The magazine: Death and ... rebirth?

[karsten]

The magazine: Death and... rebirth?

As most of the people on the forum knows, there was an attempt at creating a magazine out of our forum's people groupwork, something tought to be the offspring of a community (in my opinion, one of the best and most informative in the web) to itself and the whole public out there so that more people could get involved in it and come to make this wornderful place called "Assembler home of the obscure" bigger, and also bringing their luggage of knowledge with them. So what's up then?

please be patient and read below. It'll be boring but i want everything to be clear :P

So now, first a little of story and then the status of everything.

Everything started months ago when i had a chat on Irc with our friend (and owner of the site) Kevin, beside personal talks he told me that he was unsatisfied with the current state of the community and that he was searching for a way to lit up discussion and bring new life to it. So after that talk i started thinking and thinking what i could do for helping the community, for i felt that i got a lot without ever giving something back to it, and even when there were those problems with servers i read about all of that when it was too late (everything setted up already) and couldn't help with money. so i tried to help by bringing knowledge or making some interesting for the community.

My first attempt was proposing to start writing a series of FAQS on important and interesting topics of our forum so that newbies could have all informations in an handy place. Later Kevin must have tought that it was interesting (or maybe was just by chance, i don't remember) and opened the wiki in wich i was glad to help with some contribution.

Then time passed and interest in the wiki little by little started lowering, but i was still thinking about what could be done. Then it came to me: easy! A magazine!

http://www.auritech.eu/cover.jpg

So i made a fake cover for testing the community ideas. The response was surprising! Lots of people interested and willingly to contribute, post, write articles, spellcheck, put money for the print, work for the graphical side etc etc. So some works started here on the forum and so on. Then some things happened. Most of them are just plainly _MY_ fault. It is important to say it.

The error number 1 was leaving these forums. It was stupid, but i choose to do so because the topic and works were growing outside the bondaries of just one topic and i tought that it was not polite to flood the forum. Also at that time i had some problems talking with Kevin and that didn't help at all.

Actually the proble in it was that he was having severe health problems at the time and seemed not to be able to read all the topics about it and such. Also my being not english speaker i guess didn't help much and we not argued but went down the road of misunderstanding. Also i was so eager to start and not to let cool down the enthusiasm so i guess i sounded really wrong. I guess he lost his temper to me bothering him while he was having personal problems (i realized later).

I mean actually i offered the "ownership", direction, and everything else to him, but after our talks i was proposed by people on the forum to take the lead for at least starting the work. I accepted. That too was an error. I guess that some people misunderstood this; i was proposing, taking lead, moving to another forum etc etc. It was like i was doing everything for getting "famous" for saying so, for my self glorification, like if i was attempting to steal something from the forum while my wish was the OPPOSITE.

Thinking about all of this now makes me really feel ashamed of my sillyness...


So the works started on the other forum, some articles have been made, other were in the work, some planning were made too. But things were slow, wrong.

Then i understood.

Everything is wrong, my direction was, my decisions and everything. We COULD have gone on like we were doing now, we could have EVEN issued a number, but that wouldn't have been what was in my mind before, my DREAM for saying so.
It's not easy to recognize a failure (and i'm not a kid anymore) but this is the only way for having my dream live on:

RESIGNING, LEAVING. But not surrendering the dream.

I just want to pass it to someone for it not dieing.

There are such people in these forum that own the KNOWLEDGE, AUTHORITY, RESOURCES, CHARISMA that are needed for taking such a task in their hands and make it SUCCESSFUL. I miss some (or maybe all :P ) of those characteristics and that won't change ever.

So i'm offering my work so far, my articles, and (if the authors agree) all the work that they have done so far to whoever thinks to have what it's needed for the magazine. I'll just collaborate in it with articles and suggestions unless asked for more.

Now big thanks to some people that gave their best and tried to cheer me up:

Mairsil for the forums
Juste for his kind words
Hawanja, that managed to find a great printing deal
shadowlayer for his article
and borman, radiac, alc liquitt and many many others that here and in the other forum tried to work out their best.

Sorry for ALL those that weren't named, but i'm writing this in a rush, don't feel bad if i din't list your names.


So, in short for those who helped, sorry to have disappointed you.

karsten.

END

[Borman]

Its not really your fault. As much as Mairsil helped, its hard to get the same input over at his place as you would have here. Hopefully, once Assembler is well enough, he can help give a nudge in the right direction in the form of a subforum and we can try again to make it happen, as it isnt that farfetched really. Its all about timing, and having the right tools to make it happen. And we can have them both

[Radiac]

Its not really your fault. As much as Mairsil helped, its hard to get the same input over at his place as you would have here. Hopefully, once Assembler is well enough, he can help give a nudge in the right direction in the form of a subforum and we can try again to make it happen, as it isnt that farfetched really. Its all about timing, and having the right tools to make it happen. And we can have them both

I have to agree with Borman. I think the forum move is what really killed it and not anything that you did or didn't do. It would be nice to see this eventually happen, but I think that unless Assembler gets behind it, it is unlikely.

Above all else don't beat yourself up over it man. I mean hell, you took on the leadership role when no one else was willing to.

[Hawanja]

You know, when I made my first little zine way back in the day I ran into the same kinds of problems. All the people who originally wanted to do it with me all fell away, so I ended up doing it all myself.

So what I mean is if you want something like this, you just have to do it, regardless of who's invovled. I don't see why we can't still have a magazine.

Some things to keep in mind:

1) I think we aimed a little too high, we wanted a full sized, full color magazine with a print run in the thousands sold in major stores. Way too much for the first issue. Nearly every magazine out there started in this kind of underground fashion evolved from small newsletter-type deals, 10-20 pages, 100 or so copies, distributed to a small group of hardcore people. Then they grew into something larger. If we do it, we should start like that.

2) Too many people involved. By this I don't mean contributors; I mean too many people making decisions. There has to be one person who makes decisions and the rest have to abide by them. All you need is one person to do layout, one person to gather material and edit, one person to handle printing and distribution, and the more you combine these jobs the better.

3) Also be prepared to lose money. Out of the 19 or so issues my little 'zine went through I think I made back the investment on the last two (due to advertisements, becasue I gave it away for free.) Everybody will tell you they'll buy it but when you have it in front of them most people come up with excuses.

I don't mean to sound like somekind of control freak by this, just saying that sometimes other people have a tendency to get in the way. Karsten, if you want to do a mag I am still there for it and will help anyway I can.

[karsten]

You know, when I made my first little zine way back in the day I ran into the same kinds of problems. All the people who originally wanted to do it with me all fell away, so I ended up doing it all myself.

So what I mean is if you want something like this, you just have to do it, regardless of who's invovled. I don't see why we can't still have a magazine.

My wish was to make something to repay this community, not to make something that would come just from me, and for that reason i choose to go along this way. But i see that nobody seems willingly to give new life to the project.... :(

I don't want it to die, and the only people that have posted in this topic are the people that were already involved in it... what does that mean? That we were the only one really interested in supporting it, no matter how many people said that they WOULD.


1) I think we aimed a little too high, we wanted a full sized, full color magazine with a print run in the thousands sold in major stores. Way too much for the first issue. Nearly every magazine out there started in this kind of underground fashion evolved from small newsletter-type deals, 10-20 pages, 100 or so copies, distributed to a small group of hardcore people. Then they grew into something larger. If we do it, we should start like that.

That was more or less what we had planned a 24 pages magazine printed in small amounts... what do you mean?


2) Too many people involved. By this I don't mean contributors; I mean too many people making decisions. There has to be one person who makes decisions and the rest have to abide by them. All you need is one person to do layout, one person to gather material and edit, one person to handle printing and distribution, and the more you combine these jobs the better.

1 editor,
1 man for layout (we had just Juste for it and wasn't enough)
1 who gathers material (we didn't had much to gather so far :D )
1 man to handle printing (we had someone, right? ;) )




3) Also be prepared to lose money. Out of the 19 or so issues my little 'zine went through I think I made back the investment on the last two (due to advertisements, becasue I gave it away for free.) Everybody will tell you they'll buy it but when you have it in front of them most people come up with excuses.

I don't mean to sound like somekind of control freak by this, just saying that sometimes other people have a tendency to get in the way. Karsten, if you want to do a mag I am still there for it and will help anyway I can.

Ok i see, it is not a problem for me, i knew that we would lose money and i'm ready to it.

anyway, thanks to you guys, all of you that were involved have already asked me to go on either here, in the other forum or in PM....

You have really my gratitude. For now let's wait for some time. If nobody will take the burden of having this dream and give new birth to it we'll have just 2 chances:

1) Surrender,

2) Or restarting searching more staff in the vast see of internet, even tought my dream was to see the birth of an assemblergames magazine.

in case nobody will take it, if asked, maybe i'll take it on again.

What do you all people thing about this?

[Borman]

I say give it more time, gather more ideas, and then try again. I think too much was in the concept / I want to do this stage, instead of drawing up actual plans to do it

[karsten]

I say give it more time, gather more ideas, and then try again. I think too much was in the concept / I want to do this stage, instead of drawing up actual plans to do it

Actually we had good plans, but we lacked support from people. Guess that my dream of creating a community magazine was just an utopia....

[Borman]

Not really. I just dont think you accepted the fact that it really is a hard thing to do. I tried the same thing but accepted even stuff that wasnt super rare, and still that didnt happen.

[karsten]

So, it seems that nobody wants to take the burden of the magazine...

since i owe all the guys that helped me something, i decided to go on with the magazine by at least making ONE issue... after that we'll see.

do i still have your support guys? Also if anyone that wasn't working with us, is interested in joining we'll accept all help gladly.

thank you, karsten

[modrobert]

stop whining and release the mag :rambo:

[karsten]

stop whining and release the mag :rambo:

work seems to have restarted. wanna help?

[modrobert]

You mean besides trying to provoke a release? :icon_bigg

(Sorry about my previous troll post, couldn't resist after reading, but some things are better to do than to discuss imo.)

Ok, what do you need help with?

I haven't really been part of this community, just visited as guest from time to time, started out back when the site had that logo with a samurai wearing a flying headband.

[karsten]

You mean besides trying to provoke a release? :icon_bigg

(Sorry about my previous troll post, couldn't resist after reading, but some things are better to do than to discuss imo.)

Ok, what do you need help with?

I haven't really been part of this community, just visited as guest from time to time, started out back when the site had that logo with a samurai wearing a flying headband.

we could use some help in the graphical department and if you can provide one interesting enough, articles :)

[modrobert]

I'll do my best...

My field are old console copiers and modchips, but if that is off topic in this mag then I can write about something else.

If you need more help I can ask my friends to join from the dextrose gang (http://tlords.kicks-ass.net/pics/teh_dextrose_muppets.jpg) (official site here (http://www.dextrose.com/)). It's like a religious community of nintendo fans. :pray:

[karsten]

I'll do my best...

My field are old console copiers and modchips, but if that is off topic in this mag then I can write about something else.

If you need more help I can ask my friends to join from the dextrose gang (http://tlords.kicks-ass.net/pics/teh_dextrose_muppets.jpg) (official site here (http://www.dextrose.com/)). It's like a religious community of nintendo fans. :pray:

Maybe you can make a nice article and take pics of some old copiers... start writing something and we'll see

http://www.pouncingkitten.com/portal/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

work on the magazine are made here

[modrobert]

After reading some of the submitted articles and other posts at the kitten site I feel out of place. This is way too serious for my taste, also, this mag is about collecting stuff and the background history of the items at hand which is something I know little about, I'm more of a repair/tech guy at heart.

Regarding copiers, currently I only have a Doctor V64 Jr (512Mbit) and some GBA flash cards. I gave away all the SNES hardware including a Smartbros 64mbit (which fits into a Sega Mega Drive as well) to a good friend, but can still get pictures of it if anyone is interested. Here's my n64 stuff in action (ontop of the xbox where it should be):

http://www.eurasia.nu/images/submitted/modrobert_v64_jr_and_xbox.jpg


BTW;

Gaming paper magazines are dying off rapidly, even the big ones, did you consider releasing this in PDF format? That way you could reach a lot more people and no hassle with printing/distribution.

[karsten]

After reading some of the submitted articles and other posts at the kitten site I feel out of place. This is way too serious for my taste, also, this mag is about collecting stuff and the background history of the items at hand which is something I know little about, I'm more of a repair/tech guy at heart.

Regarding copiers, currently I only have a Doctor V64 Jr (512Mbit) and some GBA flash cards. I gave away all the SNES hardware including a Smartbros 64mbit (which fits into a Sega Mega Drive as well) to a good friend, but can still get pictures of it if anyone is interested. Here's my n64 stuff in action (ontop of the xbox where it should be):

http://www.eurasia.nu/images/submitted/modrobert_v64_jr_and_xbox.jpg


BTW;

Gaming paper magazines are dying off rapidly, even the big ones, did you consider releasing this in PDF format? That way you could reach a lot more people and no hassle with printing/distribution.

we tought about that but PDF are too esily to re-distribute :D

[coreycorey2000]

If someone can talk to Assembler and figure out what I need to do to boot 64dd Dev disks. I think I could provide an article that would gaurantee the mag to sell. I've already been contacted by publishers that want the article if I can figure it out. I think it would be a good way to get the mag off the ground. Heck I could probably come up with an article now that would sell a couple hundred copies. If someone is going to follow through with this and you are interested in a story about the 64dd blue M3 disks. Then just let me know. That's be the only article I'd be any good for.

[karsten]

If someone can talk to Assembler and figure out what I need to do to boot 64dd Dev disks. I think I could provide an article that would gaurantee the mag to sell. I've already been contacted by publishers that want the article if I can figure it out. I think it would be a good way to get the mag off the ground. Heck I could probably come up with an article now that would sell a couple hundred copies. If someone is going to follow through with this and you are interested in a story about the 64dd blue M3 disks. Then just let me know. That's be the only article I'd be any good for.

sure, why not? dedicated foruma are here
http://www.pouncingkitten.com

you are welcome to join the works!

by the way, about 64 dd ask in the forum how to do that, there are lots of knowledgable people here

[Dot50Cal]

I hope they are offering you money. If things turn out true this could be a meal ticket in more ways than one :nod:


If someone can talk to Assembler and figure out what I need to do to boot 64dd Dev disks. I think I could provide an article that would gaurantee the mag to sell. I've already been contacted by publishers that want the article if I can figure it out. I think it would be a good way to get the mag off the ground. Heck I could probably come up with an article now that would sell a couple hundred copies. If someone is going to follow through with this and you are interested in a story about the 64dd blue M3 disks. Then just let me know. That's be the only article I'd be any good for.

[karsten]

well.... I'm not offering any money, the most optimistic view is to have the magazine cover its print expense each number :D And by the way i haven't heard anything new from him so far.....

and by the way dot50cal, could you ask assembler if he is interested in making an interview to be published in the magazine? i've tried to contact him many times with no luck, and i'm starting to think that i'm in his ignore list :P


karsten

[Shadowlayer]

Thanks for the credit, even when my SNK article wasnt state-of-the-art:lol:

Anyway, yeah PDF is too flimsy for today standarts, we should make a commercial-site like IGN or gamespot, but more hardcore, with articles instead of reviews, and lots of weird obscure stuff:rambo:

We could mantain the servers with the ads, what ya think?:dance:

[karsten]

i think that first we should get out with the first issue before thinking about webpages or commercial sites and such... let's release our first issue maybe with a price = to cost + 0.5$ and if we get enough support we'll make a webpage and try to enlarge.... but i thik this is more a dream than other... anyway first let's get out!

PS a short status update:

3 articles are 100% ready, and other 3-4 almost complete... we would still appreciate help from anyone on the boards that is willingly to help. feel free to PM me.

karsten

[Borman]

My site always has allowed for people to put their own articles on the site ;)

[zappenduster]

is there a way maybe getting a paypal account to donate for the mag so we can have some insight how many people are really interested

i think i can do some work on the m2 site gonna have much time next week and i want to refit my own website so maybe a article or timeline on the 3do m2 could comeout

maybe there should be a person where we can deliver articles to that just collects them for the time when the magazine gets real

i remember at least 2 real good articles on the assembler community from some of our members maybe they could provide those articles to the mag or an updated one ?

[Shadowlayer]

Yo zappenduster, I just finished the SNK article so if you want I can give you a hand with the M2 one.

[zappenduster]

thanks shadowlayer i could really need some help on that subject kind of a ghoswriter =) will checking my archives and notes beginning of next week to make timeline and start on the raw concept

[Shadowlayer]

No prob dude, if you want to send me anything, send a PM and I'll give you a mail adreess

[karsten]

great to see people joining our project :) we need help

[Shadowlayer]

Maybe we could get some guest writers from other blogs and sites who may want to do an article or something.

I'm sure they'll like to write something meant for gamers and not just the mainstream

[karsten]

Maybe we could get some guest writers from other blogs and sites who may want to do an article or something.

I'm sure they'll like to write something meant for gamers and not just the mainstream


why not? it could hapl the magazine geting more famous and bring great contributions :)

[Shadowlayer]

why not? it could hapl the magazine geting more famous and bring great contributions :)

I'm sure guys like crecente from kotaku or cheapyD from cheapassgamer will jump into the deal if we call them:nod:

[karsten]

I'm sure guys like crecente from kotaku or cheapyD from cheapassgamer will jump into the deal if we call them:nod:

then feel free to call :)

[Shadowlayer]

then feel free to call :)

You mean for the first issue? dunno, I think we should at least have one released, so we can build up some hype around the mag and get people into the deal.

Dunno, I'm afraid of getting one of those "U n00b" emails...

[liquitt]

my article is almost complete... :D

[karsten]

my article is almost complete... :D
really? it didn't seem so.... ?_?

[liquitt]

really? it didn't seem so.... ?_?

got some time at the moment, working hard on it ;)

[Sphere]

I'm really interested in helping you guys in this project. My site is going to launch in a few weeks at www.gamersblock.com and maybe I can give you guys free ad space for the mag or even offer the mag through my site.

I will show you the site design when its ready and we will go on from there.

[karsten]

thanks for the offer i appreciate it, but so far we are in a stop phase due to nobody working on paging and graphical design.....