Ideas for the magazine

[Dave Bradley]

Originally Posted by Mr Mockery

Well I'm sure that there would be a few offers to help you out with the organising side of things from people here.

I've had some emails to this effect in the past too, and I'm very grateful for the sentiment. But there is a surprising amount of organisation and cost involved in a short feature, even if it does just appear to be people sitting around drinking, and the sessions are planned way in advance. I'll give it more thought. Thanks, though! It's not ruled out.

[Pope Gordy]

How about leaving the readers to host their own Couch Potato sessions, write them up and send them in? You could use excerpts from the best ones.

[abbott]

Originally Posted by Pooky

Abbott's been seeing things? :shock:

You almost had me believing you, but a quick scan of the bathroom reading material only reveals the one in the Jan 2007 issue on page 113, shows jan 2006, not a big deal I agree, but I'm sure there were others but my back issues are scattered far and wide.
Or it could be the result of that anal probing :wink:

edited as i found a few more, Feb 2006 has 2005 on page 90 and92, and May 2005 has April on page 118 to120.
Oh God I sound so sad.

[Weyoun Six]

Some suggestions - just my ideas, but I suppose they might catch on (btw, I like Malc's suggestion above for a "What If" feature).

I've been finding the mag, in particular Red Alert, to be very busy lately. For example, pp 24-25 of #158 just seem to have too much going on for me (not to mention that it took me a while to realise that Heroes hadn't won a Nebula :shock: cause I thought the pic related to the story below it :roll: ). So what about this: split Red Alert in two so that there's a "SF News" section and a "Coming Up" section, with the latter covering things like news of and interviews re ongoing series, books, comics, etc (and incorporating Development Hell), while the news section would be genuinely new things - new TV shows, films, awards news, event reports etc. I think this would enable you to dedicate more space to these stories, and lay out the news of ongoing interests in a more consistent, easy-to-follow fashion.

Within Red Alert, you have the 28 days later... feature. I quite like the idea of this, but it seems a bit inconsistent. For instance, this month's lists eps 11 and 12 of Doctor Who, but not the arguably more significant final instalment. I know that it would be subject to their being sufficient going on to make it worthwhile, but I think there would be more value to making this more clearly an events calendar - include first and last eps of TV shows, but otherwise make it about cons, awards, movie releases, etc.

I wouldn't mind seeing a more beefed up section reviewing R1 DVD releases. The last couple of issues have both identified releases (The 4400 s3 & The Dead Zone s5) that are guaranteed to be more expensive vanilla versions when they're (eventually) released over here, and I'd like to get a better idea of whether or not they're worth it before I fork out. Plus, you're promoting more in the US, and this wouldn't hurt.

I can't help but think Ad Infinitum has had its day (which is a great shame, cause the sense of humour that permeates the SFX comments is wonderful). This section seems to have been shrinking and shrinking and it now seems to be almost exclusively male readers seeking female "penpals", and there are so many other forums for this these days.

Finally, an idea for the last page - Dave Langford's column. It would give him the profile that he deserves (kind of like John Brosnan's "It's Only A Movie" column that used to end each issue of Starburst) and free up an extra page inside the mag for more content (yay!) or ads (boo!).

I hope this doesn't give the impression that I'm unhappy with the mag in any way, just my thoughts on what would make it even more brill!

[org]

I'm still waiting for an article on Lunar Jim.

[Pope Gordy]

I like the idea of seeing Langford's column (*snigger*) moved to the back page.

[Thing]

Originally Posted by Pope Gordy

How about leaving the readers to host their own Couch Potato sessions, write them up and send them in? You could use excerpts from the best ones.

That might be a much better way of doing it. Imagine choosing a group, having all the expense of getting them together etc, and they just aren't funny or just freeze up from nerves.

[Midget_Yoda]

Originally Posted by Thing

That might be a much better way of doing it. Imagine choosing a group, having all the expense of getting them together etc, and they just aren't funny or just freeze up from nerves.

Oooh, "expenses" - can we get SFX to pay for the booze and pizza? (and a supper fabby 42" plasma screen to watch the stuff on). Please?

[Will25]

Can you put in my picture of Nesbit as Hyde please?



Here:
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...law25/hyde.jpg

[Ian Berriman]

Originally Posted by Will25

Can you put in my picture of Nesbit as Hyde please?



Here:
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...law25/hyde.jpg

That's not bad, Will25. Would you like to email an as-high-res-as-possible version to sfx@futurenet.co.uk? I don't know who'll be editing the next letters page (not decided yet) but they might like to include that (although they might not, so don't get your hopes up...)