Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 30 (1992-10)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].zip/MegaDisc 30 (1992-10)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].adf/MD_INFO/Contributions/Contributions

Text File | 1992-10-07 | 9KB | 206 lines

   TO THE
     EDITOR   HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO MEGADISC



   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



    ANY MEGADISC CONTRIBUTORS WHO HAVE A QUERY OR JUST WANT TO DISCUSS A
       CONTRIBUTION CAN OF COURSE USE OUR TOLL-FREE NUMBER 008 227 418


   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    One of the most gratifying aspects of editing Megadisc is getting
   the mail - the quality of contributions has continued to get even
   better, even by people who've never written a piece for publication in
   their lives. Many thanks to all of you who have already sent us
   contributions. This does everyone good (not just MD) - everyone wins,
   contributors and users. It's very likely that you know things that
   many others don't, and they'd like to hear about it, if you manage to
   get it to Megadisc.

WHAT YOU GET

    If you get inspired and send us in a contribution which we use on
   a future Megadisc, whether it be a review, article, program, series of
   tips, graphics, animation or whatever, you'll be entitled to any 10
   Public Domain disks available in the PD Library (or more if it's a very
   substantial contribution; 5 if it's a single game review), as well as a
   free copy of the Megadisc issue that your piece ends up in. So when
   you do, please include a note saying which disks you'd like to have (if
   you don't I might forget to get around to asking you what you want).
   Note that we reserve the right to sell Megadisc issues with all
   contents, past and future, here and overseas at any time, in any form.

*   Some contributors have asked about getting back issues of Megadisc
   instead of PD from time to time - that's fine with me. Just ask for back
   issues at the rate of 6 pd for one back issue.


DON'T FORGET A BIO_PIC WHEN CONTRIBUTING

    When you do contribute something to Megadisc, feel free to include a
  small "bio-pic", ie a paragraph or two describing yourself, your
  interest in computing, and anything else relevant to the situation,
  whether serious or funny. I'm sure that other users are keen to know
  where you're coming from.


SUBMITTING PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS FOR OUR LIBRARY

    Good new PD disks are always welcome - preferably NOT such things as
   cracker demos (tend to be boring and repetitive), or other quasi-PD
   diskmags such as Amiga Format (not quite PD sometimes) or simple
   compilations of utilities we already have on the current collections
   unless they have something which really distinguishes them.
    What is welcome - material which hasn't appeared anywhere before, or
   isn't already in the collection, that may have been downloaded from
   overseas, for example; locally written stuff; interesting compilations
   on topics which are useful to end users, such as video or audio, etc.;
   demos of current software; practical data disks such as material
   entered in a database (e.g., the medical info mentioned in MD18)
   interesting games... you get the idea.

    But whatever you send in - please put in a description of what it is,
   on paper or on disk, along the lines of what we have in the Catalogue
   (covering such items as how much ram required, where it came from,
   etc.); and please make it a ready-to-use disk, either bootable or not,
   so that a beginner can use it without problems - otherwise mention in
   your description that it's not so easy to use.

    What do you get? Well, mainly that warm glow due to adding to this
   user resource! But also, ask for 3 PD disks of your choice and if we
   use your disk we'll send them out.



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS


    * Locally written software/utilities are always very welcome.
   Anything that an end user would find useful. Check any MD for the sort
   of thing that's popular.

    * Hardware do-it-yourself hacks of any kind. We're very keen to
   publish anything which people can do for a few bucks rather than a few
   hundred if they buy the commercial product. Check the various hacks
   in any MD issue for good examples.

    * What about a "What is this thing called a Database?", along the
   lines of Don Sutton's Spreadsheet series in the last few Megadiscs?

    * Anyone doing anything with ARexx? Any hints, suggestions,
   programs, anything? Likewise anything to do with other "hypermedia"
   and authoring stuff like "CanDo", UltraCard, Scripit, TASS, AMOS,
   BlitzBasic, etc.

    * Anything to do with the CLI/Shell/AmigaDos - this is an endless
   area of investigation, from tutorials/overviews to fine points of the
   CLI commands.

    * Reviews of the new MultiMedia programs, such as Scala,
   MediaShow, AmigaVision and so on; applications of them too.

    * Icons - any and all, especially small animated informative ones,
   but please send in whatever you've done.

    * Reviews of educational software, both commercial and public
   domain - this is a rather neglected section of the software market, yet
   there is great potential, especially on the Amiga.

    * Examples/tutorials on how your system is configured, along with
   startup-sequences - in short, any ways you've found to speed up the
   system, or squeeze more performance out of it. Hints and tips in
   general are always most welcome.

    * The Amiga used in productivity and business - if you're using
   your Amiga commercially, please let us know how, and the advantages and
   limitations.

    * Reviews of Public Domain software (and hardware, if possible) -
   after all, it's practically free and often better than the commercial
   versions. If there's a particular program on the public domain you'd
   like to do a review of, just give us a call and we'll send you the
   relevant disk - for free, natch!

    * Reviews of Australian-made software and hardware - let's support
   the local products, which are often very competitive.

    * Examples of using business software such as spreadsheets,
   databases - templates that you may use, comparative reviews of the
   various packages available.

    * Any information you have about making your printer work better,
   hints, new printer drivers, etc.

    * Any information about Desktop Video and Desktop Publishing -
   professional or home - how to improve your productions, any hints and
   tips, and good hardware available.

    * More info on Music on the Amiga - there's good stuff coming out
   these days so let us know what you've found out.

    * Overviews of the flood of games now available for the Amiga, or
   comparative reviews of "genres" of games. A bit of analysis rather
   than just description is useful - like what you expect from games in
   the future, shortcomings of the Amiga compared to other machines, etc.

    * Batch or script files that you've come up with, that illustrate
   a point or do something useful.

    * Comparisons of the Amiga with other computers (serious ones!).


    That doesn't exhaust the possibilities by any means, and please
   don't be limited by the above. We're interested in information to help
   people take their Amigas further than they're doing now.

    Any current subscribers who send a contribution will have their
   subscription extended by one issue, apart from getting their 10 free
   disks.

HOW TO SEND IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION

    It would also be much appreciated if you'd put your contribution
   on disk in the case of text as well, since it saves a lot of
   key-fingering.  Even better, make it a straight ASCII file if you can -
   ie, use a text editor (like ED in the CLI - see the inside of the MD9
   card or MEGADOS for all the commands) or save from your Word Processor
   as ASCII or "text-only" (if you can).  However, documents from Notepad
   or a word processor are fine if you're not sure about ASCII. If you
   really want to make life easier for your editor, make the left margin 4
   and the right margin 75! And if you're into it, you can add your own
   text attributes (colour, italics, etc) as well.

    Likewise, anyone who sends in a letter or anything less than a
   full-fledged article on disk should mention which Public Domain disk
   they'd like to get back on their disk, and what other two disks they'd
   like to get for their trouble - just check out our public domain
   software catalogue, or the listings of PD on this Megadisc.

    The best way of getting in touch with us is to just ring up (on
   [phone] or on the toll-free number mentioned at the top, and
   if you get a message, leave your name and number, or send us a fax on
   [phone]. Don't worry if you don't hear from Megadisc for a while
   after you contribute something - we'll get back to you eventually,
   though you can always ring up and enquire about anything, anytime.

    So get inspired, and be digitally published! It could be the
   start of a scintillating career in the digital press (it has been for
   some of our contributors). And don't forget, what you think is obvious
   may be mystifying to someone else - they may need to know what you
   know. And many thanks to all those talented people who have already
   contributed so much to Megadisc and its users.


    ##################  END (BEGINNING?) OF CONTRIBUTIONS ###############