nerdletter/print/content-plan.md

• Cover: Banner, logo, table of contents, contributors (with thumbnails), and one piece of black-and-white printable art as a hero image. That art should come from one of this community’s members. But if it doesn’t, I’ll just have Grok give me something. So, if you don’t want slop, then pony-up. Yes, I’m extorting you. “Sure would be a cryin’ shame to see the art section filled up with AI slop, now, wouldn’t it?”

• Page 1: And editorial essay from me, on some tech topic with socio-political import. Some magazines use the editorial letter to intentionally drive the theme of the whole issue. Nerdletter doesn’t publish frequently enough for “themed” issues. So, this will be arbitrary and free-wheeling. But it won’t be interminable. I’ll be limiting it to around 400-500 words.

• The “Community Commentary” Pages: This will be the newsletter’s version of “Letters to the Editor”. Short missives about anything found in the issue. For the first issue, I’ll randomly select content from the message board here, to fill it out. It will be 2 pages, and include retro mini-ads.

• The “Bulletin” Pages: This will be 2 pages of yesterday’s news tomorrow. A news report or press release retrieved from the world of computing tech, in the era between 1975 and 1995. This will also include one full-page ad (or ad collage) from that era. (.cc @JohnBlood )

• The “Interview” Section: this could be either an archival interview reprinted from defunct old magazines (again .cc @JohnBlood), OR it could be a genuinely modern interview with an actual retro-tech person (e.g. ESR or Bob Martin or whoever might still be alive). The suggested length is around 3,000 words (roughly 6 pages). My instinct is to limit this to one interview per issue.

• The “DIY” Section: This should be a single community contribution, and it should be on any project at all that is either focused on a piece of retro tech, OR hybridises retro and modern tech. So, for example, a Borland C project written using DOSBOX is acceptable, an FPGA emulation of an old hardware platform (e.g. the Ultimate C64) is also acceptable. And, as I’ve mentioned before, peripherals too, like the Fujinet. But I’m sure there are forms of hybridisation I haven’t even thought of. So, bring it on! I’m also limiting this section to 3,000 words or roughly 6 pages (without pictures). If your project includes images, it’ll all basically still have to fit on 6 pages.

• The “Guest Essay” Section: This section will be a contribution from a notable individual, or a notable work from a community member. So, for example, if @lunduke decided he wanted to contribute a reminiscence of his early computer experiences, it would go here. Or, for example, if a community member wrote a piece of quality short fiction, it could go here. There is no limit to length here, even though the page limit is 6 (3,000 words). If your piece extends beyond the limit, I will serialise it, but no more than two parts. If there are no contributions for a given issue, then I’ll harvest one of John C. Dvorak’s old essays from the PC Magazine archive and put it here.

• The “Closing Thought” Page: This, again, will be 400-500 words from me. This time, mostly just pitching the next issue.