Releasing diskmags more often?
category: offtopic [glöplog]
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Why are you talking about graphics when the topic was programming skills?
I thought that the topic was about diskmags. Now I'm lost.
Well, looks like this thread went off the tracks and flied to the moon.
And by posting this I ain't really helping, but whatever.
And by posting this I ain't really helping, but whatever.
Adok, I will. Awesome that even Renzulli was there.
chromag, Renzulli delivered the first lecture on the evening when the symposium started (after the introductory words from various organizers). He was introduced as the "pope of giftedness research".
He surely is.
Renzulli's speech was the only one in English. The remaining lectures were in German. There were mostly speakers from the German speaking countries. There were quite a lot of people in the lecture room, I estimate 200 - 300.
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"pope of giftedness research"
He likes little boys with big IQs? Did you get to meet him when you were younger?
Adok: it's not about the pretty artwork. Jazz was praised for having fast, smooth scrolling and advanced graphics for the PC at that time - the artwork definitely helps, but good game graphics are usually dependent on good code.
Take wolfenstein as a better example. Was it famous for the pixelated nazis or the fact that they ran around in 3D? Clearly the graphics tech is a whole lot more important that the quality of the artwork.
So if you claim you could have coded jazz jackrabbit, people are going to assume you could code a fast, smooth scrolling platformer with advanced graphics, not simply any platform game. This is why your retro RPG wasn't exactly a good comeback ;)
But yeah, back on topic. If you want a successful diskmag, modernise it. People are moving away from the PC, and the web is everywhere. A modern magazine needs to be multi-platform, and it needs to be updated constantly, like a website. If an article is ready, publish it now while it's fresh.
The obvious solution is a website. It can be an awesome website with tons of pixelled graphics and a music player, with sexy transitions and such. If you don't want to go that way, figure out how to do a good multi-platform front end.
Keep mobile in mind though, because the best time to read things like disk mags in this busy age is when there's some downtime on a plain or a bus or whatever. People mostly use a phone or tablet in such situations. Having a screen layout fixed at 640x480 or whatever and designed for a big screen isn't going to work ;)
Last thing: make it a little more 'social'. Take pouet as a good example: it's not lasted as long and as well as it has because of the prods database. It's because we can vote on prods, comment them, and chat here that makes us all visit pouet instead of scene.org. A bit of interaction would help hugi massively i think - and you'd get a whole lot of much needed feedback ;)
You like solving difficult problems, so there's one right there - modernise the disk mag, make it relevant again.
Take wolfenstein as a better example. Was it famous for the pixelated nazis or the fact that they ran around in 3D? Clearly the graphics tech is a whole lot more important that the quality of the artwork.
So if you claim you could have coded jazz jackrabbit, people are going to assume you could code a fast, smooth scrolling platformer with advanced graphics, not simply any platform game. This is why your retro RPG wasn't exactly a good comeback ;)
But yeah, back on topic. If you want a successful diskmag, modernise it. People are moving away from the PC, and the web is everywhere. A modern magazine needs to be multi-platform, and it needs to be updated constantly, like a website. If an article is ready, publish it now while it's fresh.
The obvious solution is a website. It can be an awesome website with tons of pixelled graphics and a music player, with sexy transitions and such. If you don't want to go that way, figure out how to do a good multi-platform front end.
Keep mobile in mind though, because the best time to read things like disk mags in this busy age is when there's some downtime on a plain or a bus or whatever. People mostly use a phone or tablet in such situations. Having a screen layout fixed at 640x480 or whatever and designed for a big screen isn't going to work ;)
Last thing: make it a little more 'social'. Take pouet as a good example: it's not lasted as long and as well as it has because of the prods database. It's because we can vote on prods, comment them, and chat here that makes us all visit pouet instead of scene.org. A bit of interaction would help hugi massively i think - and you'd get a whole lot of much needed feedback ;)
You like solving difficult problems, so there's one right there - modernise the disk mag, make it relevant again.
What psonice said, except for:
I disagree. There's some value - even if only psychological - in the way that a new issue of Hugi is an *event*, something that commands attention and encourages you to allocate a discrete chunk of your time (even if it's only 15 minutes on the bus) taking it in, and maybe get you reading something outside your core interests. That's a positive thing in an era when everything arrives as a constant dribble of information that mostly gets tuned out in your head, and it's something that would be lost if Hugi became, effectively, a news blog.
Web is definitely the way to go, but continuing to batch articles up into issues with a specific release date would work well for Hugi, I think. Yes, issues should be smaller and more frequent... as a rule, I would say that 3 months is the absolute maximum time that you should sit on an article before publishing.
One thing I'd really love to see (but probably not a sensible goal for Hugi right now, as it would just slow the production process down further) is a web-based magazine that really puts design at the forefront in the same way that a print magazine would (designing each article individually rather than just shoving article text in a box surrounded by menus), and makes full use of current web tech - decent typography, responsive layout, full-page images. I'm sure the demoscene has the skill to pull it off, if it had the will. Does that sort of thing exist *anywhere*?
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it needs to be updated constantly, like a website. If an article is ready, publish it now while it's fresh.
I disagree. There's some value - even if only psychological - in the way that a new issue of Hugi is an *event*, something that commands attention and encourages you to allocate a discrete chunk of your time (even if it's only 15 minutes on the bus) taking it in, and maybe get you reading something outside your core interests. That's a positive thing in an era when everything arrives as a constant dribble of information that mostly gets tuned out in your head, and it's something that would be lost if Hugi became, effectively, a news blog.
Web is definitely the way to go, but continuing to batch articles up into issues with a specific release date would work well for Hugi, I think. Yes, issues should be smaller and more frequent... as a rule, I would say that 3 months is the absolute maximum time that you should sit on an article before publishing.
One thing I'd really love to see (but probably not a sensible goal for Hugi right now, as it would just slow the production process down further) is a web-based magazine that really puts design at the forefront in the same way that a print magazine would (designing each article individually rather than just shoving article text in a box surrounded by menus), and makes full use of current web tech - decent typography, responsive layout, full-page images. I'm sure the demoscene has the skill to pull it off, if it had the will. Does that sort of thing exist *anywhere*?
Thanks for your input, psonice and gasman.
I believe creating a web magazine would be less work than coding a multi platform GUI. The only advantage of a custom GUI is that the articles get displayed on every configuration in the same manner, regardless of the resolution and other parameters. But perhaps this can be achieved on web in some way as well, if it is necessary.
Our current GUI, Panorama, is available for various versions of Windows, Linux, BeOS (AFAIR) and AmigaOS 4. It is possible to port the code to other platforms. You can contact us and we will send you the source code if you want to do the porting. The question is whether you are satisfied with the functionality Panorama offers or whether you would desire more; in that case, what exactly?
I also agree with the interactivity idea. It would be good if people could post their comments and the comments would be displayed underneath each article. This could be done easily with a web based magazine but in theory it would also be possible to adapt Panorama accordingly.
What is beyond my own abilities is the idea that the magazine should have a fancy design. If you really want that, somebody else will have to do the layout. I'm more simple-minded in this respect. I don't have a good eye for what looks good and what doesn't. As a reader I'm only interested in the contents.
Finally, I agree with gasman on the matter of releasing individual issues rather than continuously updating a blog. With a blog you are inclined to visit it on a regular basis and get disappointed many times when you see nothing new has been posted. By contrast, with a magazine you look forward to each new issue.
I believe creating a web magazine would be less work than coding a multi platform GUI. The only advantage of a custom GUI is that the articles get displayed on every configuration in the same manner, regardless of the resolution and other parameters. But perhaps this can be achieved on web in some way as well, if it is necessary.
Our current GUI, Panorama, is available for various versions of Windows, Linux, BeOS (AFAIR) and AmigaOS 4. It is possible to port the code to other platforms. You can contact us and we will send you the source code if you want to do the porting. The question is whether you are satisfied with the functionality Panorama offers or whether you would desire more; in that case, what exactly?
I also agree with the interactivity idea. It would be good if people could post their comments and the comments would be displayed underneath each article. This could be done easily with a web based magazine but in theory it would also be possible to adapt Panorama accordingly.
What is beyond my own abilities is the idea that the magazine should have a fancy design. If you really want that, somebody else will have to do the layout. I'm more simple-minded in this respect. I don't have a good eye for what looks good and what doesn't. As a reader I'm only interested in the contents.
Finally, I agree with gasman on the matter of releasing individual issues rather than continuously updating a blog. With a blog you are inclined to visit it on a regular basis and get disappointed many times when you see nothing new has been posted. By contrast, with a magazine you look forward to each new issue.
adok: the scene isn't short of people with good design skills. But as I pointed out before, visual presentation on anything like this isn't simply design and graphics, it needs some solid code to move the boxes around nicely.
Go make a web interface. Don't worry about the design, just use straight text, random pictures, and rectangles (rounded corners might help). Get it to animate stuff around in cool ways. When you pick a new page off the menu, don't just load the new page, animate the old page off screen while sliding the new one in (this is hard with the way pages load ;)
Go make a web interface. Don't worry about the design, just use straight text, random pictures, and rectangles (rounded corners might help). Get it to animate stuff around in cool ways. When you pick a new page off the menu, don't just load the new page, animate the old page off screen while sliding the new one in (this is hard with the way pages load ;)
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The only advantage of a custom GUI is that the articles get displayed on every configuration in the same manner, regardless of the resolution and other parameters. But perhaps this can be achieved on web in some way as well, if it is necessary.
It's fairly easy to get websites looking the same across all devices/resolutions (depending on how exact you want to be: if you want it to be pixel-perfect with every word wrapping in exactly the same place, then that's very hard indeed). Generally, though, having layouts look different across devices is a GOOD thing, and not something to fight against: the best layout for reading an article on an HD monitor is probably not the best layout for a tablet or phone, and vice versa.
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When you pick a new page off the menu, don't just load the new page, animate the old page off screen while sliding the new one in (this is hard with the way pages load ;)
It's even harder to do it WELL, in a way that doesn't a) break the principle of having a single consistent URL for each article and b) turn your website into an empty HTML document plus 1Mb of Javascript. Unless you really know what you're doing, I'd avoid this.
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So, like a website? :) Those who say that a website won't create a "snapshot in time" of something -- rubbish. Just release it and then freeze it. Nobody says you have to create a blog.modernise the disk mag, make it relevant again.
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So, like a website? :) Those who say that a website won't create a "snapshot in time" of something -- rubbish. Just release it and then freeze it. Nobody says you have to create a blog.
It's not rubbish. Websites get forgotten, service providers get sold, content gets deleted and so forth. The only reason we have so many diskmags from the 80's and 90's is that they were neatly packaged in simple archives. Just about everything that happened in BBS's and so forth is lost.
face it, this thread has generated more text than any new diskmag's calls for articles would.
Smash wins, flawless victory.
Preacher is right. I recently converted a news article from an older Hugi issue to HTML and tried the Internet links in it (there were lots of them). Except two or three, none was working any more.
is this the moment in time where the demoscene finally recognize's jscott's work as valuable and worthy of his kickstarter campaigns?
Adog, instead of wasting your time on pouet asking questions, put them on paper and find the bst answer by yourself: that's how Steve Jobs made the products of Apple and obviously it works marvel.
Hugi is your mag not the mag of poueters.
Readers don't give a fuck about design, they just need readable fonts with interesting articles written in to learn something, so put up a website with plain ascii chars, lower and upper cases + add bold if absolutely required and invest the saved time into deep research to create interesting articles: newspapers online aren't that far from that idea.
Add a forum where people can comment on your thought and that's it.
Ha yeah, it'll work like a charm without a change on every machine able to go online and provide a way to export as pdf / ascii your article for other offline readers and people with C64 / Amiga / Atari, done.
Invest in Omega 3, DHLPA, Multi Vitamins and let's this high IQ be really useful instead of wasting our and your time.
Hugi is your mag not the mag of poueters.
Readers don't give a fuck about design, they just need readable fonts with interesting articles written in to learn something, so put up a website with plain ascii chars, lower and upper cases + add bold if absolutely required and invest the saved time into deep research to create interesting articles: newspapers online aren't that far from that idea.
Add a forum where people can comment on your thought and that's it.
Ha yeah, it'll work like a charm without a change on every machine able to go online and provide a way to export as pdf / ascii your article for other offline readers and people with C64 / Amiga / Atari, done.
Invest in Omega 3, DHLPA, Multi Vitamins and let's this high IQ be really useful instead of wasting our and your time.
Thanks, alter-native. Your opinion is sensible.
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It is rubbish. I'm not saying that _any_ website fits in an archival format, in fact: very few do. Therefore the point of making a website that mirrors the aesthetics of a diskmag would naturally include what made a diskmag special in the first place, namely the "set-in-stone"-nature of it, but still allow for interactivity in the form of comments or feedback to bring in the natural elements of being online.It's not rubbish. Websites get forgotten, service providers get sold, content gets deleted and so forth.
Publishing a "diskmag" in the form of a magazine layout website with fixed issues and archival functions in the way of being able to download a PDF render of it makes all sorts of sense.
Adog, food for thought:
http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=online_issues&issue=0&sub=article&id=10
The writer is a king of the C64 diskmag era and this 7 years old article will tell you everything you need to be on top forever.
Learn also that excellent articles are reference articles, that is those who stands the test of time.
So ask yourself what every coder, graphist, musician, cracker, hacker, gamer, organiser want to know and carve for each the best articles to answer their questions.
Divide your mag into newscomer, mature and elite category of article, then by category of interest (coder, musician, ...), so people see straight away what to look and where to look.
We need quality, not quantity, so release less but of far more elite content see the minimalist design and article depth of the linked website.
http://www.atlantis-prophecy.org/recollection/?load=online_issues&issue=0&sub=article&id=10
The writer is a king of the C64 diskmag era and this 7 years old article will tell you everything you need to be on top forever.
Learn also that excellent articles are reference articles, that is those who stands the test of time.
So ask yourself what every coder, graphist, musician, cracker, hacker, gamer, organiser want to know and carve for each the best articles to answer their questions.
Divide your mag into newscomer, mature and elite category of article, then by category of interest (coder, musician, ...), so people see straight away what to look and where to look.
We need quality, not quantity, so release less but of far more elite content see the minimalist design and article depth of the linked website.
alter-native: Let me mention on this occasion that I intended my diskmag to be a platform for its readers. Readers should contribute articles and these articles from the readers should account for most of the contents.