All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Subscribe to The Perl Review

pudge on 2002-09-17T12:00:45

barryp writes "You can now pledge a subscription to The Perl Review. The plan is to produce four print magazines per year. Cost: $12/year (US); $20/year (international). Let's all make this happen by signing up!" The web site says that they'll attempt to go print if they get enough subscription pledges.

What about TPJ?

MagusX on 2002-09-17T16:26:16

So now that TPJ is trying to get subscriptions to get their magazine back into print, TPR comes along and also wants subscriptions to go into print? Wouldn't it be better overall to combine these two efforts to make one superior magazine?

Also, I assume there are a number of people only willing to pay for one or the other, not both. That hurts both groups trying to get money.

Re:What about TPJ?

barryp on 2002-09-17T16:40:15

No. TPJ (the Journal) want subscriptions to their on-line content. I think they have pretty much given up on the idea of a print magazine. TPR (the Review) have (so far) provided their on-line content at no charge. As a lot of us mourn the passing of the print version of TPJ, the people at TPR are stepping-up-to-the-plate and going for a print version. As compares to other magazines that I subscribe to (SysAdmin and Linux Journal), US$20 is not a bad deal.

I suspect that TPR will continue on-line even if enough pledges are not forthcoming. I think TPJ is all but dead in the water if they don't reach their quota. From what I can determine, the ideals are very different at both organisations.

Re:What about TPJ?

brian_d_foy on 2002-09-17T17:04:55

I can't make promises, but I don't think TPR would go away if we don't make a print magazine for some reason (but I don't see that happening). Almost all of TPR is in CVS on SourceForge somewhere, so even if I got hit by a bus someone else could run with it :)

Re:What about TPJ?

rochlin on 2002-09-17T16:59:38

I dunno. As a casual Perl programmer (and one who enjoys it very much), I always found TPJ entertaining, educational, and very practical.

TPR on the other hand seems much more like a academic excercise. It seems to be written for a small group of people without direct application necessarily in mind.
It's kind of like comp.lang.perl.misc (which, personally, I've found very useful and gets 100s of posts a day) vs. comp.lang.perl.moderated which seems to target the same group as TPR, only gets a few posts a day, and which I've found kind of alienating (due to attitude as much as content).

Just as a cultural matter, I don't think these two Perl subcommunities mix particularly well.
So, long -> short the two mags are better off separate and sinking|swimming on their own.

Alternatives to PayPal?

rob_au on 2002-09-18T01:44:15

In light of the $0.30 + 2.2% transaction fee levied by Paypal and problems which a number of people (myself included) have experienced with Paypal in the past, are there are any alternative means by which a subscription could be paid for, even if this means sending a cheque via snail-mail.

Re:Alternatives to PayPal?

brian_d_foy on 2002-09-18T03:41:29

I don't have an alternative at the moment, but I will come up with something, but I probably won't have that for a couple weeks.