From the editor 4
Issue 4 is another staggered issue. Articles will be posted as they roll in. We begin with a great one. Our esteemed colleague, Kevin Potts, dazzles you with a technical rouser on using the smd_calendar plugin. Other articles to look forward to this issue include a guest contribution, a piece on eyewear (you’ve got to protect the eyes), and a special address to new Textpattern community members. The rest you’ll have to wait for. Come on in, the reading is fine!
We’ve got a lot to catch up on. It’s been the better part of a year since our last issue. I solemnly swear that won’t happen again as long as I’m editor and the last person standing. If that means just giving you one article a month, then that’s what we’ll do, but something you will get.
After a bit of soul-searching, we on the team realize we tackled too many things with too few people. And when two of our team are also core Textpattern developers (a lot has been accomplished there in recent months) with other community projects they’ve taken on as well, we need to find a balance.
So we’ll be adjusting some things to help find our groove. In some respects, this has been happening already, like with the temporary freezing of the Exhibit (it will come back). But we’re also going to change the magazine a little bit. Nothing radical. In fact, we’ll be lightening things up—fewer ad units, less presentational distraction, and more focus on content itself. Modifications that will make for better mobile experiences too.
But we also need your help, particularly your article contributions. I tweeted this a while back and I’d like to be proven wrong…
https://twitter.com/wion/status/334981395644575744
(Yes, that should be “there aren’t” many writers, but, hey, it’s Twitter.)
Maybe it’s not clear who I mean by writers, so let me clarify…
We want your articles if you use Textpattern to create websites for other people, or you are a recipient of a website made with Textpattern. If you’re an ace designer or crack developer and have put something together you’re happy about, pitch it to us. Likewise if you’re a mad blogger powered by Textpattern, mad write something here. Marquee!
We want your articles if you do not use Textpattern, but do use any other web publishing tool on the market and have a keen interest in the open source publishing arena. Talk about that. Compare systems. Predict future trends. Whatever. (Warning: fanboys raving about their favorite toys need not apply.)
We want your articles if you work in the digital industry, regardless of how, and especially if you are an independent. Tell us about your tools, your process, your environment, your secrets to success. Inquiring minds want to know.
We want your articles if you have something on your chest that really needs to come off. We call this having an informed opinion, and we all have them. Express what’s bothering you through a cogent, articulate argument. We’ll try and find someone with a counter argument and post their side of things too. Step up!
We want to hear from most anybody that wants to write for us in the scope of what this magazine is concerned with.
On that note, a couple of words about what we don’t want. We do not want people associated with content farms soliciting us with articles so they can get link backs to their content farms. Sadly, we get a lot of this kind of offer and you guys can just stop right now. Save that for any number of other dime-a-dozen rags that think they’re fooling Google.
Onward and upward!
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