Starting up?

[maverike_prime]

So, as we can see Brother Tyler has been awsome and gotten this old forum dusted off and given us use of it for the development and publication of the Legio Imprint Fan E-zine. I've skimmed over the majority of the threads in here from the B&Cs prior efforts on the project. The first thing that caugt my attention was this post:
 

 

^{Return to Index}

How can I help create a Legio Imprint?

There are three basic roles related to the Legio Imprint:

• Chief Librarian - This is an oversight role performed by the Administrators on a rotating (and very unscheduled) basis. The Chief Librarian coordinates releases of completed Legio Imprints and, through discussion with the "staff" of the B&C (Administrators and Moderators), determines which proposals will be developed.
• Sponsor - This individual is typically a member of the "staff", but it's possible for anyone to be a Sponsor. The criteria to become a Sponsor include performing successfully as a Project Leader. The Sponsor advises and assists the Project Leader.
• Project Leader - The Project Leader takes care of the day-to-day work on a project, coordinating the efforts of the various Participants and putting everything together for editing and formatting.
• Contributors - Most members will serve as Contributors, helping to write articles, create artwork, or otherwise contributing material to an issue. Some Contributors may also serve by assisting the Project Leader in other ways (e.g., editing and formatting).

Usually, members will express their desire to help in the proposal discussion for any issues in which they are interested in participating.

Sometimes, members will become interested in participating after a project has been initiated. In these cases, all they have to do is contact the Project Leader to offer assistance.

Alternately, a member might have an idea for a solo project (typically an LI-L, but occasionally something larger). In these cases, the member can create a proposal for their project via the normal [LIP] discussions. If the Librarians allow, the project will be given approval for development.

Regardless of how the member is participating, it's important to remember that participation requires a degree of commitment. Our goal is to have at least two issues per year, and more if sufficient projects are completed. This can only happen if the members that volunteer carry through on their commitments. This is all fan-created, however, and the intent is for everyone to have fun. So while we expect the promised work to be delivered in a timely manner, you shouldn't expect to be worked like a servitor. We want volunteers to have fun and to enjoy sharing their hard work with others.

Coordination of group projects takes place in the respective project development forums. Herein, the Project Leader and project members will discuss the articles to be developed and keep track of the progress of each article. Usually, the contents of each article will be kept somewhat secret (from the larger board membership) so as to provide a (hopefully pleasant) surprise when the issue is completed, so actual articles will be submitted to the Project Leader by PM. Images for issues will be uploaded to private galleries by members, allowing them to share the images with other project members by sharing the image URLs.

 

I think starting with this organizational structure is good, but I would like to make the following changes to it:

 

The Chief Librarian will continue to be an administrator of B&C, They're responsibility will still be about coordinating between the Legio crew and the Forum admins but it will be much less 'hands on' then is implied above. Rather they're mainly going to function as the B&C over head, but they will also have final say over what can and can not be published, this is still their forum after all. I'm not interested in undermining them with materials that may run contrary to what they want to do with the Forums.

 

The Reclusiam: A loose assembly of 3 people that will likely change as issues are made. The Reclusiam's job will be to serve as admins to settle desputes that arise, and to ensure the proper 'feeling' of the Legio Imprint is maintained. This is meant to be a fun and informative fan-based e-zine. While we will be affiliated with Bolter and Chainsword, we're not going to be 'selling' it as it were. This would be a volunteer body, and while serving as a member of the Reclusiam, one can not also be a Project leader (Field Commander)

 

Field Commander: Functionally the same thing as the Project Leader listed above, the principle differences is the name, and that the Field Commander is the individual who is responsible for the completion of a given issue. Other wise it's the same as listed in BT's original post.

 

Beyond that point, the next step to get some ideas on the table for what to include in the issues. Please read through the other posts in the forum and post your ideas back here.

 

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Great start!

Orgasationally all i could add is maybe having squad sergeants be available to guide the more recurring topics from issue to issue.

 

Do you have one of these positons in mind for yourself mav? Or do you have people in mind for these positions?

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

I'd question the necessity of a Reclusiam - while a solid idea in theory, council discussions add a layer of delay and red tape to the matter. My gut feeling is that "Project Leader has dominion over their associated issue, Chief Librarian may intervene in the case of significant disputes," would do the job quite well.

[maverike_prime]

I'd question the necessity of a Reclusiam - while a solid idea in theory, council discussions add a layer of delay and red tape to the matter. My gut feeling is that "Project Leader has dominion over their associated issue, Chief Librarian may intervene in the case of significant disputes," would do the job quite well.

 

The Reclusiam isn't intended to be a council of discussion, but rather one of review. One of the risks I see in producing this e-zine is falling into the trap of "My hobby, the hobby". where by it metamorphes into a fundamental "This is the only way to enjoy the hobby" material line. I really want this e-zine to be and remain a Hobby positive publication. That is the ultimate responsibility of the Reclusiam in this regard. To make sure the individual issues maintain a flow and tone. Not to debate the topic or the content, but to act as a final gate in the publication and presentation of the product. As an example of what I mean, imagine a fluff article on Abaddon the Despoiler. I would find it perfectly acceptable to present your view of the character as being a failure by providing examples and justification for that belief. What I would not find acceptable is a fluff piece talking about the fact that Abaddon is a failure and anyone who thinks otherwise is just a whiney chaos brat that can't handle the point that their big-baddie is a joke. In that scenario it would first be the responsibility of the Field Commander to read the article and return to the contributor with an explanation that the article is not acceptable as written and needs to be re-written because of that fact. IF for some reason that does not occur, when the final rendition of the issue comes to the Reclusiam, the members of the Reclusiam would be expected to throw up the red flag on the article and come to the Field Commander regarding the article. It's not the Reclusiams responsibility to rewrite the article or anything else of that nature.

 

The Chief Librarium on the other hand is intended to give the B&C admins a final say over material that they would rather not be connected to. Just coming up with a crazy idea off the top of my head but lets say someone does a project article about their Home Brew Space Marine chapter which hales from a world where the Women are the ones who are the healers and as a transition of society, the Chapter itself does not maintain the Standard Apothecarium but a Sub group of healers made up of women. In the course of the article they go into detail about the body modifications the women go through to join the ranks of the healer in the chapter, and the writer goes into detail about genital scarring, breast reductions, and ritual scarring of the womans bodies.

 

Yeah... I'm not sure that B&C would want to have an e-zine with their name on the cover that touches on those topics. Thus the Chief Librarian is the person who is the conduit to the B&C for the opportunity to say "UM... wait a second! Lets not have that section that talks about the piercing the libia!"

 

 

[Brother Tyler]

Each issue will be different, depending upon the project leader and the contributors. If one project leader wants a committee to assist, that's fine. In other cases, a project leader might shoulder the whole burden (assisted by the admins). We're not going to limit things too much as we want to accommodate different personalities and different issue objectives. We're also not going to confuse the issue with special names (even though those names are themed). I predict that most project leaders will probably use the committee method (that's what I'm likely to do if I ever run a generalist issue), but this won't be something we force people to do.

 

What I didn't mention was proofreaders, editors, etc. Those are the roles that really need to be spelled out and which might see recurring holders. Such roles, while work-intensive, tend to be easier than other types of contributors such as authors and artists. They are, however, of supreme importance to final production quality and really need to be built into the front end of any issue. It's possible that the contributors might all pool their resources by proofreading each others' articles, which is an acceptable method. Alternately, some members might serve solely as proofreaders. Again, that, too, is acceptable.

 

Ultimately, we want to offer flexibility without being too prescriptive. The only things we want to enforce are the bare bones minimum requirements while allowing each issue to be developed in a manner that works for the members that work on it, and this means that we need to allow a degree of freedom.

[maverike_prime]

Each issue will be different, depending upon the project leader and the contributors. If one project leader wants a committee to assist, that's fine. In other cases, a project leader might shoulder the whole burden (assisted by the admins). We're not going to limit things too much as we want to accommodate different personalities and different issue objectives. We're also not going to confuse the issue with special names (even though those names are themed). I predict that most project leaders will probably use the committee method (that's what I'm likely to do if I ever run a generalist issue), but this won't be something we force people to do.

 

What I didn't mention was proofreaders, editors, etc. Those are the roles that really need to be spelled out and which might see recurring holders. Such roles, while work-intensive, tend to be easier than other types of contributors such as authors and artists. They are, however, of supreme importance to final production quality and really need to be built into the front end of any issue. It's possible that the contributors might all pool their resources by proofreading each others' articles, which is an acceptable method. Alternately, some members might serve solely as proofreaders. Again, that, too, is acceptable.

 

Ultimately, we want to offer flexibility without being too prescriptive. The only things we want to enforce are the bare bones minimum requirements while allowing each issue to be developed in a manner that works for the members that work on it, and this means that we need to allow a degree of freedom.

 

Okay BT, you've said "each issue will be different" several times in the course of our conversations. Before I thought we were basically on the same page (no pun intended) as to its meaning but now I'm starting to wonder if we're not using similar terms to describe completely different things.

 

The best example of what I have envisioned is the older White Dwarf magazines. Each issue was basically a combination of articles that boiled down to "Check out the awesome things we did with the hobby!". Sure one issue may have more Space Marines in it then the next issue, or the previous issue may have a large project article that talked about a series of conversions for one particular hobbyists army while the next issue has a larger selection of battle reports because they did a series of games in a large campaign setting. But in all cases every issue boiled down to "Check out the awesome things we did with the hobby".

 

So now I have to ask, what do you mean by "Every issue will be different" ?

[Brother Tyler]

Every issue will be different because different people will be involved. We might have consistent basic branding elements, some stock article types, and some recurring features, but the rotating door of participants means that each issue will be different in its own way; and the process to develop each will vary with the personalities involved. There may be times when members participate in multiple issues, providing some degree of consistency, but the nature of this website and hobby participation in general means that people will change.

 

So we need to have a flexible system that allows for these variations.

[Brother Tyler]

If there is a real intent to develop an issue, let me know so that I can build the sub-forum and assign permissions (if necessary). At the very least, I need to know who the issue project leader is (presumably maverick_prime, but that's not for me to assign) and if there are any other members that have committed to the issue. Once that is done, other members interested in contributing will be able to contact the project leader who will then let me know.

[maverike_prime]

 At the very least, I need to know who the issue project leader is (presumably maverick_prime, but that's not for me to assign)

 

um... yeah... that would be an amazingly bad idea. I'm a leader in the way a bull dozer is at the front of the line while everyone else follows on the trail left behind it. You need a door put in where there isn't one, oh yeah I can do that. need a central point of coordination, communication and facilitation across a group of individuals.... er.... not the guy you want for the job unless the job is marine issued. And probably not even then.

[Grotsmasha]

Whilst I'm not raising my hand to be project leader, I do have a bunch of ideas and am keen to be apart of this next issue.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[MikhalLeNoir]

Don't raise the hand cause I have a lot to do actually, but I was chief editor for a university newspaper and work as a free journalist and layouter. Problem would be my time and especially that I am a foreign speaker. but I could help with the Issue.

[Teetengee]

I am willing to help out. I would love to do some stuff about homebrew rules/ new missions/ different ways of playing the game.

[maverike_prime]

The original issue still remains: We need to assemble a team to at least start the project. I'm not a good option to be any sort of leader as it applies to this sort of project. I can cut through the tech stuff and find problems, but when it comes to organization and people... yeah, if I'm at the top of the pyramid tempers will flair and things will get ugly.

So... does anyone want to step up and be at least the developmental team lead?

[MikhalLeNoir]

Okay...how much time is to investwd and when has the issue to be released? I coul pull it off if the deadline isn't next week and if i am not the only one ;)

[maverike_prime]

Okay...how much time is to investwd and when has the issue to be released? I coul pull it off if the deadline isn't next week and if i am not the only one ;)

The time commitment is something that the initial team leaders would likely not have to contend with. While I would like to see the fan-publication grow to a point that it is being published bi-weekly, that is an incredibly long term goal and can't even remotely be talked about in any practical terms right now.

 

How I'm imagining it is that the first 2 to 3 issues will be largely experimental as the groups work to establish a style, organizational layout, and general tone of the publication overall. The first issue will be the hardest as that will be the issue that the teams will be dealing the most with the questions of "how"; how will things be laid out?, how will the text be laid out, how will the program's be set up, how will files be transferred between the different team members, how will reviews be handled, on and on. With that in mind I would not at all believe that a six-month publication time would be in the slightest unreasonable.

 

At this stage the big that is needed is some one to take the lead and direct the group. Every question I can list at this stage will have a dozen answers and everyone of the valid. So the team lead will need to be able to make the calls between using time/date coded emails or using drop box for file transfers between team members, or if we want to use time new roman font or aerial font.

[MikhalLeNoir]

okay, sounds like i can pull it off.

 

so, do we already have team leaders or do we need to search for them?

 

i could spend my dropbox account, so that we can ccordinate the things there. and how about using quip?

 

i like to have knowledge about everything what has been done and we could make different folders for art, layout, texts etc.

 

then it must be discussed what the first issue should be about.

 

where are the people who want to brainstorm and want to contribute something? where can i find them=?

 

in that i need some help, but after those initial problems are solved, i think it can be done.

[Brother Tyler]

The goal with the Legio Imprint is to see them published quarterly, at a minimum. One-off issues (i.e., special projects like the Dornian Heresy) might appear on an irregular basis, as the projects are completed).

 

What we need right now is for someone to roger up to being a project leader for an issue. Once we have that, we can round out the rest of the team (and the envisioned product).

[MikhalLeNoir]

Well, I can pull of the first issue. Already pulled of several first releases, so I know at least what is needed.

 

For coordination I suggested the use of quip, cause the overall working environment is superior compared to a board.

 

How should I acquire people? Can I put a post in each sub forum?

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Dolchiate Remembrancer reporting in.

Willing: Community reporting

Able: Article Writing

[MikhalLeNoir]

Fine. The first heretic ;)

[Teetengee]

I'll help out too, but I am very much more interested in homebrew missions, campaigns, units, codices, and similar.
I would be willing to write a thing on the art of homebrewing (i.e. what goals you need to decide you are going for going into it and how that influences the end results).

[maverike_prime]

Well, I can pull of the first issue. Already pulled of several first releases, so I know at least what is needed.

 

For coordination I suggested the use of quip, cause the overall working environment is superior compared to a board.

 

How should I acquire people? Can I put a post in each sub forum?

 

I've got a web server and online resources we can use that will free us up to do what we feel is the best option with out needing to worry about conflicting with the software that B&C uses, so I guess I'll work as the tech guy, Tech Adept? Tech Marine? Whatever the word we want to use is. I can help with the logistics and facilitation of the tech side of the situation. Can you gimme some idea as to what 'quip' is? I'll go ahead and look into it and see what we need to use it but I'd like to know what it is that you see about it that makes you think it's a good option (And that came out way more confrontational then I intended it). What is it that quip does that you like? Lets try that.

Okay, I'm a dumb ass. Did a 10 second google search for quip, read the intro page for the product and it's basically a tailor made coordination platform custom tailors for publication work. So... yeah. I'll look more into it and see what we need to get it up and running for our uses.

 

 

EDIT: 1:58pm EST

- Okay so I'm reading up on Quip. Running into some questions about it's operations. I'm going to drop a line to a product rep and setup a demo of it so I can evaluate it for our uses. Here are the questions I've come up with based on my quickie-read through. If anyone else thinks of something, toss up a reply and I'll add the question to my list of things to ask about during the demo.

 

1)  The basic version is free. Is that for a single user? If not single user how many people can work on the same project under the Basic version

2)  With the Team Version, it lists a 10-person. How easy is it to add and remove team members? Say we have a team member who is working on a project in may-june, is not working on the project from July-August and we have someone else come in for that portion of the project, but then person 2 finishes their part of the project and the original person returns for their next part of the project September-October?

3) Is there a file size limit?

4) Are there any file types restrictions?

 

EDIT: 2:42pm EST

 

-Also it looks like for the organizational base we would be using it for, Quip would not be a free to use platform. So these questions needs to be asked: Are we willing to commit money to the logistics of production? If so, how much are we willing to commit? From what I'm seeing on the Quip pricing page, we'd be looking at the Business version with has a per-user/month free of $12. So if we have a core group of 4 people, and have an average of 6 people per issue team, that would be 10 users meaning it would be $120 a month.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Well we used it for free. But i didn't set it up. But inviting and kicking users is quite easy. I sued my accoint for a test and created a private folder to which i can invite people and kick them out. Per issue I had in mind to create a subfolder and then add the people. We can also make mire and more sunfolders for every topic we want to fill.

 

The first step will be to have a core team and create ressorts.although we are free on the sides we make, i think a restriction for the first issue would be good cause a shorter fanzine is qualitywise easier to handle. In later issues we can raise the side count, but that depens also on the particiation.

There must be the a ressort leader for each resort.who then gathers the right people.

 

In my mind we habe a core team who create the idea behind the issue and then the ressort leaders who get content ready in Cooperation with the core team. Of course layouter artists etc are in the core team.

 

What did you say?

 

 

If we don't use quip your server solution would be very helful

[Brother Tyler]

It's fine if you guys use some other site to develop a fanzine, but in that case, please take planning/discussion to that other site. And then feel free to advertise via your signatures here when you start pumping out issues.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Yeah. But the starting Work(brainstorming,gathering people etc) can be made here. At least this is a b&c fanzine