Gp2x.letter 2.0?

[OrR]

When the GP2X was new, we started the GP2X.letter, a newsletter to inform everyone in the community about recent developments. It wasn't really successful and the project soon lost it's energy and went belly-up. I still think the general idea is good, though: Collect the email addresses of everyone who bought a Pandora (if they allow it) and everyone else who is interested and send out a newsletter regularly. It gets you a way to push information to everyone, even to the people too busy/lazy to be an active part of the community. This needs distributor support as we need to collect the email address of everyone who buys a Pandora (and is willing to get our spam). It could still be community-organized, though.

What went wrong last time was the structure. We reported on every little release and emulator update and basically copied the gp32x.de frontpage. That doesn't work. A newsletter like this needs people who choose the most interesting and relevant news, write proper texts with pretty pictures about them and send it out regularly but not too often. Monthly is enough.

Anyone interested in contributing technology, managing, writing for this project? I don't have the time to do much about it myself. The project would need a core team who are willing to contribute some time towards it regularly.

What about Craig, ED & Co.? Would you be willing to collect email addresses at your stores if this works out well? Or at least strongly advise your customers to sign up for it? Only that kind of support would really make it worth the effort.

 

[atomicthumbs]

A better plan might be to put an RSS feed somewhere in the Pandora OS, like in the package manager or front page.

 

[OrR]

That's a very good idea. (As long as the user can deactivate it easily.)
It would still need someone to manage it and I think it would be great if it could be done by community members. This would require a well thought-out technical infrastructure.

 

[Alex.]

How about a PDF community magazine? None of the GP2X mags got to the point of publishing a second issue, but since Pandora seems to be future-proof for at least a good couple of years, something like this could really take off. Not really what you suggested, but a similar thing worth thinking about

 

[streak]

Im still finishing / polishing my *.gpe gp2x Zine, if it will be done i'll try to re-port to pandora. The engine is wery similiar to many *.exe zines from Amiga / PC / Atari 16bit world [ compressed text + graphics + music in the bacground. No PDF, HTML-like sh*.*t ]

 

[scarath]

How many community mags start and fail making a mockery of the scene? I say the community is better off without them, who needs mags when you have forums and web-pages?

I have a friend who is still working on issue one of his sega saturn mag ...........

 

[Alex.]

How many community mags start and fail making a mockery of the scene? I say the community is better off without them, who needs mags when you have forums and web-pages?

I have a friend who is still working on issue one of his sega saturn mag ...........

Forum and news posts get buried as time passes. A collection of magazines remains in the spotlight, and can serve as a nice scene chronology.

 

[OrR]

How about a PDF community magazine? None of the GP2X mags got to the point of publishing a second issue, but since Pandora seems to be future-proof for at least a good couple of years, something like this could really take off. Not really what you suggested, but a similar thing worth thinking about

I hate PDFs. Either do a real printmag or use technologies that make sense for digital distribution.
In the end it might be an idea to use different formats to accomplish different things:
-An RSS feed to push info directly and immediately to devices and only used for this purpose.
-A monthly email newsletter that keeps interested people, whether they are device owners or not, up to date on recent community developments.
-A quarterly printed magazine for in depth articles, reviews of classic and new games and maybe even some introductory programming lessons that looks good on the shelf and can be shown to your grandchildren. Full color, 48 pages, 10€ an issue.
Content could be shared between these formats but they are different things for different purposes.

 

[satanic virus]

Any form of magazine or newsletter would be appreciated

I am not too concerned about the format, any articles would be great. There were not many 'mags' for the GP2X. It is always nice as Alex said to have articles and reviews for historical purposes. Threads on forums tend to get buried over time ..... .. .

I'd be happy to write the odd review here and there if anything gets set up. I can't promise much due to time constraints and technical 'expertise' but I am willing to help if needed. Good luck with this.