Our "Why Ugly Design Converts" was included in printing #2.<p>The publisher, Cheng, reached out to us - asked permission, and gave us the opportunity to make edits.<p>I assume he does this with everybody, so there's certainly no exploitation of the article writers .<p>Next, he went through our blog article and made it beautiful with more thought and care than even we had.<p>I feel indebted to Cheng and his team, we've gotten several mentions from other folks we work with about the article, and being included has been a fantastic marketing tool to show to prospective clients.<p>Let me sum up:<p>a) I was left with the impression that Cheng's motivations are built from passion, and his process is incredibly transparent.<p>b) I support the magazine to give other members of this community the opportunity to be featured when they put together something that the community finds compelling.<p>c) Maybe Cheng should give the top 100 stories in a given month the opportunity to BUY slots in the magazine. The amount of work he did to make our crummy blog writing look professional, and the fact that it's a brilliant marketing tool would have easily been worth the price of admission. No conflict because he's pulling from top voted stories anyways.<p>Thanks Cheng for the work you continue to do!<p>Edit: Our "Why Ugly Design Converts" article - <a href="http://bit.ly/a2w9xO" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/a2w9xO</a>
It makes me sad and fearful for the future of our industry when someone charging the equivalent of a cup of coffee for something that has a multiple of the value of said coffee is met with dozens of complaints about how it should be free, plus people actively trying to sabotage his efforts (sorry to mmphosis if the list of links wasn't meant in that way).
It's funny - when they are printing a magazine I'm like wow great because I feel they've added value but when they're charging for the digital PDF (and it's a nothing charge let's face it) I feel like they are almost exploiting other's creativity (who I assume has been donated with permission?).
I did feel better about this project when the pdf was free, the idea being that the hard copy sales (that was half the point right?) and the ads with wider circulation paid for the pdf.<p>Its pretty much parallel to the problems face by newspapers online, put up a pay wall and lose your readership plus your advertisers, or keep it free and get by on much thinner margins than previously but at least be in business still.
Just wondering, how do they chose which comments go in this? How many comments per issue, and are they related to the articles or just the best comments that month? If so, how do they put them in context? I'm not $3-worth of curious, but I would be interested...