wetroof said:
I saw the link at sott.net. nice graphics! could be a little slower transitioning so I could view the text and pictures without it being rushed. 'cause it sure is awesome. I'm sure other people might agree.
Anyways-- for some reason I feel the need to raise this point. I think-- I want 'you guys', all the people involved with the dot connector, to get some return for their effort. If some money went to FOTCM activities, that would be great. but then, I feel a two year subscription is cheating a little bit. you know, someone pays eighty euros but then... there is no guarantee for the next two years that a magazine will be issued every other month. I imagine it is quite a lot of work... and knowing the amount of other work to be done... okay, also earth changes, it seems a two year subscription could be deceptive.
this lead me to the idea that there could be a recurring subscription feature. every month the cost of one magazine is charged the the account. and you can cancel at any time. I think other people might appreciate this offer and be more willing "subscribe". its a lot less pressuring than 40 euros upfront, and signs readers might more willingly go for it. not sure how hard or worth it this would be to implement...
Well, first of all, I'd say that if something like earth changes cause us to stop publishing The Dot Connector, then things would have to be pretty bad. In such a scenario, all bets are off. There may not be money, or food, or fuel to keep warm. In that case, The Dot Connector would be in the same position as every other magazine publisher - or any other organization out there that offers a periodic service. I don't think that counts as "cheating" anyone. No one
knows what will happen, and we certainly aren't going to sit around on our hands waiting for The End! :)
As for the "pay as you go" subscription option, the price for such a service would be the same per issue as the price on the DCM online store. Technically speaking, it would be a bit of work to integrate such a subscription into our existing subscription-tracking software. So, if someone wants to buy one issue at a time, the idea is that they can simply go to http://www.thedotconnector.org/mag/ and purchase each issue as they are released. The end result is the same. Many people already do this. Sometimes, if money is tight, they wait for the PDF version to be released, and then purchase that instead since it's cheaper (but released later than the print version).
I should also note that even with the income DCM gets from subscriptions, writers are usually not paid anything for their work. The money goes back into printing the magazine, and we distribute many copies for free to certain groups and individuals. We also send off quite a few copies for promotional purposes. As with Sott.net and our other ventures/adventures, the people who work on such projects certainly don't do it for the money. With something like a magazine, it
is A LOT of work, especially considering the quality of the final product - in terms of both physical appearance and content.
But, I would say it's worth it. And from the responses we've been getting lately from readers, I'd say everyone else agrees.
Thank you Ailén!
