Messages

1

General / Re: Would the Megazine be better off with fewer strips?

« on: 23 August, 2019, 06:37:37 pm »

I’m increasingly tempted to sell up and go digital. But I do also like paper, and fear I’d just forget to read digital editions. Space is running low at chez IP though.

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General / Re: Would the Megazine be better off with fewer strips?

« on: 23 August, 2019, 01:41:56 pm »

For me, part of the problem is the synopses are too short. Perhaps the contents page should become a double-page spread itself, with a larger area for bringing you up to speed. Perhaps the house ad on page two could become half a page to allow that.

3

Website and Forum / Re: Webshop updated 22 Aug 2019

« on: 22 August, 2019, 05:21:32 pm »

There's interesting.  I'm running Safari on a 2012 MacBook pro with catalina beta without any major problems.  Granted its slow but no more so than normal.

Try it in Chrome. Does that make any difference? For me, that’s zippy. Safari’s like wading through treacle, by comparison.

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Website and Forum / Re: Webshop updated 22 Aug 2019

« on: 22 August, 2019, 05:20:57 pm »

iPad Pro 11in, iOS 12.4. Home page scrolling is fluid, but the background flickers white. On article pages, the sidebar flickers up and down at speed, which is not especially pleasant.

My Mac’s running the latest macOS, bar the current security update (10.14.something). The scrolling is extremely sluggish on the Home page, and not great in individual item pages. The sidebar bounces about weirdly.

Novel indexes are also slow. The morphing animation is a vestibular trigger, too. None of this is new, note – it’s been this way since this particular redesign. (I’ve flagged these issues in the past.)

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Website and Forum / Re: Webshop updated 22 Aug 2019

« on: 22 August, 2019, 04:38:30 pm »

Still deeply weird on Apple kit, FWIW. Flickering scrolling on an iPad, and barely usable on a Mac running Safari. (It works fine in Chrome, and so I imagine there’s some kind of scripting weirdness going on with your custom scrolling routines.)

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General / Re: Forthcoming Thrills - 2019

« on: 22 August, 2019, 11:03:46 am »

Yep. Needs a custom L. Or, you know, a different typeface.

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Website and Forum / Re: How to make a healthy vibrant forum?

« on: 22 August, 2019, 11:02:45 am »

There’s also a fuck-ton of sniping going on in those Facebook threads. There are people that seem to delight now on wading into threads and having all their replies be accusing Rebellion of not paying royalties, while linking to that Mills blog post. Whereas here, we had a discussion. There was nuance, rather than someone blazing in, leaving the digital equivalent of a massive shit on the floor, and then running away again.

I like forums. I think they’re probably doomed long-term, but they’re a much better mechanism for actual discussion than anything else, bar possibly the paid (not free) version of Slack.

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General / Re: Forthcoming Thrills - 2019

« on: 22 August, 2019, 10:24:49 am »

Looks like an ad that’s going to become a cover with, presumably, some changes to the typesetting.

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Website and Forum / Re: How to make a healthy vibrant forum?

« on: 22 August, 2019, 10:22:56 am »

Forum usage ebbs and flows. Unless this place becomes tumbleweeds, I’m not too concerned. Sure, some of the conversation has inevitably shifted to Facebook, but that only really works for immediacy. Facebook is a nightmare for ongoing conversation, deep threads, organisation, and search. Also – and most importantly – Facebook owns everything. You’re one hack or ban away from everything being gone forever. (And I should know. I admin a band page that very nearly lost everything through a spam bot attack.)

As for claims this is a horrible place, I’m not sure where they come from. I dip into Facebook reasonably often, and I don’t really see many comments along those lines on the official 2000 AD page. People are a mite grumpier in one of the groups I joined some time ago, but then half the time I wonder whether such things function specifically to gripe about everything 2000 AD and Rebellion are doing these days, having glued rose-tinted glasses to everyone’s faces.

On the nice or nasty, I will say that of the forums of any size I’ve moderated, this is by far the least hassle. We’ve had very few bans here, and those we have had got discussed at almost agonising lengths, usually over a period of days. It’s pretty rare that an admin/mod has to wade in and tell everyone to pipe down a bit.

10

General / Re: Does 2000 AD need another 'Judge Dredd'?

« on: 21 August, 2019, 08:09:30 pm »

I get that Matt Smith doesn’t want to cross the streams, but it does strike me that there are so many great strips that just won’t get a new home – at least one where the publishing frequency is more than once a year. I find that a great pity.

11

Other Reviews / Re: The Vigilant Legacy.

« on: 21 August, 2019, 03:29:19 pm »

I'm still being nagged to death by my youngest daughter over the Tammy, Jinty, Buster stuff though.  She is desperate for more of that lot.  It would be interesting to see how much that reflects general attitudes and what sales were like but I do hope Rebellion doesn't miss the boat on this.

I hope it’s selling well, but locally I’ve seen a LOT of copies on shelves. Reading WHSmith had at least a dozen. I hope that reflects a big order rather than them just sitting there (although they were faced appallingly). If Cor/Buster was a quarterly or monthly, I’d subscribe right away for mini-G. Tammy/Jinty… TBH, I’d probably subscribe for me. (The others could benefit from being released more often, but I’m not too fussed about the horror stuff being solely a Hallowe’en thing – just that it doesn’t have a load of “to be continued”. Put those strips in the Prog or Meg! And The Vigilant – I’m happy enough reading it, but it’s not yet grabbed me to the point I’d definitely buy a monthly.)

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 20 August, 2019, 07:25:51 pm »

I would say that if there are volumes you know you’ll want, FP’s pre-ordering works well. I got a couple of the TF volumes that way. (I’ve collected the Marvel run.)

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Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

« on: 20 August, 2019, 04:50:18 pm »

Given that most subscribers haven’t had 51 yet, it’s just out of stock on their website. However, it does appear that the print run is quite slim now, and so don’t dither when whatever you want does come back into stock. Or just ignore Hachette entirely and cherry pick via Forbidden Planet instead.

14

General / Re: It Shoulda Ended with...

« on: 20 August, 2019, 04:47:43 pm »

I think that angle is purely Scott’s, too. It certainly wasn’t in the original novel, nor something the people who worked on the screenplay were thinking.

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General / Re: It Shoulda Ended with...

« on: 20 August, 2019, 01:59:25 pm »

I find that the question of Deckard literally being a replicant, or not, is not in itself a particularly interesting loose-end nor the point, as Ridley Scott continues to argue.

I never got why Scott was so gung-ho on that point. It details the entire ending, for a start, and much of the point of what it means to be human, if we’re basically watching an Amiga track down and kill ZX Spectrums.