»PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL9: www.imtoolazy.com »PIC:barclip2.ilbm» »CL4: By Kam »CL1:Maybe today, yesterday, a week ago, or even one year ago you have downloaded this diskmag (EC I supose... :]) from a netarchive. But why did you do that? In oder to absorb another portion of high-quality scene journalism? :) Or maybe you just want to save it on your HD and forget about it? If you are reading this, you propably choose first answer.. Or maybe not? »CL0:I was not present on the scene when the diskmags were born. But it isn't difficult to guess about the reasons of their rise. People wanted to express themselves, to say something - about thhe scene, computers, about life. Diskmags made sure that the scene became a community. The role of copy-parties was also huge, but magazines... That was something else, they had a different atmosphere. Diskmags were changing with the scene, they have evolved. There has been a huge quantity of various diskmagazines - from typical lamezines with fatal texts and very bad msx/gfx stuff, to great, elite (lol :P) titles with very fine articles and quality graphics and music. In those times the killer of the swappers was born - the internet. It was a natural reflex of sceners to start joining various internet communites. Many scene websites were available on the internet - group sites and scene-in-general sites (Orange Juice for example). That's wellknown, but where is the connection to diskmags? Let me explain... »CL1:In "Cows and Snakefights" issue 5 we can find an interesting article by Zito concerning diskmags. The author explains why he thinks that the idea of zines is senseless these days. Well, Browallia wrote a reply, but he made it somewhat chaotic; besides - I want to add something too :) »CL0:A few years ago the news-gathering was an important function of diskmags. There have even been diskmags with only info and news (akin to packs...). Ideas like this have no reason to exist today. The internet takes care of it now. It's no wonder that the frequency of released Amigamags is so low, as it is very easy to start browsing on a computer with an internet connection. So maybe it means that there is no sense in making diskmags in the internet era? You are wrong if you think so. Diskmags are supposed to be a place for discussions and polemics; You can proclaim your own opinion there. These things will not be taken over by websites. That's true - there are many forums where we can write what we're thinking about regarding many things. But a forum will never be equal to a diskmag. In a forum posts usually consists of one »PIC:scream» or two sentences. No one wants to write any more. Also - nobody wants to read more text. In a diskmag we can penetrate the problem, we can plunge into the substance. It does not mean that every editor should produce milions of bytes. But hey! - it's not possible to describe a certain topic well in 1,5 kB of text. »CL1:Diskmags also have another important function. Like charts - they are scene chronicles. We can return to them every time we like. They document all scene transformations. They show the mentality of the sceners of all times. They practically show everything that is and has been connected to the scene. Can we say the same about demoscene websites? Not at all - it is something completely different. In a diskmag even the music and graphics document something. Like a demo they display the standards of the contemporary scene aswell as the state of development of individual guys. Everybody knows how "hard" it is to make a website, and people commenting on forums are frequently very casual (if not stupid or even rude :P). Show me a scene website with good articles and hi-level comments... »CL0:In this place I can stop writing. Yet - I wrote that I disagree with several thesises from the article of Zito. I have to ask one question. Zito is trying to convince us that only a very small quantity of people read diskmags now. Even if they download the archive with the zine, they are too lazy (or whatever) to actually run it and read articles. Unfortunately, I must agree with this. You can just look at Amiga mags. There are only a few titles, and they are producing one issue every six or seven months, or even take longer than that! So - they have a lot of time to collect articles. And what's happening? After many months they have about 30 articles in the menu! Why? People simply abandon diskmags because they are too idle to read them. The internet spreads lazyness (I know something about that... :[), it's difficult to find a willingness for reading hundreds of kilobytes. And what about writing? People are lazy, they do not show a willingness to type even a few kbytes per year. I also know, that the lack of ideas for an article can be a reason of inactivity. People are not treating the scene seriously, she's not hobby no. 1 for them anymore. They are not thinking about the scene, they're not considering the state of the scene. Articles are - indeed! - the children of the work of our minds, they are from our own observations. I know, that there are sceners treating the scene very seriously, but in spite of that, they're not writing even ONE article! Why? I have no idea. Frequently they are active demomakers, graphicians and musicians. Maybe they have no time to do something else for the scene? This argument does not convince me. Everything is possible if someone wants to - in spite of a few hard exams I have in front of me and lots of time spent with my girlfriend, I have time to write some text and some modules. Why can somebody do this while others cannot? Or maybe I should ask - why do somebody want to while others don't want to? Dunno, and this time it is not the fault of the internet. :) »CL1:I like diskmags very much. They have their own, unrepeatable atmosphere. And what is more important in the scene than atmosphere? For me, a good article can be for me more valuable, than many pictures and modules. A really good diskmag can excite me (lol:) much more than many demos and intros. I like to write, especially about the scene. I have my own opinion and I want to interest somebody with that. I'm sure that I am not alone in this, there are still people in the scene who create diskmags, still people who write for them, but everybody know what's up: lack of will - lack of support. On the other hand - it means that zines are getting to be goods only for connoisseurs, they are not read by casual people, only by those who are really interested in the topics. Has this more advantages or more disadvantegs? I don't know for now, I have to think about that. And my conclusions might probably be good material for another article. It really works that way.