Editorial: Creating An Electronic Mag
Author: Sir ReaL - Adrenalin Management
SR's Trials And Tribulations: Creating An Electronic Magazine
A lot of work has been put into this magazine. Many people out there just don't realize it. When you announce that you're going to put out a magazine, you better follow through with it. If you don't, you get ridiculed, thrown down, spit on... (You probably get the picture) by the users in the scene. If you added up the total number of man-hours put into this piece of work, it would probably come to quite a surprising number. You learn a lot from the process of creating a magazine though. Through all of the tasks we had to complete, (and there were many of them) you get organization.
When I embarked on creating this magazine w/ Ricochet and Avatar, it seemed to me, that it would be a relatively easy ride. I mean, when we had created "LAW Magazine" a few months earlier, it wasn't the hardest thing in the world to finish up. The contents were relatively easy to obtain, and the programming (once we got ourselves hooked up w/ Avatar) was a snap. Why should "Adrenalin" be any harder? It's pretty much the same thing, right? A Mag, is a Mag, is a Mag...
Yeah, sure it is. Right. And if you believe that, you'd be better off sticking to reading the articles in Hustler and Playboy (don't get me wrong.. they're great publications... really). Hell, was I ever wrong. Not only did Adrenalin have more articles/artwork to be obtained, but each piece of the work contained in this magazine was exponentially harder to get than that of our previous works.
To start where everyone starts, at the beginning, we were a couple of guys (Myself, and Ricochet) who basically, liked and enjoyed reading electronic magazine. I had initially been exposed to magazines such as Illuminatus, Insanity, Phrack, SCD, the whole lot, and in all frankness, I thought all of them were great, in their own right. I felt that while each one was a superb piece of work whenever it came out, it was lacking something. Each left something to be desired in me. The thought of creating a "something for everyone" magazine was the main thought in my mind that made me want to undertake all of the work that was ahead of me. While I felt that Insanity came close to being the magazine that would define pirate magazines (and in many ways, it did), it too came up a bit short in some ways. I hope that this product gives something that everyone can get some information out of, or at least, some enjoyment in reading.
We knew that it was imperative that we find something to separate our magazine from the pack. The first thing we thought of was multiple interfaces.
This may seem trivial to some people, but it's a bit of innovation to us. I know that in some magazines, the articles are fantastic, but the interface is dull in comparison. We felt that if you don't like one of the interfaces, chances are that you're probably going to like one of the other four. The fact that they're all done by quality artists helps in this prediction, but I have no proof that you'll actually like any of them. I do have faith in the articles that have been submitted. All of the ones that have been included in this issue are those that we feel are of the utmost quality for publication.
They contain some sort of information, or humor, and more often than not, they are a combination of the two. But you should be the real judge of that.
Up until now, I haven't really gone into the real work that's required to put out a magazine. I'd have to say that it's much more than anyone really anticipates. I give credit to anyone who takes on the task of creating an idea in your head, and then translating it into the form of an electronic magazine. Anyone who puts out a quality piece of work (let me emphasize QUALITY)... deserves all of the credit that he can take. For the Adrenalin Crew, it took a LITTLE bit longer than we had anticipated <g>, and a lot more hours of annoying people for articles/artwork than we had wanted. Thanks to the efforts and knowledge of our programmer, Avatar, the actual coding of the magazine was one of the least of our troubles. The collecting of articles is another thing.
Take for example, our "Group Politics" section in the magazine. You'll never really understand how hard it is to contact ALL the heads of ALL the major groups (whether they be Couriering/Cracking/Artwork...) and then to get an article from them. These guys are busy enough with their own schedule of running their group, how do you get them to take care of an article for you?
Well, we figured out the hard way. While many of the groups were more than gracious, and wrote up an article for us, we just simply could not persuade them to write, and that is completely understandable.
Speaking on articles, we knew we had to get quality. That is the focus Adrenalin. My thoughts are "Why put out a magazine (even if it looks good) when you don't have any quality articles to put in it?". For me, a magazine has to have one thing: Articles. If it doesn't have that, then it really doesn't convey much to the reader. Now if a magazine looks good, and has a lot of great artwork included, that's all for the better. But, above all, comes the contents. We had people write for us and, to tell the truth, some of them just didn't go with what we wanted to give to the readers. So, we boiled it down, and added in most of the Illuminatus staff to help us out. Bam! We had some great articles, and not a bad number of them either. The difficult part was the process of getting the writers that we have now.
To get to where we are now, we talked to people, and we talked to some more people. Then we wrote, then talked to people.. and it goes on and on. Overall, I wouldn't really describe the process as difficult though. Rather... Tedious. Although it is a rewarding thing to see the finished product on your HD. I'll be trying to write this column (T&T) for each issue, gripin' about how hard it is to do something... and if I can't find out something to whine about... well, don't worry. I will. <g>
Well, I fear that I've already made this too long for what it's worth, so, I'll try to wrap it up...
Adrenalin Issue #2 will be coming out soon. We are currently looking for three (count 'em) THREE things.
Artists, Writers, and Distribution sites.
If you want to be an artist for this magazine, please get in touch with Ricochet on Banned In The USA. If you'd like to either Write, or be a Distribution Site for Adrenalin, contact myself (Sir ReaL) on Banned In The USA, or through most major networks (FelonyNET, CelerityNET...)
Keep in mind that if you would like to be a part of the Adrenalin Crew you will be required to contribute to the magazine. You must write a minimum of 5-7 articles per issue if you want to write, and for distribution sites, you must either provide artwork, articles, or contribute in some other way to the magazine.
Hi's & Ho's Go Out To:
- Ricochet - Thanks for pullin' the shit together in the end there. But it's finally out.. Guess we gotta work on #2 now eh?
- Avatar - One of the best programmers out there that I know.. No matter what anyone else says.
- Vendetta - Where the hell are ya?
- Sharp - Thanks for your cooperation... One of the "nice guys" out there. <g> Good luck w/ Lancelot-2.. Tornado &
- The Sheik - Where's that Trademark Graphics Magazine or Illustrator #2?? <g> Eagerly looking forward to it.
- Blind Faith - Look out for 'dem Feds.. They're onto you. <g>
- Surak - Any better than Illuminatus? <g>
- Dixie Flatline - "Da Flatline's on the comeback!" I'd say.. <g>
- R.Noble - "Where THA hell is my interface!?!" ;)
- Surak - Still filling out file descriptions are 3 AM? Haha..
Alright.. I'm outta here. Have a good one.
- Sir ReaL
[ Adrenalin '93 ]
