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Nixers magazine - Printable Version
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Nixers magazine - z3bra - 01-04-2016

I prefer the touch of paper to cold screens. My main concern is that the magazines one can find at the local shop are either too boring, or too generic. So I asked myself, why not make our own magazine, that would feature "advanced" content about different topics, mostly unix related.

I personally have a bunch of topic I'm willing to write about, but with the help of the community, we could all get the benefits of this paper.

I have no experience in paper edition, so I'm asking for your experience here, even the simplest ones! If you have any idea, feel free to share.

Regarding the topics, I have a things I wanna talk about, mostly regarding networking. If there is something you would like to talk about, please share it there!

EDIT:

For brainstorming, use the titanpad

RE: Nixers magazine - jmbi - 02-04-2016

I think the idea of a nixer magazine is a great one.

I'm personally more gifted in the design department, but I would also love to chip in with some written pieces as well (I've been trying to get more serious about my technical writing).

<hr>

I believe we could get things rolling with the following steps:

<ol>
<li>Gather a list of people who want to contribute along with <i>what</i> they will contribute.</li>
<li>Display said list on a static webpage somewhere asking for emails of those interested in receiving a publication for $X cost.</li>
<li>If collected emails meet/exceed the cost, we can begin creating the content and reviewing/revising to perfection.</li>
<li>Set up a small shopify store.</li>
<li>Print a small batch, email blast the interested patrons.</li>
<li>Receive orders and ship them out!</li>
<li>Donate proceeds to nixers or other open source projects.</li>
</ol>

Overall I think it would be a great way for the community to get together and create something we would all love to consume. We have so many smart minds here and such a specific set of interests, providing a magazine to the world that fits our niche is simply cool as fuck.

RE: Nixers magazine - pranomostro - 02-04-2016

I would like to contribute.

Possible topics:
-ricing
-programmming
-unix history
-surveillance issues

I am sure you will find and suggest a lot more topics, and I am very interested in this idea.

RE: Nixers magazine - z3bra - 02-04-2016

(02-04-2016, 03:57 AM)jmbi Wrote: I'm personally more gifted in the design department, but I would also love to chip in with some written pieces as well (I've been trying to get more serious about my technical writing).

We'll need some grezat design too! I personally suck at it, so your help will be much needed. We'll also need the great skills of rocx to put in a comics and some nice drawings to illustrate the articles.

One great way to keep in touch, as you said, is by emails. It would be good to have a mail-list. I never setup one, but I can look into it. If some of you know how to do it, please get in touch!

RE: Nixers magazine - tudurom - 02-04-2016

(02-04-2016, 11:18 AM)z3bra Wrote:
(02-04-2016, 03:57 AM)jmbi Wrote: I'm personally more gifted in the design department, but I would also love to chip in with some written pieces as well (I've been trying to get more serious about my technical writing).

We'll need some grezat design too! I personally suck at it, so your help will be much needed. We'll also need the great skills of rocx to put in a comics and some nice drawings to illustrate the articles.

One great way to keep in touch, as you said, is by emails. It would be good to have a mail-list. I never setup one, but I can look into it. If some of you know how to do it, please get in touch!

the standard mail-list software, mailman https://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/

RE: Nixers magazine - z3bra - 02-04-2016

did you setup one?

RE: Nixers magazine - b4dtR1p - 02-04-2016

I would say that it really is a great idea z3bra

RE: Nixers magazine - pranomostro - 02-04-2016

I have done some stuff with performance recently.

Would it be okay to write about a project of mine,
as an example of optimising code?

RE: Nixers magazine - z3bra - 02-04-2016

I guess that's okay, because you need a personnal experiencd to discuss a subjecg

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 03-04-2016

Wonderful idea z3bra!

(01-04-2016, 07:59 PM)z3bra Wrote: I prefer the touch of paper to cold screens. My main concern is that the magazines one can find at the local shop are either too boring, or too generic. So I asked myself, why not make our own magazine, that would feature "advanced" content about different topics, mostly unix related.

Indeed, the touch of something tangible would give a deeper feel to the community.
We've tried with the stickers but it didn't get the attention it deserved.

However like jmbi mentioned:

(02-04-2016, 03:57 AM)jmbi Wrote: I believe we could get things rolling with the following steps:
  • Gather a list of people who want to contribute along with what they will contribute.
  • Display said list on a static webpage somewhere asking for emails of those interested in receiving a publication for $X cost.
  • If collected emails meet/exceed the cost, we can begin creating the content and reviewing/revising to perfection.
  • Set up a small shopify store.
  • Print a small batch, email blast the interested patrons.
  • Receive orders and ship them out!
  • Donate proceeds to nixers or other open source projects.

The issue with community project is that there's a hype in the beginning and then it fades because no one finds the motivation to contribute. Only a few dedicated users do.

This could be solved if we get monetary values of the project. Let's say we start a http://www.kickstarter.com campaign and see how it goes.

We need to put forward how this magazine will add values to other people's lives.
I would personally enjoy having multiple sections in such magazine:
  • Ricing:
    Analysing how a certain desktop is built
    The "style" of the month (retro, flat, etc,.. got the idea?)
    Small tips
  • Programs
    The treasure box, a section where people can talk about utilities no one had heard before or new nifty tools
    Helpers on setting up hard stuffs
    Nags (but don't overdo it)
  • Operating systems
    A review of some OS or new features
  • News
    A refresh on what happened on certain forums/boards/sub-reddits in a narrative manner (this could actually be fun to read)
    The technological news related to Unix with a lot of point of views
    Irc jokes and things happening
  • A section with 2-3 images featured
  • Questions/Answers
    Interviews
    N00bish questions
    Philosophical questions

This could work fine if we can attract interest.
We know this community regroups many talented individuals, it's just that for community projects there should always be a glue to keep people working towards progress.

ヾ(＾∇＾)

RE: Nixers magazine - jmbi - 03-04-2016

(03-04-2016, 04:02 AM)venam Wrote: The issue with community project is that there's a hype in the beginning and then it fades because no one finds the motivation to contribute. Only a few dedicated users do.

This could be solved if we get monetary values of the project. Let's say we start a http://www.kickstarter.com campaign and see how it goes.

We need to put forward how this magazine will add values to other people's lives.

Totally agree with you on the hype, interesting blog post by the way. I also agree that using kickstarter will definitely "kickstart" the process and provide more motivation.

I created <a href="https://github.com/nixers-projects/magazine">nixers-projects/magazine</a>, I'm not quite sure how we should organize it, but we can definitely discuss that here.

RE: Nixers magazine - thlst - 03-04-2016

It's an interesting project. I've never seen this before, because you usually just go to hacker news or reddit and read some news or articles. Commonly, those articles are about specific topics, and you aren't into those sometimes. It would be great to read about what you enjoy or use daily. This magazine is just the perfect fit. It groups different topics with the same goals: to talk about the *nix atmosphere, thus you may discover something you've never seen that'd improve your workflow or skills.

I'd suggest a topic that goes through good practices (and tips) in shell scripting, or even in C. I know a bunch of things in C (and getting better at shell scripting), and I'd love to contribute :)

RE: Nixers magazine - Dworin - 03-04-2016

It may be an idea to discuss some FOSS progeams (TeX, sagemath, ...) but the disadvantage is that each program is only relevant for a part of the target audience.

(03-04-2016, 07:02 AM)jmbi Wrote: I created https://github.com/nixers-projects/magazine, I'm not quite sure how we should organize it, but we can definitely discuss that here.

The comma gets sucked into the link, which causes a 404

RE: Nixers magazine - rocx - 03-04-2016

If we're going to call this an "open source" magazine, it wouldn't hurt to decide on a license when we get to that part of actually writing it.

RE: Nixers magazine - jmbi - 03-04-2016

(03-04-2016, 12:28 PM)Dworin Wrote: It may be an idea to discuss some FOSS progeams (TeX, sagemath, ...) but the disadvantage is that each program is only relevant for a part of the target audience.

(03-04-2016, 07:02 AM)jmbi Wrote: I created https://github.com/nixers-projects/magazine, I'm not quite sure how we should organize it, but we can definitely discuss that here.

The comma gets sucked into the link, which causes a 404

Thanks, fixed.

RE: Nixers magazine - kirby - 03-04-2016

Putting down my name to proof read. Don't think there's much I could write about that couldn't be written by somebody else better.

RE: Nixers magazine - z3bra - 03-04-2016

Thanks for the proposal! We'll need a lot of proof reading actually!

RE: Nixers magazine - z3bra - 04-04-2016

Don't let this project die!!

I'll start an article about turning an OpenBSD box into a router, and connect to to different alternative networks.
Let's just stop speaking and start doing. For everyone that planned to to something, please start working on it, and commit to the task. Otherwise we'll never get anywhere. Let's make it!

[Image: LgQxmJE.jpg]

RE: Nixers magazine - ninjacharlie - 04-04-2016

(04-04-2016, 06:47 PM)z3bra Wrote: I'll start an article about turning an OpenBSD box into a router, and connect to to different alternative networks.
Let's just stop speaking and start doing. For everyone that planned to to something, please start working on it, and commit to the task. Otherwise we'll never get anywhere. Let's make it!

Sounds good. Going to set up a Git repo or something so people who want to contribute can do so in one centralized place?

EDIT: nvm. i missed the link before :P

RE: Nixers magazine - Adrift - 04-04-2016

(03-04-2016, 04:13 PM)kirby Wrote: Putting down my name to proof read. Don't think there's much I could write about that couldn't be written by somebody else better.

Same here, if there's that much needed at least.

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 05-04-2016

I update the github repo with more information if anyone checked.

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 05-04-2016

I also opened a titanpad for public discussion.

Please check it if you'd like to contribute to this project or would like to make it concrete.

RE: Nixers magazine - kirby - 05-04-2016

As a suggestion it might be worth looking at the MagPi magazine for inspiration on layout and things like that. I contributed a few articles when it was just starting out and looking at it now it's really impressive how much it's grown from the issues I wrote for to what it is today.

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 05-04-2016

(05-04-2016, 06:27 AM)kirby Wrote: As a suggestion it might be worth looking at the MagPi magazine for inspiration on layout and things like that. I contributed a few articles when it was just starting out and looking at it now it's really impressive how much it's grown from the issues I wrote for to what it is today.
I think people got interested because they're giving a rPi with the magazine.

RE: Nixers magazine - thlst - 05-04-2016

It might take me a while to writing something (college stuff), but I will do write something about "using unix tools to make your system into a better programming environment" (due in next weekend). :)

I'm happy with this project, by the way. It's always great to contribute to something, and I can learn a lot as I go through this process.

edit: for the magazine format, in my opinion, it's better to always bring a focused theme, then split the magazine into small parts (those small articles or the like, something to fill it).

edit2: Putting a bunch of huge articles into a single edition may lose its focus, and we end up writing a lot for no reason. Splitting it into small texts (e.g. one page) and bringing one or two interesting articles will both give the reader a better organized magazine, and ease our work.

RE: Nixers magazine - josuah - 05-04-2016

There are some categories that could have many candidates, like the treasure box, or the questions. What about some pad to gather all the suggestions and filter them?

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 06-04-2016

(05-04-2016, 02:35 PM)sshbio Wrote: There are some categories that could have many candidates, like the treasure box, or the questions. What about some pad to gather all the suggestions and filter them?
I opened the pad:
(05-04-2016, 03:16 AM)venam Wrote: I also opened a titanpad for public discussion.


RE: Nixers magazine - josuah - 06-04-2016

Quote:l so opened a titanpad for public discussion.

So I'll use it for these as well. Thank you.

RE: Nixers magazine - venam - 07-04-2016

Ok...

So first step would be to agree on the magazine brand, "the slogan".

This should be a simple sentence that reflects what the magazine strive to achieve and deliver.

RE: Nixers magazine - jmbi - 07-04-2016

(07-04-2016, 01:20 AM)venam Wrote: Ok...

So first step would be to agree on the magazine brand, "the slogan".

This should be a simple sentence that reflects what the magazine strive to achieve and deliver.

I think each issue should have a general theme, so the slogan will vary with each issue and reflect the theme.

We do, however, need to agree on a name to be printed on the front and used in the branding. Design people can start making mockups and pushing them to the repo.

I think we should call the magazine "/etc/motd." That would be sick.