Message for Wulf regarding PDF files of taxonomic papers

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Posted by Richard Wells on March 25, 2002 at 01:55:01:

Hello Wulf,

Please feel free to convert any or all of my articles that appear in the Australian Biodiversity Record to PDF files and place them on your site. I think that would be an excellent idea and you are very kind for offering to do this. After I have published all the latest taxonomic papers (hopefully by the end of June), I will dig out the disks with the 'Australian Herpetologist' articles - which also include taxonomic but mainly ecological information on Australian herps. There are over 500 of these and the papers include a lot of data that could perhaps be useful to others. When I originally wrote them (way back in the 1980's), it was my intention to only make them available electronically - What most people don't realise is that the 'Australian Herpetologist' was in all likelyhood the World's first electronic journal! Unfortunately, I made a couple of slight miscalculations when I started that particular project - one being that hardly anyone had personal computers, another was that the existing dial-up technology of the time was expensive to enter, and another not so small miscalculation was that the potential readership in Australia and elsewhere for that matter was too low to be an economically viable enterprise. Consequently, I then started to issue them as Newsletters of the Australian Herpetologists' League, but we didn't have the manpower or interest to continue running them. Then Ross Wellington decided to print them for me, and he helped for quite a few, then his wife spat the dummy about him and I spending all night on his computer printing 'stupid snake articles' as she called them, so that put an end to that for a while. Then I issued a few more as the opportunity allowed, and eventually I got involved in a few disastrous business ventures with absolute ratbags which left us without any money for a long period. I have always wanted to finish publishing the "Australian Herpetologist" papers because Ross Wellington included them as references in our "Classification" paper, for all good intentions because he was actually assisting in printing them at the time and their release was imminent. The delay in publishing the Classification paper (dated March 1985, but not published formally until September, 1985) overlaped Ross's changed circumstances at home which prevented him from finishing publishing my "Australian Herpetologist" articles. I was sort of 'living' in Darwin at the time but was mainly off collecting in some pretty remote areas mostly gathering data on more undescribed taxa. When I returned to Darwin I would visit the State Reference Library where I would work on the manuscript. Many long telephone conversations between myself and Ross Wellington fine-tuned the manuscript of the "Classification" paper - and that it is why many species were deleted from the final published version. Ross continued typing the manuscript of the Classification paper during 1985 for an intended March, 1985 publication but so many interruptions, alterations, etc impacted to delay the actual printing until my return from Darwin later on in 1985. My return from Darwin itself was actually because of hassles with that "Classification" paper. You see Wulf, while I was writing it in the State Reference Library, I got talking to one of the librarians who showed an interest in my work and next thing you know... wham bam thank you maam...I am living with her and her psycotic Persian cat in Darwin's suburbia and scheduled to be married in the next Dry Season! So I went fishing for Barramundi, was promptly dumped by the librarian, then returned to Sydney to finish off the "Classification" so that at least something good happened in 1985. Ross's inclusion of the "Australian Herpetologist" articles in the references of the "Classification" paper was quite alright as far as I was concerned, because when this was done it was only in manuscript stage. However, it led to a whole string of problems. Unfortunately we had distributed a typeset version of this "Classification" manuscript for comment to various persons both in Australia and beyond in December, 1984. I say unfortunately, because once this manuscript version was sent out, someone mass-photocopied it and sent it global in the belief that this was the 'final' published form (but we even thought that this would be the final text anyway). Then people started requesting "Australian Herpetologists" but Ross was now in the Dog House because of his wife's reaction to the torrent of incoming hate mail and the like...Ross Wellington was in charge of printing the "Classification" paper and in September, 1985 he down-loaded the files to the computerised typsetting machine at the printers. It was his intentions to cut out the Australian Herpetologist articles from the reference list, but the cut wasn't made...and the result was that we were heavily criticised for it. I was very unhappy about it but Ross was ever hopeful that we would soon publish the whole lot...but the publication of the "Classification" paper made any further work impossible for years. And the rest is history. But now my circumstances have changed as they have for all of us I suppose. Thus I am not going to rest until the "Australian Herpetologists" articles are all published. So watch out for them...they are coming to a site near you soon. And I would be only too happy to have you include them on your site too if you like them. Anyway, all the best to you Wulf, and good luck filing the papers.

With Kind Regards

Richard Wells
>From: "Wulf"
>Reply-To:
>To:
>Subject: taxonomic papers at the KS-tax forum...
>Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 20:48:45 +0100
>
>Dear Richard,
>
>as you promised me in your last mail you have now started to "flood" the
>KS-tax forum with taxonomic papers. I haven't been able to read them yet but
>I will as soon as possible ( maybe I get it done on eastern ).
>
>Anyway posting them is a good idea so that they are available to all
>interested. But as I know the KS forums they will dissapear by time ( KS
>always deletes the older posting. How about creating acrobat files ( PDF )
>of these postings ?
>
>I have done this for example with one of your papers. Just to show you how
>it would look like. I do not know about the right of the original publishing
>magazine but I guess it will be permitted to provide them to public as pdf
>file ?!
>
>Should I convert all the papers to pdf and send them to you ? If you don't
>have web space available I would be glad to place them at my site into the
>eBook gallery I you want me to do so let me know.
>
>Cheers,
>Wulf
>
>http://www.liasis.net
>http://www.leiopython.de
><< Lampropholis.pdf >>

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: Hello Wulf, : Please feel free to convert any or all of my articles that appear in the Australian Biodiversity Record to PDF files and place them on your site. I think that would be an excellent idea and you are very kind for offering to do this. After I have published all the latest taxonomic papers (hopefully by the end of June), I will dig out the disks with the 'Australian Herpetologist' articles - which also include taxonomic but mainly ecological information on Australian herps. There are over 500 of these and the papers include a lot of data that could perhaps be useful to others. When I originally wrote them (way back in the 1980's), it was my intention to only make them available electronically - What most people don't realise is that the 'Australian Herpetologist' was in all likelyhood the World's first electronic journal! Unfortunately, I made a couple of slight miscalculations when I started that particular project - one being that hardly anyone had personal computers, another was that the existing dial-up technology of the time was expensive to enter, and another not so small miscalculation was that the potential readership in Australia and elsewhere for that matter was too low to be an economically viable enterprise. Consequently, I then started to issue them as Newsletters of the Australian Herpetologists' League, but we didn't have the manpower or interest to continue running them. Then Ross Wellington decided to print them for me, and he helped for quite a few, then his wife spat the dummy about him and I spending all night on his computer printing 'stupid snake articles' as she called them, so that put an end to that for a while. Then I issued a few more as the opportunity allowed, and eventually I got involved in a few disastrous business ventures with absolute ratbags which left us without any money for a long period. I have always wanted to finish publishing the "Australian Herpetologist" papers because Ross Wellington included them as references in our "Classification" paper, for all good intentions because he was actually assisting in printing them at the time and their release was imminent. The delay in publishing the Classification paper (dated March 1985, but not published formally until September, 1985) overlaped Ross's changed circumstances at home which prevented him from finishing publishing my "Australian Herpetologist" articles. I was sort of 'living' in Darwin at the time but was mainly off collecting in some pretty remote areas mostly gathering data on more undescribed taxa. When I returned to Darwin I would visit the State Reference Library where I would work on the manuscript. Many long telephone conversations between myself and Ross Wellington fine-tuned the manuscript of the "Classification" paper - and that it is why many species were deleted from the final published version. Ross continued typing the manuscript of the Classification paper during 1985 for an intended March, 1985 publication but so many interruptions, alterations, etc impacted to delay the actual printing until my return from Darwin later on in 1985. My return from Darwin itself was actually because of hassles with that "Classification" paper. You see Wulf, while I was writing it in the State Reference Library, I got talking to one of the librarians who showed an interest in my work and next thing you know... wham bam thank you maam...I am living with her and her psycotic Persian cat in Darwin's suburbia and scheduled to be married in the next Dry Season! So I went fishing for Barramundi, was promptly dumped by the librarian, then returned to Sydney to finish off the "Classification" so that at least something good happened in 1985. Ross's inclusion of the "Australian Herpetologist" articles in the references of the "Classification" paper was quite alright as far as I was concerned, because when this was done it was only in manuscript stage. However, it led to a whole string of problems. Unfortunately we had distributed a typeset version of this "Classification" manuscript for comment to various persons both in Australia and beyond in December, 1984. I say unfortunately, because once this manuscript version was sent out, someone mass-photocopied it and sent it global in the belief that this was the 'final' published form (but we even thought that this would be the final text anyway). Then people started requesting "Australian Herpetologists" but Ross was now in the Dog House because of his wife's reaction to the torrent of incoming hate mail and the like...Ross Wellington was in charge of printing the "Classification" paper and in September, 1985 he down-loaded the files to the computerised typsetting machine at the printers. It was his intentions to cut out the Australian Herpetologist articles from the reference list, but the cut wasn't made...and the result was that we were heavily criticised for it. I was very unhappy about it but Ross was ever hopeful that we would soon publish the whole lot...but the publication of the "Classification" paper made any further work impossible for years. And the rest is history. But now my circumstances have changed as they have for all of us I suppose. Thus I am not going to rest until the "Australian Herpetologists" articles are all published. So watch out for them...they are coming to a site near you soon. And I would be only too happy to have you include them on your site too if you like them. Anyway, all the best to you Wulf, and good luck filing the papers. : : With Kind Regards : : Richard Wells : >From: "Wulf" <webmaster@liasis.net> : >Reply-To: <webmaster@liasis.net> : >To: <richard_w_wells@hotmail.com> : >Subject: taxonomic papers at the KS-tax forum... : >Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 20:48:45 +0100 : > : >Dear Richard, : > : >as you promised me in your last mail you have now started to "flood" the : >KS-tax forum with taxonomic papers. I haven't been able to read them yet but : >I will as soon as possible ( maybe I get it done on eastern ). : > : >Anyway posting them is a good idea so that they are available to all : >interested. But as I know the KS forums they will dissapear by time ( KS : >always deletes the older posting. How about creating acrobat files ( PDF ) : >of these postings ? : > : >I have done this for example with one of your papers. Just to show you how : >it would look like. I do not know about the right of the original publishing : >magazine but I guess it will be permitted to provide them to public as pdf : >file ?! : > : >Should I convert all the papers to pdf and send them to you ? If you don't : >have web space available I would be glad to place them at my site into the : >eBook gallery I you want me to do so let me know. : > : >Cheers, : >Wulf : > : >http://www.liasis.net : >http://www.leiopython.de : ><< Lampropholis.pdf >>

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