March Newsletter

[Stan]

Final version, for the historical record.
As mailed to 756 recipients days and days ago.

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-tlyr.pdf

Hi Stan,

May be I overlooked. I cannot find the previous newsletters any more on the new site bitshares.org
The newsletter page seems only for subscription purpose (future newsletters, not past).

Do we still have an online archive of all newsletters? It should be useful for people like me who may overlook or miss some newsletters.

Thanks.

They seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle. 
I'll see what I can do.

[ffwong]

Final version, for the historical record.
As mailed to 756 recipients days and days ago.

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-tlyr.pdf

Hi Stan,

May be I overlooked. I cannot find the previous newsletters any more on the new site bitshares.org
The newsletter page seems only for subscription purpose (future newsletters, not past).

Do we still have an online archive of all newsletters? It should be useful for people like me who may overlook or miss some newsletters.

Thanks.

[mint chocolate chip]

Final version, for the historical record.
As mailed to 756 recipients days and days ago.

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-tlyr.pdf

http://bitshares.org/news/newsletter/ --> For those wanting to sign-up to receive future newsletters.

Suggestions:
Include links to current/past newsletters on the newsletter page. I do not think you can get to the current newsletter via the website at the moment.

Include a link to the newsletter in your original post.

Consider having the linked to version of the newsletter have a noticeable spot where newcomers who follow a link to it can have an easy way to subscribe.

That is great content, host the newsletters on the new site bitshares.org instead of the old site. That is the site we want to get more search traffic.

[Stan]

Final version, for the historical record.
As mailed to 756 recipients days and days ago.

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-tlyr.pdf

[doxymoron]

Also, you may not want to refer to Dan as Bytemaster.  Many people probably have no idea who you are talking about, and a forum screen name really shouldn't be used in an official newsletter.

[donkeypong]

"Spring"

[mint chocolate chip]

At this point, can't you just change it to "April Newsletter" and forget about March?

[CWEvans]

hehe

"Don’t give your shares away to the miners and pump and dump geniuses" ?

General public has a positive connotation to me... What made it sound bad to me was the slightly greedy subtext:  Don't give anything to the public give it all to us! Doesn't make you trust that "us"....

Would a riff on OverkillCoin to make this point be over the top?

[donkeypong]

i understand the appeal of crowdsourcing the edits, but once something like a newsletter is posted in any official capacity it is liable to be reposted, quoted, etc... anyone could have easily taken the initial draft and circulated the unfinished work for the web at large. could this scenario undermine/dilute the value of the final draft of the monthly newsletter?

my worry is this:
if i knew nothing of bitshares/invictus and i saw the newsletter posted on reddit or tweeted in its unfinished form, my gut instinct after seeing the third or fourth error would be "wow, what a bunch of amateurs, they cant even be bothered to proofread their publications." my next move? click the back button on my browser and forget about bitshares

i suppose my biggest fear is that other people are just as short-sighted, irrational, judgmental, and nitpicky over grammatical stuff as i am 

please tell me im crazy

You're not crazy. But if that stops someone from taking a closer look or being drawn in by Stan's amazing enthusiasm and the promise of these DAC products, then maybe that person wouldn't be such a good prospect anyway.

[solaaire]

i understand the appeal of crowdsourcing the edits, but once something like a newsletter is posted in any official capacity it is liable to be reposted, quoted, etc... anyone could have easily taken the initial draft and circulated the unfinished work for the web at large. could this scenario undermine/dilute the value of the final draft of the monthly newsletter?

my worry is this:
if i knew nothing of bitshares/invictus and i saw the newsletter posted on reddit or tweeted in its unfinished form, my gut instinct after seeing the third or fourth error would be "wow, what a bunch of amateurs, they cant even be bothered to proofread their publications." my next move? click the back button on my browser and forget about bitshares

i suppose my biggest fear is that other people are just as short-sighted, irrational, judgmental, and nitpicky over grammatical stuff as i am 

please tell me im crazy

[amatoB]

Well done! I like all parts I didnt quote here   That said I think that there are a few red flags that require some work.   

The relation between BTS prototype and BTS family is not that super clear to me. Maybe it would help to name examples for each. I understood it this way: BTS Prototype is any Proto share that give you a stake in a new DAC released. A BTS family is a parent DAC that is already technologically specific for a certain type of DAC function and can be forked/tweaked to make more complex/more specific applications.   

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for
pizza — and suppress your price. Give them instead to BTS prototype share holders who have proven
they will buy and hold them,
and buy more of them
— boosting your price!

The Larimer folks are the most trustworthy I can think of.
But if I would know nothing about bitshares/invictus and the newsletter would be the first thing I read I would find the above paragraph very suspicious!!
Maybe something more subtle like: "PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture."
<-- Style: Let the reader make the final conclusion himself!

In general I would avoid exaggerations like

quadruple

....and many more. Invictus tends to promise a lot always. Such exaggerations come across as suspiciousin itself ("to good to be true") and bring the potential of disappointment. I am not saying that they are suspicous if you know all the context but it cames across as such to someone new to all this! Maybe that is just my over critical attitude.

Most alt coins have value for speculative reasons only.

90% + of Bitcoin's value is a speculation on its future use for ecomerce and remittance as well. It would also be wrong to claim that the valuation of all Invictus DACs and ProtoXXX are not speculation. Nothing works yet. No blame there but we should be accurate and fair. Everything else comes accross as arrogant ans suspicious!! Please take that serious. Offtopic: BM's and Toast's video about BTS DNS was nice but reveived some reasonable criticism for it's disrespect towards Namecoin. Dont make yourself enemies if you don't have to. That all comes back!!! Let's be polite and fact based.

Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up! (And if they don’t, you haven’t lost much.)

Not true. If you want to gain much from a penny stock you also have to invest much, so you can lose lots.
And they dont have to go up. With this claim you say that the (penny) stock market's effeciency is zero. If it is not zero it is not clear what the penny stock will do and the penny stock price is not so far away from a fair value price.
Don't make false statements in your own field of expertise!

But it’s rational hype based on something tangible.

I would say: "But it’s a rational hype based on the ability of the digital company to make profits." (name what you want to say if you can)

You can even keep them all for your own greedy personal gain (if you really think that will make your DAC successful)

Leave out "greedy". Suspicion / an attack towards developers that read it rigth from the start is not good.

Eddie has worked for the major label system

"a" or "the" label system?

Overall: Keep the explanations simple (whenever possible) and avoid exaggerations that look scamy.

Excellent post, in my opinion. I would add that focusing blatantly on the "how much can I make?" aspect or "get a cut of every new company, plus x% interest," etc. may excite some people for a while, but catering to baser instincts like greed undermines the professionalism to some degree. Almost everyone in AGS and PTS already knows (or believes) that bitshares has tremendous potential. No need to push so hard. If the products are good, pts and bitshares prices will rise over time, drawing lots more traders, investors, and creative people into this industry.

Overall, though, nice job on the newsletter. I hope that future installments can focus less on why AGS and PTS are such great investments and more on recent events, new hires, new DACs, upcoming events, and what BitShares can do for people and society that ordinary crypto-currencies can't.

[werneo]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

++this

Software developers are notorious for willfully mixing up it's and its

It's very simple:

"It's" is a contraction.  "it's" = "it is"

examples of improper use of it's:

2. It’s “shares” go up in value as it earns more profits - not just because of transient “hype”.
3. It’s shares represent a chance to receive promotional shares in all future clones derived from it

It's just a little thing, but it makes a difference to people who know the difference.

Other than that, please keep up the good work. I am an investor and expect to be insanely wealthy someday quite soon.

[santaclause102]

Well done! I like all parts I didnt quote here   That said I think that there are a few red flags that require some work.   

The relation between BTS prototype and BTS family is not that super clear to me. Maybe it would help to name examples for each. I understood it this way: BTS Prototype is any Proto share that give you a stake in a new DAC released. A BTS family is a parent DAC that is already technologically specific for a certain type of DAC function and can be forked/tweaked to make more complex/more specific applications.   

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for
pizza — and suppress your price. Give them instead to BTS prototype share holders who have proven
they will buy and hold them,
and buy more of them
— boosting your price!

The Larimer folks are the most trustworthy I can think of.
But if I would know nothing about bitshares/invictus and the newsletter would be the first thing I read I would find the above paragraph very suspicious!!
Maybe something more subtle like: "PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture."
<-- Style: Let the reader make the final conclusion himself!

In general I would avoid exaggerations like

quadruple

....and many more. Invictus tends to promise a lot always. Such exaggerations come across as suspiciousin itself ("to good to be true") and bring the potential of disappointment. I am not saying that they are suspicous if you know all the context but it cames across as such to someone new to all this! Maybe that is just my over critical attitude.

Most alt coins have value for speculative reasons only.

90% + of Bitcoin's value is a speculation on its future use for ecomerce and remittance as well. It would also be wrong to claim that the valuation of all Invictus DACs and ProtoXXX are not speculation. Nothing works yet. No blame there but we should be accurate and fair. Everything else comes accross as arrogant ans suspicious!! Please take that serious. Offtopic: BM's and Toast's video about BTS DNS was nice but reveived some reasonable criticism for it's disrespect towards Namecoin. Dont make yourself enemies if you don't have to. That all comes back!!! Let's be polite and fact based.

Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up! (And if they don’t, you haven’t lost much.)

Not true. If you want to gain much from a penny stock you also have to invest much, so you can lose lots.
And they dont have to go up. With this claim you say that the (penny) stock market's effeciency is zero. If it is not zero it is not clear what the penny stock will do and the penny stock price is not so far away from a fair value price.
Don't make false statements in your own field of expertise!

But it’s rational hype based on something tangible.

I would say: "But it’s a rational hype based on the ability of the digital company to make profits." (name what you want to say if you can)

You can even keep them all for your own greedy personal gain (if you really think that will make your DAC successful)

Leave out "greedy". Suspicion / an attack towards developers that read it rigth from the start is not good.

Eddie has worked for the major label system

"a" or "the" label system?

Overall: Keep the explanations simple (whenever possible) and avoid exaggerations that look scamy.

Whew!  Great input!  I have attempted to tone down my statements as you suggested wherever I could.  However, sometimes I say things deliberately in a way that I hope will cause a reader to stop and read the idea a second time.  If I'm too diplomatic, I may get through the letter without offending anybody, but I might also fail to make the Most Important Point.  So in one case I added your suggested text without removing what was there just so readers might pause and think about that Most Important Point a little longer.  It now reads like this: 

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for pizza — and suppress your price.  Give them instead to BTS prototype shareholders who have arguably proven they will buy and hold them — and buy more of them — boosting your price! 

One proof-reader found the above paragraph a bit shocking, preferring something a bit more subtle, like ”PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture.”  — If this made you read it twice, we succeeded.

hehe

"Don’t give your shares away to the miners and pump and dump geniuses" ?

General public has a positive connotation to me... What made it sound bad to me was the slightly greedy subtext:  Don't give anything to the public give it all to us! Doesn't make you trust that "us"....

[Stan]

Well done! I like all parts I didnt quote here   That said I think that there are a few red flags that require some work.   

The relation between BTS prototype and BTS family is not that super clear to me. Maybe it would help to name examples for each. I understood it this way: BTS Prototype is any Proto share that give you a stake in a new DAC released. A BTS family is a parent DAC that is already technologically specific for a certain type of DAC function and can be forked/tweaked to make more complex/more specific applications.   

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for
pizza — and suppress your price. Give them instead to BTS prototype share holders who have proven
they will buy and hold them,
and buy more of them
— boosting your price!

The Larimer folks are the most trustworthy I can think of.
But if I would know nothing about bitshares/invictus and the newsletter would be the first thing I read I would find the above paragraph very suspicious!!
Maybe something more subtle like: "PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture."
<-- Style: Let the reader make the final conclusion himself!

In general I would avoid exaggerations like

quadruple

....and many more. Invictus tends to promise a lot always. Such exaggerations come across as suspiciousin itself ("to good to be true") and bring the potential of disappointment. I am not saying that they are suspicous if you know all the context but it cames across as such to someone new to all this! Maybe that is just my over critical attitude.

Most alt coins have value for speculative reasons only.

90% + of Bitcoin's value is a speculation on its future use for ecomerce and remittance as well. It would also be wrong to claim that the valuation of all Invictus DACs and ProtoXXX are not speculation. Nothing works yet. No blame there but we should be accurate and fair. Everything else comes accross as arrogant ans suspicious!! Please take that serious. Offtopic: BM's and Toast's video about BTS DNS was nice but reveived some reasonable criticism for it's disrespect towards Namecoin. Dont make yourself enemies if you don't have to. That all comes back!!! Let's be polite and fact based.

Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up! (And if they don’t, you haven’t lost much.)

Not true. If you want to gain much from a penny stock you also have to invest much, so you can lose lots.
And they dont have to go up. With this claim you say that the (penny) stock market's effeciency is zero. If it is not zero it is not clear what the penny stock will do and the penny stock price is not so far away from a fair value price.
Don't make false statements in your own field of expertise!

But it’s rational hype based on something tangible.

I would say: "But it’s a rational hype based on the ability of the digital company to make profits." (name what you want to say if you can)

You can even keep them all for your own greedy personal gain (if you really think that will make your DAC successful)

Leave out "greedy". Suspicion / an attack towards developers that read it rigth from the start is not good.

Eddie has worked for the major label system

"a" or "the" label system?

Overall: Keep the explanations simple (whenever possible) and avoid exaggerations that look scamy.

Whew!  Great input!  I have attempted to tone down my statements as you suggested wherever I could.  However, sometimes I say things deliberately in a way that I hope will cause a reader to stop and read the idea a second time.  If I'm too diplomatic, I may get through the letter without offending anybody, but I might also fail to make the Most Important Point.  So in one case I added your suggested text without removing what was there just so readers might pause and think about that Most Important Point a little longer.  It now reads like this: 

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for pizza — and suppress your price.  Give them instead to BTS prototype shareholders who have arguably proven they will buy and hold them — and buy more of them — boosting your price! 

One proof-reader found the above paragraph a bit shocking, preferring something a bit more subtle, like ”PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture.”  — If this made you read it twice, we succeeded.

[onceuponatime]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

I will have Stan submit it to review of one or two people skilled in the art prior to publishing future content.  If you would like to fix his mistakes in this version we can update it for the website.

Thanks.

Actually, my fiendishly-clever plan was to use the forum for what everybody agrees its good for - peer review!
I released the *draft* here so I could quickly find all the bugs, errors, typos, contractions, uses of the word "but", and actual serious technical errors that no mortal English teacher could catch.

It would be a shame if I had to hire a proof-reader before submitting the draft to my proofreaders!

This means that those who can tolerate draft-quality get to find out the news a little early and those that are willing to wait for polish and perfection can do so with sublime confidence that it is being proof-read by an army of the best!

 

Thanks Stan. I really appreciate efforts that are mindful of the need to be parsimonious with the Angelshares fund. It would have been wasteful to hire a high school English teacher for something that the forum can, and is happy to, do at no cost (ie. for early access to much appreciated updates).

I'm aure that you realize that sometimes the stylistic criticisms are evident of someone's personal taste - and I often/usually prefer your treatment.

[santaclause102]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

I will have Stan submit it to review of one or two people skilled in the art prior to publishing future content.  If you would like to fix his mistakes in this version we can update it for the website.

Thanks.

Actually, my fiendishly-clever plan was to use the forum for what everybody agrees its good for - peer review!
I released the *draft* here so I could quickly find all the bugs, errors, typos, contractions, uses of the word "but", and actual serious technical errors that no mortal English teacher could catch.

It would be a shame if I had to hire a proof-reader before submitting the draft to my proofreaders!

This means that those who can tolerate draft-quality get to find out the news a little early and those that are willing to wait for polish and perfection can do so with sublime confidence that it is being proof-read by an army of the best!

 

that's the value of it  

[bytemaster]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

I will have Stan submit it to review of one or two people skilled in the art prior to publishing future content.  If you would like to fix his mistakes in this version we can update it for the website.

Thanks.

Actually, my fiendishly-clever plan was to use the forum for what everybody agrees its good for - peer review!
I released the *draft* here so I could quickly find all the bugs, errors, typos, contractions, uses of the word "but", and actual serious technical errors that no mortal English teacher could catch.

It would be a shame if I had to hire a proof-reader before submitting the draft to my proofreaders!

This means that those who can tolerate draft-quality get to find out the news a little early and those that are willing to wait for polish and perfection can do so with sublime confidence that it is being proof-read by an army of the best!

 

[Stan]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

I will have Stan submit it to review of one or two people skilled in the art prior to publishing future content.  If you would like to fix his mistakes in this version we can update it for the website.

Thanks.

Actually, my fiendishly-clever plan was to use the forum for what everybody agrees its good for - peer review!
I released the *draft* here so I could quickly find all the bugs, errors, typos, contractions, uses of the word "but", and actual serious technical errors that no mortal English teacher could catch.

It would be a shame if I had to hire a proof-reader before submitting the draft to my proofreaders!

This means that those who can tolerate draft-quality get to find out the news a little early and those that are willing to wait for polish and perfection can do so with sublime confidence that it is being proof-read by an army of the best!

 

[bytemaster]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

I will have Stan submit it to review of one or two people skilled in the art prior to publishing future content.  If you would like to fix his mistakes in this version we can update it for the website.

Thanks.

[doxymoron]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published.

I'm quite good (and quick) at finding grammatical errors and rephrasing sentences to better convey an idea.  I would be happy to proofread these before going out.  I always think it's best to have someone review it who had no part it writing it. 

[bytemaster]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

I agree that from a professional perspective, having things reviewed for grammar errors would be better.   It just means the cost of producing the news letter would go up and additional delays on it being published. 

[jae208]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

Really? What really matters is the transmission of ideas from their brains to our brains. I already read the newsletter think it is great and am very happy to have read an entertaining informative piece. We have better things to do than bicker over every grammatical mistake.

[santaclause102]

Well done! I like all parts I didnt quote here   That said I think that there are a few red flags that require some work.   

The relation between BTS prototype and BTS family is not that super clear to me. Maybe it would help to name examples for each. I understood it this way: BTS Prototype is any Proto share that give you a stake in a new DAC released. A BTS family is a parent DAC that is already technologically specific for a certain type of DAC function and can be forked/tweaked to make more complex/more specific applications.   

Developers! Don’t give your shares away to the general public who will mostly just dump them for
pizza — and suppress your price. Give them instead to BTS prototype share holders who have proven
they will buy and hold them,
and buy more of them
— boosting your price!

The Larimer folks are the most trustworthy I can think of.
But if I would know nothing about bitshares/invictus and the newsletter would be the first thing I read I would find the above paragraph very suspicious!!
Maybe something more subtle like: "PTS/AGS holders have proven to be long term investors in innovative projects. Appealing to a shareholder group of trend and value seekers, avoiding pump and dump cycles, can be a benefit in itself for your venture."
<-- Style: Let the reader make the final conclusion himself!

In general I would avoid exaggerations like

quadruple

....and many more. Invictus tends to promise a lot always. Such exaggerations come across as suspiciousin itself ("to good to be true") and bring the potential of disappointment. I am not saying that they are suspicous if you know all the context but it cames across as such to someone new to all this! Maybe that is just my over critical attitude.

Most alt coins have value for speculative reasons only.

90% + of Bitcoin's value is a speculation on its future use for ecomerce and remittance as well. It would also be wrong to claim that the valuation of all Invictus DACs and ProtoXXX are not speculation. Nothing works yet. No blame there but we should be accurate and fair. Everything else comes accross as arrogant ans suspicious!! Please take that serious. Offtopic: BM's and Toast's video about BTS DNS was nice but reveived some reasonable criticism for it's disrespect towards Namecoin. Dont make yourself enemies if you don't have to. That all comes back!!! Let's be polite and fact based.

Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up! (And if they don’t, you haven’t lost much.)

Not true. If you want to gain much from a penny stock you also have to invest much, so you can lose lots.
And they dont have to go up. With this claim you say that the (penny) stock market's effeciency is zero. If it is not zero it is not clear what the penny stock will do and the penny stock price is not so far away from a fair value price.
Don't make false statements in your own field of expertise!

But it’s rational hype based on something tangible.

I would say: "But it’s a rational hype based on the ability of the digital company to make profits." (name what you want to say if you can)

You can even keep them all for your own greedy personal gain (if you really think that will make your DAC successful)

Leave out "greedy". Suspicion / an attack towards developers that read it rigth from the start is not good.

Eddie has worked for the major label system

"a" or "the" label system?

Overall: Keep the explanations simple (whenever possible) and avoid exaggerations that look scamy.

[bitcoinba]

"Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up!"  Actually they can go to zero.

" But it is the most complex,..." "But what really matters.." Never start a sentence with "but".

There are arguments to and for the use of contractions in business, I would eliminate all contractions where possible as I believe it cheapens otherwise very good writing.

But, Stan you are quoting a soliloquy of a monolog, I do not think that the reference provides a satisfactory precedent to save your BUT.

But, but, but what if I just can't help it?   

"But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?"

Admittedly that example is 500 years old, taken out of context and originally intended as poetic stage dialog but...
I learned it in 12th grade English Literature class, so it has to be right!

 

[biophil]

Please get a high-school English teacher or some other really nitpicky type to review the newsletter for things like its/it's. You guys have been pretty consistently bad about those kinds of basic spelling/grammar things. A huge portion of the population really cares, and will immediately write you off for making these kinds of mistakes. In official Invictus communications, it's just completely inexcusable to be making these kinds of errors. Please please please have someone who knows all the rules proofread it!

[Stan]

"Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up!"  Actually they can go to zero.

" But it is the most complex,..." "But what really matters.." Never start a sentence with "but".

There are arguments to and for the use of contractions in business, I would eliminate all contractions where possible as I believe it cheapens otherwise very good writing.

But, but, but what if I just can't help it?   

"But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?"

Admittedly that example is 500 years old, taken out of context and originally intended as poetic stage dialog but...
I learned it in 12th grade English Literature class, so it has to be right!

 

[CLains]

In addition, our animated explainer video, we have

[biophil]

While our engineers have been putting together software for
Keyhotee and BitSharesX.

softwares

Since both Keyhotee and BitsharesX are different entities.

No, software reads better in the singular. Nobody ever says "softwares."

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[bitcoinba]

"Like penny stocks, they start out so cheap they
simply have to go up!"  Actually they can go to zero.

" But it is the most complex,..." "But what really matters.." Never start a sentence with "but".

There are arguments to and for the use of contractions in business, I would eliminate all contractions where possible as I believe it cheapens otherwise very good writing.

[CLains]

price about protoshares on bitshares.org? Doesnt sound logical.

Does it sound more logical if I call it "Bitshares-PTS"? Eventually there should be a ticker for all the major Bitshares products. @ their respective sections at the very least.

[xeroc]

Bitshares.org is the new site. Price there would be cool.

price about protoshares on bitshares.org? Doesnt sound logical. We need the price for bitshares, which is unkown until chain is released and first 'centralized' exchanges trade them

[CLains]

It's a great project, hope very thing develop smoothly.

Hi stan, we are btc38.com from, could you please add our PTS price on your http://invictus.io/ .
We are appreciate about it, thanks

Bitshares.org is the new site. Price there would be cool.

[Btc38]

It's a great project, hope very thing develop smoothly.

Hi stan, we are btc38.com from, could you please add our PTS price on your http://invictus.io/ .
We are appreciate about it, thanks

[xeroc]

Could you use "full justification" for the newsletter. Would look much nicer .. at least to my eyes

[Troglodactyl]

And make sure you are using the right codes in the right places! Your “Founder ID” is just the BTC or
PTS address you used to donate. Your public key is is 16 characters longer.

This is ambiguous.  The Founder ID is the address to which you sent the founder donation, not the one from which you sent the donation.

Great newsletter!

[onceuponatime]

with more
and more high quality content,

can be rephrase as

with higher quality contents.

I like Stan's version better.

... again
many strategic relationships that are about to bear fruit

fruits. Same as before.

from: fruit definition by Webster's New World:

noun pl. fruit or fruits  (Therefore "fruit" is fine in both cases)

It’s “shares” go up in value
as it earns more profits
- not just because of transient “hype”.

It’s shares represent a chance to receive promotional shares in all future clones derived from it.

"It's" has to be no apostrophe because it is a possessive form of pronoun

Correct. "It's" means "it is"

[donkeypong]

It's brilliant! Enough to stoke my excitement even more.

[jwiz168]

with more
and more high quality content,

can be rephrase as

with higher quality contents.

... again
many strategic relationships that are about to bear fruit

fruits. Same as before.

It’s “shares” go up in value
as it earns more profits
- not just because of transient “hype”.

It’s shares represent a chance to receive promotional shares in all future clones derived from it.

"It's" has to be no apostrophe because it is a possessive form of pronoun

[jwiz168]

While our engineers have been putting together software for
Keyhotee and BitSharesX.

softwares

Since both Keyhotee and BitsharesX are different entities.

[solaaire]

1) the Keyhotee image on page 8 is different from the logo displayed on the Bitshares.org/solutions website. you may want to consider changing it just for the sake of being consistent

2) "You can even keep them all for your own greedy personal gain" this line on page 4 comes off a bit abrasive, but perhaps this was your intent?



overall an exciting newsletter, there are absolutely tons of projects to be hyped about

[onceuponatime]

Your public key is is 16 characters longer

[Overthetop]

Great to see dev-teams are growing ...

     

[solaaire]

 “Out of all the DACs other that BitShares X,

should be 'than' instead of 'that'

[solaaire]

It’s purpose it to mitigate man-in-the-attacks

[jwiz168]

Blossoms will soon be
popping out all over, followed by leaves ... and then the formation of fruit.  (All subjects are in plural form) . It should be fruits 

[Stan]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

Maximum bang (bite?) per marketing bark!

point of focus for the the
marketing team

I like it!

[onceuponatime]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

Maximum bang (bite?) per marketing bark!

point of focus for the the
marketing team

[onceuponatime]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

of specialize DAC instances

[onceuponatime]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

Sergio Lerner Joints our Team

[onceuponatime]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

Napster did bring
P2P the the masses

[Stan]

Here is the draft March Newsletter if anyone would like to proof-read it for me before I send it to 700 of my closest friends...

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-0j9g.pdf

[cass]

If someone posted a topic be sure that the title is directly related to its content. Rename this to "Newsletter coming soon". Funny thing about I3 people posting topics is sometime the title makes you upbeat but when you start to read the content, disappointment will be written all over your face. Stop making hype and just release a newsletter if it is ready.  Not cool . Same cliche as the topic  "Get your BTS wallet here".  As if there is already a working BTS wallet , ready to be download. HYpe Hype Hype. Hype is good if it can be backed up by concrete facts.

you guys have clearly acknowledge the value of managing expectations, exercise this on micro scale as well

[Empirical1]

Really excited about the potential for Bitshares LOTTO!

Overlooked that one, but realised last night that it's an industry that generates tens of $billions in revenue every year despite only 50% of receipts being paid back to ticket holders!

Bitshares could completely disrupt that industry by cutting out nearly all the costs. In fact I realised you could create a DAC where 'ticket holders' - (Owners of Bitshares Lotto shares) may get wealthier even if they never win!

I put some of my ideas down in the Bitshares LOTTO thread, be interested to hear peoples thoughts!

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=3621.0

[bodenliu]

Sorry guys. 

I needed a place to sticky the graphic at the top of this thread for easy reference, since its relevant to all the discussion everywhere.

• Seemed to make sense to put it at the top of a thread called simply "March Newsletter" since it comes from the March newsletter.
• Seemed to make sense to admit up front in the first paragraph that the thread was started for this very reason.
• Seemed to make sense to have a thread named "March Newsletter" anyway to answer questions like "Where's the March Newsletter?"
• Seemed to make sense to have a place where I could respond with profoundly humble and frank admissions like "Its late because I wanted it to include complete coverage all the topics in the above graphic and a couple of the details have been slow to get finalized and at least one of the important topics won't be decided until we can get the whole team together to discuss it tomorrow afternoon."

I guess I should have just let all this information scroll by and disappear in the daily stream, but I was trying meet the demand to get more organized and put important announcements and status updates in one obvious place where you could find it quickly.

And yes, I wanted to hoot and holler' a bit - 'cause I'm unnecessarily and unprofessionally excited about everything that's going on.

 

We hope you guys won't get dispirited by the "unpositive" responses. Yes, sometimes we were disappointed or even angry but that is because we have believe in 3I and we all invested a lot. We know you guys will make it,  but it's normal thing that people cares about their money.
So please don't disappear in the daily stream, I'd like to hear more and more from you

[jwiz168]

We are all excited about this. Innovations like I3's vision is very hard to pass the opportunity it gives. I am a true believer  in DACs concept. I admit it is too technical for an ordinary people to understand. Not every people has advanced comprehensive mind as we visionaries do. Hell, some do not even know how cryptocurrency works. All they know is the amount corresponds to a value of a coin or any digital currency. And making money is what they care about. The thing about DACs is not only making money , it is how will the future of business industries may adapt. It is a concept where nobody is in control. Just trust in each network whether transactions are valid or not . As simple as it may. Different factors also must be consider. So information is very important as well as timing and integrity. To you Stan I know you have been in the same state as I do . Excited!!! Hats off to you and Dan. When Bitshare X really starts to move,  I3 will be at the same pedestal as Google and Apple. World's Most Innovative Company    

[Stan]

Sorry guys. 

I needed a place to sticky the graphic at the top of this thread for easy reference, since its relevant to all the discussion everywhere.

• Seemed to make sense to put it at the top of a thread called simply "March Newsletter" since it comes from the March newsletter.
• Seemed to make sense to admit up front in the first paragraph that the thread was started for this very reason.
• Seemed to make sense to have a thread named "March Newsletter" anyway to answer questions like "Where's the March Newsletter?"
• Seemed to make sense to have a place where I could respond with profoundly humble and frank admissions like "Its late because I wanted it to include complete coverage all the topics in the above graphic and a couple of the details have been slow to get finalized and at least one of the important topics won't be decided until we can get the whole team together to discuss it tomorrow afternoon."

I guess I should have just let all this information scroll by and disappear in the daily stream, but I was trying meet the demand to get more organized and put important announcements and status updates in one obvious place where you could find it quickly.

And yes, I wanted to hoot and holler' a bit - 'cause I'm unnecessarily and unprofessionally excited about everything that's going on.

 

[bodenliu]

If someone posted a topic be sure that the title is directly related to its content. Rename this to "Newsletter coming soon". Funny thing about I3 people posting topics is sometime the title makes you upbeat but when you start to read the content, disappointment will be written all over your face. Stop making hype and just release a newsletter if it is ready.  Not cool . Same cliche as the topic  "Get your BTS wallet here".  As if there is already a working BTS wallet , ready to be download. HYpe Hype Hype. Hype is good if it can be backed up by concrete facts.

！！

[toast]

If someone posted a topic be sure that the title is directly related to its content. Rename this to "Newsletter coming soon". Funny thing about I3 people posting topics is sometime the title makes you upbeat but when you start to read the content, disappointment will be written all over your face. Stop making hype and just release a newsletter if it is ready.  Not cool . Same cliche as the topic  "Get your BTS wallet here".  As if there is already a working BTS wallet , ready to be download. HYpe Hype Hype. Hype is good if it can be backed up by concrete facts.

you guys have clearly acknowledge the value of managing expectations, exercise this on micro scale as well

[jwiz168]

If someone posted a topic be sure that the title is directly related to its content. Rename this to "Newsletter coming soon". Funny thing about I3 people posting topics is sometime the title makes you upbeat but when you start to read the content, disappointment will be written all over your face. Stop making hype and just release a newsletter if it is ready.  Not cool . Same cliche as the topic  "Get your BTS wallet here".  As if there is already a working BTS wallet , ready to be download. HYpe Hype Hype. Hype is good if it can be backed up by concrete facts.

[mavisjames]

hype the hype to hype

[CLains]

Hype up the hype.

[yellowecho]

Where can I find the newsletter？

Stan will post it in this thread when its ready.

[G1ng3rBr34dM4n]

Can't wait for it to come out!

[muse-umum]

 

Where can I find the newsletter？

[jae208]

 

[cgafeng]

can't wait!!

[lzr1900]

  Wait for the newsletter..

[Stan]

EDIT:  Posting final newsletter link here for quick reference

Final version, for the historical record.
As mailed to 756 recipients.

http://invictus-innovations.com/s/News-Letter-06-March-2014-tlyr.pdf

http://bitshares.org/news/newsletter/ --> to sign-up for future newsletters.
-----------------------

Watch this thread for the March Newsletter. 
(Which is just a shameless excuse to bump and sticky this inspiring graphic.) 

Each of the DAC franchises shown along the bottom has at least one team forming that could decide to release a DAC in that family this spring.  I'll introduce you to some of them in the newsletter.  We will hear from others when their deals are finalized and they decide to go public.

Please note that Invictus is staying out of the way.  We do the R&D and help developers get started.  Do not think that the fact that other developers are beginning to work in parallel means bytemaster has wandered off from BitShares X.

But our first priority is to grow the value for all industry supporters - and that means having many products in the pipeline.  We promised to build you a decentralized crypto-equity industry.  You will see many of its blossoms this Spring.

In the meantime ponder what Doc Brown once said about all this:

"When this baby hits 88 miles per hour..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Byz7eU8jF0