
Hacker Monthly, a printed magazine version of Hacker News. - bearwithclaws
http://hackermonthly.com/
======
swombat
Monthly is _way_ too slow for something as fast moving as geek news. (and this
site is called "Hacker _News_ ", even though some articles certainly are
timeless)

I'd make that a weekly, published on Friday morning.

I suspect that the print aspect might be nice locally but disseminating a
weekly publication worldwide will offset the niceness of print. The
iPad/Kindle wave is coming - ride it, don't avoid it. Time to pivot.

There's an obvious question about comments... perhaps you can take the best
comments from each post and ask the author for the right to republish - or
even just republish and hopefully/probably nobody will sue you, or even ask pg
to change the terms&conditions to grant an irrevocable license to HN to use
the comments as you see fit, followed by an authorisation by HN for you to use
the comments as you see fit.

Apart from that, there's also the question of how you'll select the articles.
Presumably votes aren't enough by themselves, if you want to publish content
that's "timeless" you'll have to do some selection. What kind of stuff will
end up there? Erlang articles? Start-up wisdom? Scalability tricks? It seems
to me that HN pumps out enough content on a weekly basis to produce at least a
handful of such themed collections... not sure what the solution is there, but
worth thinking about.

~~~
adrianwaj
I have domain hackerbrain if want to buy it.

~~~
adrianwaj
Because of all the downvotes, I suspect people aren't getting what I'm saying:
if the author of Hackermonthly wants to run something more frequent as the
parent item suggests, he'll need a new name.

------
roc
Why even deal with the copyright issues when you can do an end-run instead?

Link. Summarize. Add insight.

Present the article link, summarize. Present the discussion link, summarize
the major points/concerns/counterpoints raised in the thread. Present any
relevant external posts about the subject.

Having the benefit of a month and the full breadth of the discussion and
potentially other posts around the web on the topic, you have an opportunity
to add truly valuable insight and analysis to the topic -- the sorts of things
that even fervent readers of HN might find value in.

When everything you publish is either a link or your own words, copyright
doesn't enter into it.

That said: I think dead-tree format, in and of itself, is your biggest
roadblock to success. It dramatically boosts your costs and headaches. It will
select out quite a bit of your possible readership. There are non-trivial
economic reasons why the dead-tree industry is struggling and it has little to
do with the content itself.

------
paulbaumgart
I really like this idea. It sounds hard to do well, and it probably won't end
up being a net gain in terms of free time for the curators, but I for one
would definitely be interested in subscribing.

I like reading on paper much better than in the browser, enough that I would
be able to hold off spending too much time reading the internet to avoid
spoiling the fun of reading in in the print edition. I already do that with a
few other magazines.

I'm a little torn about my HN reading habits- HN has been incredibly
educational for the ~1.5 years I've spent here, but it can very easily become
a huge time sink. Your proposal just might be the ideal compromise.

------
rdl
If you can take the productivity hit to do this, I would be interested. My
preferred format is kindle/iPad ebook of some kind, although PDF is fine too.
I would pay up to $20/mo, but $5 would be more fair. (I figure I'd save 5-10
hours a month, with only some loss of quality). It's like methadone for a
heroin addict.

I'd also appreciate a hackernews-to-rss which actually embedded the body of
the article AND the comments, which you could maybe do as a related service.
If it were properly paginated to work well on various mobile devices,
especially synced to work with no online connectivity during reading, it would
be great. iPhone, Android, iPad, Kindle would be great targets.

I think ignoring copyright is the way to go.

------
lovskogen
Go for it, don't listen to the negative people. Try it out and see what
happens.

~~~
j053003
^^^ Great advice for _anything_ entrepreneurial.

------
najirama
Someone please explain to me why bearwithclaws even has to _ASK_ permission to
reprint the comments. This is a forum of discussion - if I am sitting in a
city council meeting and someone whimsically writes on the provided chalkboard
"I want to speak next!" can they then sue me if I publish a book with the
title, "I want to speak next!"?

Sure, creative work recorded to some medium is protected by copyright -
however, transcribed discussion is not by the standard measure, "creative,"
(i.e. derived for some rational and/or aesthetic purpose, such that it has the
ability to be appreciated and admired on its _own_ merits, for its _own_
sake.)

I say publish the comments consequences be damned. If any commenter has issue
with their words being published hardcopy, they will have a hell of a time
trying to justify why they wrote them in a _public_ forum in the first place.

In any case, given the indignation that is ever-present here when a software
I.P. story gets posted, at least you will have outed the hypocrites among
us... ;)

~~~
jasonlotito
Writing something on a forum accessible to the public doesn't give away your
copyright.

First, "I want to speak next!" isn't copyrightable. Copyright is there to
protect things of value. "I want to speak next!" isn't anything of value. You
realize this yourself, so I wonder why you asked the question in the first
place.

However, you make the mistake of assuming "where" you publish your work is any
indication of value. Indeed, the really good comments are usually well
written, and do add value. You'd also be hard pressed to demonstrate that
comments are merely transcribed discussion. Comments are just the label we've
assigned to the posts we make here.

So each comment must be weighed on it's own merits. A comment can be valued,
can be "creative". Indeed, one could argue that the desire to include quality
comments in a publication could be indicative of it's quality.

Now, I see your point. Essentially, commenting is the 21st century version of
a discussion. Reporters are allowed to report what people said. What people
said can be reported. A discussion or commenting forum should be considered in
the same way. I don't think copyright works like that.

Is there anything out there where this has been tested?

Good post, btw. Got me thinking. =)

------
rms
Be careful about implying any connection to YC when you are not affiliated
with YC. That's a secret rule that can get your post killed. I'm not saying
you do here, just that you are coming close by using the phrase "Hacker News".
I myself see no problem with what you are doing; you just may want to ask PG
if you haven't already.

~~~
bearwithclaws
I have already exchanged a few email with PG.

~~~
pbiggar
Posts get killed by YC alumni, and PG doesn't resurrect them.

------
paraschopra
No offense, but your site color (orange background) hurt my eyes. You may want
to ask for additional feedback on background color from others too, but for
me, I couldn't stand it even for 10 seconds.

------
medianama
what about copyright?

~~~
bearwithclaws
I will email the original author of each articles to obtain the permission to
print.

~~~
duck
What about comments? Without them a lot is lost. Also, I know some authors
won't give you permission, and thus that means you won't be reproducing the
'best of' hacker news. No thanks.

~~~
bearwithclaws
That's probably the biggest problem. But I'd give it a shot and see how it
turns out.

~~~
pbiggar
On newstilt, we've written the terms of service so that we can publish
comments. We said that by posting you give the service permanent, non-
exclusive, transferable rights to edit, modify, distribute, etc, the content.

I would ask PG to change the TOS of hacker news, to allow you do this. I think
he'd like it, so he may be willing.

~~~
jamesbritt
And what effect might this have on the people willing to comment?

Comments add value to a site, making it attractive to advertisers. That's the
exchange. Asking contributors to also allow the site owner to re-use their
contributions for other purposes crosses a line for me.

~~~
pbiggar
We feel the exchange is that journalists serve their communities, and the
communities help them earn a living. Using the comments off site helps that
goal.

> And what effect might this have on the people willing to comment?

You incorrectly (to my mind) assume that this is a major problem for most
people. I think there won't be any effect. People don't read T&Cs, though we
make it explicit in them that we do this.

This isn't like Facebook changing their T&Cs. This is publicly posted
information, not private correspondence between friends. That would be very
different.

> Comments add value to a site, making it attractive to advertisers. That's
> the exchange.

That's not the exchange, just your perception of it.

------
systemtrigger
I think your subtitle, The Best of Hacker News, infringes on a trademark:
<http://ycombinator.com/legal.html>.

~~~
chaosmachine
Not sure that's a valid trademark, others have used it similarly for a long
time.

<http://www.whois.net/whois/hackernews.com>

Registered 1998.

------
chegra84
It's not really appealling to me.

More likely it's because I dont know the format, so what would be helpful is
maybe an example magazine?(yes we like free stuff)

I really dont want to read alot, so summaries are important as well as
categories. I personally, dont like news about Apple(iPad), IBM, microsoft
etc. But I like to hear what is new for founders, or an interesting blog post.
So, it might be good to separate it along some lines.

~~~
bearwithclaws
The PDF version of the magazine can be downloaded for free.

~~~
chegra84
Well I mean like before i gave a email or anything like that. Maybe a link
with a free example that can be browsed without any commitment.

~~~
araneae
Well maybe he will when the first issue comes out. But it's not out yet, so
what should he do, _not_ ask for an e-mail? :)

~~~
chegra84
Well, I'm just telling him what would make an easier buy-in for me. And I'm
pretty certain they are others out there like me. Personally, I like to hear
what would change someone's no to a yes, and this is the information I was
trying to convey.

------
reedlaw
When I clicked "submit" there was no noticeable feedback so I ended up
clicking 4 times and got 4 confirmation requests in my inbox.

------
araneae
I'm interested in this (the .pdf, anyway) simply to make sure I didn't miss
anything really good ^-^.

------
DrJokepu
The obvious question: what about non-US delivery? Can I get it mailed to the
UK?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Yes. I'm using MagCloud.com. They delivered to UK, US and Canada.

~~~
oliverkofoed
Darnit, no Denmark :(

I think it's a good idea, and i'd subscribe if my country was supported.

------
shalmanese
I think this is a great idea. Curation is an important service which I think
is often undervalued. The target audience for this is not people who read
hacker news but those who would _like_ to read hacker news but don't have the
time.

The opinions expressed in this thread are going to be biased towards the
negative because you're missing out on that important audience segment. I
would say probably your best marketing angle with this is to send out tons of
free copies to tech conferences to stuff into goodie bags. That's your exact
target audience of people.

Also, if this gets off the ground, a yearly, self-published Best of Hacker
News 20XX would also be something I think has a lot of appeal.

But, I think, the crucial thing that will make this a success is the taste of
the editor. Don't go by upvotes or mass popularity, otherwise, what's the
point of having a human in the process. Really unearth those undiscovered gems
and occasional moments of brilliance and never let the quality flag or you'll
be done.

------
helwr
i don't get it, are you going to print the original articles? many are coming
from wsj, nyt and other magazines, i don't think you can do it

------
rokhayakebe
One the idea- Who said print was dead? There are several niches and this is
one of them. There is nothing like a mug of coffee and a nice magazine/news
paper on a Sunday morning. Plus I would really love to see someone build a
profitable business out of HN.

On copyright issues- I do not know why anyone on HN would worry about someone
reprinting their comments. The minute you put them online is the minute you
said "redistribute". Someone would really need to be a hater to complain about
it.

On your experience- Nothing trumps the passion that drives a need to solve a
problem.

On the business model- It would be interesting to see the numbers.

------
roofone
I've signed up. I think this is a great, counter-intuitive idea with some
interesting digital/print mash-up possibilities -- like a Hacker Monthly forum
where people can comment on and discuss the Hacker News comments and
discussions it publishes.

The slick and weighty Bookmarks (<http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/>) magazine
may be worth looking at as it does something similar with book reviews:
gathering, compiling, summarizing, adding commentary, etc.

------
jqueryin
I cannot say I'm indulged by this news. I want my tech news down to the
minute, not a monthly overview. I'm doubtful that many HN users would care to
learn more about month old news. IMO this would not be a good representation
of the HN community. I believe your target audience is outside the scope of HN
(but still technical).

------
Keyframe
I'd rather see a diskmag than a paper mag (like Hugi or something) - since,
after all, it's called "Hacker News". Problem would be that most of the
content I see on HN is web related, which I have little to no interest.

------
gokhan
2.8em is way too big for any subscription form, in my opinion.

Subscribed out of curiosity, not because of a need since I love reading HN
daily.

------
nw
I am a wannabe luddite, but... if we all read HN offline, who will contribute?
It's a living breathing thing, y'all!

------
juvenn
Subscribed. But try your best to maintain a high ratio of signal:noise, we'll
appreciate your creative work then.

------
NathanKP
What is this 1K Hacker_Monthly.vcf file attached to the subscription
confirmation email? It looks suspicious.

~~~
psawaya
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard>

------
louislouis
Great idea. Now I can catchup on HN without being on here everyday. My
productivity is sure to rise.

------
senthilnayagam
PDF makes sense, maybe as a weekly to catchup after a vacation

will I ever buy it as print version, I doubt

------
sutro
Good idea. Ignore the naysayers.

------
systems
some comments on the site design

(1) make it smaller its ridiculously big, i understand that this style is hip
nowadays, buts its also ugly and patronizing

(2) add more white an grey, kinda like the original hacker news site, orange
is just one line on the top

------
seshagiric
Will it have pictures?

------
morbidkk
something on the lines of <http://pragprog.com/magazines> should be fine
instead of dead-tree magazine

------
yters
I'd be interested, save me getting sucked in when I visit.

------
mcantor
My eyes... the goggles, they do nothing!

------
mildweed
Picking up where 2600 left off.

------
swah
What about environment?

~~~
deno
What about? More wasted paper ≈ more planted trees. Wood (and thus paper) is
renewable resource or did I miss something? I guess you can worry about
transport costs but than perhaps it'd be better to optimise where it matters —
like bottled water.

~~~
antipaganda
Recycling paper takes a lot of energy and water use, not to mention harsh
chemical bleaching. Sorry to burst your "use paper, it's recyclable"
mentality. I was disappointed when someone burst mine, too.

~~~
deno
I didn't say _anything_ about recycling actually. I'm not really looking to
discuss this much further, just please do not put words into my mouth.

~~~
antipaganda
Apologies, I read you wrong. Renewable resource because it's trees, not
because you can recycle it. Eeek. Someone slap me.

------
zackattack
This is incredibly appealing to me because I would like to distribute it to
people who DON'T read hacker news, so they can get a feel for the hottest new
techniques & technologies, as well as a feel for the "pulse" of the elite
developer community

------
apphacker
So you want to me more productive at work and only use the internet for work
(according to the 'why' on that site) and you're going to achieve that goal by
taking the time to read all the news articles on Hacker News, write out
summaries or reprint the articles and then mail them? Uh.

~~~
bearwithclaws
Firstly, let me clarify. Aside from solving my own dilemma, this is also a
business venture, where I look to make money from advertising revenues and
such.

Second, once the revenue comes in, I will start delegating jobs to other
people, until the point where I don't do most of the work.

And you are right. I will probably have to do all the hard work for the first
few issues. But hopefully, ONLY for the first few issues.

~~~
IgorPartola
Just out of curiosity, have you published printed magazines before?

~~~
bearwithclaws
No.

~~~
wdewind
I'm not trying to be negative, but take a look at the publishing industry
right now. I think you've got to have a really good reason to swim against the
stream here, and I don't see it.

-1 more for being 100% unnecessarily wasteful, and I'm really not liking the idea.

~~~
wdewind
why the downvote :/

