Why are you reading diskmags?

Written by Adok

Why are you reading diskmags? Certainly not to hear the editors' steadily screaming for articles. But in fact, many disk magazines consist almost entirely of comments regarding the laziness about the writers, excuses for the lack of content, even more support-us cries and no real content.

Do you want to read such diskmags? I guess not. Not even editors want to read mags that almost entirely complain about their lack of articles.

And if nobody wants to read your mag, nobody will write for it either. You have to offer at least a bit content to be able to hope for other people to support you.

And now the question is, what do people want to read in a diskmag? What do you expect from a diskmag?

Think about it. What pops into your mind first? I can only tell what pops into my mind first, and that is: information. I want to read diskmags to get informed about the latest scene happenings or basically all the activities of the scene during the months since the previous issue of the mag. I want to learn about new interesting releases, new projects, new web-sites and such kinds where you can participate actively. I also want to learn about upcoming parties and where to get the stuff from old parties. And, furthermore, I am also interested in learning more about the history of the scene, things that are new to me, what the oldskool groups and scene-stars are doing now, maybe hidden parts and such interesting details. Finally coders, graphicians, and musicians can learn from the experience of other sceners who wrote tutorials and explained some techniques and effects in them.

Okay, but information is not everything: you can also get that from web-sites, up-to-date online magazines, usenet or even on IRC. There, the news are way more up to date anyway. And if you use a scene search engine like the one which existed at Hornet, you will find many group homepages with their releases, although many of them are outdated. A nice thing therefore would be a list stating which sites are most up-to-date, by the way.

So, what more do you expect from diskmags? I think: discussion. You want to learn other sceners' or other people in general's opinions. That do not only have to be scene-related opinions. Whereas providing information about some mainstream politics happenings of which you have already learnt a lot on TV, in newspapers or real magazines, is rather boring most of the time, it is interesting to read people's personal statements about politics, for example. And you might also get the idea to participate in the discussion too.

That's a very important element in a diskmag: articles that provoke discussions. This is the easiest and most effective way of getting articles, although I must warn you, editors, do not expect too much from it either.

And thirdly, a diskmag needs entertainment. While you can find information on the WWW, newsgroups, etc. and can also discuss in newsgroups for example, you do not necessarily find entertainment on the net. Of course there is entertainment, and you will certainly bump into funny things after chatting on IRC for a while, reading newsgroups or looking for it at a search engine. But a magazine - be it a paper magazine, a disk magazine or an online magazine - is usually the most reliable source for entertainment; usually you find all three things combined, information, discussion, and entertainment, in edited magazines only.

So, if you want to make a successful diskmag - provide a combination of all three things. And provide much content for the people to read and to provoke discussion.

Anything else to add?

- adok^hugi

LIFE rules. HUGI is LIFE.