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Pure Bollocks Issue 22_003
* Y O U * C A N * C O N T R I B U T E ! *
OK, a bit ST Format-ish, but it's true. You can really contribute to the number
1 underground ST disk mag in Britain at the current moment (or a really crap
diskmag by a bunch of lamers on STs, whichever you prefer). There are 4 ways
you can contribute to it:
1) ARTICLES!
As you can guess from reading this diskmag, we go in for a certain 'standard'
of articles. We don't really do this too much as an ego-trip, you only have to
look at our last issue to see that! So we're not really interested in loads of
shite interviews; or boring rambling shit; or half a page of coding tips
everyone knows about, then it goes "Now about our megademo..." (goes on for 2
pages) and then "Now let me say hi to..." (goes on for 3 pages!) I find that
most people aren't really interested in that sort of shite unless it's stuff
they WANT to know about, and it's written reasonably well!
I might as well say what I mean when I say "boring rambling shit". There's
an awful lot of articles in diskmags which are written over the course of a few
days or even weeks by one single person, detailing what they think about this,
what did the other day, and so on. Now I'd say that's a "column"- a space in a
magazine for someone to detail their news and views IN A WAY THAT READERS FIND
INTERESTING!!!! So I'm pretty sure that many of these people writing these
articles don't have a fucking clue about this small point! There are good
columns like Rottspot in Maggie, and even Mutant Monthly (Though the standard
of English is pissawful!). As for the worst ones.... Well, there's a category
of articles that I really think are a waste of space and that's the "History of
our group" type articles written by someone in the group when they're in an
inactive stage. Look you sadcases- if you do fuck all, then why have you got
such an illustrious history that you want to tell the readers about it?!??!
This is the sort of thing that really makes columns boring- ego trips! The best
columns are those where you talk about OTHER people than yourselves! Sure, you
can say what YOU think about it, but if you keep going "me.. myself.. I" all
the time, then everyone will think you're a bit of an egomaniac sadcase. And
I'm afraid I'm going to slag Powerman of TWB off again, because his columns are
nearly always ego, TWB news, or techno! Sorry Powerman, but unless you can
think of things a bit more diverse than that, I would advise you stick to
something you know about that other people WOULD be interested in ie articles
on coding. I'm not really saying that ALL rambling articles are shit, just the
ones that might as well be filled with, as UNC Disk Times says, "Pssst...
fish... fuck..... Whoopiedoo!". For example, a good rambling article would be a
realtime article at a copy party, because they're written by loads of different
people with different points of view, and also often written in reaction to
various things at the party, so it can give you an idea of what's going on
there!
Anyway, onto the sort of stuff that we do like. Real, decent features! If
there's any subject you think would make a good in-depth feature in this
magazine, then go ahead and do one. Remember, clarity and information are very
important- stick as much info in it as you can, but if think some readers might
not fully understand what your saying, don't be afraid to explain it in simple
terms! It looks good if you can bring other sources into your article- though
do credit them for it if possible! Finally, don't worry if your article's not a
masterpieces- neither are the ones in the rest of the magazine! Anyway,
everyone learns as they go along. Contact us as well- we might be able to help!
We've got a slight "house style" look evolving at PBHQ now! If you want to
take a note of it, the main points of it are:
- 79 characters per line
- ASCII text format
- Fully justfied text
- Tabs set at 5 characters.
- Quotations use double-quotes. (Well, a bit obvious, really since you have
to use single-quotes for apostrophes!)
This usually applies as well if your sending us articles you've downloaded as
well. Most of them use double-quotes and are ASCII already, so you don't have
to bother going through articles with search and replace for the right types of
quotes!
We're starting to do some fairly regular review sections, so if you want to
do reviews of things like demos, games, music, films, etc., ... The important
thing is that you tell the reader enough info about what you're reviewing and
that you state your opinions! Yes, I know that's a bit obvious, but it's
surprising how many reviewers waffle on about any old irrelevant bullshit, and
are coy about expressing any views, so just remember it!
As for interviews, as you can see, we don't do any normal interviews. But
we do ask interview questions! Confused? Well, you might see that we've stuck
the views of some of the contributors at the end of some articles. What we do
is sometime before the magazine is finished, we send out a text file of
questions, based on the articles we're doing, to these people so that they can
put their views on it. If you're interested- contact us!
2) Utilities!
If you've got any NEW utilities or source code then we'd certainly appreciate
it! Try to make sure it's complete a version as possible, and that it's
unpacked. (This is so we can pack it with whatever's the best packer around at
the moment!)
3) Ripped music!
If you've hacked out chip music from any NEW demos or games then we're always
needing a few tunes to accompany our illustrious diskmag! We'll of course
credit you for it!
4) Suggestions!
Suggestions about how we could improve this diskmag are always welcome. For
example, the idea of an archiver program was a suggestion by one of our
contacts. It was a good idea, so we implemented it! Unfortunately, Flowerman
didn't keep a backup and lost all the code! Ooops!
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