I became involved with updating and adding information to the Help Center initially in order to help out an overworked friend, and also because it was a nice change for me to be able to do some writing. We wanted to put something in about how to add images using transloaders, and for a while we planned to put in step-by-step instructions for each of the transloaders that work with WebTV. That, however, became way too complicated, especially as some of them are pretty complex and are fairly hard to describe.

So we turned our attention to Jos' Webscissors and tried to figure out a way to make it our recommended transloader without actually saying as much in the instructions. We finally settled on writing general instructions for using transloaders and providing links to those that work well with WebTV. Webscissors is first on that list.

During the process of all this writing and reconfiguring and debating, we had quite a bit of contact with Jos. This is a typical email thread (part of which I think you've already seen):

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Jos Claerbout (Brava Services)  
Sent:	Monday, July 26, 1999 7:42 PM
To:	Andrew Levin; Eric Kattwinkel
Cc:	Emily Wilska
Subject:	RE: List of "transloaders" for Grunge-E

When last we spoke, Beth was in the process of adding Webscissors to her
page.

What's all this about Webscissors, anyway? I certainly did not make the page
and am certainly in no way responsible and none of the charges will stick
and I was no where near that computer anyway.

- jos

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Andrew Levin 
	Sent:	Monday, July 26, 1999 7:03 PM
	To:	Eric Kattwinkel
	Cc:	Emily Wilska; Jos Claerbout (Brava Services)
	Subject:	RE: List of "transloaders" for Grunge-E

	Here's the URL of a list of transloaders created by the person Jos
referred to ("Beth").  This site has a lot of very good information, but
it's still missing a reference to WebScissors (http://www.webscissors.com),
from which I conclude it's a little stale. None the less, this site itself
may be a good site to link to from the Help Center (or Help) page:
	http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/7391/transloading.html

			 -----Original Message-----
			From: 	Eric Kattwinkel  
			Sent:	Thursday, July 22, 1999 4:50 PM
			To:	Andrew Levin
			Cc:	Emily Wilska
			Subject:	RE: List of "transloaders" for
Grunge-E

			Hey Andrew,

			Emily's going to work with us on this. She's a good
writer. In fact, she's known in some circles as a Strict Grammarian. I think
there will be three parts:

			(1) The whole "Adding pictures" section of the Page
Builder instructions could use a re-write and re-organization to include the
Scrapbook and transloader stuff. 
			(2) We'll probably want write some new Qs and As and
give them to the customer care people.
			(3) We should work on the text on the Scrapbook page
when it's empty and not empty.

			I'll set up a meeting for next week. Are there
certain days you're planning to be in the office? 

			What was the URL to the "commissioned" site you
showed me?

			Thanks, EEK

				 -----Original Message-----
				From: 	Andrew Levin  
				Sent:	Monday, July 19, 1999 7:56 PM
				To:	Hilari Hardin; Eric Kattwinkel
				Subject:	List of "transloaders" for
Grunge-E

				Hi Eric and Hilari,

				One of the things I'd like to do for
Grunge-E (well, basically, sooner than HipHop) is to add a page to the Help
Center listing the top "transloader" sites (including one we've sort of
"commissioned").  In addition, I'd like to have a fairly prominent link to
this page within the Scrapbook help pages, if you think that makes sense.
At the very least, in the empty Scrapbook page, I'd like to reference this
Help Center page or the help page which refers to it, as appropriate.

				There are, of course, two parts to this:
creating the Help Center page and adding the link(s) to it.  What do you all
think of the feasibility of these?

				Thanks,
				-Andrew
-----------------
	In another thread, Jos was so, umm, kind as to send me a list of the
last 200 web pages people had used Webscissors on.  I'll forward that
message separately, as it's really long.  Jos summed it up thus:   'And, as
a special treat, here are the last 200 pages "scissored": I particularly
like the fellow who went from trying "godslove.com" to "illegalteens.com".'
I took a brief look at the list and replied, Wow!
	Thanks for further confirming my opinion that our users are PATHETIC
beyond words.  I sort of feel dirty myself helping them better understand
how to add porn and WWF images to their pages.  God help us.

	As released, the service upgrade that contains our transloader
instructions will have general information on how to add images from other
Web pages (Help-->Using the Web/Page Builder-->Detailed
instructions-->Adding pictures/From a Web page) as well as a list of
transloaders that work with WebTV (Help-->Using the Web/Page
Builder-->Frequently asked questions).  The first entry on this list is
WebScissors, and despite Jos' insistence on keeping the authorship of the
site anonymous, it has his name all over it.  Even those who never knew him
will surely smile at his disclaimer: "PageBuilder is probably a registered
trademark of WebTV Networks, Inc.  WebTV Networks neither provides nor
endorses this site.  Use at your own risk.  Do not look directly into the
light."  

	I'll forward all the transloader-related threads I can find.

	Best,
	Emily