[zine] LLSC26 - Zine submissions
Hey everyone!
I've had a couple of questions come across my metaphorical desks with regards to how the Zine is going to work, or how to make submissions. The process is genuinely being bootstrapped as we go, so nothing here is written in stone, that means we can experiment with different ideas and processes and see what works best!
- What format should zine submissions be in?
Personal preference is markdown and png images, but txt and gif, jpg, or svg would also be totally fine.
My thought process is pretty simple here, markdown is a very simple syntax that doesn't get in the way of writing. You don't really have to worry too much about how to format your text, links, images, etc. It also lets me use an amazing tool called znic that our very own mio created! It was used to publish Tilde Town's 7th zine back in 2024. I've wanted an excuse to use this tool since that was released actually, so for llsc's first zine, this is our methodology! Also it's written in nim, and I love nim, it runs superbly on Windows Vista.
- What can be submitted to the zine?
Anything! Did you spend some time exploring something in the last couple of months that is relevant or adjacent? Did you learn something in the process? Please share it, that's the entire point! The outline of the challenge is intentionally vague to be permissive, and while all of my ideas currently involve Windows computers, that's just what I came up with.
I will happily and enthusiastically accept submissions about any form of technology that could be described as old to someone (even if I don't personally think of it as old). Or something tangentially related, like audio technology, photography, or ham radio. My intent here is to be inclusive and curious.
- Do I have to blog/participate in IRC to contribute to the zine?
Nope! While we would love to see you blog, and/or join us in our IRC channel, those are not necessary to contribute. If you did something and went to the effort to produce and submit it then I will happily and enthusiastically publish it in the zine for you. This can be done anonymously or not, as long as you're comfortable enough to reach out to me to send me your submission then I'll publish it under the handle of your choosing, or as "the llsc community". Something along those lines. Willing to hash it out if this appeals to anyone.
- Yes, but how do I make that submission?
I haven't quite figured that out yet. Future durrendal will for sure figure it out though. Please stay tuned to this announcement feed for further information! If I had to guess, it will either be a public git repo where people can make MRs to add their content, or maybe mail in submissions to legacylabs@lambdacreate.com. We'll figure it out together.
- What are YOU submitting durrendal?
Great question! A couple of things actually. I'm going to be releasing blog posts as I finally carve out time to actually work in my lab, which will cover some of the more interesting technical processes that went into creating and learning in my legacy lab. For the zine I might rehash some of that content, but largely my hope is to write a more cohesive piece about what I learned by deploying my flotilla of a small business network. From a professional perspective I still have to deal with remediating (read that as decommissioning with haste) business critical infrastructure that runs on older poorly maintained server infrastructure, so I have a direct professional payout to "remaining good at old Windows server administration". But I also think there's a pretty deep correlation between how things were done on server 2008 r2 and how things are done now that behooves me to understand better (and share).
If you check the Tilde Town zine I linked above you'll also pick up that I submitted photography to it. There are few things I'm more passionate about than technology, but photography is one of them. I haven't mentioned it anywhere yet, but for the rest of llsc I'm toting around a Canon PowerShot G5 which is a 5MP digicam from 2003 as my only camera. I'm a shutter bug, so I'm looking forward to sharing some of what I take in the zine. I can do a blog post about the camera and my photography too if that's interesting as well.