Retromags 3.0 - The future of this website

[Phillyman]

Hello everybody,

We are currently having talks between the admins about the future of Retomags. It's been about 15 years that Retromags has been around. I think it is time for us to go thru this site and give a fresh look at everything. As we decide on various items, we will bring them out to the forums for you guys to add in your opinions. Items on the table thus far are release quality, cutoff dates for submissions, comic book format, forum rules, etc.

If you want to bring up a change that you think we should look at, post it in this section and we will discuss and see if it is something we want to move forward on. I am pretty sure the only item off the table is scanning the current issue of X that is on the newsstand.

-Phillyman

[ml0045]

I think the cutoff date for scans should be drastically reduced. If it is out of print and not being offered online, every issue should be allowed if it is a magazine even if it stopped publishing recently. The same goes for strategy guides if it is currently not available for sale from the publisher.

Obviously current issue of currently publishing magazine probably isn't the best idea for the sites future as you said, but are your thoughts on hosting back issues?

Anyway, these are just suggestions.

Edited June 15, 2020 by ml0045
Proofread etc.

[Sivilius]

I am concerned about the adding of non-gaming related magazines & guides to Retromags due to "feature bloat". Same with adding anything not text-based, like VHS tapes. It could end up being too much to scan and keep maintained.

[vgmax]

I don't think this is a sensible concern for a couple reasons:

* broader reach will result in more people getting invested in the site/project

* more people getting invested will mean more effort which will make maintenance easier

Also media costs are really low right now. You can store 2,000 mags on a terabyte hdd, and those run just $25 used.

[DPsx7]

15 years? Cripes. I mean it's been a while but it doesn't feel like THAT long ago we were on the other site and you mentioned this project.

I wouldn't know what to suggest. For the forums, simple is best. For the content, while expanding what you preserve would attract more people, it would also be a significant addition to what needs to be maintained. Don't burn yourselves out by going overboard.

[boringhexi]

Something to guide us toward indexing magazines (listing their contents to make them searchable). Doesn't have to be some fancy data entry system, it could just be a newbie guide or brief tutorial saying what to type in the issue description.

Putting myself in the shoes of a newbie, the more questions pop up in my mind, the less likely I am to just get started on it. The kinds of questions that pop up in my mind are:

• What is indexing? (A listing of the contents of the magazine)
• Where do we put the index? (In the issue description I assume, unless another system gets put in place which is unlikely)
• What goes in the index (e.g. can I just put a plain minimal list of games, or do I need to list article titles too?)
  • Minimal games list: Easier, so more likely to succeed? Most bang for the buck
  • Article names/full table of contents: More complete, harder for non-native language magazines
  • Really, probably just having clear requirements is the important thing.

Other thoughts:

• Indexing would be much faster if it were possible to download or view individual pages instead of entire issues.
  • Like, I dunno, server side unzipping? I don't know how that all works.
  • Or maybe dump a bunch of table of contents scans somewhere, doesn't matter if it's someone's GDrive as long as it's clear which issue each belongs to.
• Maybe call it "Indexing contents" instead of just indexing to make it a little more self-explanatory (for hypothetical newbies who might not click the guide otherwise)
• Can we mark issues as indexed? Right now it's really easy to find issues that aren't indexed, but (hopefully) as time goes on...

Edited July 4, 2020 by boringhexi

[E-Day]

Yes, the Table of contents of the magazine goes in the Issue Description. I don't think we have any guidelines as to what to put in there, but generally people are putting everything in there that is in the Table of Contents. Basically making it a text version of the ToC page(s), and listing the console for each game mentioned.

The best thing to do is look at issues that have had that info filled in to get an idea of how to do it. There is no set style for filling it out; that would be hard since each magazine did their table of contents differently, and each person filling it in has their own style as far as how they format it.

Phillyman will have to answer the more technical questions