The Magazine Thread

[Cramulus]

This thread is for discussion about the magazine we've been talking about all week. Even if our idea hasn't coalesced into something solid yet, we have a LOT of good discussion and good energy. I do feel we're capable of producing something that we'd all enjoy, and by proxy other Discordians would enjoy. So let's have at it in ernest!

I'm volunteering to step into an editor position. I don't want to do it alone - one or two more co-editors (at most) are necessary so that if I get IRL busy/distracted/high on power/completely batshit, the project won't get left behind.

All the stuff is still in the discussion phase, so feel free to inject your hot steamy thoughts wherever you'd like into this thread's body.

[Discordia Magazine Title]
(title pending)

Mission statement:

Discord Magazine seeks to prove that Discordia is alive and well. It's 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. It would be nice if other people could pick up an issue and enjoy it as well, but for the most part the magazine is "for Discordians by Discordians"

Article Brainstorm List

• Robert Anton Wilson's Funeral - there was a ceremony for him a few weeks ago in California. So far, there's been no coverage of it. We'll talk to some people who were there and report on it.
• Threadjack: A column about Discordians on the internet. One idea I had would be to interview moderators of the major Discordian forums and get them to compare / contrast their boards
• Movie Review: The Number 23
• Eris vs Wikipedia: The Wikipedia entry on Discordian Works has stirred up a lot of controversy recently. In short: because Discordia is so decentralized, and no one / everyone is an "authority", the editors are having trouble figuring out which books should go in the wiki entry and which books are just crap some guy's published. Reverend Uncle BadTouch has been in the front lines of this battle, it'd probably be nice to get some words from him.
• Cabal Spotlight: a column in which we'll look at a real-life Discordian cabal and see what they're all about
• Sticking Apart: A column in which two Discordians argue with each other about some topic   
• The Flying Spaghetti Monster: an article which canonizes our new patron saint. It's about time some Discordians made some sort of "official" notice that he's in our pantheon now
• Jake Contest - ? I dunno, sounds like a cool idea. We could get Discordians from various other factions to compete or something
• Tract Marks - Discordian lit review.. this might be merged with the Wikipedia article
• The Pulpit - a section in which we'll publish 2-4 rants, sermons, or essays written by honest-to-goddess Discordians. This is the part of the mag where we're allowed to be all preachy grabass

What's the magazine going to be called? here's a few suggestions:

• Discordja Magazine - KISS
• Eristocracy
• Eristocracy Now! - sounds like a political mag, but the Discordians will get it
• The Even Greater Poop - a reference to the Greater Poop, a fictional (?) magazine in the principia

What we need now:
People to sign up to write the above articles. If you want to take one, call dibbs so we don't get five people writing movie reviews. These things should be roughly 2000  - 4000 words. Less is okay too. Whatever we decide on as the "cover" article can be longer.

The above articles are just suggestions - if you have a great idea for an article, Go For It

We need someone to do layout and design

We need someone to find / make graphics and images

Although we'll surely disagree about a lot of stuff, we need to make sure we're all basically on the same page... the collective intelligence of this forum is much greater than the sum of its parts.



let's not talk about funding and actually printing it until we have some substance. I expect issue 1 will be in PDF only unless some crazy magic happens.

[rygD]

Thanks, this should keep me from getting mixed up.

[LHX]

edits:

[Discordia Magazine Title]
(title pending)

Mission statement:

Discord Magazine seeks provide intense visuals with sharp humor and to encourage critical thinking wherever possible

Target Audience:
1 - People who already have a lean toward thinking critically but don't know anybody else who does (this seems to be a fairly decent market)
2 - People who like to look at stuff
3 - The Adult Swim audience
4 - Philosophers who forgot about the barstool

Article Brainstorm List

• The Pulpit - a section in which we'll publish 2-4 rants, sermons, or essays written by whoever. This is the part of the mag where we're allowed to be all preachy grabass
• Sticking Apart: A column in which Discordians argue with each other about some topic   
• Robert Anton Wilson's Funeral - there was a ceremony for him a few weeks ago in California. So far, there's been no coverage of it. We'll talk to some people who were there and report on it.
• Threadjack: A column about forums

What we need now:
People to sign up to write the above articles. If you want to take one, call dibbs so we don't get five people writing movie reviews. These things should be roughly 2000  - 4000 words. Less is okay too. Whatever we decide on as the "cover" article can be longer.

The above articles are just suggestions - if you have a great idea for an article, Go For It

We need someone to do layout and design

We need someone to find / make graphics and images

Although we'll surely disagree about a lot of stuff, we need to make sure we're all basically on the same page... the collective intelligence of this forum is much greater than the sum of its parts.



let's not talk about funding and actually printing it until we have some substance. I expect issue 1 will be in PDF only unless some crazy magic happens.

i really dont have much desire to focus on communicating with people who focus on discordia

i just want to provide support and encouragement for people who are restless on this planet - and a entertaining diversion if possible

[tyrannosaurus vex]

1. magazine should not be "the Vatican Daily" for discordians. religious publications make me sick.  references to obscure discordian bullshit is great, as long as there are also references to other obscure bullshit that has nothing (directly) to do with discordia.  the magazine should frame the mindset that discordians (usually) have, but not the "Discordian Mindset."

2. discontinued.

[Triple Zero]

yea the RAW funeral is just about as far as we can go with the "religious" angle, and even then i wonder if it's that important. because it won't be interesting to read for non-discordians.

> These things should be roughly 2000  - 4000 words.

i would prefer shorter articles of about 1000 words, real bitesize stuff. except for the big rants. they can be long, but for most of the other things we want to say, we can be concise right?
attention span, short.

[rygD]

1. magazine should not be "the Vatican Daily" for discordians. religious publications make me sick.  references to obscure discordian bullshit is great, as long as there are also references to other obscure bullshit that has nothing (directly) to do with discordia.  the magazine should frame the mindset that discordians (usually) have, but not the "Discordian Mindset."

2. discontinued.

We should still call it "The Vatican Daily".

[tyrannosaurus vex]

i concur.

[Suu]

I don't think it's a bad idea...but Vex is right, it needs to be less of a religious publication, but masked as one could get us Federal backing. 

How mainstream would this be?

[rygD]

Or, it could sound like a religious zine, look like a political one, but actually be a porn one.

First cover article's title "FUCK BUSH!".

[Cramulus]

as far as I can tell

For various reasons, a lot of the initial energy towards this project seems to have defocused. I'm still interested in working on this magazine, or whatever it becomes through discussion, but I think it needs more interested parties (people to write or find columns, art, etc).

It may be easier to work on if we pick a scope that we all agree on (yeah right). I still like the idea of writing a magazine for Discordians which also has appeal to non-Discordians, but we seem fragmented on that. I'm basically cool with whatever we decide, if we decide on anything at all.

Do you guys think this project is worth continuing? I'm also cool with it if we drop it - I just hate to see good ideas and good energy go to waste.

[LMNO]

Welcome to PD.com, Prof.


I have a suggestion:  Most of this stuff is Kopyleft, so you can grab what you want (a list of permissions is at the Propaganda subforum), and put it together yourself, for the initial issue.  If it flies, then you'll probably attract one or two more people per issue.

LMNO
-knows that DIY is singular for a reason.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Print really doesn't float my boat. Books I don't mind but as far as I'm concerned magazines have been superceded by multimedia delivery systems.

I don't mind if you want to use something I've written or shopped but it's hard for me to get excited about this whole deal. If there was a discordian magazine I wouldn't buy it. If they had a website I might use that.

[Triple Zero]

best way to create an avalanche is to throw a snowball down the mountain

(urrrgh so trite is makes me ill, but basically "what LMNO said")

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Print really doesn't float my boat. Books I don't mind but as far as I'm concerned magazines have been superceded by multimedia delivery systems.

I don't mind if you want to use something I've written or shopped but it's hard for me to get excited about this whole deal. If there was a discordian magazine I wouldn't buy it. If they had a website I might use that.

multimedia !> magazines.

why?

because.  every asshole can have a website.  it's nothing special in popular mythos.  you get a page wherever, you put whatever on it, people don't care.  even people who might care don't care because your website is going to be god-awful ugly (even if it's professionally-made) to at least 60% of the people who see it.  websites are a dime a dozen.  your potential audience is practically limitless, but they hardly ever become anything BUT 'potential.'

on the other hand, a magazine says either "we have the know-how to produce a tangible publication that you can keep and show to other people without breaking out the computer," or, "we convinced some IMPORTANT people that what we have to say is worth listening to."  even if it isn't true, and goddess knows it isn't (considering all the worthless rags out there), the popular misconception is that a tangible publication full of complete bullshit is by definition more important than a website full of relevant information.

[rygD]

It may be easier to work on if we pick a scope that we all agree on (yeah right). I still like the idea of writing a magazine for Discordians which also has appeal to non-Discordians, but we seem fragmented on that. I'm basically cool with whatever we decide, if we decide on anything at all.

Ok, I think one option might be to have a few articles with different viewpoints if there are any opinion based pieces.  Basically a return to the theme issue idea, even though theme issues sorta suck.  Most people want variety, and if they want to read all about one subject they read a book on it.