Let's hear it.

I'd like to see a lot about christian dj culture all across america. Like, what's going on in my area, how can I get involved, etc. etc.

1) tell us what's going on in your area and we'll report it.
2) As far as we know... not much is going on.
3) I know you're in Iraq, but um... you may need to start something yourself.

i'd like to see more interviews with DJ's/producers. either famous or successful people from the TF community. that would be pretty cool

sorry probably the wrong place to post this

but will the new zine be more blog style? i mean  rather than waiting for the end of the month for articles to come out they could come out during the month. from different writers?

Im geusing this is what you guys already got planned? would be cool

Not planning that at all. We want to keep it issue centered.

Tell ya what though... sell me on the idea.

I think doing the combination of the 2 works great!   Really put in a lot of effort into the zine,  but have periodic blogs come out also.  To help keep attention and maybe attract more foks if you are righting about relevant topics.  :)

I suppose what im saying is that the zine has been around since before blogs and its seems like a blog would really enhance its use. Not for the sake of change.

One main reason is that articles could be posted when they were ready and read straight away rather than posting all articles together and having alot to read in one go.

Yes we can come back and read articles in stages but why not update new articles through the month keeping the zine nearly as fresh and updated as the forums. Main reason i come back to the site every day is for the fresh content on the forums.

The zine is already currently a bit like a blog in that you get the first paragraph and then click to get the full story. The great thing about the zine is the amount of work and research that goes into the articles. So im saying keep the themes etc and the idea just bring out at different time through the month.

I must admit i am thinking along the lines of beatportal and djtechtools. Im not saying to clone what they doing because tasty has a different beast. But use the same idea of bringing articles out through the month

Sorry i only thought of this today i know you were are asking for suggestions like this ages ago. And maybe now is not the time to do it.

Well, with my job and lack of resources I'm not really in a position to start anything, but maybe just a promotion section to let people talk about what they're doing to spread the christian edm scene...i dunno. Just brainstorming. That's what this is all about right?

yeah, that's what it's about. My point though is you live somewhere right? Network. Find some other Christians in your area. Invite them over for a house party or something... even just dinner. You can make things happen. If you want things to happen, you're going to have to do it yourself.

I have been thinking about adding some blogs. The zine just doesn't need to become another blog. Getting the articles written by volunteers is hard enough when you do it 6 times a year, but to put an article out each month? Wow... that would really hurt. A seperate blog might work though.

But couldnt the volunteers just post it themselves? Thats what i mean rather than having a whole load of work to do at in one go it could just be as an when. It could have a number of official bloggers
for those who run the site something like that.

You will know better than me but i think beatport has official bloggers and then sometimes good enough articles get posted.

Ok im done trying to sell it! 

Not enough volunteers to write a blog. It's hard enough to get 1-2 reviews out a week as it stands now.


Beaportal has staff bloggers and then anybody can submit anything. We MIGHT be able to let anybody submit anything in addition to the zine, but that can't be the basis for everything. We'd also need an editor to weed through the blog posts.

yes exactly like that

more cowbell



all joking aside. i see/hear a lot more hip hop now in clubs than i do edm. it would be nice to see a list of venues secular or christian where edm is still being played in major cities. i dont know if this is the kind of input you're looking for or if this is the right place but i thought i'd give some 411 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D


what¿?

i think more news that is upcoming would be great.

pre-releases reviewed
gear reviewed before it is out to the public
event wrapups and interviews @ the event

maybe some gear vs. interviews/testimonials


some guys who are playing out and their experiences in gigging.

would like to see a christian who is running a label maybe share some positive good experience.

I vote for dropping the zine format and going entirely with a blog based one. I love the content in the zine, but given the number and length of articles (a good thing) I really have a tough time reading it. Most of that battle is mental, thinking about this looming block of text and the body of time I should set aside for it.

Letting writers post their articles blog style could alleviate that, if anyone else feels the same as me. It would also allow people to tap into the beauty of RSS a little more organically. I could stomach smaller more regular articles and posts much more easily than the current behemoth of content.

Using a blog format could also allow more people to chime in, requiring less commitment. I understand you might be looking for commitment, but you might also get more people/different ideas, more content, by allowing a shorter less formal style.

I'd wager that editing is immaterial, surely it wouldn't be more work that the editing being done now. Except for growth, obviously if you end up with more content total, then there'll be more editing. But you could look at an automatic approval system, where a writer posts something to the blog but it pends approval from 2 or 3 other writers before it does live.

Fundamentally, I think the zine format is old hat. I like my content in smaller bites.

As to what I'd like to see in the zine:

- more of the same. There's lots of good stuff.
- more spirituality. Dave, we've obviously talked about this before regarding the rules, but maybe allowing people to write about things in the zine is a safer environment than in a thread.
- more interviews, not limited to the Christian scene.

Wow... that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the editor's job. Sure there's the grammar end of things, but the BULK of the work is actually deciding which articles need to be written and who's going to write them. The two month cycle we have now for the zine is due to this process. To spread the articles out over time like you are suggesting would actually increase the work as the time dedication would not be limited into a set cycle. Even if we did an article a week, it would fundamentally be more taxing on the editor.

The only reason we can do weekly reviews is because we have a more dedicated staff of writers and we have 2 review editors: one to assign, edit and post and the other to gather materials for review and to smoosh the labels.

It's a tough job. It really is. They don't get enough thanks or credit for it as it is.


We have an extremely hard time finding people who will write for the zine in its current format. Anybody is welcome to write for it. If you want a subject, Alex W. can provide you with one. If you have one already, we'll take it. It's pretty simple and straight forward.


Ok... Done.


Ok... wow. You haven't been reading the zine. Alex has been doing just this for some time now. We're trying to have at least one faith based article an issue. We'd love to do more. Give us some talented writers.


Interviews... I totally agree. If there is one thing we've done that I think is a true disservice with this site is b/c we've done so good at promoting it and people find it... people have gotten the impression that the Christian scene is much bigger than it really is. I'm a bit ashamed of that. It's unintentional false advertising.

*Insert flame war here.*

i can understand where the blogroll is coming from. like dave said, the majority of my job isnt editing, its planning. direction, subjects, finding writers, coordianting peoples things, gathering information and multimedia for the articles. i can do all the uploading in about 2 days, but it takes about a month to get everything else dealt with..

we can cut that time down if someone steps up to assistant editor, which we are talking to a few people about that. i like the idea of a blogroll, but im still not 100% on it due to logistical concerns that would come with it.

I stand corrected. I DID have very little idea what was done.


Count me as one-less unappreciative person, since this conversation.

:)
alot more work goes into this site then most people think. i have many a meeting that lasted until midnight working things out and making sure everything goes well, and that is just the mag, i cant imagine the reviews, afterhours and the podcasts.

I feel like a blog format would help with this. Open up an area where people can see a list of articles, and pick one for themselves (like a wiki attitude, though not a wiki format). I think more exposure could only help, if you say it's so difficult to find writers.

And I think people are becoming more accustomed to blogs. I would wager that most of our members have blogged before, but how many have taken the time to write longer articles (for anything), I wouldn't know. Maybe a change of style would make people feel more welcome or encouraged to write, in a slightly informal medium they may already be more familiar with?


Guilty, as advertised in my first post. I'm excited to hear this, honestly. I'll try and read more. It's the mental battle as I've said, it seems like a big undertaking each time there's a new zine out. And each time I skip over it I feel guilty :)

I'm sure you're right. And I'm sure many of us don't know... or maybe I've just been ignorant. That's always possible.

And I feel that given the collaborative nature of the current internets, with blogs, wikis, the features afforded by a CMS like Joomla... I think there's enough available infrastructure to lighten the load for those busy few, by letting the community do more.

(Unless I'm overestimating the desires of our community. But I think more openness would encourage more participation, regarding published media.)

Just remember... it's YOUR FAULT we're having meetings now. Actually, we're having so many ppl step up right now that we actually NEED to have meetings. *sigh* I was hoping to cut back on my time too. ;)

Profiles of HOT new DJ's about to take over would be nice to see in the zine from time to time. I hear there's someone on the horizon who could use the promotion.

Here's another piece to the problem. Look around the site, who here is really djing out every week? Who here is really putting out quality tunes? Do we really have enough people on the site with actual experience to have something worth saying that other people on any other web forum out there wouldn't?

We have the technology, it's the people resource that's the hold up ;)

With the new site, I think I might put in a module calling for writers. That might help.

Didn't respond to this. I hear what you're saying Dave. All good points :)

Further food for thought. Mullet Approach (http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/03/30/1828252.shtml):

I know that alot of you bredren's are into tha House area of EDM and that's safe cause if we didn't have you guys this site would be here (maybey) but what about getting some D&B  up on this. I know that with my show on Cast The Fire I will be trying to push Christian D&B Dj' & Prod. Like Ecliptik and such but with Zine I think that we could hit it in completly different style. Also I know that alot of you guys do the podcast and I have listen to them and I must say maxium respect for that, but maybe we can some D&B on that too, maybe I am wrong, but just a thought.

I know... We need more DnB. I'm planning to put on another DnB episode at some point this year. Probably over the summer.

RE: Mullet Approach: heh... yeah... well... the huffington post's professional editors are honestly probably less professional than we have here. Seriously. Ok... beyond that, eventually a commenting system will be added to the articles, just not right away with the relaunch. Everything in the zine should be commented on anyway on the boards. We used to have a board related to the zine and well... it hardly ever got used.

Sounds good Dave.

8)