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 longerthan 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.