Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 39 (1994-04)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2).zip/MegaDisc 39 (1994-04)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2).adf/MD_Info/MD_Contributions/MD_Contributions

Text File | 1994-04-29 | 16KB | 383 lines

                                MEGADISC  GUIDE

                                 CONTRIBUTIONS



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INTRODUCTION

What is MegaDisc?

  MegaDisc is basically:

  . the Australian Amiga magazine-on-a-disk (actually two disks nowadays);
  . a PD library; and
  . a mail-order service for hardware and software (Amiga and IBM).

  MegaDisc is also:

  . a contact point for Amiga users;
  . the coordinator of an Amiga-Helpers list; and
  . a small business which offers good service and a helpful approach.

  MegaDisc is designed to help you get the most out of your Amiga.  Please
  help MegaDisc to help you.

How You Can Help MegaDisc

  There are many ways you can help MegaDisc:

  . subscribe to MegaDisc;
  . encourage friends and acquaintances to buy MegaDisc;
  . buy public domain software from MegaDisc (prices are attractively low);
  . buy past issues or MegaDisc compilations, and/or MD_Extra disks; and
  . contribute articles, tutes, and hints to the magazine, or send disks for
    inclusion in the public domain library.


TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS

There are three basic ways you can contribute to MegaDisc:

  . Send in articles, tutes, reviews, hints and programs for publishing on
    MegaDisc.

  . Send copies of PD programs mentioned in your articles for possible
    inclusion on the MD_Extras disk.

  . Send new public domain disks for inclusion in the PD library.


SUGGESTIONS FOR MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTIONS

  And now, some ideas for articles, reviews, tutes and programs:

Articles

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

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

  . Any information about Desktop Video and Desktop Publishing - professional
    or home - how to improve your productions, any hints and tips, and good
    hardware available.  Ditto stuff about graphics, image-processing etc.

  . More info on Music on the Amiga -  let us know what you've found out.

  . Interesting applications.

  . Cautionary tales - if you goofed, own up and help others avoid that
    catastrophe.

Feedback, Hints, Icons etc

  . Feedback Letters telling us all which MegaDisc contributions you've found
    most helpful, interesting, attractive, funny, etc.

  . FeedBack Questions on any aspects of Amiga use that have you stumped;  if
    we can't answer them ourselves, some of our readers might be able to, and
    the answers could be enlightening to many others besides yourself.

  . Hints and Tips on everything from removing sticky labels to tarting up
    the startup-sequence.  Don't be bashful: from beginners to boffins, we
    can all contribute hints.  From morphing to MIDI, from printing to
    pruning, from writing to warning..... Put us in the picture!

  . Icons - any and all, especially small animated informative ones.

Tutorials

  . Tutorials on getting the most out of various commercial or public domain
    programs.

  . Examples of using business software such as spreadsheets, databases -
    templates that you may use.

  . 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.

  . Anything to do with the CLI/Shell/AmigaDOS -  from tutorials/overviews to
    fine points of the CLI commands.

  . Batch or script files that you've come up with, that illustrate a point
    or do something useful;  ARexx stuff welcome.

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

  . Hints, suggestions, programs for BlitzBASIC, AMOS etc or authoring stuff
    like CanDo, HyperBook, etc.

Reviews

  . Comparative reviews of the various packages available in business
    software, graphics, multimedia.

  . Software reviews of multimedia, graphics packages, word processors,
    databases and spreadsheets, clip art, fonts.

  . Hardware reviews covering everything from new Amigas to new mice, modems
    and monitors, and accessories.

  . Reviews of educational software, both commercial and public domain.

  . 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.

Programs

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

Hardware

  . Hardware do-it-yourself hacks of any kind. We're 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 past MD's for good
    examples.

Games

  . 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.


  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.


HINTS FOR MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTIONS

Style Notes

  When writing in to MegaDisc, you can save us a bit of time if you:

 . Leave 2 spaces after full stops, ends of sentences, etc.
 . Leave 1 space after commas, and other internal punctuation.
 . Don't use capitals all over the place (people rarely do this, but it
   happens).
 . Leave a left margin of 3, right margin of 75.
 . Send in the contribution as "ASCII" or "text only" - ie save it from your
   word processor as such, rather than as a WP file.
 . And if you're into it, you can add your own text attributes (colour,
   italics, etc) as well.

  None of these instructions is a demand!  Just a request. And thanks for
  sending in whatever you do.

Don't Forget a BioPic when Contributing Articles etc

  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.

What You Get if You are Digitally Published

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

  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.

  So when you contribute, please include a note saying which disks you'd like
  to have (if you don't, we 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.

Get Inspired, Get in Touch

  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.

  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.

  The best way of getting in touch with us is to just ring on [phone]
  or the freecall number 008 227 418, and if you get the answering service,
  leave your name and number.

  Or send us a fax on [phone].


HOW TO SEND IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION

Send on Disk

  Contributions can be sent on disk to

     FreePost 80
     MegaDisc
     PO BOX 759
     Crows Nest NSW 2065

Seal Firmly

  A single disk will fit snugly placed sidewise in a standard size self-seal
  envelope, but make sure the seal is tight;  shore it up with adhesive tape
  for extra safety.

Mark Disks Clearly

  Please mark disks clearly to indicate they contain contributions.  If you
  include any contributions on a catalogue disk you are sending for updating,
  put some external indication of this on the disk (with, say, a Post-It
  stuck on to the disk label).

  It is also a good idea to put your name and phone number on the disk
  label.  Then if there is an accident with the disk in the mail, the Post
  Office can trace the disk easily.    [I speak from experience... Leigh]

Keep a Backup Copy

  It is safest to keep a backup copy of every contribution you send until you
  know it has been received and incorporated into the magazine.

Uploading Articles

  If you have a modem you can upload your contribution to Amiga BBS
  Connection (02 970 6444). MegaDisc has a site there in the Special Interest
  Groups (SIG) section.  Just leave a message and you should get a little
  question asking if you wish to upload a file with the message so that is
  when you upload the file.  Make sure it is attached to a message (don't
  just enter the MegaDisc site and start uploading, we won't get the files!).

  When uploading there are a few rules you should follow:

  . Compress the files into an archive (this saves on uploading time)

  . Make sure you attach an extension to the file (eg.  Name the file
    AContrib.TXT and NOT AContrib) otherwise the file may get lost.

  . Keep the file name to 8 letters long and 3 letters for the extension.
    (Eg.  FileName.EXT and not File_Name.EXTENSION)

  . It helps if something goes wrong to call the upload a unique name (ie.
    DON'T call it For_Tim.txt but Dave4Tim.TXT or whatever).

  . Address the Message to MegaDisc not Tim or Steve.  You can of course put
    Tim or Steve in the message though.

  . Don't have any spaces in your file name, underscores are OK though.

  If you are having trouble uploading the file then give MegaDisc a call and
  we'll try to work out a solution.  If you wish to upload directly to Tim
  you should call him first and arrange it.


CONTRIBUTIONS FOR MD_EXTRAS DISK

  MegaDisc now has an MD_EXTRAS disk which began with with issue #31, to
  supplement each issue of MegaDisc by providing programs and utilities that
  are mentioned in the MegaDisc articles, tutorials and reviews (if it's PD).
  This saves users from hunting around all over the Public Domain and is
  nicely arranged to be referred to from the various articles.

Send in the PD you mention

  To further this end, could contributors, when they write a piece for
  MegaDisc, simply place any public domain software they mention in their
  article or tutorial or whatever on the disk they send in to Tim, or at
  least info on where it can be found on our PD collection.  This will enable
  a quicker production time for the disk.


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, interesting games... you get the idea.

       NOTE:  One thing we can't really use are coverdisks from
    magazines.  Even though the software on the disks can be public
    domain the coverdisk and the way it is set up is copyright of the
    particular publication.  In particular the game demos are
    generally "customised" for the magazine and are thus copyright.
    If you wish to send in software from a coverdisk then it is
    alright if you take off the particular program and set it up on
    its own disk.  We WILL NOT accept full version software that is
    included on coverdisks since that is piracy.  Just because a
    magazine includes a full version commercial program on their
    coverdisk does NOT make it public domain and the magazines pay a
    lot of money to have a full version program on the coverdisk.

Include a Description

  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 for Contributing a Disk?

  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.  Chase us up if we don't!


CONCLUSION

  Many thanks to all of you who continue to keep MegaDisc's standard high.
  Please keep the contributions flowing in to us - put fingers to keyboard,
  and pass on your Amiga insights.  And feedback to any of the contributors
  is always most welcome, either direct or through MegaDisc's FeedBack
  section.


 Tim Strachan, Editor

 Revised by Leigh Murray, February 1994