines in the 'US box'", so that replacements could be send faster.

 

Lots of work last week, but now there is a "real" weekend ahead, so I will focus and finishing the missing english PDF versions, start #144 and do another very important thing. Start bothering me on Monday, if the english versions aren´t online then!

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, skr said:

Is this a typo and you´re saying "past"? In that case I would consider #142 (with SMag 52) as lost in Space and will send a replacement immediately.

#143 was shipped on Dec 23rd, this one probably still is on the way.

 

That adds the point "put some extra envelopes and magazines in the 'US box'", so that replacements could be send faster.

 

Lots of work last week, but now there is a "real" weekend ahead, so I will focus and finishing the missing english PDF versions, start #144 and do another very important thing. Start bothering me on Monday, if the english versions aren´t online then!

Please don't send #142 and bonus again.  You have already shipped me a replacement.  I guess 143 is still on the way.

 

I got a gift for my wife Diane via Etsy.  I ordered it on November 18th.  It was shipped on the 30th of November.  We just got it in the mail yesterday!

[Mathy]

Hello Sascha, guys

 

Not sure if this goes for postal services other than the former monopolist postal service in the Netherlands (PostNL) but:  Since a while, all packages that leave the EU have to have the following information added to the package:

 

- A description of what's inside the package

- Either phone number or mail address of the recipient.

 

Not including the above gives them the right to just throw your package in the trash!

 

And since januari 1st 2021, the UK is no longer a part of the EU, so this now goes for the UK too.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[+skr]

This whole thing is making a lot of work. I wonder, if it would be worth the effort to create something like a feedback list, where members can log in and mark a check box, so that I get an overview of when the magazines arrive.

[Gunstar]

On 1/15/2021 at 2:47 PM, Stephen said:

I'm beyond unhappy with the USPS right now.  I still don't have anything post issue #141.

I received my #143 a few days ago. But there are other things like my Fujinet and Indus GT upgrade boards that are still in USPS limbo...

[lmich391]

@skr

 

I sent my information over though the website to get a membership. 

[Bunsen]

And now that you are a member, write an article for the magazine 

And send it to magazin@abbuc.de

[ggn]

2 hours ago, Bunsen said:

And now that you are a member, write an article for the magazine 

And send it to magazin@abbuc.de

I'd love to, but I'm still waiting for my membership card and the magazine to arrive  (I got in touch with @skr during the holidays and told me that he should be shipping my things soon).

[+skr]

22 hours ago, lmich391 said:

@skr

 

I sent my information over though the website to get a membership. 

Yes, registration is started. Check your mails.

[+skr]

2 hours ago, ggn said:

I'd love to, but I'm still waiting for my membership card and the magazine to arrive  (I got in touch with @skr during the holidays and told me that he should be shipping my things soon).

Yes, I remember shipping yours very well, as you currently are the only ABBUC member in Greece. It´s definitely on the way.

[GreyHobbit]

On 1/11/2021 at 11:00 PM, skr said:

So, anybody in the UK who does not receive their letter with the membercard until Friday please send me a message then. Will send replacement on Monday then.

I'm in the UK and received #143 about a week ago.  #141 arrived today with my membership card.  I got #142/#52 last October/November, I think.  Thanks Sascha.

 

[darwinmac]

Since @skr wants to know the international postal situation, I received #143 on 19 January 2021. 
 

I only wish I had the German language knowledge to help translate articles to English. 

Has ABBUC thought about a digital-only subscription? My 1050 is in storage and I end up copying text from the PDF to put into Google Translate to see if the article is interesting to me. 
 

I hate to end up recycling the magazines because of how much postage ABBUC spends to send it to me in California. I works also like to see the floppy disks go to members that only have vintage floppy drives. 
 

Bob C