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The Perl Journal On The Ropes

Posted by pudge on from the help-me-obi-wan-perl-programmer dept.

rochlin writes "Looks like The Perl Journal might not make it up for air after all. This blurb is on their website. 'Time is running short and we need your help if The Perl Journal is to get another chance at being the real deal. As of a couple of minutes ago, we only have 881 subscriptions and the deadline is fast approaching. Please subscribe now. It only costs 3 cents per day to get the best Perl coverage anywhere.'" They need 3,000 subscribers to move forward.

11 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Just Die Already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry for the doom and gloom, but Perl.com has pretty much nailed down the business of keeping Perl users up to date with news and events. There doesn't appear to be a need for the Perl Journal anymore, and no one is going to subscribe with real cash after the debacles of the past couple of years.

  2. $12 a year by LeapingGnomeArs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmm, $12 a year, same price as a subscription to Wired. Now I wonder, which will you get more info from that will actually help you in your job? (hint: the journal)

  3. I'm still waiting on one unfulfilled subscription by CresentCityRon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I really enjoyed the orginial rag. I have all the issues and they are fun to flip through even today.

    I have a problem with my original subscription just vanishing in the middle like it did. Normally you would get some crap alternate magazine when your magazine hits the dirt. But instead I get the offer of yet another subscription that could fizz out.

    I think I'll wait and buy the back issues. At least I know they'exist.

  4. It's a problem of skiddish subs. by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know that I wont subscribe just to see my subscription fizzle out like last time. and i am sure there are many others out there who also are feeling the same way.

    TPJ was awesome, the problem is that how things ended before is making a whole bunch of us not wanting to take the plunge but stand back and watch.

    yes It's only $30 some odd dollars.. and to most here they burn that much lighting their Illegally Impotred Cubans.. But to the very few of us who are the working poor and can make $30.00 pay for lunchs for an entire week while eating better than the sod's who blow $30.00 a lunch.. I'm not gonna risk it.... not until I see they are actually alive.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. Why the journal is dying... by pongo000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am an active Perl developer, have been for several years. All the information I need is available on-line: PerlMonks, newsgroups, etc. I have never run across a question I've had that hasn't been asked by someone else, in one form or another.

    So give me one good reason why I would choose to spend my hard-earned dollars on a resource that is (1) dated as soon as the PDF hits the mailbox and (2) replicated by on-line resources?

    To support the Perl movement, you say? I do that already by teaching others about Perl. That is my contribution to the world of Perl: My time in exchange for evangelization, certainly a cause Larry Wall would find acceptable.

    I'm sorry, but in this day and age where information is abundantly available on the 'net, I see journal publication (dead-tree or on-line) as a poor, not-profitable business model. The idea that profit can be made from information is becoming obsolete, especially in the IT world (unless you have control over proprietary information, like Sun or Microsoft).

    BTW, I'm using the term "profit" loosely here, to simply mean money available from revenues that can be put back into the business. Nothing in this post is meant to reflect upon the business motives of any of the TPJ organizers.

    1. Re:Why the journal is dying... by aengblom · · Score: 5, Insightful
      So give me one good reason why I would choose to spend my hard-earned dollars on a resource that is (1) dated as soon as the PDF hits the mailbox and (2) replicated by on-line resources?

      Depends on how you answer these questions:
      • How much is your time worth?
      • Might the Perl Journal save you $12 of time per year?
      • Might the Perl Journal teach you something in high-quailty (read, short and easily understandable) fasion that is worth $12 during that year. More importantly, might that lesson not only intersted you, but allow you to never need to ask that question.


      Author of comment has no knowledge of Perl or Perl Journal, but believes in the value of high quality content.
      --


      So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
    2. Re:Why the journal is dying... by Dog+and+Pony · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with you. I don't need it, for the same reasons, and I support the community the same way as you do.

      Still, I subscribed. Why? Well, partly because $12 is no cash, even for someone that doesn't have a lot of it.

      Also, I like the idea that people try to get money for what they do online instead of using banner ads. Even though a lot of great people put their, often superb, content online for free, that is not an option for some. And I do respect that. I'd rather pay for some content that I might like than have it soiled with banner ads. If I don't like it, fine, I'll stop paying.

      I strongly disagree that the dead-tree business is going away though - there is always room, and I think will always be for books and papers. For one, although they are possible to take with you on the toilet and to bed, they are not comfortable. Hell, it isn't even comfortable reading from your laptop when sitting in your favourite chair.

      All in all, people that write and provide content should be rewarded. Some with money, some with tolerating their stupid ads, and some with credit (maybe the greatest currency of them all). Which they want, is up to the provider.

      But of course, everyone wants the free lunch. Even when the grouceries to make the meal costs (like bandwidth, servers and time). *Sigh*

      No, you don't have to do what I do. But what I do, I do with open eyes, and because I a) want something, and b) support something. Maybe a poor choice, but at least I will know.

    3. Re:Why the journal is dying... by rochlin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      What's in TPJ that isn't available free on the net? Articles by people who know what they're talking about like Lincoln Stein and Randall Schwartz (instead of 1 paragraph blurbs). Articles that give detailed examples and code commentaries (I learned much more about how to generate Excel worksheets from Perl than I could get from the relatively thin, informal docs - an unfortunate CPAN tradition).

      I'll grant that it's not a good sole source for recent news, but for actually learning about something you didn't know (didn't know existed sometimes) in a much more friendly format than a POD, TPJ is just the best source. I subscribed before and I tried to subscribe to this new edition (and I posted this thread on /.)

      --
      A beginners' guide to Portland, OR?
  6. Re:maybe expand coverage to Ruby and Python by Masem · · Score: 3, Insightful
    To some extent, I'd agree with this, or at least expanding the idea of a magazine to cater to the cross-platform scripting language, which includes, but not limited to, perl, python, tcl, ruby, and so forth. All the major non-scripting programming languages have significant journal support, but typically these languages are limited to sys admin magazines (I've seen a lot of scripting basics appearing in tLinuxJ/LinuxMag; heck, wasn't TPJ part of SysOp mag at some point?). More so, nearly all of these languages work with HTTP/CGI, XML, and other newer technology, so there is certainly some commonality amoung them.

    Heck, add some sh/bash programming into that as well. Those aren't just for sysops anymore!

    I'd even include adding language toolkits like PHP that are still scripting languages but for a specific application (in this case, web delivery)

    Of course, I'm sure there are those that only want to read about perl, or only about python, etc. Of course, some magazines that proport to be just about a certain language typcially get a lot of sidetracks in them as well (for example, the C/C++ UJ often has an issue on Windows programming about once every 6 months, which gives no benefit if you aren't doing Windows programming). I'd argue that you provide columns on those and then give some good general columns (such as writing consistant UIs across platforms, securing scripts, using new techs & TLAs in these languages) and you'd have a pretty damn tight magazine. Call it "The Scripting Journal".

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
  7. Get your free solicitation here by DevilM · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is Slashdot the place for this kind of solicitation? Sure it seems like a great place to find technical people, but isn't that what ads are for? I really don't see how the health of some technical publication is really news for nerds or even stuff that matters.

  8. TPJ is well worth saving by jacobito · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, you can find volumes of Perl help online. There's still something to be said for well written and well edited articles by credentialed authors. If you haven't read the Perl Journal before, have a look at the archives before you shrug and move on. You may find that the magazine is worth it after all.