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.

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


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

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

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.

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.

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.