People Who Work Harder Than Me

Jason Compton

Profilee: Katherine Nelson, Assistant Editor, Amiga Report

The idea for this feature, which I plan to make a regular appearance in AR, was borne out of two observations.

First, profiling hard-working Amiga community members is fun to do and it makes fun, rewarding reading. I know that sometimes the Amiga community is a downer--don't lie, at one point or another you've been bummed out by something or other during the rich pageantry of the Amiga's recent history. Hearing about the people who work to keep it enjoyable and rewarding is a nice change sometimes from the doom and gloom crowd on your favorite newsgroup.

Secondly, I get e-mail from time to time from people who thank me for all the hard work I do. Which I'm usually reading while sitting around being lazy. Don't get me wrong, I like to hear it, but on the other hand there are people out there working harder than me who deserve some recognition as well. Hardware designers, programmers, webmasters, and just all around enthusiasts who do good work and don't always get the recognition they deserve.

To launch the feature, I thought I'd start close to home--with AR's assistant editor, Katherine Nelson.

Katie joined the magazine as the assistant editor shortly after I took over as editor in 1994 when I discovered that trying to be the head writer AND the news and product gatherer AND the AmigaGuide editor was a whole lot of work that I wasn't up to doing. She stepped in and volunteered to take over much of the actual assembly and maintenance of the magazine. When a writer sends me an article, I look it over and maybe make some changes, but 9 times out of 10 it's Katie who does the formatting to get it into the magazine itself. When BBSes and dealers are added and changed, she does the work--and it sounds like nothing, but when I think of the hundreds of entries made and dropped over the years, it really adds up.

She was responsible for AR's design change in 1995--a layout so nice it was even appropriated by a rival online magazine for a time. (Without her, you would have been stuck with the much more boring old layout, because I'm not the type to come up with things like that.)

Now, after months of work, Katie is across the room finishing up the new graphical HTML interface and look for AR. 99% of the graphics and layout were her doing--my job was to say "Yes, that looks good." "No, I liked the first one you showed me better." "I really don't care--do whichever is less work for you." It's really amazing how much time she's put into it and I know for a fact that I never could have finished such a project. Frankly, I love the way the magazine is going to look--and it's all due to her hard work, while I sat here screwing around with emulators and whatever else I did that seems so trivial now.

Amiga Report would never be where it is today without the constant thankless work of my assistant editor. I am grateful to her for all of her hard work--and hope that it isn't too much to ask of you that the next time you enjoy an issue of AR, that you remember the person who REALLY makes it possible.

Next issue: Honorable Mention gets paid to a couple of webmasters who seem to me like they do more work than I do on any given day of the week.

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