
                   * Y O U * C A N * C O N T R I B U T E ! *

OK, a bit ST Format-ish, but it's true. You can really contribute to the number
1 underground ST disk mag in Britain  at  the  current moment (or a really crap
diskmag by a bunch of lamers on  STs,  whichever  you prefer). There are 4 ways
you can contribute to it:

1) ARTICLES!

As you can guess from reading this  diskmag,  we go in for a certain 'standard'
of articles. We don't really do this too  much as an ego-trip, you only have to
look at our last issue to see that!  So we're not really interested in loads of
shite interviews; or boring  rambling  shit;  or  half  a  page  of coding tips
everyone knows about, then it goes "Now  about  our megademo..." (goes on for 2
pages) and then "Now let me say hi  to..."  (goes  on for 3 pages!) I find that
most people aren't really interested in  that  sort  of shite unless it's stuff
they WANT to know about, and it's written reasonably well!
    I might as well say what I mean  when I say "boring rambling shit". There's
an awful lot of articles in diskmags which are written over the course of a few
days or even weeks by one single  person, detailing what they think about this,
what did the other day, and so on. Now  I'd say that's a "column"- a space in a
magazine for someone to detail their news and  views IN A WAY THAT READERS FIND
INTERESTING!!!! So I'm pretty  sure  that  many  of  these people writing these
articles don't have a  fucking  clue  about  this  small  point! There are good
columns like Rottspot in Maggie, and  even  Mutant Monthly (Though the standard
of English is pissawful!). As for  the  worst ones.... Well, there's a category
of articles that I really think are a waste of space and that's the "History of
our group" type articles written by  someone  in  the  group when they're in an
inactive stage. Look you sadcases- if you  do  fuck  all, then why have you got
such an illustrious history that  you  want  to  tell the readers about it?!??!
This is the sort of thing that really makes columns boring- ego trips! The best
columns are those where you talk about  OTHER people than yourselves! Sure, you
can say what YOU think about it,  but  if  you keep going "me.. myself.. I" all
the time, then everyone will think  you're  a  bit of an egomaniac sadcase. And
I'm afraid I'm going to slag Powerman of TWB off again, because his columns are
nearly always ego, TWB news,  or  techno!  Sorry  Powerman,  but unless you can
think of things a bit  more  diverse  than  that,  I  would advise you stick to
something you know about that other  people  WOULD be interested in ie articles
on coding. I'm not really saying that  ALL rambling articles are shit, just the
ones that might as well  be  filled  with,  as  UNC  Disk Times says, "Pssst...
fish... fuck..... Whoopiedoo!". For example, a good rambling article would be a
realtime article at a copy party, because they're written by loads of different
people with different points of  view,  and  also  often written in reaction to
various things at the party, so  it  can  give  you  an idea of what's going on
there!
    Anyway, onto the sort of stuff that  we  do like. Real, decent features! If
there's any subject you  think  would  make  a  good  in-depth  feature in this
magazine, then go ahead and do one.  Remember, clarity and information are very
important- stick as much info in it as you can, but if think some readers might
not fully understand what your saying, don't  be afraid to explain it in simple
terms! It looks good if you can  bring  other sources into your article- though
do credit them for it if possible! Finally, don't worry if your article's not a
masterpieces- neither are  the  ones  in  the  rest  of  the  magazine! Anyway,
everyone learns as they go along. Contact us as well- we might be able to help!
    We've got a slight "house style" look evolving  at PBHQ now! If you want to
take a note of it, the main points of it are:
    - 79 characters per line
    - ASCII text format
    - Fully justfied text
    - Tabs set at 5 characters.
    - Quotations use double-quotes. (Well, a bit obvious, really since you have
      to use single-quotes for apostrophes!)
This usually applies as well if  your  sending us articles you've downloaded as
well. Most of them use double-quotes and  are  ASCII already, so you don't have
to bother going through articles with search and replace for the right types of
quotes!
    We're starting to do some fairly regular review sections, so if you want to
do reviews of things like demos,  games,  music, films, etc., ... The important
thing is that you tell the reader  enough  info about what you're reviewing and
that you state your  opinions!  Yes,  I  know  that's  a  bit obvious, but it's
surprising how many reviewers waffle on  about any old irrelevant bullshit, and
are coy about expressing any views, so just remember it!
    As for interviews, as you can see,  we  don't do any normal interviews. But
we do ask interview questions! Confused?  Well,  you might see that we've stuck
the views of some of the contributors at  the  end of some articles. What we do
is sometime before the  magazine  is  finished,  we  send  out  a  text file of
questions, based on the articles we're doing,  to these people so that they can
put their views on it. If you're interested- contact us!

2) Utilities!
If you've got any NEW utilities  or  source code then we'd certainly appreciate
it! Try to make  sure  it's  complete  a  version  as  possible,  and that it's
unpacked. (This is so we can pack it  with whatever's the best packer around at
the moment!)

3) Ripped music!
If you've hacked out chip music from  any  NEW demos or games then we're always
needing a few tunes  to  accompany  our  illustrious  diskmag!  We'll of course
credit you for it!

4) Suggestions!
Suggestions about how we could  improve  this  diskmag  are always welcome. For
example, the idea of  an  archiver  program  was  a  suggestion  by  one of our
contacts. It was a good  idea,  so  we implemented it! Unfortunately, Flowerman
didn't keep a backup and lost all the code! Ooops!


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