| Subject | : | "Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | BigWarpGuy |
| Date | : | 25 Mar, 2003 on 14:24 |
| Due to a lack of volunteers, POSSI ( http://www.possi.org ) no longer publishes the 'Extended Attributes' magazine. It posts news on its web site. I received an e-mail from them after I had sent in membership dues. I will miss such a great little magazine.
OS/2 Warp-ed to the very end. |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | warpcafe warpcafe@yahoo.de |
| Date | : | 25 Mar, 2003 on 21:06 |
| Heck! I didn't even know that they were in need of contributors or volunteers! I would have loved to be part of the "only printed magazine left for OS/2". Now that came to an end as well. [sigh] Was that a members-only based magazine in matters of contrbuting? Thomas |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | BigWarpGuy |
| Date | : | 26 Mar, 2003 on 14:43 |
| I don't know if it was a 'members only' contributers but I doubt they would have stuck to it if it meant having more people write for it. I wonder if they could do an online magazine like at http://www.os2ezine.com ? (I will ask them [or someone else could ask them - too?]). OS/2 Warp-ed to the very end. |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | warpcafe warpcafe@yahoo.de |
| Date | : | 26 Mar, 2003 on 15:10 |
Well, I think this depends upon whether they had a need for people ding the "print" stuff or rather contributing... If they hadn't enough contributors (what the e-zine and VNL sometimes is suffering from too) there's little chance to make an online mag. At least, if they don't choose a extended period - e.g. quarterly instead of each month. Thomas |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | Christian Hennecke |
| Date | : | 27 Mar, 2003 on 21:59 |
AFAIK they were mainly lacking content.Anyone could have contributed, the restriction was that the magazine was sent to members or subscribers only. |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | BigWarpGuy |
| Date | : | 28 Mar, 2003 on 14:19 |
Too bad they didn't consider making it a bi-monthly or quarterly magazine open to anyone willing to pay for a subscription (not just to members) and 'advertised' it more at OS/2 sites (as many as they could think of).
OS/2 Warp-ed to the very end. |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | warpcafe warpcafe@yahoo.de |
| Date | : | 28 Mar, 2003 on 17:46 |
Yep, this is something that makes me wonder quite often: OS/2 people seem to be somehow IBM-breeded too, as they never feel the need to adverstise or share any kind of knowledge or information as they think "everybody knows it anyway". Maybe we should stop publishing free newsletters and magazines, putting everything together for the sake of having *one* printed community magazine for sale? <laugh> That'll be fun: There'll be more contributors than readers. And again, those who'll pay for an issue would be those who contributed - as always. Maybe we should instead think about "where *we* want to go tomorrow"... ? It's great to be part of spare time idealists who provide community service for free, but this can't go on like this. The community's "consumer-only" people must show their support. And if they don't show up at Warpstock or show their support in any other way - heck - let'em pay for it! When Kim had a poll for the OS/2 award and asked for possible new categories I suggested an award given to a community member for "community achievement" - that's to say everything aside of programming... hell, what kind of ridiculous feeback that was! This awesome, often-referred-to "Community" isn't even able to give an award to its own!! This is no community. This is a bunch of undecided, passive, waiting dwarfs with no community sense at all. When someone says that "the community tends to be passive and disagrees on almost everything" then everybody within the community agrees - what kind of rubbish is that? And even if we've got 20 millions of OS/2-specialized and really good sites on the internet (this might be great, yeah - but...) what's it worth? Even if you disagree: The only thing that keeps us alive is something that we do *together*. Even swearing, arguing and disagreeing is better than simply *nothing*. ...and *nothing* is exactly what I feel to get back from this so-called "community" except for a few reader feedbacks (at least! Thanks, folks!) I'll go on with what I'm doing because I love it, but if this goes on like now, I'll sooner or later save my time for my family and pet. They at least give me some feedback on what I do for them. Fuck. (Sorry for the last word). ...sorry for the whole post, (Tom, don't feel like this was said to you personally! It wasn't of course - I only wish there were more folks like you around) It's just, you know, nobody seems to draw conclusions from what is going on. This makes me sick, feeling very sad and frustrated. The world of OS/2 is becoming a microcosmic reflection of modern western society: Nobody cares about anything except bucks and "me myself and I". To put it this way: Thomas |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | warpcafe warpcafe@yahoo.de |
| Date | : | 28 Mar, 2003 on 17:52 |
| In reply to my own post: This is ridiculous! I only wish I could write my former post to those who don't participate and who don't do anything except waiting for something free. Thomas |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | billsch |
| Date | : | 28 Mar, 2003 on 19:37 |
A subscription and a membership were one and the same. The dues covered the cost of producing the magazine plus a small pittance for keeping the organization running. The death of the print magazine also ended the group collecting any form of "dues". (If someone sends POSSI money, we'll try to refund it unless they tell us to keep it as a donation.) At the end of the print publication run, we had almost 700 subscriber/members worldwide. As for advertising, we were promoted by BMT Micro (they sold subscriptions and back issues), Indelible Blue (they included "ea" subscription cards in many of their own mailings), and we were vendors at every US Warpstock except the last one, and at one Warpstock Europe. We did a mailing to the OS/2 Magazine subscription list when that magazine went under. We ran and heavily promoted two conferences -- WarpTech and OS/2 Marketplace. The point is that we didn't need to advertise the magazine more. Lack of circulation was not what killed it. Lack of content killed it. We went to bi-monthly, quarterly, and then to randomly whenever-we-got-content. Two issues were written entirely by the three editors, just so we could get something out. The last couple of articles sat in staging for almost two years. We begged for articles on the POSSI list, in print, and on the Web site. The only response was from people complaining that they hadn't gotten any new magazines. So, it died. Around the first of March, we switched the Web site to a content management system. You can find articles from old issues on the site, now. There's also a tiny bit of new content. More will come. (That's at http://www.possi.org/extended_attributes ) By the way, POSSI hasn't been a "local" user group since 1996. When the dues collection ended, only 4% of the membership was in Arizona. Bill, Editor-in-chief, extended attributes |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | billsch |
| Date | : | 28 Mar, 2003 on 19:46 |
Online publication is non-cyclic. When a new article has passed through the edit-cycle, it's published. There's no wait or holding period. The "Current" folder is even syndicated (via RSS), so it's possible to track new content rather easily. Bill, Editor-in-chief, extended attributes |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | warpcafe warpcafe@yahoo.de |
| Date | : | 29 Mar, 2003 on 11:27 |
Bill, thanks for clarifying what was actually going on "behind the scene". As you might have noticed, this is useful information to us as we don't need to guess and assume any longer... But to make sure I understand correctly: Is EA definetly "gone" or are you still in progress of collecting contents to release issues more or less randomly depending on contrbutions? Thomas |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | billsch |
| Date | : | 29 Mar, 2003 on 15:59 |
The print version of the magazine is gone. We no longer have the necessary printer contacts and mailing permits. And we've closed down our credit card processing. To keep all that running, we would have to publish on a regular schedule -- at least every other month. The Web version is all there is, now. Anyone who wants to contribute can "join" the site, read the how-to, and start writing. Articles still go through an editor (or two) before they're published on the site. So, you don't have to worry if your writing is a little rough. Bill |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | Kim |
| Date | : | 01 Apr, 2003 on 11:05 |
| So the main issue to close the magazine was that you didn't have the proper mailing and printing contacts anymore. But, if this could be restored would there be a possibility of gettin the magazine out again ? Also to be mentioned, I never got any renewal of my subscription of the magazine... but as for now it doesn't really matter. /Kim |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | billsch |
| Date | : | 04 Apr, 2003 on 00:41 |
NO. Please read everything I said above. The main issue to close the magazine is that there was NO CONTENT. Lack of content closed the magazine. Content was lacking because nobody submitted a single article over the course of 18 months. That, and only that, led to the loss of our mailing and printing contracts. There is no possibility of getting another print magazine out because there is still NO CONTENT. Two new articles in almost two years does not represent enough material to produce a print publication. Here's what I mean by lack of content: A single issue of the magazine requires about 16,000 to 24,000 words. Total submitted word count in the past two years totals about 6,000 words. That's one-fourth of a single month's issue. Or about 2% of the content needed to keep the publication going for those two years. That is what I mean by lack of content. No amount of printing or mailing contracts are going to fix it. If we started seeing a flood of article submissions on the Web site, we might maybe consider reviving the print publication. But so far, that just isn't happening. Bill |
| Subject | : | Re:"Extended Attributes" Magazine Is No More! |
| Author | : | BigWarpGuy |
| Date | : | 04 Apr, 2003 on 17:19 |
| IIRC - there was an OS/2 magazine that had a lack of vendors buying ad space and not a lack of content. I would have gladly paid more for it if it meant continuing the magazine. A lack of content is very difficult to overcome even with alot of vendors buying ad space. PS I will post your reply to different places and see what the reply(ies) will be. OS/2 Warp-ed to the very end. |