Recently we conducted a quickie poll in two consecutive issues of the Classic Movies Weekly Newsletter, just to determine how people use the newsletter. We thought you'd enjoy seeing the results, as well as reading some of the random and unsolicited comments we received. First, the results:

• 10% of subscribers look it over briefly but do not click on any links.
  
  
• 24% read it thoroughly and click on multiple links.
  
  
• 60% report that they read most of it and click on at least one link.
  
  
• A mere 6% save it for future reading (I do that with a lot of emails myself, and the "future" tends to never arrive in many cases!).
  
  
• Zero respondents reported that they delete it without reading it, but that was to be logically expected! We know that a lot of people probably do that, because of the difference between the number of newsletters which are sent out and the number of "click-throughs" from the newsletter.

Below you'll find some selected comments and questions (with most of the redundant comments deleted and the rest slightly edited, to remove names and correct grammatical and spelling errors) received in the optional comments section, plus answers to the questions. Thanks very much to all who participated in the survey! (And for those of you who haven't yet subscribed, what are you waiting for? You'll find a subscription box in the column just to the left of this article.)

Comments and Kudos:

• "As the editor of a social 'classic cinema and movie magazine,' I find your newsletters most interesting and informative and really enjoy reading about the movies that I grew up with in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Lots of helpful links, too. Keep up the fantastic work!"
  
  
• "I am Director of the LB School for Adults Film Forum in Long Beach, CA. (We operate almost exclusively with vintage films -- 30 years plus.) The information you supply has put you on my 'A' list of resources. I thank you for a wonderful service, and consider myself a loyal and faithful recipient of your your newsletter."
  
  
• "Brad, for any serious movie buff, this is a treasure. Keep up the good work. "
  
  
• "From the 2 issues I've gotten so far, I enjoy it. Several of my movie junkie friends and I get together once a month for movie night, and so far I've gotten some interesting stuff for discussion and trivia."
  
  
• "You have the most unique and organized old movie site on the Web. So many of them have a great deal of information but you can get lost on their site trying to locate what you are looking for. Thank you."
  
  
• "I find it very interesting as I have been collecting biographies of passed away movie stars for the past 15 years."
  
  
• "I really enjoy receiving it. I only enjoy the actors from the 40s and 50s. Thank you."
  
  
• "I enjoy all the sites you recommend."
  
  
• "I enjoy the updates very much; keep me informed."
  
  
• "I just want to say that I love getting the newsletter. I read them and keep them for further use."
  
  
• "I know it is a lot of hard work and I thank you for all your energy and time you put into creating a wonderful product!"
  
  
• "I like how the newsletter is. The links are a must."
  
  
• "I often don't have the time to read the tributes presented but it is good to know they are there if I do. I am more interested to know what those living legends are doing now -- and being informed when they die. It's a great source of information."
  
  
• "I really enjoy it. I love to find out things about the old stars. I thought I knew a lot about them but I learn something new every time. Thanks again."
  
  
• "I think it's basically a good thing because it keeps me updated on new things happening on the Classic Movies site"
  
  
• "It also goes into a folder so I have access at a later time as well!"
  
  
• "It is fascinating reading. Not superficial. There is a lot of love in the work."
  
  
• "I glanced through the topics really quick, paid a little extra attention to the new DVD releases and plan to go back and check it all out in more detail."
  
  
• "Keep it coming -- it's awesome!"
  
  
• "Newsletter is greatly appreciated. Thank you."
  
  
• "Rather incredible collection of knowledge. Could you be an actual film buff?"
  
  
• "I always read top-to-bottom but only click on a link if it really interests me."
  
  
• "Wonderful newsletter. It keeps us well informed about the old stars. Great tribute and great dedication to the 'Old Hollywood' and 'natural' stars."
  
  
• "Excellent newsletter. Just keep up the good work! I am from Colombia in South America; do not forget that the Internet is worldwide. Americans sometimes think that the Internet reaches only the USA."
  
  
• "I enjoy them both [the site and the newsletter] very much."

Suggestions:

• Two people asked essentially the same question: "A nicer format with graphics would be great!" and "It will be better if your newsletters will look like Web pages..." This would mean creating a newsletter in html format. We could do that, but we've found from experience that this makes it more likely for individual newsletters to be rejected by spam filters, and some of you (particularly AOL subscribers on older software) might not be able to read it. So we're sticking to a simple text format, at least for the time being, until the war against the spammers is finally won.
  
  
• One of the people above also asked for "some trivia, too. And DVD reviews." We have both of those, in abundance, but not in the newsletter. They're on the Web site! We have a Net Links listing called Trivia & Games. We also have a section called New on DVD which appears every week or two. The newsletter itself is basically a guide to what's on this site rather than a typical "newsletter." We need people to come to the site to find the actual content, so that our advertising can help pay for it. Otherwise we'd have to put ads in the newsletter, and that would also increase the spam scores (see question above).
  
  
• "I think the newsletter should comment on modern movies with classic content, for example, The Aviator, Titanic and other remakes." We're definitely considering this. But our first responsibility is to cover films made more than 20 years ago. As time goes on, you can expect to see more content relating to recent films that are either remakes of older films or contain references to them. In the meantime, here's a few observations on "remakes."
  
  
• "I know about Movies Unlimited as a reference point for DVDs, etc., but a link to the likes of Amazon would also be useful." That is on the to-do list, and we do link to Amazon if a film is not available from Movies Unlimited; but we always list that link first, since we know that Movies Unlimited is always reliable, whereas with Amazon you're dealing with a variety of different sources.
  
  
• "Optimally, I read most of it and click, but sometimes I look at it briefly and save it for when I can click on the links. I truly enjoy it... would like to see the calendar in full for a week or month, or is there a place where I should be looking for that?" We'll take a look at that idea, though it's hard to plan more than a week or two in advance. But be sure to scroll to the bottom of the newsletter for a few words about articles planned for next week.
  
  
• Finally, somebody asked, "Please send any movie for viewing without paying." Well, we'd love to do that, but the folks who make the films have some curious ideas about wanting to get paid for their work! However, we do have a listing of online sources for streaming video, which I know you'll enjoy. Some of them are even free!

Thanks again, everybody, for your comments and questions.