GPF News Archive

Quick Update: Just to let everyone know, this week's KeenCAST is finally up. The permanent link is here, although they are encouraging folks to subscribe through services such as Feedburner or iTunes so they can keep a better track of things. All in all, I think the podcast went very well, and you guys submitted lots of great questions; too bad we didn't have time to answer them all. (Maybe I'll go back to the forum and answer those that didn't get asked in the show.)

Sorry to do this on a Friday, gang, but I wanted to get these matters out quickly:

Jeff on KeenCAST: In case you haven't swung by the forum lately, I will be appearing on the February 27th edition of Keenspot's new podcast, KeenCAST. I was originally scheduled for this past week, but one of the hosts had to cancel at the last minute; my apologies to anyone expecting to hear me ramble on about pointless things this past Monday. Never fear, I will indeed be rambling pointlessly in a couple weeks. The hosts are also fishing for questions in the KeenCAST forum, so if there are any burning questions you really want to ask me, feel free to post them there.

The current state with Plan Nine: As a number of you have noticed, we are having a few problems with our publisher, Plan Nine. Most of our books are currently out of stock, the material for Book Five has been in their hands for about two years now with nothing to show for it, and most disturbingly, several of you have complained about ordering from one of their international affiliates, Plan Nine Canada or Plan Nine Europe, and never receiving your books. I'd first like to state that I am painfully aware of these issues, and at least the first two are currently being addressed. Plan Nine USA is in the process of some major house cleaning, which I hope will eventually result in GPF books being back on the shelves as quickly as possible.

The situation may not be as promising for the international affiliates. At this point, I am urging all Faulties in Europe or Canada who are planning to buy our books to buy them from Plan Nine USA instead. It may cost you a bit more and it may take a bit longer to ship, but at least I know where Plan Nine USA is physically located and I can vouch for actual human beings that I've personally met. I can't do that with the affiliates. I am thus removing all links to the Canadian and European affiliates from the site and urging you not to do business with them until the current situation is resolved.

If you have made a purchase from one of the international affiliates and have not received your order, please understand that there isn't much I can do to help you. We hand our material over to Plan Nine USA, who prints the books and stocks the P9USA shelves then ships batches of books to the affiliates, which are responsible for maintaining their own stocks. The affiliates essentially act as independent resellers, only they carry the Plan Nine moniker. The best I can tell you to do is contact P9USA, inform them of the situation, and be very patient. Keep in mind that while they are one step closer to the affiliates than you or I, there's still a country or ocean between them and they may have problems contacting them as well. This isn't the first time P9USA has had problems with international affiliates, and I won't be surprised if this situation ends as stickily as the last. Some of you have threatened to take Plan Nine to the police or Better Business Bureau for Internet fraud; I would suggest that if you decide to take that route (not that I necessarily endorse it), make sure to report the affiliate you are currently having problems with, not Plan Nine USA (unless they are the ones you ordered from and never received your books). Again, these are independent resellers, and they should be treated separately from the original US branch.

I will try and keep you guys posted on these situations as best as I can. My goal is to have all the GPF books back in stock—including a brand spankin' new Book Five—by mid-year at the latest.

Some previous notes worth repeating: Don't forget that if you find yourself scratching your head over the current events in the comic itself, make sure to check out the News post from November 6th, which includes a bunch of notes and back references that should help clear up some of the confusion. Also, if you want to help out with our Oh No Robot transcriptions, look up the January 9th News post and the related Oh No Robot forum thread for tips, tricks, and rules of thumb (and possibly other digits). Also also, additional notes for the Official Unofficial GPF Wiki can be fond in this forum thread.