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                  HOW MANY MAGAZINES CAN THE ATARI SCENE STAND?!
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A strange  topic, isn't it? Of course our scene  could stand a lot  of magazines
that have their main topic in the Atari scene or better Atari demo scene. So the
question maybe  should be: "How many  magazines can be supported by the nowadays
Atari scene?!" This article isn't thought to mourn about the things or something
but only my, an editor's, view onto the things...

Before we start to take a closer look onto the things, let's have a small excurs
into the  near past... As you know, the  Atari scene had always  a quite regular
magazine posse, releasing magazines like DBA Mag, Maggie, Toxic Mag and last but
not least UCM, just to count  the most  memorable names of  the last  years. New
magazines popped up here and there, just like  Eye On Scene, but  since we had a
hard  regular  staff of  magazines, their  chances  weren't the best  for a real
breakthrough. And the reason is quite simple, since the existing "big" magazines
had already  bound a big  ammount of  writers and  new writers  mostly wanted to
support one of those  big magazines  instead of  the newbies and  maybe even the
guys behind those newbie magazines didn't  had enough energy to fight themselves
through the first hard years.

Things started to change 3 years ago, as I decided to stop my editors job at the
UCM, that was  grown from some  german lamer magazine  since 1993 to  one (and I
think it finally was the number one) of the leading Atari scene magazines. I had
given up the  editor ship to  STsurvivor, who was an  very active  UCM writer at
that time, and he kicked his editorship for the  Toxic Magazine. Around the same
time the Reservoir Gods stopped their big support for Maggie.

As you can see, the whole, in the  former years very stable, Atari diskmag scene
started to change, but in a  way that  wasn't good  finally. Only one year later
the  crisis reached  its peak. Toxic Mag died as diskmagazine, was changed to an
online magazine that is starving to death atm.
Maggie itself was starving as well after the  Reservoir Gods  left its lines and
since STsurvivor  wasn't satisfied with  UCM he decided to stop with UCM. At the
same time I thought about creating  a new magazine  in the  underground, the old
...inSTabil... project, you know.

But you know the story... in the middle  of 2ooo all  former Atari diskmags were
vanished from the screen and the few surviving writers  formed a team to save at
least one  magazine for the  scene, Alive. The Alive team  was gathering writers
from Maggie and  the UCM staff and had big chances to stand in that position for
some more years. But the scene lost the needed diversity and since I knewed that
it is hard to come with some new magazine, esp. in such hard times, I decided to
take over the UCM again, to give the scene some colours back again.

As I know many people weren't satisfied  with the point that Alive should be the
only magazine and because of this  reason another magazine, done by  another one
who wrote mainly for UCM in the past, Grey, was released, CHOSNECK.
But both, the new CHOSNECK and the reanimated UCM had one big problem. Since the
ALIVE magazine was  for longer time the only  Atari scene publication, it didn't
only merged some  hardcore editors, nope, also  some others joined them, even if
they didn't  joined the team at all. And since  CHOSNECK was a  new creation and
UCM lost the most old writers to the Alive staff, both had troubles to find some
new writers and the result is up to day that CHOSNECK didn't matched it to speed
up the release  dates, even if Grey matched it to form a  new magazine staff for
the magazine. Much harder  it is for UCM  since only a very few people supported
it really, even if  a lot of people  told me they  liked the  UCM back and would
help us out... So while  CHOSNECK already has his own writers staff now, the UCM
don't has still and the main work is still sticking like tar on my hands alone.

I have to admit that I don't have something against the fact to do the mainwork,
but it breaks down the motivation  and the chance to survive for UCM, since only
one issue per year is shit. I'm happy that  at least the parts of the grafix and
musix isn't that  problem anymore since the todays Atari scene is much faster in
helping out, but as  said it doesn't  makes sense to create something like a mag
alone. It will lay in the line of fire of the critics forever.

And so I came  to the idea for this article. The  feedback I got for UCM 21, all
the discussions  held before  and after  the release, as well as the feedback to
CHOSNECK, showed up that it isn't time to create only one magazine for the Atari
demoscene up to now. The scene really wants more and  furthermore needs more, to
show how  different the views in that  small scene are. Only  one magazine would
present only one point of view and  since this scene is a gathering of many very
different thinking  people, it will  never have  the chance  to satisfy  all the
minds in the scene.

But there  is laying the  problem. Even if many  people would like to have other
magazines, give  you positive  feedback  for your encourage  to create something
different  besides the existing ones  it is some kind  of impossible to find new
writers for  the new magazine. I really  don't know the reason. As the movements
of the nowadays Atari scene are showing, it is still a melting pot of many, many
skilled people that want to hold up the Atari flag in any way.

And even if all people want to read more stuff about this scene in diskmagazines
nearly nobody  wants to  write for such  a magazine. And so the question is not,
"Needs this  scene more magazines?"... nope, it's  just "Is  this  scene able to
support more magazines at all?" and I have  a bad  feeling in  my stomach  if it
goes to answer that question.

Even if this  scene needs diversity, it seems not  to be able  to support divers
views aka  magazines. Ok, maybe  it can  support them, but  not in the way those
magazines need, or maybe it doesn't want to support them at all?!
Maybe the reason is quite simple? Maybe  all wants  to read something but nobody
wants to write because of the possible reactions?! That could be a reason, since
the DHS bulletin board as well as feedbacks and discussion on IRC that the scene
is very aggressive nowadays. It is still  very friendly, but  only as long as no
one says the things he doesn't like. Is this the reason?!

I really  don't  know, but it's  a point to  think more  about. As the mentioned
things above, the negative feedback, flaming discussion and active boycotts, are
showing, are the nerves of the todays Atari scene laying blank. But why?
We are a shrinking and maybe soon dying species. This brings the surviving freax
closer and closer together, maybe too  close. And while it was in former times a
damn big community where  you never had the possibilities to check your contacts
out as much as  today since they were just too many, the getting closer of today
maybe shows that the people you always liked  and thought they were  on the same
trip, are much  more different, and in  some points too different  from your own
views, that brings  you to a point to  ask about the sense  of the relation with
them. And this  seems to be  a point. Some people  can stand different views and
meanings while others can't.

Furthermore a strange way  of thinking has  started. Many people  today thinking
they're heroes on Atari, that their moves and views are the only right ones. And
too much heroes aren't good since if several people think they're doing the only
right things, the conflict is  already laying in  the air. And some more... only
to write or say that  you don't like  something another  freak has done, doesn't
means that  you don't  like him as well... but  that's a point many people can't
anymore, and I have to admit, that I also have again and again such breaks in my
mind. I know that it is very  important to identify yourself with the things you
have done, but there must  be a frontier somewhere. And  this frontier is lacked
by many people today...

And while many people  are too much identifying  themselves with the things they
have done, others don't stand to their  views, they just say them but they don't
want to offer them  to a wider public because they already know the reactions of
the other people... and since the current Atari scene related magazines bringing
us mostly articles about the moves of the scene as well as about scene prods, it
is a hot job to write articles  in that surroundings  of fanatism and dishonesty
and even if the people would like to  write down their thoughts they are in fear
of flames and fuckings. Or am I wrong here?

As  said, I'm just  thinking about  the problem  to find writers  for a magazine
today and my thoughts in here aren't meant to be the complete truth or something
like that, just some ideas I had as I thought about it.

My views mentioned at last seem to be confirmed by the reactions I got again and
again for my thoughts released in UCM. But it has something to do with the right
of free speech or  is the todays Atari scene  really that intolerant? And I will
go on in my style as long as I  got mails and reactions  of people that tell me,
that I have  to say the truth... And if I would  praise a  demo that  is shit in
reality, just to avoid some flamings by its makers, I would be a damn liar!

And those liars are destroying the scene, since only the point that I say that I
don't like the one or other production, doesn't mean that I hate the creators of
it as well...

So just think about those  lines and maybe you  will find the  encourage then to
join the guilde of  magazine writers, to  help to give the  Atari magazine scene
some more colours and to help to save it's current diversity...

Any opinions about that topic? Mail me: moondog@atari.org


.tSCc.                                                          moondog . o3/2k2
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