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| One
year ago I was thinking of transforming the VI Website into some sort of
magazine format. Nothing fancy. You know; a couple of tech articles, a
bike story or two, maybe a report from an Indian event or a day out on
the Indian, something like that. I've always wanted to play magazine man
and help raise the standard of motorcycle writing. The big idea was of
course to combine this with getting as many DIY projects as possible going
and getting as much info on new Indian parts as posible together in one
place.
During the last year the VI Mag has taken on a life of its own, and frankly it has taken over my life to the extent of seriously hurting other aspects of it. It has grown into more than a full time job, and I have had to borrow quite a lot of money to live, since there wasn't time for paying work. My own Indian projects haven't made a whole lot of progress either, and my social life is handled by email these days. Has it been worth it? What do you think? Of course it has! From the humble start a year ago, the VI Magazine has grown into one of the premier souces of Indian info worldwide. We have gotten the attention of a big portion of the parts manufacturers and dealers, we are really getting somewhere with the Warpath project and other new parts, we are getting a whole lot of great writing broadcast and we are building a worldwide community of Indian enthusiasts through the VI Mailing List. I feel privileged to be part of this, and I haven't been complaining (much!) about the price of success. I'm still not going to do that, but realistically some things will have to change in 2001 if there's still to be a VI Magazine. There will be a short break in the publishing schedule while I reorganize parts of the magazine to be easier to manage, and get some helpers started on doing parts of the production work. More about this soon on the List. We also need to step up the Support department, and I have some ideas for initiatives to cover the magazine expenses. I'll write the List soon about this too. There has been a few volunteers already (and several of the veteran VI writers are already doing a great job helping other writers getting started), but we need more people still. If you want to be part of the VI Magazine Team, drop me a note at moen@get2net.dk, and we'll find you a job. On a personal level I have to get a website for my own little business done, and the only way to find time for that is to postpone the next VI a bit. If all goes well, a new version of the VI Magazine should be on the air in February or March, and we'll take it from there. In any case I am sure 2001 will take us way beyond where we are now, if we all work together. We have several parts manufacturers in line for Dealer Pages, we have a bunch of projects going on, our network on the Mailing List is constantly shrinking the world and there is an incredible amount of Indian stuff going on everywhere. I can't wait to look back from the End of Year Two. Happy New Year everybody and Happy Birthday Indian! |
Your humble VI editor, or coordinator or whatever; executive janitor?
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