A lot of great idea's here guys.
Maybe for a filler issue just to give everybody time. We could do a "Best of Ezine". Articles from the past years. Would also refresh new users on some of the more key points we have already discussed.
The wife and I have been trying to find a topic to write on for a while now...just can not find one yet.

I think there should be a Funny Pages sections perhaps with comics. Events on NA could be listed like the police report sections of the paper. For Example NA member suchandsuch started another random thread with a video wondering if member suchandsuch has been huffing the paint.
http://tom.hise.org/blog/wp-conte... something like that if you don't know what I mean I always love reading that in our local paper.

I second that idea.  I can't tell you how many times I get asked how to make a repro or where they can learn and I always direct them to some old e-zine issues.

Interviews, member spotlights and game reviews as well as homebrew/repro reviews are a staple that can be in every issue.  We could also have a rare item spotlight every issue where we go into depth on a very rare item.  I could think of dozens off the bat.

My idea would be to set up areas we need articles on:
Member Spotlight
Interviews (New homebrew developers, current gaming employees, old game development, etc.)
Old game reviews
Homebrew/repro game reviews
Rare item spotlight
Puzzle page (or whatever name you want to give it)

Once we have all the categories, we could get 2-3 people per category to sign up and be responsible for submitting an article.  Best article wins for the next issue and then you will have extras as back ups for future e-zines.  I think this will give the whole community a chance to step up.  There could be a private thread for writers so there would also be some accountability and an area for writers to upload their articles.  There could be a team of editors and someone to help Scott get everything put together.

Basically, if there was a team of people, accountability, and volunteers for sections, we would have a large supply of writers and if an area was suffering (not enough volunteers) we could petition the writers for someone to step up for that are for the next e-zine.  This will keep it organized and will pull a lot of the work off of Pats1717 since it's a lot to put on one person to run all of it.

We can also open up suggestions to different categories to write about.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

I'm not a fan of "Best article wins".  It's hard enough to get people to participate as it is, and if someone puts hard work into an article it should be published.  If I took a substantial amount of time to write an article and it didn't make the cut, that would be the last time I contributed.

It's better to cultivate diverse topics rather than have 2-3 guys writing about the same one.  I understand the concept of having core areas like Member Spotlight and such, but the actual articles are usually quite different.  People should write about what interests them, and not worry about having to measure up to other articles of the same topic.

Fair enough, it could be published in the order received.  If Scott receives 3 articles, then they should be published in the order received.

My main point was organization.  We need a good organization and plan of attack for the e-zine so that there will always be enough articles for e-zines.  We should always be 1-2 e-zines ahead just to make sure we have plenty of time to get out future e-zines and we can just keep them in order in a private thread.

I find the NA e-zines to be one of the best parts of NA and hope we can get something together where there will always be an order of things to make sure they get out in time and to always have a supplement of articles and an awareness of the areas we need writing on.  I also want to see a variety of different writers and not just the same ones.  The more writers the better.  If we give members an area to write on, then I think they will have more focus.  If we give everyone a timeframe as well as notice of what areas we need help on, usually people will pitch in.

I think that just requesting random articles to be submitted by members with no knowledge as to when it will be published and having no idea whats going on is the problem.  I've submitted 1 or 2 articles that haven't been published and I think that having everything dumped on Scott's shoulders with no private forum for everyone to talk in and be informed is the problem.  Right now, noone but Scott knows what articles have been submitted, and noone but Scott knows what areas we need help in.  There needs to be some formal organization of everything so it's easier for the writers and there is a place where we can give our input as well as help contribute in the areas we need articles for.

If there was always 2-3 articles per area, we will always have a nice e-zine.  If it's just randomly submitted by members with no categories or suggestions and members don't know what's submitted, that leaves a lot of loose ends.  Basically, we need organization (if I hadn't hit on that enough).

I agree with Jone regarding the idea that the "best" article wins. How would one define what the best article is, anyway? Would it be based on the topic or the quality of writing?  As mentioned before, if one is going to take time to write an article, as long as it is written in a proper manner, it should be published.

I do not like the idea of withholding so many articles into a storepile for later issues. Who decides when each article is published? I know that some writers (such as myself) will not feel inclined to write more articles, if the initial ones are not published. This just makes sense, actually, as one does not want to contribute indefinitely into a black hole of sorts.

I think variety of articles is needed, with a few core areas such as the comics, or news briefs, or whatever. The rest of the stuff should consist of whatever is received at the time of publication. 

Start a writers forum. Get people to put down in writing what they will write, have an established deadline, and if people sign up and they don't follow through, hall of shame them.

I don't think my threads are being read in their entirety.

My last thread just explained that they would ALL be published in the order they are received. In other words, if there are 3 game review articles, 1st one is in the next e-zine, 2nd one received is in the following e-zine and 3rd one is in the e-zine after that. I hope that clarifies that.

As far as the rest of the thread, I think it's very clear that the point of my thread was organization. There needs to be a clear organization of everything, a system in place.

I do not think someone should be put in the Hall of Shame if their article doesn't get submitted in time. This would also be prevented if we have 1-2 other articles so when articles are submitted they will be published in order of receipt. The exception would be any time sensitive articles such as a game release interview before it is released.

So I really hope this clarifies everything.

I still see a big flaw in your suggestion though. You suggest that articles should be published in the order in which they are received. Suppose we do a section on game reviews. What happens if two or three people write several reviews each and submit them? They could, theoretically, "reserve" the review slot for the next 7 months. I do not feel that this is a fair method, and the first come, first serve method really turns me off as a potential writer.

I have been writing about Nintendo games for the psat 12 years and have also had some other articles published online, concerning various interests of mine. My field of study was English and writing, and although sometimes I may apply this professionally, it is also a hobby of mine. Although I have several hobbies and have to fit them in while also working full time, I generally have enough time in my life that I can find time to do something "fun", such as writing an ezine article from time to time, possibly even monthly (as I mentioned in my initial post, it depends on what sort of things I can find to write). With that said, however, I am not the sort of person who is willing to write an article in April and have it published "sometime in the future", such as June or something, just because some unknown schmuck beat me to the punch.

As I mentioned earlier, I also used to write some cultural articles for a friend's online magazine, that dealt with local issues and affairs. His method of organizing and doing things seems to make the most sense, honestly. Ray would announce that he was working on a new issue of the magazine, and then people could sign up for a slot, telling him what they were going to write. Everyone knows what will be written for that issue, and if there are any holes that need to be covered. Ray then announces the deadline, and people submit it by that date. At that point, problem is solved. People are not writing articles that don't make it into the issue, and everything is nice and neat. I don't mind working on an article for the June issue in May, just for the record, but I want to know that ahead of time, not just having it be an editor's decision due to not being the first one to send something in. Again, I think the above method would work wonders, but maybe that is just me.

Regarding the hall of shame thing. Maybe set up a writer's hall of shame, or something, but I think that seems very fair. If a person agrees to take on a task, he or she needs to be a team player. No ifs, ands or buts. You don't make the deadlines at a real job, what happens? You get the axe? Why should the rules be less strict here? If a family emergency comes up or something, that is understandable and also unpredictable. On the other hand, if someone agrees to write something, by not doing it he is (1) being unfair to the rest of the team (2) taking a slot where someone else could have written something (though if we are struggling for material, this is not a huge issue at the moment). It is not fair to those involved, though, and deadbeats shouldn't be tolerated. If people can be branded "timewasters" during private sales and be put in the hos, then people certainly can receive the same treatment for something that I find to be much worse.

Yeah no one should be HOSed for missing a deadline. Legitimate excuses happen, and the eZine has never had a rock solid publish date anyway. It has always tended to slip to the right a bit.

It's a great idea to have extra articles on hand, but if we obviously can't get enough articles for one eZine, then I have no idea how we'd have enough for two or three eZines. Good idea in theory but I can't see it panning out.

Ok you've voiced your opinion on that, leave it alone now.  I bet that the vast majority of members on this site would not want someone HOSed for missing a deadline on a voluntary task.

You make the comparison to a real job.  Well real companies always ship out within 24-48 hours usually.  Yet many of us are quite forgiving if someone needs a week or two to ship, as long as communication is there.  They don't get fired, and life goes on.  HOS is reserved for those shippers that take forever with absolutely no communication, or the ones that tell you "it ships tomorrow" five different times over the course of a month.

NA isn't a job, it's a fun hobby.  If you set up all of these damn rules and penalties for the eZine, why in the world would anyone want to participate.  You have to see the big picture in all of this.

If I can remember correctly, it seems to me that there is a section of the hall of shame for those who are termed "time wasters" and this is what I am referring to. Never once did I make a comparison of those who ship games out late or scam or whatever to those who miss a deadline, and I guess somehow you just missed that point. I am not sure how contacting someone to buy goods and then backing out or listing goods for sale and then changing one's mind on selling, after having potential interested parties, is a bigger offence than flaking one the duties to which one has signed up, but whatever. Perhaps I just come from the school of thought that if someone volunteers to do something, then he or she should actually follow through, and if people are consistantly signing up, volunteering and then flaking, obviously some sort of penalty needs to be put in place, or the whole system will just fail as a whole. This seems to be pretty logical, but maybe that is just me.

You've voiced your opinion that putting someone in the hall of shame is a bad idea over something like missing deadlines and / or flaking on a voluntery job; I feel that people are put into the hall of shame for far more petty things. Let's leave it at that. If people can flake at will, however, then if the ezine gets up and running again, how will it ever run smoothly?  This may be a hobby for people, but obviously some organization is also needed, and rules to be put in place.

The key words in general are "voluntary task". If a person has a choice as to whether or not he or she wants to sign up, then there is really little reason to flake, exceptios being emergencies and the like. If people have a hard time doing something, then they just shouldn't sign up for the task! I said I would write, I have an article I can send off tomorrow should it be needed!

I have noticed alot of new members asking about collecting CIB. I would like to write an article about the pros and cons of CIBe collecting and how to do it on a budget.

Let me stop this debate right here and now.

Someone volunteering to work on writing an Ezine article is not going to be grounds for inclusion into the NA Hall of Shame.  PERIOD!

No debate, no discussion.  It's not going to happen.

People can write articles and they can not write articles, but that does not ever warrant them being added to the Hall of Shame.  (At least while I'm still around)

Thank you Paul, that's a pretty obvious answer and I can't believe it has to be discussed in the first place.

And is it just me or does it smell like Bacon in here.

haha Jone, dammit if Dain didn't get the last laugh.

I knew I would get shit from him about the prank, but well he's an Evil Overlord I suppose.

I love the idea of having a private topic for people that will actually follow through on sending in articles. It would be a nice way to get updates and ask for help.

YES! I love this idea. I read old issues of NP and always wonder what happened to these people and how their lives and careers turned out. Solid suggestion.

Gameboy players and the Mechanic's that marry them?

Thanks man!

Okay okay okay guys, geez, let's not get too crazy on this. I get it, people don't want some sort of system in place to ecourage people to meet deadlines and get work done so that the e-zine will continue. Don't do an assignment for class, assignment is failed. Don't do your work for your job? Fired. That was my point all along and without any sort of checking power involved, when would the problem end of getting people to commit and then fail to deliver? Okay, so forget putting people in the hall of shame over it, forget it, no big deal, considering the backlash it seems like it was a bad idea to even suggest it. 

Paul does say that people can write articles and they can not write articles. That is very obvious to me, but I would like to take it a step further. People can sign up to write articles and they can not sign up to write articles. If they do sign up, however, I feel that they should then pony up the time and be responsible enough to deliver what they volunteered to do. It is worse to have a bunch of people promising aid, who never follow through, than having only a few people promising aid to begin with. With the latter, at least one can be prepared and knows what he or she has to deal with.

I always enjoyed reading the e-zine, and found many of the articles to be quite interesting. I've often thought about coming out of "retirement" and writing an article for the e-zine, but never really had anything interesting to write about until now. I don't want the e-zine to die or to stop, and it seems that many others feel the same way. With that being said, when will the next issue be released and to whom should I send my kick ass article? I don't want to miss the deadline and / or have my piece thrown into the following issue, as it would hinder my ability to write another specimin for the e-zine. 

I've considered coming out of retirement too. Last decade I worked for 5 years for GC Advanced that twice evolved to Adv Media Network then Kombo before it was sold out to someone else. While much of the time I did game previews and reviews for portable titles (GBA and DS) I also initially did an article a month for editorial purposes and then some special stories too.

I just found them on the old PC and all but 1 of them are just dated as they really hit on E3 and the DS.  One though was a special I was allowed to do of my own free will, and I'm fairly positive it never was published either as I switched over to reviews and it's on Starfox 2.  If this wasn't done up already in the ezine I can submit it you like.

That is a good idea. I have been trying to get her to write an article about marrying a collector for a while now. Throwing in the mechanic would just be an added bonus.

Yeah that sounds like it would be a great read!!!

There are actually already two articles on the Game Counselors, which are super-cool.  Check Volume 3 Issue 11: December 2009 and