Dear People of POmp and OPinion:
In an effort to restore a wee bit of normalcy (and to bring some sorely needed distraction and diversion), you are hereby invited to take part in the 34th Annual POOPlist. The calamity that is 2020 has made our annual exercise in being POmpous and OPinionated feel downright necessary this year. Anyway, what else do you have on your plate right about now?
Same as last year POOP has gone entirely digital, with Mark Zip using his tech wizardry to steward us. Unlike last year, lists will be posted at pooplist.net soon after their receipt (last year all the lists dropped all at once at the end which might have contributed to a less than overwhelming response: perhaps seeing lists drop throughout January might jumpstart some people and restore some of the ‘whelm’).
Mark Zip and I would like you to email your list to both of us (Zip’s to zipszig AT hvc.rr.com and mine to mark45rpm AT aol.com). This will allow Zip to get your list up soon after he receives it and me to start compiling the results.
Given that we are freed from the paper page but have to deal with the web, here are some guidelines from Mark Zip to make his job less miserable:
*Lists can be of any length but please limit super fancy formatting.
*RTF file type preferred. DOC if you absolutely insist. (All text editors and word processors can “Save as: .RTF”) No pdf’s, no weird “publisher” documents or obscure file types. If this is a non-starter for you and you cannot make a contribution unless it is in a strange legacy file type output from your cracked version of your sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s version of WordPerfect 1, well, I guess we’ll take it. Contribution is more important than file format.
*Keep Artist/Title/Record Company formatting consistent across all your categories. Thus, if you have bolded the artist in your first five entries, make sure they are bolded throughout. If you have italicized the album title, make sure all titles are italicized.
*If you want to link to artists’ pages or videos, write out the link next to the item to be linked ( do NOT embed). Affiliate links to the albums themselves will be provided as usual.
*Few, if any, two or three column tables.
* Few, if any, internal graphics. If you do want internal graphics, please do not embed, send them separately and tell me where they go. JPGs or PNGs only.
* File naming convention: FIRSTNAME-LASTNAME-Poop-2020 (for example: “JOE-BLOW-Poop-2020.rtf”) If you want the document itself to be titled something else, (eg “Things that got me through the year”) that’s ok. Just use the naming convention above when saving the FILE
Do your best to make this relatively easy for Mark Zip. Basically keep your formatting simple, refrain from gimmicks and be consistent throughout. If you have any questions about any of these bullet points, please email Mark directly at his above address for clarification.
DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH. Recriminations and threats will fill your inbox throughout January.
* * * Donations to Mark Zip’s online POOP page are more than welcome to help offset fees and costs. There is a link to donate at pooplist.net. I (Mark Rosen, that is) no longer need donations since there is no longer a hard copy or postage to pay for. Be well. Stay safe. Take care of one another.
Mark Rosen
Member of the POOP Taskforce