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My recommendation to Charles was to make Issue #20 the final PDF edition of the magazine and then switch Suspense & Decision over to a WordPress blog site where articles could be posted individually as they are ready by authors. This is so much more sustainable than designing, laying out, and producing a PDF magazine.
Even with Issue #20, which was handed over to Bernd to produce several months ago, we're in limbo again where one person is the bottleneck. I'm not mad at Charles or Bernd, I just want to get us all out from under this collective rock. Producing a PDF-based PBM magazine is clearly not working. Let's switch to something that will work so we can keep the content flowing.
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I don't envision anyone making a PDF from posts on Facebook. Nor do I envision anyone making the same posts in more than one place, so if it's on FB then it isn't likely to be anywhere else. That gets back to the restricted audience that I was worried about. Thus, if all you've got is FB posts then that's all I ever see happening, and we've basically got that now, and it won't be any kind of a 'zine. I'd rather see something more structured, like the PDF is, even if it's only a dozen pages.
Perhaps a better solution would be to improve that "major pain in the hindquarters" directly, somehow, and avoid just random scattered posts that few will bother tracking down to read even if they are resident there?
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(02-26-2021, 08:31 PM)Rinzai Wrote: My recommendation to Charles was to make Issue #20 the final PDF edition of the magazine and then switch Suspense & Decision over to a WordPress blog site where articles could be posted individually as they are ready by authors. This is so much more sustainable than designing, laying out, and producing a PDF magazine.
I agree that producing a PDF by hand is too much work for any one person, though they've both tried hard. But I'm not as fond of a piecemeal approach to it, either.
For one thing, a publication deadline (whether it be soft or hard) encourages me to write something on a timely basis. With an open-ended input area (blog, posts, etc.) then I wouldn't have anything pushing me to write and it'd just get put off and put off and I'd never get anything done. That sounds like a recipe for stagnation, and I'd rather not encourage that.
For another thing, one thing I like about S&D (from both a reader and game-runner point of view) is the advertising. Individual posts won't have any place for advertisements to go that talk about what's available and why anyone would want to play them.
If there was a way to help automate production of a PDF (or similar compiled 'zine format), with a way to submit articles directly to it, wouldn't that help a lot of the concerns that are being bandied about?
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02-26-2021, 09:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2021, 09:32 PM by Lugh.)
(02-26-2021, 08:36 PM)Davin Wrote: I don't envision anyone making a PDF from posts on Facebook.
You got the order wrong. Someone has the articles, we put them on Facebook and S&D and anywhere else we think can reach potential converts. The articles could be put into a PDF by someone if they have the desire...
(02-26-2021, 08:36 PM)Davin Wrote: Nor do I envision anyone making the same posts in more than one place, so if it's on FB then it isn't likely to be anywhere else.
With respect, now you are just being obstinate. Someone who has a reddit account (for example) could post the articles there... Your obsession with Facebook is affecting your logic my friend.
(02-26-2021, 08:36 PM)Davin Wrote: Thus, if all you've got is FB posts then that's all I ever see happening, and we've basically got that now, and it won't be any kind of a 'zine.
You are the only one saying it will only appear in the bogeyman Facebook and no where else!!!
(02-26-2021, 08:36 PM)Davin Wrote: I'd rather see something more structured, like the PDF is, even if it's only a dozen pages.
Fine. Whoever has the articles, please give a copy to Davin so he can create his Holy PDFs before his head explodes!
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(02-26-2021, 08:45 PM)Davin Wrote: For another thing, one thing I like about S&D (from both a reader and game-runner point of view) is the advertising. Individual posts won't have any place for advertisements to go that talk about what's available and why anyone would want to play them.
Posts could have a hyperlink to the game company...
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(02-26-2021, 08:31 PM)Rinzai Wrote: My recommendation to Charles was to make Issue #20 the final PDF edition of the magazine and then switch Suspense & Decision over to a WordPress blog site where articles could be posted individually as they are ready by authors. This is so much more sustainable than designing, laying out, and producing a PDF magazine.
Even with Issue #20, which was handed over to Bernd to produce several months ago, we're in limbo again where one person is the bottleneck. I'm not mad at Charles or Bernd, I just want to get us all out from under this collective rock. Producing a PDF-based PBM magazine is clearly not working. Let's switch to something that will work so we can keep the content flowing.
Hallefreakingluyah!!!
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(02-26-2021, 09:30 PM)Lugh Wrote: You got the order wrong. Someone has the articles, we put them on Facebook and S&D and anywhere else we think can reach potential converts. The articles could be put into a PDF by someone if they have the desire...
I do? If someone comes up with something to say, I'd expect them to just want to post it on their favorite area (FB or elsewhere). Then they're done. They have no incentive to do anything else, to copy it anywhere, to give it to anyone else, or even to make it "pretty". It sounds like it simply stops there from lack of interest.
And that just sounds like everyday posting, not a 'zine. How's that different from not having anything special at all?
Who will be this "someone" you keep referring to? Are you talking about some centralized point of control that "has the articles" and handles everything for us? At best, who has time?
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(02-26-2021, 09:30 PM)Lugh Wrote: With respect, now you are just being obstinate. Someone who has a reddit account (for example) could post the articles there... Your obsession with Facebook is affecting your logic my friend.
And if someone decides to say something on Reddit (or anywhere else that I don't have an account), how am I supposed to see it?
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(02-26-2021, 09:30 PM)Lugh Wrote: (02-26-2021, 08:36 PM)Davin Wrote: Thus, if all you've got is FB posts then that's all I ever see happening, and we've basically got that now, and it won't be any kind of a 'zine.
You are the only one saying it will only appear in the bogeyman Facebook and no where else!!!
Not at all! All I'm trying to say is that something to be said will only appear once, in one place (whether it's FB or not), and then vanish into the posts of history. Nobody will be able to go find it, or even know where to look for news.
Social media is fine for chatting, but I think an organized publication of some sort is what we need to be rallying around.
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(02-26-2021, 09:30 PM)Lugh Wrote: You are the only one saying it will only appear in the bogeyman Facebook and no where else!!!
BTW, you see me picking on FB but it's not because it's a favorite target. It's simply because you mentioned it first and I used it for a generic example. I think that any sort of posting-based social media is equally poor at the kind of stuff I think we should be trying to do.
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