BIP Economic Conference

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

Can I venture a stab at a mission statement? I'm not sure if we're talking about publishing a BIP magazine or a Discordian magazine - both have been discussed in the last few days. My intuition is that we should write a Discordian magazine that just happens to focus on the BIP and our ideasphere - that'll give us a fairly broad audience.

Discord Magazine
(title pending)

Mission statement:

Discord Magazine is a sampling of what's going on right now in Discordian culture. It will examine current trends and themes present in the Discordian 'stream.

Target Audience:
Discordians. At present nobody knows exactly how many there are out there. Also, nobody knows how many would be willing to pay a few bucks for a magazine about their "religion". But luckily, most of them use the internets to communicate with each other, and we have total access to that.


Each issue will include something like:

• thumbnails of things happening which are relevant to the Discordian community (eris bar and grill, the Portland Discordian scene, discordian bands)
• spotlight on a cabal
• a fair amount of sermons, rants, and articles by Discordians (ie think for yourself shmuck, and now what?, fiction, BIP, etc ad nausea)
• tons of zany graphics
• interviews with prolific Discordians and their ilk (like RAWs living relatives)

Goal:
The first issue will test the feasibility of such an endeavor. We intend to put together enough articles to make a 20-page magazine. After we have some substance, and some research on who might buy such a thing, we'll try to pin down advertisers to fund a printing.

If we can't come up with the resources to print, we'll publish it in PDF form. Maybe from that, we'll get the myriad Discordian commutinies foaming at the mouth and have some idea whether it'd be possible to generate capital from a printing.

Discordians = ludicrously small market. We should keep all the discordian themes and all, but we won't say that outright. That way we have a new recruiting  (even though the idea of Discordian evangelism weirds me out a little) tool intead of a tiny niche market publication.

[Cain]

Well put.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Newsflash - the ammount we're talking about producing IS a tiny little niche market. There's no reason why that shouldn't work tho. Taking on the mainstream and trying to compete on equal terms with the established brands is going to get you nowhere - Joe public makes very quick decision between - mag he is programmed to spend his mag money on - and - bizarre looking amateur effort with pics of tubgirl in.

We don't have the editors or the knowledge to do this. So we stick to what we're experts in - discordia. Have a look on the magstand next time you're passing. Notice there's one copy of weedkiller monthly there always. Weedkiller monthly has a tiny circulation but it's enough to keep it in business and a viable going concern.

Weedkiller has accomplished this by analysing a tiny niche and filling it.

Now - how many Discordia Monthly's do you see there?

I smell a niche...

Key to exploiting this niche is to work out how to reach your demographic. Our demographic are discordians (anything else and we're trying to trick people into buying it and that's gonna wind up with no repeat sales)

We need to let discordians know this is a mag by them, for them. It has to be obvious from the front cover.

Apple of eris, hand of discordia, photos of RAW ....

Issue 1 needs all of these and more. Think about it - you are a discordian - what would the mag that attracts your attention away from "Tentacle Rapist" look like?

[LMNO]

I'd use the 5 fingered hand before anything else, because it at least has an interesting concept apart from the LOLs or the RAWs.

[LHX]

the market is us first

everybody else by extension


- people who can afford to buy a magazine  that looks good visually
- people who like the thrill of inspiration
- people who want to be associated with something 'underground' (until it becomes more fun than they really wanted)


the stuff here isnt readily available anywhere else

at least not that i know of


because if it was - then i would be there


and if not, then that means there is only roughly 20 - 30 english speaking people on this planet who are generally interested in pushing the philosophical envelope forward

(gasp)

[P3nT4gR4m]

I'd use the 5 fingered hand before anything else, because it at least has an interesting concept apart from the LOLs or the RAWs.

Still pushing this one - there must be, easily, a good ten or twenty thousand forum junkies who will get this straight away.

[LHX]

altho its not originally what i was thinking - i like where youre coming from SC


might be interesting to give that a little trial run

maybe interesting for a issue - i dont know how much longevity it would have

[P3nT4gR4m]

Actually now that I'm thinking about it maybe Threadjack should be a column. Funniest things said in the internets this month - kinda like the drunken goose layout I did last night.

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

Actually now that I'm thinking about it maybe Threadjack should be a column. Funniest things said in the internets this month - kinda like the drunken goose layout I did last night.

Sounds like a good idea. That way we still get to put that idea in the magazine, but doesn't give the reader the impression that that sort of thing is the entire magazine.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

you know, if we really wanted to be Discordian about it, we'd come up with a way to give the publication a new name every time it went to press

[LHX]

you know, if we really wanted to be Discordian about it, we'd come up with a way to give the publication a new name every time it went to press

im all for it

[Jenne]

If it has a new name...then you can't rely on recognition for "repeat offenders."

But rotating the byline/description that's underneath it, much like the "fake news" up above rotates, may work.

[rygD]

I say ads should be out of the question, and if people want to advertise there can be a little section in the back for all variety of things, like what 2600 has.  They also make advertisers subscribe.

As for using the five fingered hand, I hope they don't think it is an astronomy magazine.

[Triple Zero]

you know, if we really wanted to be Discordian about it, we'd come up with a way to give the publication a new name every time it went to press

this sort of makes me go UNNG a littlebit inside 

we would also need some kind of way to keep the "brand" the same, so people will recognize it still if you change the name (what Jenne said)

maybe a way to do it, is what a group of people i know did, they picked a ridiculously difficult name, and spelled it differently always everywhere [ the name was Sk????bla??nir, after some norse mythology]

[Triple Zero]

I say ads should be out of the question, and if people want to advertise there can be a little section in the back for all variety of things, like what 2600 has.  They also make advertisers subscribe.

we need ads because if we get some good ads this can bring down the cost of producing a lot. it's as simple as that. i'd rather have full-colour glossy with 25% ads than some photocopied stapled stack of paper like the old PD was.
not specifically because i really prefer one over the other (paper's paper and i can read it) but mostly because we already have a shitload of the shitty photocopied stapled pamphlets and trying to do something new

also, i wonder what kind of company would advertise in such a mag, and i think we might get some pretty funny/interesting ads at that. hey maybe we can even strike a deal that some of us design a few of the ads for them.
would the CotSG perhaps like an ad? they've got money

As for using the five fingered hand, I hope they don't think it is an astronomy magazine.

please tell me you know the difference between astronomy and astrology.