Re: Offlang suggestion & counterproposal

> Van: Jan van Steenbergen
>
> Dear oh dear, what discussion have I provoked?
Oh, you missed Christophe and mine frequent discussions about the use of PDF
on the internet. It's a miracle I was still invited to his birthday party
last month ;-). But maybe that's the charm: Christophe and I can go into
heated debates about things like how to run a mag or journal. I am also not
completely inexperienced with making publishing, since I am currently
editor-in-chief of a trimonthly club newspaper, and have been for 8 years,
and I have done some other writing and publishing as well (programs, flyers
and even a 100-page book on the history of (boy)scouting in our town for the
50th anniversary of the local scout group).

In my experience, I spend more time each trimester to collect the copy than
to asemble it. And I even have to scan in all the images myself, write 30%
of the articles myself, type over half the stuff since 25% of the copy is
delivered in handwriting (try to convert that!). We have a staff of three
people, and it takes us just one evening to put everything together, once we
have collected it.

> The whole thing started with the discussion whether or not
> to create a club; my idea was, that it might be wiser
> to start with something "smaller" and "more doable"
> than founding a club. Well...
A club on itself is just an empty thing and very easy to found and to
handle, as we see, since there _is_ a club in The Netherlands, nobody is
running it, and it still exists. You couldn't have done that with a journal.
Ok, the legitimate question is of course: what 's the use for such a club?

> I think you guys, Christophe and Maarten, are both
> right (what a cliché, isn't it? :))) )
Ah, Jan is going to mediate. Be wary not to get caught in between two
clashing titans ;-)

> Christophe did the right thing by immediately proposing to do it and
approaching it in a very
> practical. That's the only way to make such an idea work; discussions
about how and who and why and
> whether and when don't get us anywhere.
I don't agree. I firmly believe that before you start working, you need a
decent plan, otherwise you risk putting a lot of work into nothing. But hey,
if it isn't my time that's possibly wasted, than who am I to judge the
effort?

> I was an editor, too,
My, my... what an editorial experience on the list... we migth already have
an editorial staff!

> so I understand Maarten's pessimistic perception about the initiative of
> copy-writers (maybe it is just a typical Dutch
> phenomenon ;) ). Looking at the extensive mail traffic
> on the list, however, I think the copy will be there,
> no doubt.
Yes, I think there will be enough content, but will there be enough
articles. There is a little more to writing a fine article than to post
something to a mailing list. It is this extra bit of effort that I am not
sure of many people would want to invest. And if the journal is just going
to contain "posts" as from the list, I don't see the added value.

But since I am seeming such a doom-mongering smart-ass, I see that I will
have to participate in order not to be tought of as a negative jerk.

> Now what I think would be most sensible at the moment, is to find out
whether people are really interested
> in such a journal/magazine.
> So, my proposal would be to
> start a poll on The List, with the questions like:
> - How badly do want a conlang journal/magazine?
> - How do you see it contents?
> - How often/much to you expect to contribute yourself?
> It could be an occasion to ask the LaTeX thing as
> well. Christophe, Maarten, what do you think?
Exactly what I had in mind. Although people telling you that they will
surely contribute in no guarantee. I remember writing a whole chapter on
conculturing for the lecture notes for David's conlang class, when I didn't
really have the time, only to find out that the class was cancelled a few
days before it started (which was, btw, not David's fault).

Maarten

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