KiwiArcader's Work In Progress

[KiwiArcader]

Next up we have Computer Games issue 184

[KiwiArcader]

Another of Cameron's mags gets scanned, this time it's Computer Pilot Vol.03 Issue 03

[KiwiArcader]

Computer Games issue 195 is now available over at Kiwis World

I believe this is the second to last issue to be produced of this title.

[KiwiArcader]

Computer Games issue 196 is now available over at Kiwis World

[KiwiArcader]

Not sure if anyone reads my W.I.P nowadays but Computer Games issue 143 is now available over at Kiwis World

[kitsunebi]

34 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

Not sure if anyone reads my W.I.P nowadays but Computer Games issue 143 is now available over at Kiwis World

Only the cool people are capable of seeing any post that has the words "computer" or "PC" in it. 

If you want everyone else to be able to read your posts, you're gonna have to insert the words "Nintendo" or "Gamepro" or "MORTAAAALLL KOMBAAAAAAT!!!!" somewhere in there.

[KiwiArcader]

PC Gamer (USA) issue 105 is now available over at Kiwis World

[KiwiArcader]

Computer Games issue 175 is now available over at Kiwis World

[KiwiArcader]

PC Gamer (USA) issue 121 is now available over at Kiwis World

[kitsunebi]

Kiwi, I'm as grateful for your scans as ever, but I've got to admit a bit of disappointment with the download-only nature of the new site.  I used to occasionally comment over at OldGameMags, but your new site is closed to comments from everyone who isn't an active scanner for your site, so I never even bother visiting anymore.

You say you got a ton of spam, which would be understandably frustrating.  I wonder what kind of filter we must have in place here, then, since we almost never have any spam.  Well, not that I'm aware of.  New members have to have their first so-many posts approved before they show up in the forums, and as far as I know, I can see those posts (I've approved several of them in the past), and I've only once seen something that I considered spam (and frankly, I'm not sure the author himself thought it was spam.)

[KiwiArcader]

Hiya mate,

I understand your comments and agree wholeheartedly with them. However, given the nature of the costs I am using a fairly old platform for the site as a freeware forum like SMF doesn't do much of anything other than be a forum and IP.Board that Retromags runs on is hundreds of dollars to acquire and is simply out of my financial reach.

Site members can comment but unfortunately every time I open registrations I get bombarded with spam sign-ups. Same happened with opening comments to non-members. The anti-spam add-ons for PHP-Fusion require a fair bit of tinkering in the database etc to get them working and I didn't want to screw the site over after getting it up and running so that's where I am at currently. On top of that my ISP disables port 25 outgoing traffic on consumer plans so I cannot use the softwares built in email verification feature either which would save alot of manual work. 

However, I made it known if people want to sign up they can email me and I will happily create an account for them but seriously, NO-ONE even bothered to ask. Not a single person ......

That's the nature of running a site I guess. Damned if you, damned if you don't. Most people never even bothered to comment when it was an open WordPress site. They are just there to leech and run. I'd rather they didn't bother me than have to moderate the heck out of the site to be honest when it comes to people like that.

[kitsunebi]

Well hell, we've got over 10,000 members, and only a handful comment or contribute in any way whatsoever.  I'd be curious to see how much spam we get, assuming it's being filtered automatically in some way I'm unaware of.

I guess doing without user posts is a matter of what drives you.  If scanning and uploading mags is your thing, then no need for comments.

Speaking personally, my desire to scan anything is directly proportionate to site activity.  During the lulls when no one is bothering to post in the forums, I feel no great urge to provide more fuel for the voiceless leechers.  If I took all the time I spend editing and uploading covers/ads/etc and put it into magazine scanning instead, I would have uploaded...let's see...7000 images divided by an average of 150 pages per mag equals...an additional 46 mags, which is more than I've scanned to date, I believe (although in reality, editing a cover/ad and adding it to the gallery and database, and possibly having to create said galleries or database entries as well takes considerably more time than editing a single page of a magazine, so the actual number of mags I could have scanned is probably much higher.)   But whereas filling out the galleries is a personal mission, independent of site activity, scanning mags is something I really only do for the benefit of others.  If I don't feel there's anyone out there actively participating on the site who will appreciate the mag, I have no motivation to bother scanning.

[Melki]

On 10/7/2017 at 4:47 AM, kitsunebi77 said:

Only the cool people are capable of seeing any post that has the words "computer" or "PC" in it. 

If you want everyone else to be able to read your posts, you're gonna have to insert the words "Nintendo" or "GamePro" or "MORTAAAALLL KOMBAAAAAAT!!!!" somewhere in there.

Gamepro!!! someone has been summoned here :3... "Only the cool people are capable of seeing any post that has the words "computer" or "PC" in it." 

[KiwiArcader]

17 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Speaking personally, my desire to scan anything is directly proportionate to site activity. 

If I don't feel there's anyone out there actively participating on the site who will appreciate the mag, I have no motivation to bother scanning.

I scan a magazine because I want  to scan it.

I edit someone's raw scans because I want to edit that particular issue.

Nothing else factors into my decisions around what I choose to devote my time to as a general rule. That's why I have been editing Dan's scans of Nintendo World. I find it more appealing than N64 Magazine which caused much gnashing of verbal teeth by a vociferous one or two site visitors when I was running WordPress. That just made me even more determined to process what I liked rather than letting others choose my path for me. I tell all the guys scanning for me to do the same thing. All that happens is people risk becoming jaded if they simply scan/edit stuff because it's there. 

There are perks to being a scanning member of the site though  

[kitsunebi]

3 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

There are perks to being a scanning member of the site though  

Ironically...?...bewilderingly...?...inexplicably...?....tragically...?...I've all but given up caring about gaming mags so far as reading them is concerned, so the promise of access to additional scans means very little to me, outside of a few rare PC mags from the 80s/early 90s which I doubt you're keeping under wraps.  I can't tell you the last time I actually read a mag, but it was at least a year ago.  I rarely even download anything anymore, outside of new (i.e. current) stuff that needs to be grabbed before the links expire, or something I need access to in order to add it to the database.  As for the releases of older mags either here or on your site, though I'm grateful for them, I usually don't do more than make a mental note of their existence, secure(ish) in the feeling that they will still be there in the future if I ever feel the need to have/read them.

Why I spend so much time contributing to a community that I no longer have an active interest in is something I can't explain, but since it's the community and not the mags to which I'm committed, it helps explain why I lose motivation when the community goes silent.  That said, I don't choose what to scan based on where other people's interests lie.  If I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be scanning Japanese mags, which are only of interest to a small niche group of members (or at the very least, I'd confine those scans to Famitsu, which despite the fact that I own hundreds of them and it being the most in-demand Japanese mag, I've stopped scanning entirely thanks to the annoyance of RetroCDN.)

[KiwiArcader]

Geez!!! I think you probably need to take some time out mate.

I think you're the sole mag cover uploader around here and I don't think anybody cares all that much that you've been slaving your guts out for the last year. Well, it certainly hasn't been all that obvious that people enjoy your gallery submissions which kinda sucks.

It's especially sad that RetroCDN has caused you to stop scanning mags when the fact is the internet is the wild wet nowadays and anything anyone scans is going to end up somewhere, be it them or Archive.org or friggin' TOSEC.

I am committed to preserving magazines first and foremost. If I wasn't I'd have shut down OGM ages ago or after the WordPress site bellied up a couple of months ago and saved myself the costs of file hosting etc along with the hassles of running such a site . I put it back up because of the mags and a small group of guys who want to get their collections preserved in digital format. I could have just given Jason and the others direct access to my NAS and gone down the "scan for ourselves" path but we both like the fact that at least we're progressing the preservation of content that might otherwise disappear and making it available for everyone to enjoy.

[kitsunebi]

16 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

I think you're the sole mag cover uploader around here and I don't think anybody cares all that much that you've been slaving your guts out for the last year. Well, it certainly hasn't been all that obvious that people enjoy your Gallery submissions which kinda sucks.

It's especially sad that RetroCDN has caused you to stop scanning mags when the fact is the internet is the wild wet nowadays and anything anyone scans is going to end up somewhere, be it them or Archive.org or friggin' TOSEC.

Oh, I'm fully aware that no one appreciates my gallery uploads.  In fact, I've heard complaints about them (apparently my constant image uploads cluttering up in their activity feeds make it harder for them to see the "important" posts)  It's really just an obsessive/compulsive drive that makes me continue - it has no relation to feedback from other people the way my magazine scans do.  In the past year and a half I've uploaded almost as many images as every other member of the site combined has uploaded in the past 11 years (I should pass the 50% total mark within a month.)

As for BlackSquirrel and RetroCDN, they haven't put me off scanning everything, just Famitsu, since that's the only thing of mine they take.  It's no big deal - I've got plenty of other mags to scan that they leave alone.  It doesn't bother me when other sites take my stuff - several of my mags have shown up at archive.org, for instance.  But archive.org and other sites who take our stuff leave the files intact, whereas RetroCDN reduces the files to less than half their pixel height and compresses them until they weigh in at 80MB or so.  As you say, stuff on the internet gets spread around, so the fact that Retro CDN facilitates the dissemination of low quality copies is why I choose to scan things they have no interest in.

Btw, I might not download much anymore, but I've got nothing but respect for you guys over at TheSiteFormerlyKnownAsOldGameMags.  You guys scan at a pace that puts our little trickle of releases to shame, yet I always get the feeling like there are a lot of people around these parts that are unaware of just how much output you guys have.

[Phillyman]

2 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Oh, I'm fully aware that no one appreciates my Gallery uploads.  In fact, I've heard complaints about them (apparently my constant image uploads cluttering up in their activity feeds make it harder for them to see the "important" posts) 

Well I do!

Also those members need to learn to use the Feeds, you can include/exclude whichever parts of the site you want to watch.

[KiwiArcader]

Well, thanks to the comments from kitsunebi77 I was FORCED to update the site to Joomla to enable people to create logins for the site so they can comment if they so desire. 

All kidding aside though, the other platform I implemented after my amazingly bad WordPress site crash was entirely too problematic anyway so the move was a necessity.

Now that most of the uploads are back online (still a lot of PlayStation content to upload though) I am back onto scanning duties. The first title especially for kitsunebi77, is issue 124 of PC Gamer (USA) featuring Half-Life 2.

[kitsunebi]

3 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

especially for kitsunebi77

This is the way all posts should begin. 

[KiwiArcader]

A new day, a new PC Gamer (USA) with issue 112 now available over at Kiwis.World.

[KiwiArcader]

In case anyone is interested I am working on a 360 page monster of an issue next. The issue in question is #53 circa October 1998.

Unfortunately this issue arrived in really rough condition. I have cleaned up the cover and although it is still rough it is a LOT better than it was. Expect to see it over the weekend. Being the equivalent of three normal sized mags it is going to take a while to edit.

[kitsunebi]

3 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

In case anyone is interested I am working on a 360 page monster of an issue next. The issue in question is #53 circa October 1998.

Unfortunately this issue arrived in really rough condition. I have cleaned up the cover and although it is still rough it is a LOT better than it was. Expect to see it over the weekend. Being the equivalent of three normal sized mags it is going to take a while to edit.

Oh hey, I own that one.  I could scan the cover the next time I'm home, maybe, but I'd have to use my mom's crappy all-in-one printer/fax/scanner flatbed, so I'm not sure how much better it would be.

I actually just de-bound a mag today that has a cover so rough I'm debating whether I'll bother trying to edit it at all.  The interior is fine, but the cover looks like it's been living under a bridge with a bad crack habit for the past 25 years. 

[KiwiArcader]

Same as this issue my friend. It is now available so if anyone feels the need to read it and can look past the cover it is perfectly readable.

If I were you I'd still make the file available. Anything is better than nothing and if no-one submits a better copy at least you prevented it from being consigned to the history books as "unscanned/missing" right?

[kitsunebi]

4 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

If I were you I'd still make the file available. Anything is better than nothing and if no-one submits a better copy at least you prevented it from being consigned to the history books as "unscanned/missing" right?

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest I wasn't going to edit and release it - I was just talking about the cover.  I can't even scan it yet, since I haven't hooked up the scanner/computer in my new place yet.  But once I do, I'm considering leaving the cover as is, since making it look presentable would require some form of time travel.

I'm not worried about a better scan coming.  That won't happen, since no one owns any issues of the mag, so far as I know (it's a Dengeki Super Famicom).  One thing I never have to worry about is someone else scanning the same mags as me