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                      The Future of the Atari Diskmag Scene
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I have to admit  that some people may feel bored about that topic, but I, as I'm
deep  involved  in here, torment  my brain  about it  again and  again as  we're
standing short before  some changes that  might be seen good by some people, but
aren't that good from my point of view...

You may remember  my article "Do we need diversity" published in one of the last
UCM's and  in fact, with 3  major diskmag releases within shortest time, we have
reached a point to speak of "diversity"... but if you take a closer look, we had
to pay a  high price for  this, as all major diskmag releases needed over a half
year for their release, a time without any magazines at all.

This price  obviously is too  high and is a thing not every editor is willing to
pay and overall  it doesn't matches  right to the point of view of ANY editor on
Atari at all.
Furthermore it  is senseless to speak about merging several  magazines into just
one as all  editors are following  a special path and give their own magazines a
very  special taste  that  brings  us the point  above, diversity, as  all those
different flavours find their readers and lovers.

As said, the price  is too high, and while editors like me and Grey have learned
to live with the  fact of bigger breaks between the releases, this is fairly new
ground for  Alive magazine, that  ends up now  with the things you could read in
the latest issue of Alive.
I know  that  some moves  to save  Alive for  the future  are already  done, but
loosing some good  editor and  overall quite productive writer like STS is a big
slap into the  neck of a magazine  like Alive, that  was hard working on regular
release dates so far and was the only diskmag on the Atari scene that matched it
to bring out new issues in reasonable times over the last years.

Some months or  even years back I  would have seen this quite different, knowing
of the thin air I would have  thought, one less who is breathing gives the other
survivors more air and a slightly longer life.
Today I would miss Alive  as reading UCM and the seldom issues of Chosneck alone
isn't the breaker and I even have to admit that I see Alive as the leading Atari
diskmag release  at the moment, as  it gathered  several views on the things, it
featured  a  quite big  range  of different  writers and  overall, was  a  quite
regularly  released  publication... things  we  unfortunately  miss  on UCM  and
Chosneck, too...

So what now? There  are some rumours  around, reaching  from the death  of Alive
over a release as web zine only as well as it might go on as it was, the problem
on this is, that this uncertain  situation may  prevent several people to invest
time and support into this project and it may be catapulted out of reach without
wanting  it in the end... But loosing  Alive surely wouldn't  make the things on
UCM and Chosneck move that better, at least I have my doubts.

At the moment  there are some movements  to make Chosneck available for a bigger
community, starting with a web based version  and may go any further in the near
future, you  know the  demands  of the crowd. But  this wouldn't  compensate the
death of a whole magazine. The problem is that the staff of Alive surely wont go
on as team in  the future and I think the same things will happen as it was as I
quitted UCM some years back, with such hard changes and breaks also complete and
stable teams might  break and as it was  always before, some potent writers will
be lost again... as well as their thoughts and views...

I don't know what  to say here, my  mind seems to be screwed up somehow,  as I'm
somehow in fear that I have to read my UCM and Chosneck only in the future, that
would be damn  boring for an  editor... Don't get me wrong, Chosneck is always a
good and  funny read, but  the very  ST oriented contents of Alive would be hard
missed.

I cross my fingers  for the  Alive posse, please  keep up the good work, CiH and
Cyclone and friends and  please stay  with us some  more years! The  scene needs
diversity and that means, it needs also YOU...

_______________________________________________________________moondog_o3/2k4___