Dear net friends,
With some regret and a small breath of relief, I am ending active maintenance of the e-zine-list -- that's a long-winded way of saying that I ain't runnin' it no more. (Careful readers will note that it's been a very long time between updates.)
Maintaining the list has been a unique, fulfilling, and fun experience for most of these past seven years. Since the summer of 1993, I have seen the e-zine culture flower, from a few dozen scattered ASCII files and ancient HyperCard stacks, to the verdant garden of formats and technologies, spreading out to projects and communities, and such varied topical and artistic publications. I feel proud to have created an entity that not only was needed, useful, and long-lasting, but even was slightly famous (ask me sometime about the Wall Street Journal or New York Times articles).
I have also seen the shadow of marketing and money overwhelm much of what was truly creative and inspirational, to replace it with only dull commercialism and spam. Some of this might be the natural evolution of a medium, but as someone who very nearly grew up on the net (first online in 1982), it is sometimes difficult for me to see the positive result.
The shifting nature of the net, and the shifting nature of my personal passions, has led me to being less motivated to keep the list up to date. Both in content and technology, the list is somewhat stale, a bit unfocused, and in need of new invigoration and energy (as well as a search engine ;). I feel that I am not the one now to lend it that energy.
Although I created and maintained the framework of the e-zine-list, it has always been a collection of resources given to me by the community of e-zine publishers. As such, I would feel unworthy simply shutting down the list, deleting the files, turning off the lights, and locking the door.
Happily, the list has found a willing caretaker: the Thank You But No cooperative. See the home page for further details.
To all the e-zine publishers who have been a part of the e-zine-list, whether newly or from the beginning, thank you for making the list have a reason to be. And to all you readers, who make the list useful, thank you for making this one of the most popular publishing resources on the net.
Sincerely,
John Labovitz
johnl@johnlabovitz.com / www.johnlabovitz.com