Scenelink's goal is to bring together scene information to make it easier for people to keep track of what's going on. In some ways we're an emag, like the fact that we publish a series of articles under the features area once a month, but our goal is to go as far beyond being just a magazine as possible. Going beyond being a magazine means making scenelink into a location, a place rather than a thing. Scenelink has the potential to become a forum for everyone to share and discuss whatever they want, but a forum is only useful or interesting if people take advantage of it. Before going any farther, lets just summarize the areas of scenelink. What scenelink is: Features:Articles, interviews, comics, etc published on a monthly basis. Basically like issues of a magazine. Gallery:Selections from current art packs. News: The frontpage of the site, filled with up to the minute scene news. Index: A listing of scene groups with their current info. Releases: A continuously updated list of game, util, and emag releases. The first two areas will be handled by the scenelink staff, but everything else will be entirely dependent on cooperation with people and groups outside scenelink. We've created the status of "cooperating group", or "coop group," to make things a little more organized. Scene groups of any age or type are eligible to sign up as a coop group, and the only requirement is that you submit a short update (via our cgi submission page) once a month. To find out more about being and becoming a coop group check out the coop group overview page. Signing up as a coop group gives you a login and password for submitting info, and puts your group's contact person on our list of people to remind when it comes time to submit info for the index. But what about security? The main reason scenelink was created was because all this information already exists, but is so spread out that it's impossible to find. The only people with the time and persistence to keep up with the scene are FBI agents, and they're probably the only ones who do. There are some pretty significant questions of security that a project like scenelink raises, but most of these can be dismissed when you consider that the information exists already, it's just a question of making it easier for people that don't spend their time collecting it as "evidence" to access. Moreover, with the exception of features, every page of the site is controlled by the groups that will be affected by that information. If a group thinks that their security is at risk, they have the option of providing only what they feel comfortable with. This brings up the obvious question… Why should people or groups bother participating in scenelink at all? Groups are already talking to the FBI in their nfos, but scenelink gives people a chance to talk to their peers. Scenelink also gives people and groups a chance to say MORE. An index entry is a way of summing up everything that's happened in the month, and to note all kinds of changes that would have gone unsaid in an nfo. In an nfo you have to get right to the point because most people don't care very much about anything aside from the crack info, but with an index entry you're speaking only to people that have an interest in what your group is doing. Over the course of a month it's easy for people to remember the one fuck up and forget about all the solid work that was done, an index entry lets you remind them. Submitting announcements to the news pages lets people get the word out immediately about something. Right now there's no good way to tell people about something big that's just happened; by the time it's filtered into channel topics, emags, and webpages it's probably old news already, but the scenelink news page is instantaneous. Of course, it'll only be useful if people regularly check the page, but whether or not that happens depends mostly on the coop groups. If people send in info, people will check the page regularly, and people will send info in if people check the page regularly. It's the old chicken and egg problem, and solving it will require that groups take the initiative. We've made it easy to participate, but now groups need to decide whether or not it's worth it to them to do so, and in the short run it may not be. It's up to groups and individuals to make scenelink into a forum for scene info, if the benefits of such a forum is worth it to your group, we ask that you show your support by signing up as a coop group now. I don't care what other people think, so why should my group participate? Because it's easy. Like 5 minutes per month easy. Even if you don't personally care very much what people say, it's probably still worth 5 minutes to make your comments known. And if you don't even care enough to do that, hopefully you give slightly more than a fuck about the scene itself. Obviously right now the scene isn't what it used to be. Nor should it go back, because things that worked on the bbses at 14.4 aren't going to work now or in the future. The scene needs to go forward a little, and the only way things are going to get improve is if people start to communicate. Nobody has to agree, but without some sort of underlying communication we don't have a scene, we just have a bunch of warring tribes. Right now the only time most people ever talk to people outside their own group is when they want to complain about a channel, release, or just bitch in general. When it's so easy to be a part of the change, it doesn't make any sense not to be. Enough about groups, why should I read scenelink? Read it because it helps keep you up-to-date on what's happening in your own area of the scene and beyond it. It's easy to miss what's happening in your own scene, and even easier to miss what's going on in other scenes because keeping up means checking 20 sites, 50 channels, and a 100 websites daily. Scenelink does the work for you! We filter out all the repetitive garbage and bring you just what's interesting. All the news comes straight from the groups involved, so it's accurate and current. We provide a huge range of sources and levels of detail, so you can pick out what you want to read based on what you're interested, and hopefully because it's so easy you'll end up finding new or former interests. Read scenelink if you're interested in more than just what your group is doing. On the other hand, if you think your group exists in a vacuum untouched and unconcerned with anything else, don't bother reading scenelink. What can I do? That depends on who you are: >> If you're anyone at all, send us criticism about our site and suggestions for new projects. >> If you're in a group that's not a coop group, convince them to join. >> If you're in a group that is already a coop group, help make sure that your group sends in their material on time by adding yourself to the mailing list for contact people. If you're feeling really helpful, ask your group to support scenelink by adding our url to your nfo and adding a link to us from your website. Tell everyone you know about scenelink… if you run your own website, add a scenelink banner to your page… if you're oped in a big channel, put something about scenelink in the topic… you get the idea. >> If you're an illustrator, apply for a spot on the design team. >> If you're a writer with a decent grasp of English and/or interesting ideas for stories, apply to be a reporter. >> If you have a lot of experience in the scene and want to help organizing scenelink projects, send us a letter about your interests. >> If you can code perl, apply for a spot on the scenelink coding team. -neofish9