[python-advocacy] _The Python Papers_ Online Magazine

[David Boddie]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:26:46 -0600, Jeff Rush wrote:

>      And I'll be radical here, and wonder why there are issues at all.
>      In the  days of printed content, it was necessary to batch content
>      in order to optimize postage and printing schedules.  In today's
>      online world, it seems you could run a continual publishing cycle,
>      with an RSS feed to which your readers could subscribe to stay on
>      top of content.

Having issues means having deadlines. While these can put off some
contributors, who might put off finishing an article if they see that
they'll miss a deadline, they do motivate others to finish articles
that would otherwise not be completed.

Additionally, taking an issue-based approach may mean that articles
receive more attention than they would if they continually trickle
out via an RSS feed. As long as the publishing cycle is short enough
you can still use RSS to inform readers of new articles, and it makes
the release of new articles more of an event.

It means that editors need to chase contributors for content, but that
would also happen in a continual publishing cycle, where a lack of
articles would be quickly reflected in an RSS feed.

Still, a continual publishing cycle is an interesting idea. Maybe there's
an approach to this that could use both types of publishing to complement
each other.

David