SIG Project: College Pagans Online Publication (Brainstorming thread)

The Cauldron's server is expensive and requires monthly payments. Please become a Bronze, Silver or Gold Donor if you can. Donations are needed every month. Without member support, we can't afford the server.

Or donate directly via Paypal

This message board is The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's SMF Archive Board. It is closed to new memberships and to posting, but there are over 250,000 messages here that you can still search and read -- many full of interesting and useful information. (This board was open from February 2007 through June 2011).

Our new vBulletin discussion board is located at http://www.ecauldron.com/forum/ -- if you would like to participate in discussions like those you see here, please visit our new vBulletin message board, register an account and join in our discussions. We hope you will find the information in this message archive useful and will consider joining us on our new board.

[Samantha]

In the College Pagan Podcasts thread, the idea was brought up about an online magazine publication for, well, us (and other College/Uni Pagans as well, obviously).

This is the official brainstorm thread for it.

Questions to address:

*What types of articles to cover.

I had some article ideas

- Paganism on a budget, i.e. - budget tools, books, rituals, magickal education

- Social/Fun things to do as Pagan eg: Witchy movie nights, Book club, party - pagan style

Also, articles on the normal mundane part of college life. Like getting a part time job, graduate problems/opportunities, travel, exams etc

[Samantha]

In the College Pagan Podcasts thread, the idea was brought up about an online magazine publication for, well, us (and other College/Uni Pagans as well, obviously).

This is the official brainstorm thread for it.

Questions to address:

*What types of articles to cover.
*What's in a name?
*Site hosting options/blog/etc.
*How often to publish/deadlines
*Distribution and advertising (site only, email newsletter, etc)

....

It's very late at night and I'm sure I'm missing a lot. Feel free to call me an idiot.



So. Let's get this ball rolling!

I was thinking that Freewebs or Blogspot might be a good way to publish. Easy to use and all that stuff.

I also agree with the idea of maybe starting off with 2 issues a year and then maybe increasing it to 4 if it gets popular.


Also - why has this thread become so quiet all of a sudden? 

[Morag]

Also - why has this thread become so quiet all of a sudden? 

My fault; I was going to post a thread that compiled all the info put forth so far, talked about the next step, etc, and I've been very busy with IRL stuff. =\

Sorry. I'll get on it as soon as possible. Should be up before the end of the week.

[Samantha]

My fault; I was going to post a thread that compiled all the info put forth so far, talked about the next step, etc, and I've been very busy with IRL stuff. =\

Sorry. I'll get on it as soon as possible. Should be up before the end of the week.

No worries  No rush - was just wondering

[Ellen M.]

Also - why has this thread become so quiet all of a sudden? 

I got caught up in the crazy, busy life of being a college Pagan. XD Oh God why. Why is school eating my face. (On the up side, I have plenty of stuff to contribute to the 'zine now!)

[Samantha]

*What types of articles to cover.

I just came across something interesting on Youtube, it's called the '100 Day Pagan Challenge' and it's about people constructing some goals for their Pagan life. I thought it was really interesting, and we could do an article covering this, making a '100 Day Pagan Challenge' for our readers or using this as an idea as to how you find time for Pagansim in your life - since I think this will be a problem that many college Pagans have.

You can youtube '100 Pagan Day Challenge' or here's a link to a one that I liked - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ek-87QTTqw

[Ellen M.]

Bumping this thread back to life. Anyone still interested in something like this?

[Morag]

Bumping this thread back to life. Anyone still interested in something like this?

I know I am!

Thank you for the bump; I've been spread rather thin with things, and this topic slipped my mind for a bit. As soon as I'm done with my dinner and two rituals tonight I'll get to work compiling the info. Hopefully it'll be posted later tonight; tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

[Ellen M.]

I know I am!

Thank you for the bump; I've been spread rather thin with things, and this topic slipped my mind for a bit. As soon as I'm done with my dinner and two rituals tonight I'll get to work compiling the info. Hopefully it'll be posted later tonight; tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

No rush. Good luck doing two rituals tonight!

[Morag]

Hopefully it'll be posted later tonight; tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

Well, it's no longer afternoon, but here's the list I've compiled. Please excuse the lack of capitals and punctuation; I put most of it together last night.



What types of articles to cover

• first experiences in the college pagans scene/how to network with other college pagans
• how to maintain faith while bogged down with a million little things
• paganism on a budget
• paganism on the internet – discussion of different pagan sites, fora, etc
• combining your spiritual education with the one that costs tuition
• ideas on hosting social events with a pagan theme, like parties, feasts, movie nights, book clubs, etc
• exploring paganism on your own
• working with the political and religious climate of your campus
• getting to know the pagan group on campus (or in your area)
• starting your own group
• learning to be a leader
• discussion on the broom closet and being in or out
• worshiping on your own
• how to research
• non-traditional or returning students: how to deal with returning to campus life
• recent graduates out in the “real world”: it's okay, you can do this.
• articles for graduate students
• don't forget the Southern Hemisphere Pagans! Corresponding articles: Lammas/Imbolc, Beltaine/Samhain, etc.
• living on campus: finding substitutes for some bits of ritual so you can obey the dorm rules
• dealing with roommates/residential advisers/suitemates/etc who aren't accepting
• stuff about mundane bits of college life: jobs, etc
• 100-day pagan challenge

How many articles an issue

Having a few regular columns each issue and then book, movie, music, or website reviews, plus news was mentioned.

What's in a name?

Elemental imagery was mentioned. No other ideas so far.

Site hosting options/blog/etc

Blog idea seen favorably. Freewebs and Blogspot mentioned.

How often to publish/deadlines

Quarterly seems to be the most popular, with an idea to start maybe twice a year and build up to four.

If we publish for the fire festivals, dates would be February 1st, May 1st, August 1st, and November 1st. If we do the solstices and equinoxes, then December 20, March 20, June 20, and September 20.

Deadlines would be a month beforehand (with wiggle-room).

Distribution and advertising (site only, email newsletter, etc)

Newsletter seems like good idea, in addition to website.

[Morag]

I'll quickly add my two cents before bedtime.


Name: I think it would be cool if we could find a way to tie in the name to both experiences: being Pagan and being in college. Like, "The Flame and the Scribe" or something, referring to the flame of divine inspiration and the scribing that goes with college (oh, papers, how I love it when you kill me). That was just off the top of my head and it's not very good, but that's the gist, anyway.


Publishing schedule: I am personally in favor of doing it quarterly. There are benefits to either doing the quarters or the cross-quarters. Whatever is fine with me, though personal preference falls with publishing right before the solstices/equinoxes -- they're easily recognizable to people as events in the year, so it's easy for people to remember when our zine goes out.


Format, site hosting, and distribution: Ok. So I have a publishing company called MNS Publishing. I started it 3 years ago with the intention that it would be the platform for the local mag I started here in PR; however, the local mag became its own thing and I have this company lying around, wondering what I'd going to do with it (I'd like to restrict it to publishing magazines or similar, as the MNS stands for "Magazines N Stuff"). I'd love if this zine -- whatever it becomes -- could be a publication of MNS. If y'all aren't comfortable that, that's totally fine and I won't be offended or upset. I'm just throwing it out there.

At any rate, I run several Wordpress sites and I really do like using them. My vote is to use one of those for now; they're easy to do, and for the blog on the side we can have multiple authors.


Format and distribution -- I would love to do an email newsletter plus hosting a PDF version of the mag on the site that people could easily download and print off to distribute at their own colleges, neighborhoods, doctor's offices, whatever. Not right away, of course, but it's something I'm thinking of for the future.


Also, on articles -- we should start thinking of what can be columns, and what can be one-offs. And then who wants to write which columns, or if people want to joint-write columns, etc.


Anyway, I hope that all is a bit clearer than mud. I'm off to bed now.

[Ellen M.]

You are fantastic.

At the moment I can't think of anything else to add to the topics list except maybe in the "Exploring Paganism" section, making sure we cover writing your own chants, rituals, meditations, etc. That's been the biggest stumbling block for me in the past, and I've seen that it's an issue for others, two. The worst thing is feeling like if you're not with your usual group of folks, you can't worship.

I would also personally like to steer clear of most of the Wicca/Pagan 101 articles, or at the very most just link to other sites with information. Not that you were suggesting we do this, just putting that out there. Of course, if there are other opinions, I'd be glad to hear them. To clarify, I'd rather write articles about practicing Wicca within a college context (or Asatru, or Pastafarianism) rather than rehashing the structure of Wicca yet again.

I feel like you could have a few good columns, at least three or four (expanding to more later on) with the same number of longer articles. A lot of this depends on schedules, deadlines, and people involved, but I definitely don't mind grabbing column duty for at least one (or even two).

For the name, no real preference. If I think of anything absolutely spectacular, I'll let you guys know.

If we wanted to publish on the solstices/equinoxes and made our first issue available this September, do you think we'd have enough time to get everything together?

With the blog, would we be posting individual articles as blog entries, or, as you said, get a PDF of the magazine together and post that? For me, I think that would be a lot simpler, although it does take away the ability for people to link back to individual articles, which would help our publicity.

I am all for making print versions of these and distributing them

Jobs needed (can be combined and shared as needed, of course):

• Webmaster: someone to take care of our online presence. Probably not exceedingly difficult if we use a blog site. Possibly also in charge of sending out the e-newsletter?
• Publicist: someone in charge of getting the word out, or coming up with awesome plans to do so and ordering the rest of us around.
• Permanent Writing Staff: People who regularly contribute to columns and get a warm, fuzzy sense of pride.
• Temporary Writing Staff: People we bring in to guest write columns or write articles, but don't necessarily have a commitment to the publication.
• Layout/Design Artist: Person who gets the newsletter looking spiffy.

Columns I'd like to see (with possible titles):

• Paganism on a Budget: (aka, "Paganism on a Shoestring", "The Gods Understand If You're Broke") how to practice and study Paganism without breaking your bank account. I particularly like this column idea because I myself could definitely stand to be a less impulsive buyer of Pagan stuff.
• In or Out of the Broom Closet/Living on Campus: (aka, "Muggles and Magic", "How to Have Your Cakes and Ale and Eat Them, Too") all about worshiping, acting, and living as a Pagan not only surrounded by tons of strangers, but also when the environment may be less than welcoming.
• Paganism and Research/Exploring Paganism: (aka, "The Homework Religion", "When Academics and Pagans Collide") research skills. As ridiculous as it sounds, this can be extremely helpful, even if it sounds common-sense. How to find sources, how to determine once they're good once you've found them, how to be a critical learner. Also, how to use classes and academic research projects to bolster your Pagan knowledge. (Using JSTOR to also research mythology and archaeology and all that, writing papers from a Pagan slant, etc.)
• Pagan Networking on and off Campus: (aka, "How to Play Nice with the Other Kids", "A Solitary's Guide to Pagan Groups") Making the transition from practicing by yourself to possibly practicing with others, and how to reach out to others if you decide you're ready. Dealing with college groups, local groups, and online groups.
• Pagan Leadership: (aka, "Herding Cats") advice and anecdotes about leading Pagan groups, and also doing interfaith work and public relations on your campus.
  

[Morag]

You are fantastic.

Yay! I like hearing that.

At the moment I can't think of anything else to add to the topics list except maybe in the "Exploring Paganism" section, making sure we cover writing your own chants, rituals, meditations, etc. That's been the biggest stumbling block for me in the past, and I've seen that it's an issue for others, two. The worst thing is feeling like if you're not with your usual group of folks, you can't worship.

Definitely. It's been a big stumbling block for me too (still is).

I would also personally like to steer clear of most of the Wicca/Pagan 101 articles, or at the very most just link to other sites with information. Not that you were suggesting we do this, just putting that out there. Of course, if there are other opinions, I'd be glad to hear them. To clarify, I'd rather write articles about practicing Wicca within a college context (or Asatru, or Pastafarianism) rather than rehashing the structure of Wicca yet again.

Agreed.

I feel like you could have a few good columns, at least three or four (expanding to more later on) with the same number of longer articles. A lot of this depends on schedules, deadlines, and people involved, but I definitely don't mind grabbing column duty for at least one (or even two).

Cool. I don't mind grabbing column duty as well.

If we wanted to publish on the solstices/equinoxes and made our first issue available this September, do you think we'd have enough time to get everything together?

Yep. If we can get people for all the jobs and such, then I'm sure we can do it.

With the blog, would we be posting individual articles as blog entries, or, as you said, get a PDF of the magazine together and post that? For me, I think that would be a lot simpler, although it does take away the ability for people to link back to individual articles, which would help our publicity.

That works. If we use Wordpress it's super simple -- we can create a category for each column, and then separate categories for each section of articles, and a place for letters to the editor, too.

Later on, if this thing grows a lot, we may want to move to a different sort of layout, but for now the blog idea works.

We can also have a category for asides, or musings, or something, for things we want to publish that don't suit a full article.

I am all for making print versions of these and distributing them

Sweet!

I love the idea; I sort of see it as "guerrilla distribution".

Jobs needed (can be combined and shared as needed, of course):

• Webmaster: someone to take care of our online presence. Probably not exceedingly difficult if we use a blog site. Possibly also in charge of sending out the e-newsletter?
• Publicist: someone in charge of getting the word out, or coming up with awesome plans to do so and ordering the rest of us around.
• Permanent Writing Staff: People who regularly contribute to columns and get a warm, fuzzy sense of pride.
• Temporary Writing Staff: People we bring in to guest write columns or write articles, but don't necessarily have a commitment to the publication.
• Layout/Design Artist: Person who gets the newsletter looking spiffy.

I can definitely do webmistressing and be part of the permanent writing staff. I don't have any flashy ideas for publicizing except to namedrop the publication in every single conversation, create a Facebook page, put a link to it in my signature on all the fora I participate in, and to print it out and place it in every doctor's office, hotel lobby, and bookstore I can find (as well as campus; that's a given).

That's pretty much what we did for Immanence (we also had to sell adspace, because it cost us money to print it and it was for free) -- just continually bombarded people with it, continually asked people to contribute, etc.

I am not so good with the Layout/Design bit...if I managed to get InDesign on my computer and learn how to use it, then sure. But that was never my area with the mag -- it was my partner's, and he's still doing it.

Columns I'd like to see (with possible titles):

• Paganism on a Budget: (aka, "Paganism on a Shoestring", "The Gods Understand If You're Broke") how to practice and study Paganism without breaking your bank account. I particularly like this column idea because I myself could definitely stand to be a less impulsive buyer of Pagan stuff.
• In or Out of the Broom Closet/Living on Campus: (aka, "Muggles and Magic", "How to Have Your Cakes and Ale and Eat Them, Too") all about worshiping, acting, and living as a Pagan not only surrounded by tons of strangers, but also when the environment may be less than welcoming.
• Paganism and Research/Exploring Paganism: (aka, "The Homework Religion", "When Academics and Pagans Collide") research skills. As ridiculous as it sounds, this can be extremely helpful, even if it sounds common-sense. How to find sources, how to determine once they're good once you've found them, how to be a critical learner. Also, how to use classes and academic research projects to bolster your Pagan knowledge. (Using JSTOR to also research mythology and archaeology and all that, writing papers from a Pagan slant, etc.)
• Pagan Networking on and off Campus: (aka, "How to Play Nice with the Other Kids", "A Solitary's Guide to Pagan Groups") Making the transition from practicing by yourself to possibly practicing with others, and how to reach out to others if you decide you're ready. Dealing with college groups, local groups, and online groups.
• Pagan Leadership: (aka, "Herding Cats") advice and anecdotes about leading Pagan groups, and also doing interfaith work and public relations on your campus.
  

I love your titles!

Should we also have a sort of "Ask Abby" section too? Where people could write in for advice? That part wouldn't have to go into the print version; it could be strictly blog.

[Samantha]

Wow - I'm really glad this thread has been brought to life again. I started to think people had lost interest in it, and I think we can all see that something like this needs more than one person to pull it off. So I'm still in!

Name: I think it would be cool if we could find a way to tie in the name to both experiences: being Pagan and being in college. Like, "The Flame and the Scribe" or something, referring to the flame of divine inspiration and the scribing that goes with college (oh, papers, how I love it when you kill me). That was just off the top of my head and it's not very good, but that's the gist, anyway.

I like that idea - but I also think it might be good to have a tagline underneath the title like 'a publication for college witches' just so when people pick it up they can see who it is aimed for, which gives us a good compromise between a unique, creative title and also blatantly pointing out 'this publication is for pagans who go to college!!!' 

Publishing schedule: I am personally in favor of doing it quarterly. There are benefits to either doing the quarters or the cross-quarters. Whatever is fine with me, though personal preference falls with publishing right before the solstices/equinoxes -- they're easily recognizable to people as events in the year, so it's easy for people to remember when our zine goes out.

That's true - organising release dates around sabbats will make it easier for people to remember when the next issue is out, although a part of me is thinking will we have enough people behind it and be organised enough at the beginning to make sure we can bring it out four times a year and to the quality/standard that we want? Or should we at the start publish it twice a year and then build it up to four?

Format, site hosting, and distribution: Ok. So I have a publishing company called MNS Publishing. I started it 3 years ago with the intention that it would be the platform for the local mag I started here in PR; however, the local mag became its own thing and I have this company lying around, wondering what I'd going to do with it (I'd like to restrict it to publishing magazines or similar, as the MNS stands for "Magazines N Stuff"). I'd love if this zine -- whatever it becomes -- could be a publication of MNS. If y'all aren't comfortable that, that's totally fine and I won't be offended or upset. I'm just throwing it out there.

I love this idea - It would definitely add to the professionalism of it and I really like the idea of seeing our work in a published - easier to get the word around that way too

At any rate, I run several Wordpress sites and I really do like using them. My vote is to use one of those for now; they're easy to do, and for the blog on the side we can have multiple authors.

I'm fine with Wordpress too

Format and distribution -- I would love to do an email newsletter plus hosting a PDF version of the mag on the site that people could easily download and print off to distribute at their own colleges, neighborhoods, doctor's offices, whatever. Not right away, of course, but it's something I'm thinking of for the future.

I like most of the ideas - except the e-newsletter part, since for most part when I get e-newsletters I just delete them, maybe notifications for when something significant happens or the magazine is coming out instead?

Also on Ellen's post
- The only job I feel I couldn't do would be Layout/Design

I think also for the permanent writing staff, we should get people to apply with a resume and maybe a sample of their writing - to show that they firstly really want to be a part of it and that they can well... write! Anyone can send something in for consideration, but if it's badly written/researched then it shouldn't be published - that's my two cents 

[Ellen M.]

That's true - organising release dates around sabbats will make it easier for people to remember when the next issue is out, although a part of me is thinking will we have enough people behind it and be organised enough at the beginning to make sure we can bring it out four times a year and to the quality/standard that we want? Or should we at the start publish it twice a year and then build it up to four?

I can think of a good compromise - what if we made our big official professional looking publication (both online and offline) be twice a year (equinoxes?) and, if we feel like we have more to say, we'll just supplement the blog? If we do it twice a year, I can definitely see the draw because we'll have the opportunity to put a lot more into each issue. Then, if we want to expand to four times a year, we could easily slip in the solstices. (Alternatively, start with Samhain/Beltane and then expand to Imbolc and Lammas).[/quote]

I love this idea - It would definitely add to the professionalism of it and I really like the idea of seeing our work in a published - easier to get the word around that way too

Definitely. You can drop it off in New Age/hippie stores, health food markets, indie book stores (probably real bookstores too - just go to the Metaphysical section, slide one into a really popular book, and casually walk away XD).

Also on Ellen's post
- The only job I feel I couldn't do would be Layout/Design

I've got experience designing posters on both Photoshop (when I'm lucky) and Microsoft Word (when I'm less than lucky). I have, in the past, used Adobe InDesign, but I'd have to relearn my way around the program. However, that really is a fantastic piece of software for getting your layout looking professional - my high school used it to layout the Yearbook.[/quote]

I think also for the permanent writing staff, we should get people to apply with a resume and maybe a sample of their writing - to show that they firstly really want to be a part of it and that they can well... write! Anyone can send something in for consideration, but if it's badly written/researched then it shouldn't be published - that's my two cents 

I definitely agree with this, and I would be more than happy to submit a res of my own.

[Tags:]

Jump to: Please select a destination: ----------------------------- About The Cauldron ----------------------------- => Rules and Regulations => Cauldron Announcements ===> Volunteers Needed: Site Assistants and Projects => Introductions => Board Questions, Suggestions, and Feedback => Chat and CauldronMUX Support => Test Board ----------------------------- Religion and Philosophy ----------------------------- => Paganism For Beginners => Books and Other Resources => Pagan Religions => Pagan Spirituality => Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology => Worship and Ritual => Holidays and Festivals => History and Religion => Faith in Everyday Life => Philosophy and Metaphysics => Non-Pagan Religions and Interfaith Discussions => Miscellaneous Religious Discussions ----------------------------- Magic and the Occult ----------------------------- => Magic and the Occult for Beginners => Witchcraft, Hoodoo, and Folk Magic => The Western Magical Tradition => Chaos Magic => Lodges and Other Magic Organizations => Miscellaneous Magical Discussions ----------------------------- Special Interest Groups & Special Discussions ----------------------------- => Special Topic Discussions => Chavi Memorial Chronic Illness SIG => General SIGS ===> College Pagans SIG ===> Cooking SIG ===> Divination SIG ===> Home and Garden SIG ===> Pagan Parents SIG ===> Teen Pagans SIG => Religious SIGS ===> Asatru and Heathenry SIG ===> Cauldron Cill ===> FlameKeeping SIG ===> Hazel and Oak: A Celtic Polytheism SIG ===> Neo-Druidry SIG ===> Reformed Kemeticism SIG ===> Ta Hiera Hellenic Polytheism SIG => Book/Media Discussion Boards ===> Academic Book Discussions ===> Pagan Religion Book Discussions ===> Magick Book Discussions ===> Fiction Book Discussions ===> DVD/Video Discussions ----------------------------- Life, the Universe, and Everything Else ----------------------------- => Pagan Announcements => Prayer and Energy Requests => News and Politics ===> Religious News ===> Non-Religious News ===> Political Discussions => Social Discussion Boards ===> Art, Poetry and Writing ===> Books ===> Computers and the Internet ===> Crafts and Hobbies ===> Family Life ===> Gaming ===> Health and Medicine ===> Humor and Quizzes ===> Music, Television, and Film ===> Pets ===> Science and Technology ===> Sports and Recreation