Hey,

As some of you may know, I am the co-creator of GPXile, a community magazine, published seasonally.
Sam and I were talking, and we thought it may be a cool idea to offer a printed edition of gpxile, for the purposes of which is up to you, reading by torchlight, perhaps, or gleaning interest in the GP2x at your place of education amongst peers.

We thought that if there were enough demand for the printed copy, we would offer it for roughly $7, $1.50 of which would be donated to a GP2x developer as chosen by you. And don't worry, we'd still offer a free download copy.

So, yeah, this is kinda our market research thing, just to test the water before we give this a shot.

Thanks in advance.

Please also feel free to post your views here. And please, even if you don't feel like buying it, vote to tell us that, please do not ignore the poll. Else it may seem like 60% of people are interested when the real world value is less than 6%, for example.

The only printed mag I buy is High Times, but I might be interested if it was maybe $3 or $4

Due to a flat binding fee of $4, and a cost of .045 cents thereafter for each page, the typical cost of one magazine would be $5.40, this being without donations to devs. Does that sound better?

LOL!!


$7 is really high, and $1.50 out of that 7 is a little low. Of course, I really have no idea what this so-called "printed version" would look like (quality-wise), so I'm basically speaking out of my ass.

But again, lol @ Lou's post.

Hey Nova, I really like the look of your magazine! I never got to read the first issue though. Anywhere I can still get it? All links seem to be down. Thanks!

EDIT: Looks like it's just been put on the archive Issue 1

id say put out a few more issues than ask see if you get requests for a printed version. the first issue was alright but nothing i would pay for. if it gets better maybe i would buy a printed version

Normally magazines decrease costs by advertising for interested businesses in them, but since the people who might be interested advertising wont do it for the low expected number of readers, then I can say it is out of the question.

Although I voted for "more interviews", but I just feel it would be great if there was an edition of every issue with a layout that is easily readable using the X11's PDF viewer .

Edit: Best of luck to you in your exams Nova

hi

i just read the first issue, nice job!

the more information about what kinds of things you can do with the gp2x the better imo!

i would like to see more hardware articles! especially on mods e.g. a wifi mod!

You don't know how good you've got it if you think $7 is really high. In the UK $10-12 would be an average price for a computer magazine .

I'm a bit unsure about this "donating money to a dev" I mean I like the idea, but is it one dev randomly selected each issue, or one dev for eternity. Need clarification. But I find it really unfair if the recipient is the same all the time.

The dev would be decided by a poll before each issue goes to press.

Anyhow, it seems a printed copy may not be the best way to go, so for the moment, we'll try and get a gp2x compatable one working.

They have some UK Linux mags at the Chapters near my apartment and they're in the $20-25 range (Cdn). It's obscene, even with the included DVD they're not worth near that much, especially considering how thin a lot of them are.

its the price of importing, plus how weak the USD and CDN are to the GBP.

Like I said, define "printed". See, in my mind, I'm totally picturing an envelope in my mail box containing the issue printed out and stapled

I think we've established that it would be *professionally* done. So I revoke my comment

I Think Nova wanted to use cafepress, I don't know what it would be like :S

I was looking at Cafepress. They print out the pages onto professional quality paper, and bind in one of three ways, ring binded, magazine stapled or hot glued.

But computer magazines at that price are generally 100+ pages, which offers more value.

I say keep it download only, but have a donation link for "dev of the month" or whatever on the homepage, and put something like "if you enjoyed this months issue, please consider... etc". keep it simple!

That never works, people are tight arses.