discuss: Thread: LDP mirror on the Linux Journal Web site

The Linux Journal used to have a LDP mirror at:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/LDP/

Given the target, it's probably not a good idea to send them a
standard mail.

Do some of you have any personal connexion with the LJ? It would be
good to see if the mirror failure is a LJ policy or a mistake. May be
they could publish an article about the reviving of the LDP and the
need we have of volunteers?

It's an evidence than they write often about the LDP and with praise :-))

thanks
jdd
-- 
jdd for the Linux Documentation Project
http://wiki.tldp.org
http://www.dodin.net

Quoting Jean-Daniel Dodin ####@####.####

> The Linux Journal used to have a LDP mirror at:
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/LDP/
> 
> Given the target, it's probably not a good idea to send them a
> standard mail.
> 
> Do some of you have any personal connexion with the LJ? It would be
> good to see if the mirror failure is a LJ policy or a mistake.

_Linux Journal_ has gone through some changes, over the years, including
a total turnover in personnel.  

At first, it was one of the commercial projects of Specialized System
Consultants (SSC), Inc., located in the suburbs of Seattle.  At the
time, it and its Internet presence were both managed by its modest staff
of Seattle residents.  I'm quite certain that it was the Seattle staff
who established and ran the LDP mirror, as they did a number of other
valuable resources including the new-vanished Linux Resources Web site
and the Groups of Linux Users Everywhere (GLUE) online directory.

Even before the economic downturn of the early 2000s, SSC's Chief
Executive Officer (and _LJ_ Publisher) Phil Hughes had been gradually
shutting down the Seattle operation, laying off most -- and then, as far
as I can tell, all, of the Seattle-based staff.  He himself, and some of
his newer (and presumably cheaper) staff operated from Costa Rica, to
which he'd moved in the late 1990s.  Some of those staff convinced him
that he could cut expenses further through extensive use of the Drupal
CMS, which thereafter became the framework for all SSC Web properties.

Shortly after the Seattle layoffs, pretty much all of SSC's
community-oriented Web sites were simply deleted without notice or
warning.  Nobody else was given a chance to assume management of the
sites or adopt the content:  All of that work and knowledge was simply
deleted.  SSC, Inc. retained ownership of the Internet domains, and it
appeared that they were operated by (I gather) an Internet-oriented
friend of Hughes's in Nevada.

Some time around 2004, SSC transferred ownership of the magazine to
[a mini-corporation operated by] Carlie Fairchild of Houston, Texas, who
was one of Hughes's longtime staffers from Seattle days.  Capable
writer/editor Jill Franklin became the new editor of the _Linux Journal_
magazine, and the magazine's new publication house / owner became
Belltown Media, Inc.  of Houston -- in place of SSC, Inc.

Last, at some time within the past couple of years, SSC, Inc.
transferred ownership of the various Internet domains to Belltown Media,
Inc. -- and some Houston-area folks associated with Fairchild and
Franklin appear to have taken over managing the Drupal-based sites (to
the extent that they're managed).

The major point I'd like to make, in the above, is that there's very
little continuity between the _Linux Journal_ of past years and that of
today.

> May be they could publish an article about the reviving of the LDP and
> the need we have of volunteers?
> 
> It's an evidence than they write often about the LDP and with praise
> :-))

If you (or someone else) writes a article deemed sufficiently
interesting for publication, I expect they might be willing to print it.
Bear in mind that _Linux Journal_ has always been a commercial
publication.  If you suggest to them that _they_ should write an
article, I expect they'll turn the conversation skillfully and politely
around and propose that you write it.

On Sun, Nov 09, 2008 at 04:35:10PM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Jean-Daniel Dodin ####@####.####
> 
> > The Linux Journal used to have a LDP mirror at:
> > http://www.linuxjournal.com/LDP/
> > 


> _Linux Journal_ has gone through some changes, over the years, including
> a total turnover in personnel.  

Thanks for the interesting history. I knew some of it, but haven't
sent LJ anything for a while, so haven't been in contact with them.

I'll add that they bought first serial and first pub rights (so they
could do their "best of" collections). Beyond that, you could take your
article elsewhere, and at least one LDP HOWTO got started as an LJ
article.

> 
> > May be they could publish an article about the reviving of the LDP and
> > the need we have of volunteers?
> > 
> > It's an evidence than they write often about the LDP and with praise
> > :-))
> 
> If you (or someone else) writes a article deemed sufficiently
> interesting for publication, I expect they might be willing to print it.
> Bear in mind that _Linux Journal_ has always been a commercial
> publication.  If you suggest to them that _they_ should write an
> article, I expect they'll turn the conversation skillfully and politely
> around and propose that you write it.

They do pay, or did last I knew. And it doesn't hurt to have LJ on
your resume.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/xstatic/author/index

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