pouët.net

well i think the internet changed everything.
at the "old" days ppl who didnt had any music,gfx,coding skills
got swappers or editors.
today swapping went pointless and doing diskmags... well
it doesnt brings as much attention as writing troll postings here.

a webmag would make alot of sense.
unfortunatly the scene is small and instead of working together everyone tries to cook his own übermag/seite and fails.

I always like those properly designed PDF-magazines from the art scene that have some flash script around it to flip pages and they even provide ambient music (if you're too lazy to download the pdf), imho that should be a cool (and frankly not all too time consuming to produce) way to present diskmags and would fit a diskmag like Zine already considering their already magazine styled interface. A minor bonus is that next to that it would serve those 'i dont understand the interface' as well.

And maybe it's feasible to take that concept the blog way, by just releasing good looking articles on a frequent basis instead of delaying a bundle of articles till the end of time and making some decay by the element of time. so, that and a website with an RSS feed and i'd probably read those articles ;)

i forgot to mention 'somewhere central', cos i agree with xenusion's view that input of new articles for diskmags are so minimal that having these efforts scattered over multiple diskmags might not be that interesting. ppl tend to complain about the emptiness and/or abundance of pisspoor amateur prosa/poetry noone wants to read of certain magazines already.

Diskmags still have a purpose for reports, reviews and interviews, and maybe charts. Plus they have the all-important showcase of art and music. But for news, messages, and opinion pieces where you might like feedback, there are obviously better means.

I think that diskmags are pieces of art with their unique code, graphics, music and layout. You cannot compare them to a simple blog or web-based journal.

(gloom: Nobody cares about what you write.)

Adok: maybe not, but at least I don't repeat what other people have said a thousands time before.

Oh, and to the moron who thought it would be funny to subscribe me to to a few online Flash magazines: yeah, you know the timestamp thing on your posts? Next time, you should probably wait a few hours between posting on Pouet and pressing "Subscribe", eh? Oh, and they all got caught by the spam-filter btw. So much for the Mensa-membership. Oops!

Was that moron a Mensa member?

Also, a diskmag is definitive.

Through the years websites come and go (for different reasons)

A diskmag is stored forever and is a timestamp of the period is was released in.

adok & magic: the point i wanted to make with my previous post (which i'm sure both of you read) is that it's 2009 and a web mag doesn't have to be a "simple blog or web-based journal". i also don't see why a proper web mag couldn't be preserved properly, or why it wouldn't be a timestamp of the period it's released in (which, by the way, doesn't really apply to traditional diskmags these days).

it might be a little difficult to grasp because what i'm proposing hasn't been done yet in a demoscene context. it's ok.

someone mentioned charts as "now useless". While the competition is less important than it was 15 years ago, it sure is still interesting to have a list of the best prods released in the past months. For mainly two reasons: be sure not to miss a thing, and to serve as reference for the future. I had a good time reading the old Zines and reading what were the best demos at the time and what people were thinking of them.
A diskmag can turn as a nice slice of time, and as such it is way superior to blogs.
I wouldn't hate a flash mag, but being able to select a line of text is very important, helps readability, +you can leave the selection as is to remember where you were at (if doing short reading sessions).

Reed: true that a website could be preserved properly.

But so far many websites have dissapeared for one reason or another like Hacks, forgetting to pay the money for the wesite url, after years the owner find its time to move on, HD crash (e.g. nectarine)
etc..

Which proves my point of vulnarability.

I second your thought though on trying to make an online magazine which hasnt been done yet in a demoscene contect. Afterall you cant stop progress from happening even in the demo scene.

BarZoule: a web mag doesn't have to be flash to be something out of the ordinary, and a flash mag can have copypasta enabled. also, you already have two lists of the best prods from the past months: the compo results from major parties during that time, and the pouet thumb statistics for the "should've won" results.

magic: i agree, a website is vulnerable if it's being run by amateurs.

reed: Feature-suggestion for Pouet? Every user gets a single "Moral winner!"-tag which they can assign to any one production in any one compo at every party listed. Makes up a new set of lists :)

magic, ever heard of archive.org? websites can be saved & backupped.

gloom, actually that is a funny idea! should be done. :)

Nosfe: tell that to all the makers whose websites have dissapeared throughout the years. (e.g. nectarine) and not to me :)

here's a question though: websites offer interactivity to the reader, allowing to post comments, etc. - are those in line with the concept of the diskmag, or is a read-only diskmag better?

I was thinking about this as well, I mean being able to interact with a diskmag and its articles / readers on-the-go might be one thing that makes the experience a lot more fun.

Simply post the articles of a diskmag also at bitfellas.org
where this is possible. And point this out inside the diskmag aswell.

reed: i'm just saying that even something as ugly as flash could be used and i would steal read it. But if in flash, plz enable the copy-paste :)

Garg/Dec/Mag: yup all zine articles are on Bitfellas (hard to find but still there) and some have comments, some f them comments are even interesting/insightful!

anyway just by the size and activity in this thread i guess it's not true that 'no one cares anymore about diskmags' and it's good to see :D

he nailed it.

Online (flash/whatever web 2.0 format) "diskmag" would be the way to go. Additionally an offline version could be downloaded for those who want to read the contents it on the road / without internet for some reason. I'd say big part of the problem is the technical legacy that scene mags are dragging with them. A diskmag has been always like it is, even with efforts like Zine did revamping the old format.

Then, of course, it's all about active and skilled writers. And a view, or insight behind the editors post, to set some level what is wanted and accepted to be published. This is surely even bigger problem than any format or technical restrictions could be.

Don't know.. Perhaps the recipe for a successful mag could be something like:

1) Start with a mastermind ninja editor
2) Add 10 demo bloggers
3) Combine forces with a flash guru
4) Spice up with a design expert (both gfx & UI)
5) Shake & profit

:)

Gargaj:



Actually I had the idea that both things could be integrated. You could include a function in the diskmag engine that connects to the Internet, downloads comments on the article and allows you to post your own comments. But that would require some coding efforts...

Wrong, at least I do. How comes you failed in this simple propotion? After all, it's binary.

I hate that you're killing the discussion, but I really like the mentioned idea.

Give that idea a try, I have the same problems reading the whole mag.

Btw, allow more resolutions and even rotating of the content by +/- 90 degrees for people with netbooks. 1024x600 is not as useful as 600x1024.

So what about diskmags in 2010 ? I really hope Zine and Pain will be back this year!

lol