Orbiter Magazine

[Eli13]

Like many others before me said, just slow down. Forget the logistics for right now, think of what you want in this magazine.

What is going to make me want to read this? What's going to get me excited to read this? What is going to make me choose this over one of Orb's or IronRain's nice little news posts that I thoroughly enjoy from time to time? Is it going to be a nice advanced journal that only the scientifically and mathematically inclined will understand, or will it be fairly simple to understand and "newbie" friendly?

I'm not saying you can't do this, but you have what 3 or 4 projects you are working on? Plus you take part in USC. Lots of work. What's gonna happen when you get into school? School will hit you fast and hard if you have no idea on what you want to do, or if you have insufficient commitment to something.

Think of what's going to be in there before you worry about things like word counts or file types right now. If you rush into that, this thing will be over before it's begun.

And seriously, no offence, but come on, the guy who made the QWERTY keyboard didn't use up nearly 4 inches on a button for someone not to use it. Please use the space bar, you will be AMAZED at how much neater your posts and school work will be.

BTW: This was 246 words. Figure for yourself.

 

[Columbia42]

Is there still any interest in this project? If there is than I think this is what we need to do; we are getting too bogged down in the nuance and minutia of what we want the magazine/articles to look like. If we want this magazine to succeed the most important thing at this point is articles. I encourage anyone who feels like it to submit an article. If ky is still interested in doing this than email them to him and if not then PM them to me. When/if we get some submissions then we can start thinking about things like layout and format of the magazine but until we know that there is some interest, things like that are pretty pointless.

 

[ky]

Is there still any interest in this project? If there is than I think this is what we need to do; we are getting too bogged down in the nuance and minutia of what we want the magazine/articles to look like. If we want this magazine to succeed the most important thing at this point is articles. I encourage anyone who feels like it to submit an article. If ky is still interested in doing this than email them to him and if not than email them to me at [email protected]. When/if we get some submissions then we can start thinking about things like layout and format of the magazine but until we know that there is some interest, things like that are pretty pointless.

Im still interested,but I have school starting in a week so I probably wont be able to contribute my all to this.Therefore,I want Columbia42 to take over management of the project until I get more priorities out of the way.

 

[Columbia42]

I would be happy to (at least temporarily) take over management for this project if there is some interest among the community in writing articles. I'm currently attempting to write an article for the first issue but unless there are more people willing to donate their time and effort to this project I don't think it will be able to get off the ground. Therefore I'm going to start another thread with the sole purpose of coordinating the writing of articles for the magazine. All other discussions about the magazine will remain in this thread.

 

[Keatah]

Therefore I'm going to start another thread with the sole purpose of coordinating the writing of articles for the magazine. All other discussions about the magazine will remain in this thread.

Isn't that what this thread is about??

 

[luki1997a]

Nice idea I think it'll be good to write the magazine in *.doc and then convert co PDF. If somebody want to write an article he can write a 1-paged DOC file and then send it to you. You will connect every DOC in one part and graph designer will make cool effect and correct formatting, fonts etc. Finally somebody will convert whole magazine into a single PDF file and put it in this thread.

 

[Keatah]

Has anyone actually submitted articles yet? Because without that this discussion is pointless. As far as I'm concerned, a text file (like we did in the olden days) will more than suffice.

Where's the beef??

 

[Columbia42]

Here's the Article Submissions thread: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=23932.

---------- Post added at 08:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------

Has anyone actually submitted articles yet? Because without that this discussion is pointless. As far as I'm concerned, a text file (like we did in the olden days) will more than suffice.

Where's the beef??

As of now no one has submitted an article yet. Seeing as the level of interest in this project is unknown, I urge patience. Earlier in the thread several people did express interest in writing an article, however, so I'm hopeful that this project will be able to get off the ground.

 

[PeriapsisPrograde]

I have interest, but, like everyone else, have other commitments. :shrug:

 

[RisingFury]

You could have a section of the magazine where the authors of large addons that are in active development can explain a thing or two about upcoming releases.

Of course, only addons that have been proven would be selected and not just any submission...

 

[Keatah]

Allowing me to play devil's advocate here for a moment.. Isn't everything we've discussed so far available right here in the forums, and in an interactive manner to boot?

 

[Columbia42]

This is how I envision this magazine (taken from the article submissions thread):

The goal of Orbiter Magazine is to be an informative and entertaining way of keeping up with what's going on in the Orbiter world. The target audience is mostly fellow Orbinauts, especially those who don't have time to check the forums very often but still want to keep up with what's going on. These are the types of articles that the magazine will most likely include:

-Tutorials (originals, reviews of existing ones, etc.)
-Interviews (this one is a maybe and depends on logistics and things)
-Addons (development news, reviews, etc.)
-Orbiter screenshots
-Spaceflght/Astronomy news
-Resource guides (for addon developers, etc.)
-News about VSAs, OFSS, etc.
-Q&A
-Anything else anyone feels like writing about.

 

[RisingFury]

-News about VSAs, OFSS, etc.

Yea, I can see it already:

This month in Orbiter Magazine: The rise and fall of 24 VSAs!

 

[ky]

I would be happy to (at least temporarily) take over management for this project if there is some interest among the community in writing articles. I'm currently attempting to write an article for the first issue but unless there are more people willing to donate their time and effort to this project I don't think it will be able to get off the ground. Therefore I'm going to start another thread with the sole purpose of coordinating the writing of articles for the magazine. All other discussions about the magazine will remain in this thread.

For now i'll just be a co-manager and contributor to it.

 

[Keatah]

..we should make a magazine about making magazines.

 

[Tex]

I'll just say that it would be great to have an Orbiter magazine, but I think there will be trouble keeping enough interest in it for people to write articles. Perhaps it will be different as a magazine, but you can see that while we've had some people write articles for the forum since we added that feature, they haven't exactly been burning the press machine up at the same time.

The thoughts and ideas put forth by several Orbinauts here, who have seen things like this come and go over the years, are well put and should be considered a realistic guide for the expectations of the magazine. When tl8 was doing DeltaV monthly it was even harder, so I think the quarterly idea is the best yet and hopefully will result in better success!

I'm looking forward to it nonetheless; thank you guys for contributing your time for a project like this!

 

[Keatah]

As far as a title goes.. Why not just use Trajectory? or Prograde?
This is as basic as it gets, and Boeing's magazine is simply titled AERO.

 

[Columbia42]

I like the title Prograde and for the logo maybe we can have the Orbiter cockpit prograde orientation button. (Taking screenshot now...)

---------- Post added at 04:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 AM ----------

Actually the screenshot didn't work out (resolution was much too low) but I still think it could be cool.

 

[Keatah]

Just make it swooshy like those old sci-fi magazines from the 50's and 60's.. Shouldn't be hard to find a font.

 

[Spacethingy]

How about having an Agony Probe? :rofl:

Seriously though, I second Tex's thanks, a little more optimism is needed here. Keep it up guys! :thumbup: