Starting next month, with our October issue, Apple Wizards will move to a strictly online-only format. Though I know some readers will be upset at this move, I also know that others will be quite happy to peruse each issue of Apple Wizards on our website. However, both groups of users are probably wondering why we're doing this…
There are a number of reasons to move to an online (HTML) based publication method. I like lists, so here's one for you.
Paying the Bills
We only have one banner ad, and we use revenues generated from selling that space to pay for those darn site hosting fees, copyright fees, legal fees, and so on. We're still a non-profit group of Mac-o-philes, but we have to make enough to get by, as well as pay for extra things (like trips to Macworld Expos).
Raw Speed and Accessibility
It's much faster to load an article you want on our website than to download a 1.5 MB issue. It's also (probably) going to be much faster for us to publish in HTML over DOCMaker and PDF. An online version is also more accessible. Companies can link right to their product reviews and you can tell your friends to read a specific article.
The Web Basics
The Internet offers the functionality we want — clicking on URLs, optionally loading full screenshots from a review, immediate interaction via feedback forms, and more. We'll even be using cascading style sheets (CSS) to make sure that the online version looks as good (or better) than what you're looking at right now.
Downsides
As with any change, we realize that there will be some downsides. No longer can Apple Wizards be published by third-parties (such as on CD-ROMs or on FTP sites). This is actually good and bad… Moving to an online version also eliminates the ability to read our magazine offline without using Web Devil, downloading the pages you want in Internet Explorer, or the like.
I can tell you that we're going to try pretty darn hard to make the online version as good as our DOCMaker/PDF versions. We'll still use pretty graphics as we do now (perhaps even a few more than normal), we'll still have the same writers, and we'll still notify subscribers when a new issue is released. Heck, we'll even have a (small) archive of previous issues. We'll just be in a different format.
What do you think? Let me know… Just visit our feedback page at http://applewizards.net/feedback.shtml and send me a note, or send email to connect@applewizards.net . Thanks, and I do hope you'll continue to read Apple Wizards.
URLs From this Article:
  http://applewizards.net/feedback.shtml
  connect@applewizards.net
  Erik J. Barzeski
erik@applewizards.net
 
 
Ron Visits a Pub
 
This is Apple Wizards staff member Ron Freeman.
And this is a contest. Anyone that can think of a
funny caption for this picture will be entered to
win. What are the prizes? I'm not sure yet, but
they may include a free trip to Hawaii. Or not. :-)
Seriously, though, send in submissions to
connect@applewizards.net and I will personally
pick the funniest caption. Crank up those email
applications and fire off your ideas today. This
contest will end whenever we think it's fair (i.e.
early enough so that we can publish the results in
the next issue, and late enough so that we get some results). Think happy thoughts…
