if50.substack.com does have the popup. If you’ve already subscribed it probably remembers and so doesn’t show you.
People dunk on Wordpress, but it’s still a very solid option. And definitely the better known 
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I think this is a great idea, too. I would also be an avid reader and supporter of a publication like this. (I regret that I never supported sub-Q while it was around, even though I was a regular reader.) Exciting! 
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I think this is a great idea. I’d definitely be willing to put in some time editing, and now I’m thinking if there’s any theory/criticism topic I feel qualified to write a decent article about.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the fine line between fun and annoying in puzzles—manually opening doors before going through them seems to clearly be annoying, and >WIN GAME would be unsatisfying, but where the line is drawn has varied a lot by time and genre. What qualities make an obstacle annoying rather than fun?
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Late to the party here, but am definitely interested in seeing something like this take root.
I’ll also second (third?) the recommendation for WordPress, although there are worthwhile alternatives out there.
Mostly, I’d encourage using a platform where the content is under the journal’s control, rather than rely on a siloed corporation to hold and serve it up. I would think longevity is a priority with this project.
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Hello Victor. I’m an academic (social scientist) who has written quite a lot of non-fiction, and I’m also an experience editor. My love for IF has been rekindled over the last couple of years (not least through Narrascope and the IF Ed Com), and I’m looking for ways to bridge between my work and my hobby. I was actually thinking of opening a Wordpress site along the lines of what you describe, but what you suggest sounds much more interesting. I’d love to contribute towards what you have in mind in any way I can.
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Recently, Judith Pintar shared this on Mastodon:
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I just wanted to say that I’m very happy with the responses in this thread, and that I’m seeing enough enthusiasm that it is certainly worth exploring whether we can set up an editorial and technical team for this. So I will contact some people SOON™.
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Is that surprising, though? Both games are deliberate provocations, in their own way, but whereas everyone can engage with De Baron, I don’t know that I have much intelligent to say about Turandot as I’m ignorant of Puccini and Italian opera.
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I think it’s interest isn’t very dependent on knowing Puccini or Italian opera! But if course I’m not here in this topic to tout my own game.
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Why not just add more tags to this forum?
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Without derailing things, my experience of Turandot suggests that playing or offering criticism on it requires an operatic background in about as much as reading 1001 Nights will allow a person to watch Disney’s Aladdin. That is to say, it would be neat background to come in with, but it’s not at all necessary.
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Tags are user-creatable and existing topics can be edited to add them by our long-time regular members.
In the tag field, start typing and see if there’s a relevant matching tag to add. If not, keep typing and create a new one. Spaces are not allowed, but you can have hyphens for tags like ifcomp-2022.
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I guess I was responding to the initial criticism
I would argue that better usage of tags (eg theory, criticism, design, blogs/articles) and perhaps more methods for searching for and displaying these posts would be a far simpler solution than creating a new website.
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I can’t find the word “magazine” in the topic, but that’s exactly what it sounds like to me, and I like magazines! I also like the IF Theory Reader and am finally about to finish it. I’d be excited to see a place for the content described here, and can only offer technical contributions. There are many ways to host static articles, but I do think that a set-aside space with a “permanent catalogue” has distinct advantages.
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obvs I’d like to see your thoughts on worldbuilding in skybreak! and lost coastlines
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Did anything ever come of this discussion? I just proposed a presentation on the (very small) body of interactive fiction in Mormon literature to the Association for Mormon Letters conference. I would be interested in learning about other ways people have engaged with IF as literature (I’ve read Cybertext, Twisty Little Passages, Hamlet on the Holodeck, and Videogames for Humans, among others, and am looking for more literary approaches).
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I think it’s waiting for someone to step up and do all the organizational work. I’ve got a very rough draft of some writing about Dorian Passer’s experiments, but I haven’t had the time and energy it would take to try to coordinate this whole project.
As a side note, it took me a good while to find this thread again to reply to it, until I remembered that “a vision” appeared in the title. Which is another argument against just having such writing posted here.
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I’ve been meaning to follow up on this thread with an email/message to people who expressed interest in participating. As for the delay in actually doing so, there are only excuses, no truly good reasons. So thanks for spurring me on. I’ll do this any day now! (No, I mean, really!)
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You can’t tell from this thread, but I’ve actually done what I promised and am discussing starting a magazine with a number of people.
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This sounds like a great idea! I don’t see myself as writing articles any time soon, but if you find it hard to get editors with time on their hands, it may be worth cutting down “10%” (number not important) on the technical requirements - what I mean is that somebody above mentioned commas etc. Just using myself as an example in lack of a better one, but there might be non-English authors/players who has a lot they want to say so if the technical requirements are too high, it might be difficult for them.
Some ideas (sorry if some of these seem obvious):
- Clarify if articles must strive to be objective (not obvious to me if this is required or not)
- Enough to have one native English speaker to review an article
- Start out very open minded and if some feel that there are too many “low quality” articles (subjective I guess), organizers can change this.
- Emphasize that this isn’t just for the most successful authors so no one is discouraged
- For a start, select the best articles from the IF Archive Zarf mentioned, and add them to the website to give an idea of your vision.
EDIT: I hope some of these proposals are useful and in line with your vision.
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