[Archive] Volunteer help for WoH (for what it's worth)

Admiral:

Staff, my only experiences in dabbling with homemade magazines of any kind was with a teaching program on an old Windows 95. Still, could I help out by writing wrap-ups and short presentation texts for all the news which have hit the CD world since issue #12?

There’s quite some Forgeworld and Russian Alternative stuff to cover, plus Titan Wargames, Bezhukk and a few more. Everything of this deserves a mention if it is legally possible.

I could perhaps send a few interview questions to Rozmax or the owner of RA (I’ve had nice correspondence with him before and came with a helpful suggestion for his Ebay side) if you want me to do so. Perhaps some quickies to Baggronor as well. I guess legal thumb rules would prevent any questions being answered by the CD sculptors at FW, or? It wouldn’t be bad to hear some of their thoughts when designing the LoA range.

It should be possible for me to occassionally get spare time during the coming months to help out with WoH editing/writing, but how about layout? Is there already a set framwork which a fool beginner can use? I would like to see this hobby fan magazine to go strong now that there’s been an upsurge in CD releases and players.

Please tell me if I can help out with anything.

Willmark:

Creating and designing Word of Hashut was fun, it was great to provide it to the community.

It was also a pain in the ass at the end.

The amount of effort to create it was immense. People don’t really know how much it took. I’m not saying this for a pat on the back but in order for it to work one person has to drive it and do the lion’s share of the work.

I enjoyed it but am unlikely to devote that amount of time again.

Darkmeer:

I am extremely slow, much like my painting, but I am willing to try to help here. I have the full Microsoft publisher suite (a boon of one of my big purchases for my computer and design purchases and a discount through my wife’s employer). I also have an older version of photoshop (also a boon, mwahahahah!) that could be used to wedge in and edit some photos, but I’m not terribly strong there, so edited photos/images would be greatly appreciated. I haven’t figured out background work, yet, but I am working on it.

Admiral:

Darkmeer, this is music to my ears if you’d be willing to give it a shot! If only for a single issue, to see what it is like. I couldn’t even get the hang of Scribus, and then I only needed a few specific areas to master (background, flowing text columns, inserting pictures, page numbers and something for the front page that I can’t remember off the bat). If I had learnt that, we’d have had a finished issue or two long ago, shoddy though it might be compared to Willmark’s stellar work.

I have a lot of material collected from various members, and a lot of quick write-ups and ideas ready-stored in my head to summarize the years of Chaos Dwarfs since last Word of Hashut. So it’s all planned out or finished, ready for copy-paste.

Please tell if you’d be willing to try this. I’ll gladly supply the material, courtesy of very many different members. Also we have background for pages from Thommy H if I remember correctly, also on my computer.

I’d advise going by a simple standard template for ease of production.

Darkmeer:

That I can do. Template work is easy. Two column format I’ve done for D&D campaigns I’ve run. I copy paste from PDF’s I purchase and I print them for my campaign table, simply so my players don’t have to invest like I do (I play Pathfinder, and I don’t allow every darn book).

I can do a two column format fairly easily. Covers are a bit of a pain, but if the image file is large enough, it should work fairly well. If it’s just copy & paste that should make my job easier. Minimal editing also helps, although some formatting issues do occur with the copy and pasting into Publisher I’ve found.

Carcearion:

I’d be willing to help fill the gap for photo editing.

I’m fairly graphic savvy my self and have been fiddling around in the field for years, I even do a smig of it onccasionaly for work or on commision. What I don’t know I could pester my wife for who is an actual  professional graphic design artist

I also have an old version of photoshop, but I have other software I prefer.

Malorndk:

I spend all day browsing old threads trying to get Word of Hashut back on track. Some simple thoughts from all that reading.

The Boss

Do do an E-zine, you need one tech savy person, with a lot of time on their hand and a lot of drive! So many people have underestimated the workload or to put bluntly: Out of all our talented, dedicated players, only Willmark in his CDO prime managed to reliably be this guy. We do not need someone who can do a bit of this and that. We need a Willmarkesque power house of a dedicated project manager. Collaboration is good and all, but after 5 hours fiddling with a margin that just won’t do what you want it to, no collaboration will save the project only extremely, frustrating, tech heavy, grunt work. Another old reflection from Willmark: This is workweeks worth of hours with very little reward. Surely the community loves the final product, but community love will not be worth the sacrifice required to project manage an E-zine.

The Timeline of CDO

Looking through this forums timeline it is clear that CDO has existed in different realities, closely bound to decisions made by Games-Workshop.

The old age (2007-2012): The forum focussed on the spreading the word of the forgotten race, focusing on the members converting entire armies out of suitable miniature and especially BFSP starter set. We grasped for mentionings in the GW fluff. We made our own art, army books, fluff and rules. The creativity at the time was a prerequisite to being an active member, unless you happened to buy a big hat army. Word of Hashut thrived in these days due to the grassroot nature of CDO. Spreading our lore, conversions, fluff and rules drew in new members that wanted to build their own armies.

Tamurkhan times (2012-late 2015): We got minis. We got rules. We got fluff. This was all dandy and good, and it sparked a lot of rivaling companies to sell Dawi Zharr minis, which we all profitted from. But it also took away some ingenuity and creativity. We still had great armyblogs, content creators, contest and rule writters, but it felt different, as we had a unified fundation that was now Tamurkhan, instead of a mixture between White Dwarf presents: Chaos Dwarfs, Ravening Hordes and old marauder fluff. We still flourished, but the need of Word of Hashut wasn’t as big, since Tamurkhans released forced CDs into most players consciousness all over the world.

After End Times: With WFB closed by GW, the community all over the world shattered into different gamesystems. CDO still provides a common ground to discuss “evil dwarfs in fantasy wargames” but we do not have a shared fundament quite as strong as previous. Old members are mostly silent and it feels like newer members are doing their own thing, but still sharing and caring. The community is still one of the best online, even though the forum and ESPECIALLY the main page has screamed for updates for years. The current code used for the forum predates the smartphones. Word of Hashut could help bind the community together and we surely has a lot to cover in terms of available miniatures, game systems and fluff.

Conclusion: The time is ripe for an E-zine, and lots of content is right in front of us. But the required know how to make an E-zine would probably be better put to used into securing CDO a place in the future. I’m not advocating change for the sake of change, but we need to solve the login problem, think about smartphone compatibility and figure out how to make this olden and golden forum competitive with the fast paced social media age. I can see many pros myself, but we need a steady flow of new members to secure longevity, and login troubles and ancient main site is a hard buy in. I’m not saying one thing stops the other. Word of Hashut can be made while stuff is getting done on the site, but both are big tasks that requires specific tech skills. If someone has the tools to make WoH a reality, but wouldn’t know the first thing about phb, then I’m all for.

The Contributions

Every former WoH organizer has said somewhat the same line about: People are all telling me they want to contribute, but very little actually shows up on time, or even at all, after multiple deadlines. People overestimates their productivity, and I can only cover about 10 pages myself but we need 20 more of varied and relevant content, centered about our love for Chaos Dwarfs.

Another thing is the type of content required. While I’m sure Admiral could cover some great fluff and even a sculpting tutorial, and we probably could get some artwork out of Forgefire and (fingers crossed) Baggronnor, we would still need so much more. Game system analysis, battlereports, terrain showcase, news and rumours, bloodbowl bits and so forth.

I know I’m repeating myself by now, so to summarize: I will not stop anyone trying, but so many have tried before you, and I expect the next WoH will require a dedicated member with all the necessary skills, to chestpump publicly on the forum, take responsibility, set a deadline and then work his ass off for weeks on end. Not impossible, but surely a lot to expect from anyone.

Darkmeer:

I can definitely get formatting done. Once stuff gets to me, I can get it into place and in a relevant location to prevent wasted space. I was a fine Arts major, so I pay attention to such things, so even stealing the random picture of Chaos Dwarf armies/Miniatures (with credit to the painter, sculptor, and company of course!) as filler would also be helpful. That part is easy to do once someone turns something in to me. If the images come in with transparent backgrounds (those that are intended as such), I can easily integrate that into the text and backgrounds of the publisher document.

Are there struggles with the program that I’m working with? Absolutely, just like every program… Am I slow? yes. If the other parts can come in and I have time to fiddle, I can make it work with reasonable expectations. I prepared about 15 pages in publisher over the span of 2 weekends (roughly 8 hours time total), doing it all manually and importing some non-OGL work (stuff I don’t want to get in trouble for, I simply printed it for my D&D group, I do not want to disseminate to the web for LOTS of legal reasons).

If I really buckled down with a deadline and a set format, I could definitely get things pushed out faster. It’s a matter of volume, and we have to pace ourselves. 8000 word caps on things (with SOME flex). Think like a publisher in those ways.

As to images, anything in .jpeg or .png would work for publisher. I’ve used both of those and .gif even (once), but I haven’t used .tga yet (supposedly compatible).

Malorndk:

My above post pointing out things needing to be fixed is by no means critique of our staff by the way. The Old Guard has been exemplary in handing over responsibility for running the community and site, when they felt their own motivation getting reduced over time. Many of the original staff even still has a presence although not daily or even weekly. The newer staff like Admiral and Bloodbeard has been great at keeping the community moving, but they do not have the time/tech/authority/knowledge to make the fundamental changes to the main page which will be required at some point, but isn’t too big of a catastrophe yet :wink:

So to iterate: I am not displeased with the staff, former or present, but we do have some challenges ahead of us, all of which we have discussed before, but still not acted upon in lack of satisfactory solutions. (Like preserving threads, medals and slaves)

Carcearion:

I think Malorndk really has laid down the reality, however many people who can be gathered to contribute to a new WoH the pivotal piece that’s missing is someone to lead the project, willing and capable of acting as a stop gap if (when) something falls through in any given aspect of the project.

Another point he made I strongly agree with is that �?oThe time is ripe for an ezine�?�, I think the current spread of game systems is actually a huge boon to a new WoH, we could have dedicated sections for Kings of War, The 9th Age, and Age of Sigmar. Even toss the net around to other games that people are bringing Dawi Zharr to like Frostgrave, or the myriad other skirmish games popping out of the wood work. This also lets us reach out to the KoW, T9A, and AoS communities as well.

Also the well spring of companies that are making evil dwarf miniatures are off the chart, it seems like almost every burgeoning miniatures company has a chaos dwarf or two, theirs allot going on in this department and I doubt it will slow up, people seem to have figured out Chaos Dwarves sell, and their big competitive presence in Kings of War and The 9th Age are going to keep fueling that for a long time to come (I keep expecting Avatars of War to wow us with something ever since they made Armageddon Dwarves / Infernal Dwarves a whole section on their site). Another thing is GW inst shying away from walking into Forge World’s territory anymore, they are making Custodus forces for regular 40k, they are busting out Primarchs, bring out some new incarnation of the Dawi Zharr for Age of Sigmar would not be the craziest thing they have done.

But even just cobbling things together, passing around bits and pieces through various contributors as they come, moving along at whatever pace we could, ultimately (once again like Malorndk said) we need someone with considerable time, determination, and a wide skill set (or will to acquire a wide skill set) to definitively stand up and say �?oI Will Organize and Take Responsibility for This Huge Project!�?�

Sjoerdo:

I would love articles on how to use CD’s in Age of Sigmar and the other game systems (king of wars?). perhaps a comparison of the system, what model types are relevant etc.

Myself I can provide articles on sculpting if needed.

Jackswift:

I can provide some content of varied variety depending on what you need. The below are a few suggestions based on what I have seen helps to get things done. This is my 2 cents so take it with the appropriate seasoning, but seems to work better in my experience. Getting volunteers for content requires a few things:

1. Very Specific Content Requests (Whether Battle Reports, Tutorials, photos, banners, get as close as you can to exactly the type of content you need, and then get volunteers for each category assigned). The specific detail is so that everyone knows exactly what it is that they are expected to do. If you just say hey, we need content, you might get a few general responses, and some might deliver, but others will not really have an idea what they are providing, and therefore lack the push to finish some such undefined thing. Versus for many/most of us, if we say we will get something specific done, then we will. And choosing what to get done is much better when there is a ‘specific’ need, as opposed to a general, ‘hey give me some content…’ or even hey ‘I need articles…’ The request for content needs to be, I need 2 Battle Reports (2000 words or less with photos), 1 painting tutorial, 1 terrain showcase (5-8 photos), 2 army showcases 98-10 photos each), 1 opinion article, 1 article about CDs in Age of Sigmar, 1 article about using CDs in KoW, 2 stories (1000 words or less), 1 photo of Admiral in an Admiral uniform in the bathtub playing live action Man O’ War with his tiny CD ships… etc. Then ask for people to assign themselves to something on the list and put their name down for it.

2. Ask for more content then you need, and let everyone know that if their stuff doesn’t make it in the first WoH, it will follow in a second one, or another format (if WoH cannot continue we can always blog created content onto the site).

2. Set a very specific hard deadline. Feel free to flex it or provide flex time on your end, but don’t tell anyone else that. If people need extra time due to vacation, homework eating dogs, flooded basements, etc. they can let you know up front, or as the calamity occurs.

3. Ask for updates from your content providers. If it works you could even ask for Drafts by a specific pre-deadline date. That added step would let you know where you might have content providers who are having time issues with real life (as we all know it tends to interfere when least expected), and may not be able to meet your deadline or may be late.

Alternately, if an eZine just is not feasible perhaps turn WoH into a front facing, fully edited/formatted, weekly, bi-weekly, or whatever works, all things CD blog with regular article releases across a variety of topics, and multiple contributors. Just a thought however sane or lacking in sanity.



Hope this is useful. Cheers,

JR

Willmark:

The Boss
Do do an E-zine, you need one tech savy person, with a lot of time on their hand and a lot of drive! So many people have underestimated the workload or to put bluntly: Out of all our talented, dedicated players, only Willmark in his CDO prime managed to reliably be this guy. We do not need someone who can do a bit of this and that. We need a Willmarkesque power house of a dedicated project manager. Collaboration is good and all, but after 5 hours fiddling with a margin that just won't do what you want it to, no collaboration will save the project only extremely, frustrating, tech heavy, grunt work. Another old reflection from Willmark: This is workweeks worth of hours with very little reward. Surely the community loves the final product, but community love will not be worth the sacrifice required to project manage an E-zine.

Malorndk
Tommy H was the one who really put it in perspective. http://chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9602&pid=166130#pid166130

At that point in my life I had very little time actually and I spent every waking moment that was a spare bit, working on WoH. I did it because it was fun, when it became a chore I stopped. I was working two jobs at that point (about 60 hours a week) so I dont buy if someone "doesn't have time to do "X" (not saying you Malorndk).
Every former WoH organizer has said somewhat the same line about: People are all telling me they want to contribute, but very little actually shows up on time, or even at all, after multiple deadlines.

Malorndk
Many people were rock solid contributors, some... not so much. but you have the right of it. If I had a $ for every "I couldn't get around to it..." yeah...
People overestimates their productivity.

Malorndk
Truer words have never been spoken.

For my own part I could probably help with the cover based on the theme. I say probably because I have doubts it makes it to the actual issue stage. I don't say this to be mean, but because I understand the grind: over a three year period I turned out one each quarter.

So with all this said if someone wants to drive this I'll be the first to applaud, but don't fault me for my skepticism.
After End Times: With WFB closed by GW, the community all over the world shattered into different gamesystems. CDO still provides a common ground to discuss "evil dwarfs in fantasy wargames" but we do not have a shared fundament quite as strong as previous. Old members are mostly silent and it feels like newer members are doing their own thing, but still sharing and caring. The community is still one of the best online, even though the forum and ESPECIALLY the main page has screamed for updates for years. The current code used for the forum predates the smartphones. Word of Hashut could help bind the community together and we surely has a lot to cover in terms of available miniatures, game systems and fluff.


Malorndk
Point of order.

Updating the site or the main page is not as simple as it sounds. Xander added a fair amount of custom code to the MyBB. It would take quite a bit to update it without breaking it.

Zanthrax:

I am happy to a step by step guide in how to convert bull centaurs to infantry using the lower body / legs of the big hat plastics if that’s interesting

Admiral:

How about not going by deadlines or aims to release an E-zine regularly, but rather releasing whenever enough content have been gathered, and edited together? And asking on the forum for certain content (rules, tacticas of whichever game system, background, hobby tutorials or even illustrations) as it becomes clear what might be lacking as the gathered content pile up. The editorial programs are not as user-friendly and sleek as one could hope for, so it is not swift work formatting everything together even when running by a simple standard template (and that’s assuming one can get the hang of it in the first place!). And it also avoids work of asking people for promised contributions. I do not remember out of hand if all promises I got were fulfilled and I certainly never reminded anyone, but it hardly mattered since sufficient content did show up thanks to member’s enthusiasm and executed ideas. :slight_smile:

I propose the above relaxed way because I do not believe in enslaving anyone, lest of all oneself, under a strict timetable for such a community service. I would never wish for anyone to take on this as a second job. That it gets done in a neat-looking package at all should be sufficient for everyone given the efforts involved. I’m still amazed Willmark pulled through for years with such a professional on-time handling of the magazine, which is of course ideal, but maybe not feasible going forward unless the editor do happen to be on fire.

For the very first issue we’ve already got collected content, and a doable way of summarizing the world of Chaos Dwarfs between last WoH and now to act as a bridge of continuity in the longer run. It’s a lot! Much of this, such as company spotlights and interviews, might spill over into a second issue if it gets done, but wouldn’t claim more than half of the second issue so it’s open for lots of new content already here. For future issues, if the editor do wish to go on, the sky is the limit.

If anyone wishes to contribute with an article right away so to speak, then be our guest! Maybe it won’t show up in the first issue, and maybe no more issues will get done, or at least not done for a long while, but in that case you’ll just get a message or judge for yourself that you can as well post the tutorial, tactica, tournament report or whatever on the forum instead.

If anything is lacking in the content collected for the first new issue, it might be a pinch of rules or such other gamey stuff. If someone would be interested in producing a tactica, rules look on evil Dwarfs, homebrew rules or suchlike for whichever game system features Chaos Dwarf equivalent, it would be welcomed with open arms. Particularly if it’s short, because then it’ll be easier to fit given the loads of content that would be squeezed into the first new WoH.

Willmark:

Have forgefire send me the link for the hi rez version of that. I’ll see if I’ve got the template for the front page. I’m sure I do. He’ll know what I mean.

Two things:

1) do I get to keep my Chairman Emmeritus of The Word of Hashut Title??? :slight_smile:

2) not sure about NO deadline, that becomes rudderless. Perhaps rather than four times a year go twice a year or keep in x number of pages or less.

Willmark:

I will (begrudgingly) admit… you have peaked my interest in this… damn you!

Admiral:

No one would ever challenge the Dark Lord for his throne if he wishes to sit upon it. :hat off

PM:ed Forgefire. One could perhaps have a rough deadline. Half a year sounds reasonable, with the possibility that it could get released earlier than that by several months if all content is gathered and edited somewhat quickly.

Of course, the most important thing is to not let this become an enslaving chore. If driving persons have had enough, then WoH can go back to fallow state again, until the torch is eventually picked up anew.

One thing I had inteded to ape before I failed with Scribus, was Thommy H’s simple but effective template for the pages with identical background for all pages. If you do have various templates ready to hand and it’s easy to implement where you wish, then sure go ahead, but I’d rather have a magazine to read which didn’t tax its creator/s too heavily, than a very snazzy one.

Will be away over easter, but will scoop up collected content by then (including a terrain tutorial) and start writing short text and collecting quick summaries of everything from contests, new GW/FW releases, a little on new game systems with evil Dwarfs and much more on minor companies with their new evil dwarf ranges (complete with a bunch of interviews and even some nice Russian Alternative concept art). And taking a quick look with a few choice pictures at some of the very best produced by members on this site since last WoH: Ravenswood, Fuggit Khan, Scar’s Chaos Dwarfs, The_Penguin, Skink, Pappa Midnight, Slavemaster Hod… The list goes on, and for future issues, if they get done, we could go much further and arrange in-depth looks at someone’s creations and maybe an interview if it could be arranged. We could have a brief glance at MadHatter’s Khaozalid dictionary or maybe a Scribe’s Contest Gold Winner, (the one which kickstarted the Chaos Dwarf culture writings over the last years), but only if space allow.

One intention with the bridge issue would be to give a brief but flashy taste of much of the good stuff that has happened on CDO since last WoH, which should be welcomed by new and old alike. Particularly for those who haven’t followed the site closely for some years, giving pointers to gems to look up on the site. After the bridge, it’s open field again, and naturally then I won’t make such a forced involvement as for the bridge issue, though could contribute with ordinary articles.

cornixt:

The magazine could be nothing more than edits of forum posts and it would still be worth a read to a lot of people.

Carcearion:

You have my axe

:cheers