Methinks a poll is needed to work out what content we're having, then interested parties can submit a small piece on one of the chosen areas.

I'd certainly cover a bit of vintage tech, current stuff as an 'armchair expert' ( ) and general comment on the world.

Now if only I could get my hands on MIT's vintage computing museum...

theChipmunk

I started writing something the other day. An old habit (creative writing) which I have clearly let slip over the years. I seem to spend my time documenting software, which is less than thrilling. I did, believe it or not, used to run a small “magazine” when at uni. I wrote tons of real crap then. It all fizzled out when I had to work for a living.

Now I find I may be able to put some time towards the odd article here and there.

I would give it a try on the news side of things. It'd be nice to give it a go I suppose.

If enough people pitch in, the volume of articles will grow quite nicely without it being the sole responsibility of a small few.

Exactly. I would just like to say thanks to everyone who's offered their help so far, it's really nice to get such a big reponse, and it's a lot better than I expected.

Like Paul says the more we have contributing the faster the site can grow, and the more that content is spread between not only subjects, but also writing styles. Should be great.

How were you thinking of including the written content? Some kind of CMS so contributors can enter and markup their content for review by an editor? Mightn't need something too complex, and could possibly be done using WP or similar.

Edd

<edit>Somethings such as WP-United could work</edit>

I believe this is currently being discussed by the site developers Edd, so any questions; fill their inboxes with PM's.

I would have thought something along the lines of Joomla! would be worth using. It’s free, and has a hierarchical accounts.

Joomla, Drupal or the likes would also work, but are a lot bigger than WP, which was originally designed for blogging. It may well be possible to just use WP for the specific kind of articles we need to post, with some suitable plugins.

Edd

That’s interesting - I didn’t know about that. yes, tying in with this existing forum would be a good idea. One less log on for everyone contributing to remember.

Right, I'm working on an article re Psions, as Steve very kindly sent me a couple. Thanks again, Steve!

However, I have two very big exams - CHEM2 and English Literature - at the end of next week, so my speed etc won't be anywhere near as fast as usual. But after the 12th, I'll start churning out stuff if I can.

theChipmunk

Is anything still happening on this? If so, I'll join Chipmunk and do a sample article.

I think i'll review a game or something like that. Or maybe some hardware.

I'll have a look tomorrow.

I'd love to be X404 Staff Writer. Lol

Firefox FTW. It hasn't bothered me, but I've blocked it out of spite.

I too could write something and even have a chance of making it interesting and/or enjoyable, but the subject matter- that's something else.

Personally, when it comes to reviewing anything, it helps if you have an idea of the competition. It isn't much good having a dig at a product for lacking a feature when the competition does not have that feature, or commands a massive price premium for that feature- or it even turns out that the feature is almost pointless/useless.

Also, it is important to understand the target market to make a review relevant. For example, as a Custom PC reader, I have to grasp that the reviewer is coming from a performance enthusiast point of view. One of the classic issues with this is overclocking motherboards. Some motherboards might be excellent performers out of the box, but be poor overclockers. Someone looking for extreme overclocks would avoid a motherboard that is perfectly good for the average user or mild overclocker such as myself but a poor review score would put off the average user. Just a thought.

I'll try and find a smaller version of the avatar. But it's not because it's too big is it? It's because you don't like being rickrolled.

Anyway, I have IT last lesson, and have finished most of my Coursework so I'll make a start on reviewing GTA4.