TXP Magazine rises

Bloke · 2012-03-04 11:35:45

Although we planned not to make an official announcement on the forum as we’re now using the social channels to promote, discuss and publicise the magazine, I realise that not everybody has a twitter account or yet follows the Google+ stream.

So it is with great enthusiasm and excitement that I share the new, rebranded, refocused and re-energised TXP. Bringing the magazine back from the ashes has been a huge undertaking by the editorial and design team, and I hope the hard work shines through the site itself and pays off as we bring you news, views and CMS muse on every corner of the Textpattern experience (and beyond). The site is fully responsive across a broad spectrum of display sizes so you can enjoy it wherever you may be.

If anybody wishes to contribute articles, we welcome all submission ideas. And plugin authors, give your creations some airtime with the readership by pimping your plugins. Further, if you are dedicated and would like to give something back to the community, check the openings on the team or raise your hand on the social channels. Let us know your mad skillz and we’ll find a spot where you can prove them!

Without further delay I shall now leave you in the capable hands of the magazine. Please enjoy, share, and discuss.

P.S. Anybody with access to the forum’s nuts and bolts, please would you add “TXP” to the Network links. G+ and Twitter streams optional extras if there’s space. Thanks!

Last edited by Bloke (2012-03-04 11:41:50)

net-carver · 2012-03-04 22:11:25

Congratulations to the editorial team — looks good. Wondered why Bloke and co. were relatively quiet recently.

uli · 2012-03-04 23:06:06

Bloke wrote:

I realise that not everybody has a twitter account or yet follows the Google+ stream.

Thanks, I indeed am one of those who are rather deaf to chirp frequencies, and I still write forum posts with birds’ feathers.

That relaunch looks like a huge amount of work for everyone who has participated, and I enjoyed every minute of reading about my fave CMS. Thanks to all involved!

Although we planned not to make an official announcement on the forum as we’re now using the social channels to promote, discuss and publicise the magazine

Video killeds the radio star. Sigh.

els · 2012-03-05 00:13:51

Hope you don’t mind me moving this thread, Stef. Over here the mere mortals in this community are allowed to comment as well ;)

Algaris · 2012-03-05 09:31:42

Very nice. It feels like a real magazine with so many article. I’m looking at the contents and thinking ‘All these articles look so interesting, which one should I read first?’.

I’m one of the (few?) people without access to the usual social media channels as I mainly do Textpattern stuff at work, where they block Facebook, Twitter, Google+ et al.

Bloke · 2012-03-05 09:49:13

Thanks for the props everyone (and thanks for moving the thread to a more useful location, Els).

We like the look of it too — and of course the content :-)There’s some great stuff going on behind the scenes, some of which will only become apparent when Issue 2 hits the digital shelves.

btw, for those without social media access, there’s a good old RSS feed available to stay abreast of the latest content.

Destry · 2012-03-05 10:30:55

Bloke wrote:

Although we planned not to make an official announcement on the forum

Bloke caved. ;)

All,

Thanks for the positive feedback. Truly.

I’d say this is the official announcement. Who’s going to tell me they don’t have access to TXP?

We may consider Bloke’s thread here a place for those who want to offer something but who also boycot Disqus along with their other social inconveniences, pre-ordained.

There are valid reasons why the magazine operates the way it does. They may not suit the conveniences of everyone (nothing ever does), but we are leaning towards what benefits TXP. I’ll have more to say on this in my From the Editor, Issue 2, which is already sneaking up fast with lots needing done before it does. But here’s a clue: the more discussion that takes place away from TXP, the less likely advertising will be successful, and the less likely TXP will remain a quality publication over the long-term. Fact!

jstubbs · 2012-03-05 11:42:15

Bloke wrote:

Although we planned not to make an official announcement on the forum

Happy you did make an announcement here.

Destry wrote:

There are valid reasons why the magazine operates the way it does. They may not suit the conveniences of everyone (nothing ever does), but we are leaning towards what benefits TXP. I’ll have more to say on this in my From the Editor, Issue 2, which is already sneaking up fast with lots needing done before it does. But here’s a clue: the more discussion that takes place away from TXP, the less likely advertising will be successful, and the less likely TXP will remain a quality publication over the long-term. Fact!

Presumably you mean TXP the magazine rather than the software…that’s going to take some getting used to and there will inevitably be some confusion until it sinks in that TXP is the magazine and Textpattern is the software…

I can understand that discussions needs to take place over at TXP, that’s a commercial reality. And I hope we will all continue to use whatever means necessary to promote TXP and the software itself, whether that is on Twitter, Google+, Textpattern Network sites or our own personal sites.

Good luck with the magazine and well done to all of you involved. Thanks!

Destry · 2012-03-05 13:10:41

jstubbs wrote:

Presumably you mean TXP the magazine rather than the software…

No need to presume. That’s why I lead off with a link reference…

Destry wrote: Who’s going to tell me they don’t have access to TXP?

But this is a good topic for the forum.

Sure, I realize change takes getting used to. It always does. But the mistake (people calling the software something other than it’s actual name) happened around 2005. Fixing it now, when Textpattern has so many identity issues, is a step in the right direction.

I don’t expect the casual CMS user to care about the specifics of brand name use. The caring should have happened a long time ago from the top, and it never did. I can’t say for sure, but I’d bet if Dean remained in charge of Textpattern over the years, he would have discouraged early on the use of “TXP” to mean the CMS. More likely he would have just named it that to begin with if that’s what he had intended. I don’t mean that in any negative way towards project leaders since Dean, but a big difference between Dean and people in charge of Textpattern since then is that development wasn’t his only expertise, in fact, dev may not have bee his expertise at all. But communication, design, brand…those were his areas of expertise, and we lost all that with leadership since then, and then the community just kind of ran rampant with the brand and brand use.

I’ve been trying to argue more brand consistency, etc. in recent years, and I think we’ve made some headway since Philipp created the new logo (now in use in the user docs, themes, etc.), but there’s still room for improvement. For example, cloning the templates of .com for use in another site that publishes completely different types of content (textgarden) is a mistake. That’s not what brand consistency means. Also, it was a mistake to adopt a new logotype in all-caps. Textpattern already has a hell of a time trying to make it clear to the outside that the brand name is not spelled with a camel-case convention. Don’t believe me? We don’t have to look far…

Notice those last two are the same article, which may very well be a case of copyright infringement, I don’t know, but more to the point, it’s a misuse of the Textpattern brand name that’s being perpetuated around in the wild and likely making the identity problem worse.

That’s likely happening because Textpattern’s own brand is not as good/clear as it could be.

We missed a big opportunity to help address that issue when we adopted a logotype in all-caps. We should have went the other way and made it explicitly clear how the name is spelled by using a logotype that leaves no room for doubt — “Textpattern”. On this issue, I take heart in knowing that I’m not the only one who feels as I do, and that something may be done about it relatively soon. LINK CORRECTED

And I hope we will all continue to use whatever means necessary to promote TXP and the software itself, whether that is on Twitter, Google+, Textpattern Network sites or our own personal sites.

Amine, to that, brother. Amine to that. And let’s not overlook the fact that TXP is a promotional engine for Textpattern and the CMS. It will become a very big and significant one.

Ed. Corrected the last link above.

Last edited by Destry (2012-03-05 17:41:12)

jakob · 2012-03-05 13:46:53

offer something but who also boycot Disqus along with their other social inconveniences

Hmm, I felt slightly put off by the use of DISQUS (mind the caps now Destry ;-), thinking that I’d have to sign up and have my views on whatever auto aggregated against my will, but you can actually comment as a guest without signing up. That’s not immediately apparent from the button.

Gocom · 2012-03-06 01:11:56

Destry wrote:

No need to presume. That’s why I lead off with a link reference… […] I don’t expect the casual CMS user to care about the specifics of brand name use. The caring should have happened a long time ago from the top, and it never did. I can’t say for sure, but I’d bet if Dean remained in charge of Textpattern over the years, he would have discouraged early on the use of “TXP” to mean the CMS. More likely he would have just named it that to begin with if that’s what he had intended. I don’t mean that in any negative way towards project leaders since Dean, but a big difference between Dean and people in charge of Textpattern since then is that development wasn’t his only expertise, in fact, dev may not have bee his expertise at all. But communication, design, brand…those were his areas of expertise, and we lost all that with leadership since then, and then the community just kind of ran rampant with the brand and brand use.

With no offense, that is your opinion. In my opinion the magazine should be called something else. Sorry, but I do not like the name.

Destry · 2012-03-06 10:28:01

No offense taken, Gocom. As was explained in here, the decision was a group one. It’s not something I schemed up and railroaded through by my own sinister designs. It wasn’t even me who proposed the idea, but somebody with a lot more experience in magazine publishing. I do happen to agree with the decision, though, because I see the objective logic of it. It’s not just my subjective opinion. People with less media experience may not get it, but the decision is made, and it wasn’t made for the interests of the 1%. That wouldn’t be smart PR.

linguist · 2012-03-06 20:43:52

I think that the magazine shouldn’t be called just TXP. For many of us, TXP refers to Textpattern CMS. It has been like that for a long time and probably will be for years to come. (I’m just a user, but I love TXP, meaning CMS.)

Textpattern docs, forums, and sites around the world are full of the abbreviations “TXP, Txp, TxP” referring to CMS Textpattern. In the book Textpattern Solutions (2007), Textpattern and TXP are used interchangeably:

Textpattern tags… TXP tags (txp:article, txp:title, txp:link, etc.)
a TXP veteran… a TXP newbie… the official TXP forum
Textpattern users… TXP users… Textpattern developers… developers of TXP
upgrading TXP… future releases of TXP… versions of TXP
the TXP interface… the Textpattern interface… THE TEXTPATTERN INTERFACE

In my opinion, the old name, TXP Magazine, is quite good, consistent with its URL txpmag.com, and more recognizable as a magazine name than just TXP, and much less confusing at that. For example, the title of one article of the magazine, namely “TXP reanimation”, sounds as if it were referring to Textpattern, even though I already knew that it was not when I was reading and rereading it. Can’t help thinking that such a title may be a disservice to Textpattern CMS. By the way, the name of the magazine should be italicized, if possible.

That said, I want to express my thanks to the authors and editors of the magazine for their time and effort. Today I read all the articles of the first issue of the magazine, and all of them are quite interesting. Looking forward to the next issue.

Destry · 2012-03-07 00:36:39

linguist,

Thanks for reading TXP. Glad you like it. The next issue will not disappoint. Maybe even stir up some more debate, and that’s good for readership. :)

Just to clarify a couple things…

As was explained, “magazine” is still a functional part of the name, we just don’t elaborate it, because there’s no need:

Like the other respected web magazines we considered, we’ll keep using “magazine” in the web domain, in the copyright statement, and other places concerning business communication.

It’s very unlikely that anyone will look at the magazine’s UI and be confused about what it is or what it represents. There are many elements in the UI that, together, strongly communicate the genre and scope.

Also, we are not the “Txpolice”; it’s no our position to tell you are anyone else what to say or write outside of Textpattern’s official copy. We’re not concerned with blogs and forums around the world, or even this one, really; we’re concerned with establishing some consistency in our own work so that other publishers are less likely to make mistakes with the brand. That’s not a bad thing. And that’s why brand use conventions are being prepared. Editorial guidelines will be used for TXP and Textpattern Docs copy at the very least, arguably the two most important places where content needs to be as clear as possible. That’s all any brand has control over—their own content—and we’re no different.

Algaris · 2012-03-07 10:35:50

Bloke wrote:

Although we planned not to make an official announcement on the forum as we’re now using the social channels to promote, discuss and publicise the magazine…

This has reminded me of something that’s been playing on my mind for a little while now.

I’ve noticed a definite policy shift towards de-emphasising the forum in favour of social media. I’m all in favour of pushing Textpattern (and TXP) via the various social media channels and think it’s an excellent way to promote them, but please not at the expense of the forum. Not everyone has access or wants to use social media. When I’m at work with my Textpattern hat on I check the forum everyday, comment on the latest happenings if I feel inclined and follow links from here to relevant news. When I’m at home and have access to social media the last thing I feel like doing is wading through a stream of tweets, Google+ and Facebook posts just to find out the latest happenings and comment on them. Every time I see a Google+ link to a Textpattern discussion I have an inward sigh as I know I won’t be able to follow and take part in it.

By all means encourage people to discuss Textpattern (and TXP) via social media and not hide away from the wider public, but please don’t stop posting news announcements here. Even if it’s in a reduced format at least I can read about it and add my 2 pence if so inclined.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2012-03-04 11:35:45

TXP Magazine rises

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