Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As an almost perpetually-bored, non-degree Graphic Designer, I'm always looking for fun little projects related to my field. I was thinking, Why not a little Dakka Monthly publication? We could get a little design/content team going, pick a few of the 'best' threads, and turn them into articles, make 'em snazzy, and publish a monthly .pdf or something.We could run minis of the week, painting articles, battle reports, sort of a non-profit online white dwarf. Whatd'ya think?

Warseer does something similar to this (dunno if it's still going) called Firebase. It's basically a free online digital magazine.

Not sure about the threads into articles thing, not sure how that'd work.

It's like reporting. We'd have to paraphrase much of it, but still present the information that the thread provides and arrange it in such a fashion as to fit an article format. Sort of like writing an article from an interview. Obviously, anything we put into the 'zine would have to be credited to their original authors.

I haven't seen much of Firebase, but that's the basic gist of it.

I'm very much in favour of it, but none of the existing staff have anything like the time to sort it out. Anyone who wants to organise and spearhead something like this is more than welcome and will receive full support. Especially good now that reading on kindle, phone and ipad is much more common.

I'm willing to put some time into this, as and when I can, but it would be contingent on someone else heading up the project. Give me a shout if something's getting off the ground, though.

This sounds like a really good idea guys!

If you manage it, I would certainly read it.

I deal with this stuff on the daily, I suppose I can try my hand at managing the process.

ITT: Dev Thread?

I'm just going to think aloud a little here.

I don't think it'd be too hard to drum up some article writers, both thread compiling and original stuff. There are some pretty vocal and eloquent people here and I'm sure we could get some good stuff with ease.

How about periodical fiction? I could see a place for that, and many already write fan-fic on the site.

I've seen a fair few smallish wargaming webcomics being posted up here. Maybe one of those could be syndicated, of sorts.

As for myself, I would happily dive into an editorial role. Sorting through submissions, copy editing, that kind of thing. I could probably even throw together the odd article, if space were thin.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK, I've got to be off now, but I'm going to exalt this thread both so that I can check back on it easily and to show the measure of my esteem for the idea.

One of the websites I used to be a part of used to do one of these. It was quite good fun submitting articles, and reading through product reviews, codex analysis, the occasional interview, etc.

I'm interested.

I wouldn't mind helping out as well. I seem to be in the gallery a bit, I could help with the model of the week part.

I can handle layout and the design end of things. I'm going to be out of town this afternoon and probably unavailable tomorrow morning, however, I will keep an eye on this thread on my phone and we can start organizing ourselves tomorrow afternoon and get some balls a-rolling.

Also, While I'm thinking about it, I say we should shoot for a December 1st deadline. That will give us enough time to co-ordinate and layout the first issue, and allow us some slush while we work out the kinks of the process.

Could probably even get it going by mid November.

n0t_u wrote:Could probably even get it going by mid November.

Depends on how smooth the process goes. I do know that stuff like this, especially when it's done on personal time, can be a real hassle getting off the ground. We'll play this first one by ear, but, the more I think about it, the more exciting I am getting about it! We're onto something, I think, gentlemens

Here are some thoughts on potential content: Topic names are not meant to be anything impressive, just giving the overall direction for that section.

Work In Progress
- An update from the past month of major project logs across dakka (can flow from issue to issue).

Da Paintin Studio:
This search shows some of the best overall models in the gallery. Just take 100 or so per issue and make a beautiful series of montage pages with a slight theme to them.

Da Chop Shop:
This search takes a bit more digging, but will show the best unpainted models (amongst others).

For both of the image searches above, only use models that have 'Created by ...' with a known user, not 'unknown creator' to avoid potential copyright issues.

Fiction:
Not too popular for reading on a computer screen, but good on a portable device. Select stories from the fiction forums are the way to go

Cover images:
This search has quite a lot of artwork, but is quite often copyrighted GW, so check that it is an original piece before using it, but it could help for the cover of each issue.

News and Rumours:
Summarising new releases from manufacturers other than GW will always be interesting to read in my opinion.

Other than that, basically what you've talked about so far - highlighting existing threads and converting them into a more readable format is the way to go. Using the 'top threads' link will show the most recent (1 week, recent update, all time) exalted threads to give you hints as to what people might find interesting and what might be good to convert to articles.

Could probably even write a small bit about the chosen models for the picture section. Focusing on the highlights of it and such.

I think this is an excellent idea! I would love to help.

Sadly, I won't be able to help with it though.

Grey and rainy Monday morning here in the Mitt.

Figure it's time to get 'ta work.

First and foremost: Staff. I know some of you may have posted here already expressing interest, but let's go ahead and make it semi-official. With that in mind, we should also take the time now to really hash out the kind of content that's going into this. Here's a little list I sketched up, what do you think;

+News and Rumors (pretty self-explanitory)
+Hobby
Warhammer, 40k and Warmahordes Painting and Modelling Tutorials
Perhaps split into 3 series, Basic (covering general things and beginner stuff), Advanced (along the lines of techniques like glazing, layering, OSL, sculpting, etc.) [I suspect that this will be the case for most things], and Enthusiast (Things like scratch-builds and Golden Daemon-level stuff).
Mini of the Month, straight from the forum thread.
I also think running a little table somewhere in this section with the Modelling Vows would be kinda fun. Give em some more incentive to keep up on it.
+Gaming
Battle Reports and Tactica for WFB, 40k and Warmahordes. Perhaps some campaign coverage.
+Fiction
Short Stories, syndicated ongoing stuff, that sort of thing.

I guess this would be the time to call out what you want to handle, and propose new stuff and discuss the 'sections' above in terms of viability and whatnot. I'd like to have this set down pretty good by the end of the week at the latest.

Again, I'll wait for those of you who are interested to confirm before I add your name to the list. I'll update it as often as I can.

Current Staff
TheMumm - Layout, Editor-in-Chief
htj - Copy Editing, Tactica, Fluffman

I think this is an excellent idea and could really help introduce the best of dakka to newer users and help summarize and organize things for the established users.

I can see it taking a considerable amount of work to pull off. I'd be willing to help out from time to time, but looking at your categories I don't think I'm a good fit for any of your major groups (editors I guess).

Seems to me that organizationally, the Mods of these sections on dakka might be a good place to start, not that they do all the work... But I imagine they all have a good handle on their sections & know what's going on, who's hot, who are good resource people or who might have new or innovative ideas. You certainly don't want this to be a top-down operation... but they may give you some quick guidance that will get the ball rolling quickly.

Gitsplitta wrote:I think this is an excellent idea and could really help introduce the best of dakka to newer users and help summarize and organize things for the established users.

I can see it taking a considerable amount of work to pull off. I'd be willing to help out from time to time, but looking at your categories I don't think I'm a good fit for any of your major groups (editors I guess).

Seems to me that organizationally, the Mods of these sections on dakka might be a good place to start, not that they do all the work... But I imagine they all have a good handle on their sections & know what's going on, who's hot, who are good resource people or who might have new or innovative ideas. You certainly don't want this to be a top-down operation... but they may give you some quick guidance that will get the ball rolling quickly.

Definately. Bottom line is, we all have lives and hobbies of our own. I don't expect (in the slightest) for this to take any kind of precendence over what people already are spending their precious leisure time on (like their own painting)! I can't claim to have sterling intentions myself; While I love the hobby, the true value of this project to me is portfolio population. I've dabbled in "extra-curricular" projects before (most notably an Eve Online podcast), and they prove to make an excellent addition to the fun stuff. I haven't had a chance to do some just-for-fun creative design, and this retail stuff I do for a living is starting to get to me, and I see myself becoming a mindless retail drone if I'm not careful and don't start doing something else in the meantime.

More than anything, though, this is supposed to be fun. Even if we can't make our monthly 'deadlines', it doesn't matter -- so long as we are all working on it and at least making progress, I'll be a happy Mumm, and everyone will get a cool little e-zine to show for it.

It's a great idea Mumm, and I wish you all the best with it. If there's something you think I can help with to make a reality, please let me know.

Git - Honestly, anything will be helpful. Easiest thing to do would be just linking those threads which are excellent or otherwise outstanding in some way.

Well, I'll happily take on fiction and/or battle reports. Likewise, I'm happy to do some general copy-editing and final read-throughs for when we finally get stuff ready for publication. But I'll go where I'm needed if necessary, too.

I like this idea. Good luck to you guys.

htj - Added you to the staff list.

Hey Mumm, this is a list I pulled together a little while ago and then linked to the OP of my main blog. I pass it out to newbies when i think of it. It's NOT exhaustive or complete... but it's a good start.


Gitsplitta's threads that make you go "Wow!":
Fist list: threads that inspired me when I first got to dakka (mostly).

How many people do you think we'll need to get this off the ground?

I can do editorials and answer e-mails to the Dakka Monthly, and possibly do some opinion pieces.

OH, and if you see a thread you'd like to feature, I'd be happy to write an introduction to it of sorts... Perhaps we can do a monthly feature entitled "Threads that make you go "Wow!" where we take a thread, write an intro, interview the author and then feature it in the monthly. (not a big interview, just a question or two about their motivation or methods)

htj wrote:How many people do you think we'll need to get this off the ground?

Not entirely sure. Was hoping for at least 5, 7 to be safe.