the first issue

We have lots of news for the first issue. And also an article! We need an editor to put the first issue together. Any takers? mbleight? RusselClow?

The major news is that we have a new face and a new system for contest starters and there are also some changes in the actual process of participating in a contest. We need to sum it all up and give some guidelines for members who haven't been visiting DC recently. We could also put some reviews of the current and maybe ended contests. I wish my English was a little bit better... But anyway, I hope that there are English speakers who could help the community. If you are the editor, the credits and a link to your portfolio will be given both in the email message itself and in the html version as well.

Please, post your versions of the newsletter in this thread. The most infomrative, interesting and entertaining message will be sent to 1500 of our members.

I might be able to help out there mate, I'll work on it and get back to you.

I'm sorry, I didn't see this post. I'd be happy to be editor and put this together. Let me know what you want

well the original post briefly explains what I want If you need any more information or have any questions, please, let me know. Thank you!

I will start working on something tonight.

Maybe me and Mbleigh could work on it together, each covering differant aspects of the newsletter. E.g. He does reviews of contests, I do explanations of how to start a contest etc, or visa versa. Just an idea. Let me know. Im not fussed on which one I do.

You are the editors, guys! You are to choose the way to work on the Gazette! That would be great if you could share the responsibilities and cover separate issues of the Gazette.

REMOVED - Because apparently its crap, and my hour writing it was a waste of time. Maybe you should try and do better.

Very nicely done bigfella,looks like you have a nack for that sort of thing.

This is excellent, resurepus! This is one you should send as a newletter to all members!

Joining the Design Team

Joining the Design team is now ALOT easier than before. Many of you will know, that before, you had to post your portfolio and details on this forum, in a thread and a team of designers and admins would review your application. Now, thanks to ideas from designers mbleigh, Me and Will, as well as some others, DC has a new and shiny application form. The guidlines are easily understandable, and you no longer need to use your brains as much to think of things you need to add into your application. All the fields are there for you! As long as you have at least 10 posts on the forums, have been a contributing member for at least a week, and have a WORKING portfolio, you've got a chance! Let me give you a tip, Penguin is VERY easily convinced. Give him a few sweets, and your sure to be in the team! Oh, and make sure you dont smell, Smelly designers tend to put off contest holders - maybe thats why Penguin cant win anything!

I don't like that - sorry. First of all, I think you are giving yourselves way too much credit, and second of all, its not accurate. 10 posts are not required to join the design team anymore. This is mainly because people were surfacing old topics to get their post counts up.

Also, I know you were just joking - but I kind of take offense to your comments towards me. It is not my decision who joins the design team, its the committees, and I am sorry I can't win anything but I don't think that should be made public.

Mate, Im sorry if it offended you, I cant win anything either! Its just a mess around. If you cant take a joke, then im sorry, at the end of the day who gives a balls if u win stuff or not, its not about that, its about taking part, and being part of a superb community! I dont understand what you mean about giving ourselves too much credit? I was simply stating that a few bits of the page were suggested by the design team, not that we thought about the ideas and done the whole page etc. I didnt know the 10 post rule had been scrapped, and i didnt say that you are the one who decides, but you are a leading part of this community, and so people recognise your name. I do appologise if you dont like it, others seemed quite amused. Its only a rough draft anyway, I'll change it...Altho, with no offense, I think you should lighten up :/

Ive edited the original post - hope its ok now. Let me know if anything is wrong / offensive.

Joining the Design Team

Joining the Design team is now ALOT easier than before. Many of you will know, that before, you had to post your portfolio and details on this forum, in a thread and a team of designers and admins would review your application. Now, thanks to ideas from designers mbleigh, Me and Will, as well as some others, DC has a new and shiny application form. The guidlines are easily understandable, and you no longer need to use your brains as much to think of things you need to add into your application. All the fields are there for you! As long as you have at least 10 posts on the forums, have been a contributing member for at least a week, and have a WORKING portfolio, you've got a chance! Let me give you a tip, Penguin is VERY easily convinced. Give him a few sweets, and your sure to be in the team! Oh, and make sure you dont smell, Smelly designers tend to put off contest holders - maybe thats why Penguin cant win anything!

What the hells that all about? That makes DC sound like trash and John sound like a looser. This is why I don't think this newsletter should be made, because it either makes DC sound good or bad. It makes DC sound desperate and unprofessional. It especially makes the DC Team sound like a bunch of losers that only have to have couple pieces of garbage in their portfolio to get accepted.

Just the way it's worded sounds childish and unprofessional. The way you refer to John, makes it look as if we can just walk all over him. I don't think that was accurate or appropriate at all. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be part of the DC team and the site wouldn't be as good as it is now. You should treat him with the utmost respect for all that he has done. I think that's the least he deserves.

As for the newsletter viewed as a whole, I think you did an okay job. I must give you the credit for taking the time to even write up an article. Like I said, it's a pretty good article that gets most of the points across. As for your wording and writing, it doesn't really sound too professional at all.

Overall, some parts of the newsletter sound too immature and almost written in a jokingly matter. I think DC deserves a professional, accurate newsletter, that's still fun just not immature.

I'm not saying I'm the guy to do the job. I'm just saying that if the jobs going to get done, make sure it's done right.

Regards,

Jay

Thanks alot guys, Appreciate the fact that my hour spent writing it was wasted. Appreciate how nice this community really is...

Sorry Russell but I don't understand too different from what the others did. I know you may have wanted to make a joke but the use of the words in the way you did made it all sound aggresive !! I think that if a gazzette is going to be made has to be professional in the way the dc members treat each other. I tell you I know you wanted to make a joke because if not that wasn't the best of your ideas. We all are contributors but the ideas are not ours to be proud on them. We simply listen what others don't as well as others listen what we don't. I think penguin put a lot of effort in this forum to diminish his activity. Sorry but I think the lines have gone a little too far.

Joining the Design team is now ALOT easier than before. Many of you will know, that before, you had to post your portfolio and details on this forum, in a thread and a team of designers and admins would review your application. Now, thanks to Penguins new design, DC has a new and shiny application form. The guidlines are easily understandable, and you no longer need to use your brains as much to think of things you need to add into your application. All the fields are there for you! As long as you have been a contributing member for at least a week, and have a WORKING portfolio, you've got a chance! Let me give you a tip, the Design Team commitee is VERY easily convinced. Give them a few sweets, and your sure to be in the team! Oh, and make sure you dont smell, Smelly designers tend to put off contest holders - maybe thats why I cant win anything!

On a more serious note, I have to say, Penguin has really pulled the rabbit out the bag (huh?) and provided DC with that little edge over its competitors! Top Marks to him.

That was the edited version, as my original was a little badly worded...but ive decided to take it down, considering all my work was slated anyway.

Hey Russell... although I think I understand what you were trying to do, I think you went too far... you can joke and make the gazette fun to read without offending anyone. I like the idea of the internal jokes, and trying to make it easy to read, but without Penguin, DC wouldnt have grown to the point it is now. He is our Royal Big Bird, and he deserves our respect .
I wouldn´t have returned to DC if it wasn´t for all the changes Penguin made, and I know Im not the onlyone.

take care
Bella

Wow, looks like I missed a lot of drama. I'm pretty busy this weekend but I'll see what I can do about making some progress on the idea myself.

I'm just going to keep 20 feet away from this argument, though.

You know, I'm sorry but I did think it was cute. It made DC net sound like a friendly place and I think that's what Russell intended to do. When I first posted, I guess I didn't look at "who" wrote the gazette and I actually thought it had come from resurepus or from Penguin himself and was just edited by Russell.

I don't think Penguin should take that personally. I have to admit again that I skimmed through it and missed the part about "can't win anything". The part about the sweets, well I took that in "character" rather than in "person".

On second look, I think it does need to be re-edited or re-written. I really would like to see a newsletter come out soon that 1) states the new rules for both hosting a contest and posting in the forums, 2) gives some recognition to the many people that have been working hard here to make this community work, 3) emphasizes that fact (as John's excellent letter did the other day) that all funds are guaranteed, 4) lists what contests were recently won and who the winner was and finally 5) lists a summary of what contests are recently posted and how long they have to run.

And Russell... I think the part about smelly designers should go. Just not funny.

That was the edited version, as my original was a little badly worded...but ive decided to take it down, considering all my work was slated anyway.

Russell - I think that even the edited version is still really unaccurate, and doesn't paint a realistic picture of what DC is. The "make sure you don't smell....." garbage - that's completely unnecessary, and honestly a bad attempt at a joke that doesn't work.

I applaud your efforts and thank you for volunteering to contribute to the DC.gazette - but it certainly needs to be more professional, otherwise it makes the entire DC site sound like a joke.