The Japan Beer Times No.01 (Winter 2010) 1.0.0

I appreciate the work it takes to put these files together, even when it seems like they might not get lots of downloads. I don't know if you scanned these from scratch or if they are converted from another digital source, but thanks for taking time around the holidays to post/submit them.

6 hours ago, StrykerOfEnyo said:

I appreciate the work it takes to put these files together, even when it seems like they might not get lots of downloads. I don't know if you scanned these from scratch or if they are converted from another digital source, but thanks for taking time around the holidays to post/submit them.

This comment breaks my heart a little.   Not because no one is downloading these beer mags.  That's to be expected.  This is a gaming mag website, so how many of those people have an interest in beer?  OK, and out of those people, how many of them have an interest in Japanese beer?  OK, and out of those, how many of them live in Japan, because honestly, you're gonna be REAAAALY hard-pressed to find any Japanese craft beer outside of Japan.  Hell, I may be the ONLY person that has any legitimate reason to be interested in this mag, and that's fine.  I scanned them for myself, so that I could toss out the physical mags and clear some space.  If anyone else wants to read them, fine.  If not, fine.

But ...LOL. I know you didn't mean anything by it, but as someone who works hard scanning everything I release, it makes me sad to think that someone out there might think I'm just making easy-peasy digital rips (something that generally takes all of 5 minutes...if you spent 4 of those minutes making yourself a coffee.)  Trust that anything with my name on it is a scan of a physical magazine.  And while there's some discussion currently on how digital files should be handled, identified, or even allowed, for now, the safest way to identify them (on Retromags) is if there is no scanner listed in the credits (since nothing was actually scanned.)

3 hours ago, kitsunebi said:

the safest way to identify them (on Retromags) is if there is no scanner listed in the credits

I'll remember to look for the "scanner" listing in the future. Sorry about my comment, I didn't mean anything hurtful by it, that's why I took the time to say thanks. I don't know all the different ways the files are made -- I'm just happy to see anything that is preserved. I know now that you scan everything yourself, that's a lot of dedication. It must take at least a few hours per issue to do that, right? [taking the mag apart, scanning each page, cropping the size down to the pixel, color correction fine tunning, and compressing it all done] if I got that right. I'm perfectly fine with using pre-existing files if it cuts down on the workload for some of the members. I think color-correcting would drive me crazy, trying to get that right balance would take me forever. before I would be satisfied. Thanks again for your commitment.

No worries, I know nothing negative was meant and took the post as it was intended.  It coincidentally came at just the time when discussion about hosting digital files/rips is taking place behind the scenes.  Strictly speaking, as per Retromags' current rules, digital files aren't actually allowed. However, there are in fact quite a few of them already in our downloads area, so the discussion at hand is how to deal with them going forward.  I also agree that it makes sense to use pre-existing digital files if they're of good enough quality, though I'm hopeful we can get some sort of official system in place for identifying those files for what they are, so that people with less experience identifying the difference between a scan and a digital rip won't confuse the two.  Because while uploading a digital rip isn't completely devoid of time and effort, it's miniscule in comparison to the work that goes into making a quality scan, so anything that confuses the two is a bit of a disservice to the scanners' efforts.