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- »PIC:barclip2.ilbm»
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- »CL9: www.imtoolazy.com
- »PIC:barclip2.ilbm»
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- »CL4: By Kam
-
- »CL1:Maybe today, yesterday, a week ago, or
- even one year ago you have downloaded
- this diskmag (EC I supose... :]) from
- a netarchive. But why did you do
- that? In oder to absorb another
- portion of high-quality scene
- journalism? :) Or maybe you just want
- to save it on your HD and forget about
- it? If you are reading this, you
- propably choose first answer.. Or
- maybe not?
-
- »CL0:I was not present on the scene when
- the diskmags were born. But it isn't
- difficult to guess about the reasons
- of their rise. People wanted to
- express themselves, to say something -
- about thhe scene, computers, about
- life. Diskmags made sure that the
- scene became a community. The role of
- copy-parties was also huge, but
- magazines... That was something else,
- they had a different atmosphere.
- Diskmags were changing with the scene,
- they have evolved. There has been a
- huge quantity of various diskmagazines
- - from typical lamezines with fatal
- texts and very bad msx/gfx stuff, to
- great, elite (lol :P) titles with very
- fine articles and quality graphics and
- music. In those times the killer of
- the swappers was born - the internet.
- It was a natural reflex of sceners to
- start joining various internet
- communites. Many scene websites were
- available on the internet - group
- sites and scene-in-general sites
- (Orange Juice for example). That's
- wellknown, but where is the connection
- to diskmags? Let me explain...
-
- »CL1:In "Cows and Snakefights" issue 5 we
- can find an interesting article by
- Zito concerning diskmags. The author
- explains why he thinks that the idea
- of zines is senseless these days.
- Well, Browallia wrote a reply, but he
- made it somewhat chaotic; besides - I
- want to add something too :)
-
- »CL0:A few years ago the news-gathering was
- an important function of diskmags.
- There have even been diskmags with
- only info and news (akin to packs...).
- Ideas like this have no reason to
- exist today. The internet takes care
- of it now. It's no wonder that the
- frequency of released Amigamags is so
- low, as it is very easy to start
- browsing on a computer with an
- internet connection. So maybe it
- means that there is no sense in making
- diskmags in the internet era? You are
- wrong if you think so. Diskmags are
- supposed to be a place for discussions
- and polemics; You can proclaim your
- own opinion there. These things will
- not be taken over by websites. That's
- true - there are many forums where we
- can write what we're thinking about
- regarding many things. But a forum
- will never be equal to a diskmag. In
- a forum posts usually consists of one
-
- »PIC:scream»
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- or two sentences. No one wants to
- write any more. Also - nobody wants
- to read more text. In a diskmag we
- can penetrate the problem, we can
- plunge into the substance. It does
- not mean that every editor should
- produce milions of bytes. But hey! -
- it's not possible to describe a
- certain topic well in 1,5 kB of text.
-
- »CL1:Diskmags also have another important
- function. Like charts - they are
- scene chronicles. We can return to
- them every time we like. They
- document all scene transformations.
- They show the mentality of the sceners
- of all times. They practically show
- everything that is and has been
- connected to the scene. Can we say
- the same about demoscene websites?
- Not at all - it is something
- completely different. In a diskmag
- even the music and graphics document
- something. Like a demo they display
- the standards of the contemporary
- scene aswell as the state of
- development of individual guys.
- Everybody knows how "hard" it is to
- make a website, and people commenting
- on forums are frequently very casual
- (if not stupid or even rude :P). Show
- me a scene website with good articles
- and hi-level comments...
-
- »CL0:In this place I can stop writing. Yet
- - I wrote that I disagree with several
- thesises from the article of Zito. I
- have to ask one question. Zito is
- trying to convince us that only a very
- small quantity of people read diskmags
- now. Even if they download the
- archive with the zine, they are too
- lazy (or whatever) to actually run it
- and read articles. Unfortunately, I
- must agree with this. You can just
- look at Amiga mags. There are only a
- few titles, and they are producing one
- issue every six or seven months, or
- even take longer than that! So - they
- have a lot of time to collect
- articles. And what's happening?
- After many months they have about 30
- articles in the menu! Why? People
- simply abandon diskmags because they
- are too idle to read them. The
- internet spreads lazyness (I know
- something about that... :[), it's
- difficult to find a willingness for
- reading hundreds of kilobytes. And
- what about writing? People are lazy,
- they do not show a willingness to type
- even a few kbytes per year. I also
- know, that the lack of ideas for an
- article can be a reason of inactivity.
- People are not treating the scene
- seriously, she's not hobby no. 1 for
- them anymore. They are not thinking
- about the scene, they're not
- considering the state of the scene.
- Articles are - indeed! - the children
- of the work of our minds, they are
- from our own observations. I know,
- that there are sceners treating the
- scene very seriously, but in spite of
- that, they're not writing even ONE
- article! Why? I have no idea.
- Frequently they are active demomakers,
- graphicians and musicians. Maybe they
- have no time to do something else for
- the scene? This argument does not
- convince me. Everything is possible
- if someone wants to - in spite of a
- few hard exams I have in front of me
- and lots of time spent with my
- girlfriend, I have time to write some
- text and some modules. Why can
- somebody do this while others cannot?
- Or maybe I should ask - why do
- somebody want to while others don't
- want to? Dunno, and this time it is
- not the fault of the internet. :)
-
- »CL1:I like diskmags very much. They have
- their own, unrepeatable atmosphere.
- And what is more important in the
- scene than atmosphere? For me, a good
- article can be for me more valuable,
- than many pictures and modules. A
- really good diskmag can excite me
- (lol:) much more than many demos and
- intros. I like to write, especially
- about the scene. I have my own
- opinion and I want to interest
- somebody with that. I'm sure that I
- am not alone in this, there are still
- people in the scene who create
- diskmags, still people who write for
- them, but everybody know what's up:
- lack of will - lack of support. On
- the other hand - it means that zines
- are getting to be goods only for
- connoisseurs, they are not read by
- casual people, only by those who are
- really interested in the topics. Has
- this more advantages or more
- disadvantegs? I don't know for now, I
- have to think about that. And my
- conclusions might probably be good
- material for another article. It
- really works that way.