12-03-2013, 05:06 PM
I'm not entirely sure who, but someone pressed the button.
"What button?" you ask. Why, the launch button, the one that will usher in a new era in PBM gaming.
Oh...THAT Button.
Yeah, right. Come on, now. I can hear the groans and grumblings, and I can see the heads shaking on their bobble mounts. Seeing is believing. So far, all that we've managed to do is to launch a new PBM magazine.
Just look at the thing! It's got typos in it. It's two pages shy of a full deck. Did anyone even bother to download the damned thing?
Doubting Thomases, one and all, I say. Doubting Thomases.
Regardless of the launch, itself, and regardless of that proverbial button that I immortalize in the subject heading of this editorial. Things are moving forward. They are moving ahead. Houston, we are a go.
As of the writing of this editorial, there are a mere seventeen days left for submissions to come in for issue # 2 of Suspend & Decision magazine.
Will we make it? Will issue # 2 ever materialize? Or will the whole effort implode, shortly after launch of issue # 1?
Time will tell.
How to balance what goes in the magazine, with what goes in the forum and on the site, here? Hell if I know. I guess that we'll have to figure that out, too, along the way.
But, I suspect that it will entail posting material here on the site and in the forum that the magazine does not contain. Oh, Hell! More work.
Then again, it's not been every single day of the 21st Century that a new PBM magazine has been launched. Can't we at least savor the moment?
Uh? What's that, you say? No?!
Apparently not, then. No resting on our laurels. Are you sure that these are laurels? They look an awful lot like cactus, to me.
Proverbial cacti, that is.
Post-launch activities here at the PlayByMail.Net website includes a re-design of the site's front page. I'm certain that there will be those that won't like it, but I am aiming for something with a tad more visual interest, plus a way to off-load a bunch of the links from off of the front page, and to reorganize them onto their own individual page son the site. I still want them to be readily accessible for site visitors.
Additionally, I want to better highlight the commercial elements of the play by mail industry that survived into the modern era. To catch a sneak peek at how the new front page might look, click here. None of it is final, just yet. Just something that I am fiddling around with, trying to come up with something that I like better. The various categories of information and links may change, so don't get too attached to what you see, as of yet. I'm not even absolutely certain of which commercial PBM companies properly still qualify as Old Guard PBM, and which ones should fall into the category of Ancestral Descendants. I am flexible, though. I'm sure that we'll get the small details sorted out, in due time.
Hopefully, the commercial PBM companies will continue to come aboard the new magazine effort, where future issues of Suspense & Decision magazine are concerned. But, if not, then we'll just proceed forward without them, and let them join at a later issue of their respective choosing. I just think that it will make for a better magazine, overall, if they are active participants in it, each issue.
There's an article from Jim Kemeny that was earmarked for issue # 1, but I made the conscious decision to not include it. If Jim is out there, neither you nor your article are forgotten. I'm still trying to sort out permission to reprint it, from the magazine that originally printed it long ago. Until this issue is reconciled to my satisfaction, I would like to extend an invitation to Jim to author a new, original article from scratch. I'll even lead off the next issue with it, if Jim is game for it. My personal apologies to Jim for this Alamo-standoff on printing his original article.
"What button?" you ask. Why, the launch button, the one that will usher in a new era in PBM gaming.
Oh...THAT Button.
Yeah, right. Come on, now. I can hear the groans and grumblings, and I can see the heads shaking on their bobble mounts. Seeing is believing. So far, all that we've managed to do is to launch a new PBM magazine.
Just look at the thing! It's got typos in it. It's two pages shy of a full deck. Did anyone even bother to download the damned thing?
Doubting Thomases, one and all, I say. Doubting Thomases.
Regardless of the launch, itself, and regardless of that proverbial button that I immortalize in the subject heading of this editorial. Things are moving forward. They are moving ahead. Houston, we are a go.
As of the writing of this editorial, there are a mere seventeen days left for submissions to come in for issue # 2 of Suspend & Decision magazine.
Will we make it? Will issue # 2 ever materialize? Or will the whole effort implode, shortly after launch of issue # 1?
Time will tell.
How to balance what goes in the magazine, with what goes in the forum and on the site, here? Hell if I know. I guess that we'll have to figure that out, too, along the way.
But, I suspect that it will entail posting material here on the site and in the forum that the magazine does not contain. Oh, Hell! More work.
Then again, it's not been every single day of the 21st Century that a new PBM magazine has been launched. Can't we at least savor the moment?
Uh? What's that, you say? No?!
Apparently not, then. No resting on our laurels. Are you sure that these are laurels? They look an awful lot like cactus, to me.
Proverbial cacti, that is.
Post-launch activities here at the PlayByMail.Net website includes a re-design of the site's front page. I'm certain that there will be those that won't like it, but I am aiming for something with a tad more visual interest, plus a way to off-load a bunch of the links from off of the front page, and to reorganize them onto their own individual page son the site. I still want them to be readily accessible for site visitors.
Additionally, I want to better highlight the commercial elements of the play by mail industry that survived into the modern era. To catch a sneak peek at how the new front page might look, click here. None of it is final, just yet. Just something that I am fiddling around with, trying to come up with something that I like better. The various categories of information and links may change, so don't get too attached to what you see, as of yet. I'm not even absolutely certain of which commercial PBM companies properly still qualify as Old Guard PBM, and which ones should fall into the category of Ancestral Descendants. I am flexible, though. I'm sure that we'll get the small details sorted out, in due time.
Hopefully, the commercial PBM companies will continue to come aboard the new magazine effort, where future issues of Suspense & Decision magazine are concerned. But, if not, then we'll just proceed forward without them, and let them join at a later issue of their respective choosing. I just think that it will make for a better magazine, overall, if they are active participants in it, each issue.
There's an article from Jim Kemeny that was earmarked for issue # 1, but I made the conscious decision to not include it. If Jim is out there, neither you nor your article are forgotten. I'm still trying to sort out permission to reprint it, from the magazine that originally printed it long ago. Until this issue is reconciled to my satisfaction, I would like to extend an invitation to Jim to author a new, original article from scratch. I'll even lead off the next issue with it, if Jim is game for it. My personal apologies to Jim for this Alamo-standoff on printing his original article.
