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IF CREATORS WANTED: sub-Q Magazine seeks authors, developers

2

Comments

  • Claretta wrote: »
    That seems like an odd question unless you yourself are under 18.

    By your reasoning, no adult in the world would worry about sweat shops in asia, or about child abuse, because they are not children themselves.
  • Well, legally children can't enter into a contract without their parents consent.

    As Claretta points out, the terms and conditions and the contract that the magazine is using are standard publishing industry ones, absolutely nothing untoward there.
  • edited June 2015
    Rafe wrote: »
    Claretta wrote: »
    That seems like an odd question unless you yourself are under 18.

    By your reasoning, no adult in the world would worry about sweat shops in asia, or about child abuse, because they are not children themselves.

    Those are broad issues that apply to every single transaction on the internet. They are no more relevant to this mag than they are to the other tens of thousands of paid content sites online. Given this broadness, my comment is along the lines of "Why bring them up here?"
  • Rafe wrote: »
    Claretta wrote: »
    That seems like an odd question unless you yourself are under 18.

    By your reasoning, no adult in the world would worry about sweat shops in asia, or about child abuse, because they are not children themselves.

    Well that escalated quickly.

    If you don't feel comfortable submitting your stuff to these guys, then don't. No need to get dramatic.
  • Well, legally children can't enter into a contract without their parents consent.

    Question is: How will this magazine make sure they do not suceed when they try it? Asserting than not even one child in the world will try is nonsense.
    Claretta wrote: »
    "Why bring them up here?"

    My question about children is as important as the copyright one. These are ethical issues we should know before we make a deal with a bussiness
    guinevak wrote: »
    If you don't feel comfortable submitting your stuff to these guys, then don't. No need to get dramatic.

    This looks more and more like sockpuppeting as time goes by. I can't understand unrelated people would be defending an online bussiness to death from being asked normal questions.

    Just so everyone can understand me, these are questions everyone should ask before making a deal with anyone else. Else, you get cheated more than once in your life.

    To feel confortable selling my work, I have to ask these things. There is no way anyone should feel confortable if they are not asking enything.

  • edited June 2015
    The problem you pose will never exist.

    I hardly think 8 year olds will be writing horror interactive fiction. And if they do, it will be ridiculously easy to spot and not be published due to the inordinate grammar errors that are in any child's writing.

    If you think writing is akin to sweatshop labour, then... you have been reading really crappy books. ;)
  • edited June 2015
    Writing is not akin to child labor. Buying directly from children is.

    If you will mock an idea, make sure your argument stands against a single sentence.
  • Well, I can't speak for the rest of the sockpuppet collective, but personally I can't understand why one person would think "BUT ARE YOU GOING TO EXPLOIT CHILDREN?!??" was a normal question to ask of a niche e-zine.

    Seriously, dude. Have all the concerns you want, but try and respect the fact that there are rational adults who don't feel the need to sweat these things.
  • Well, they don't I do. The fact that someone does not feel the need to ask thse things does not mean I should not either.

    Some may feel comfortable selling to anyone, no questions asked. Some may not. Does it means you should silence those who would not?
  • Rafe wrote: »
    Writing is not akin to child labor. Buying directly from children is.

    Hi, I sold a story in seventh grade. It went pretty straightforwardly, my parents got a thing to review and sign and that was it. I was super excited, and I still get royalties every once in a blue moon. It was not a sweatshop experience.

    Any publication that was going to pull the kind of nefarious schemes you seem to be expecting would a) get shut down pretty fast because, you know, many places have laws; b) certainly not admit it on a public forum just because you demanded to know, c) probably use something a liiiiittle less obscure than interactive fiction to lure in their helpless kiddie dupes.
  • edited June 2015
    I object to the accusation of sock pupeting, my account name is my business name, a quick google search will show you that Gethsemane Games is in no way related to this magazine.

    I have tried to politely answer your questions because I happen to know the answers that I gave you, having seen and dealt with these kinds of contracts for some considerable time. In fact, as I pointed out, the answer to your first question was in the text of one of their earlier posts.
    As Claretta pointed out, the contract and conditions are an industry standard.

    A healthy degree of caution is not only understandable but sensible, but there is nothing out of the ordinary in sub-Q Magazine's terms or contract here.
  • Rafe wrote: »
    Well, they don't I do. The fact that someone does not feel the need to ask thse things does not mean I should not either.

    Some may feel comfortable selling to anyone, no questions asked. Some may not. Does it means you should silence those who would not?

    Nobody's silencing you. Several people are expressing their opinion that you are overreacting. Which is also our right.
  • Ask a question to a bussinessman.

    Spend over an hour explaining yourself to an angry mob.


    Is this for real?
  • No.

    What is real is that you posed several weirdly specific, vaguely accusatory questions in response to a public advertisement, and then spent over an hour getting defensive at each and every one of the three or four people who raised eyebrows at you.

    Seriously, I didn't even get issued a pitchfork for this.
  • edited June 2015
    The reason for the "reactions" is that you are asking questions that if you do not get an answer to that you like, you will probably start throwing around theories.

    For example, on the first page, you told people to not do business with this magazine simply because they took more than a few days to answer your forum post. I fear to imagine what you will say if you do not like the answer given about children. You have already made insinuations that other people do not care about child labor issues.

    The answer to your question, being an industry standard, is this: No one asks for ID of their authors. They ask for a signature on a contract which protects them. They also judge work by quality standards. Children do not get stories accepted generally because of the errors in their work.

    That's all. To ask for magazines to check passports or drivers licenses is a ridiculous level of scrutiny that many actual writers would have a serious problem with on privacy grounds.
  • We aren't an angry mob, we set out to try and answer your questions for you, since we know the answers. For some reason you seem to have become offended by this and accused people of various things for trying to answer your questions.

    You have made some very serious allegations about sub-Q magazine, and seemingly without any grounds.
  • I'm not offended. I have become annoyed at people questioning me for asking questions.

    I know, this is a sensible topic, but this is why I must ask vs staying silent. I just need the answer to come from ate your lembas, since none of you are related to the magazine. Your answers can be true, but they do not tie the magazine to anything, since you do not represent it.
  • You know you could always contact them privately?
  • edited June 2015
    I see. So it was a "keep it to yourself" issue after all.
  • hmmm. People exploting children by getting them to write interactive stories for a profit? Never would have thought of that.

    I have lived in a few countries where there is real child labor, and where one has to face the harsh reality that there aren't always straightforward answers/solutions that take into account everyone's needs (including the economic needs of the family the child belongs to).

    Having said that, with this particular issue it does seem a bit extreme to bring up child labor concerns here. Should they also be screening for potential terrorists using interactive fiction as a means to fund their operations? Who knows what other potential problems could come from paying a bunch of authors for some interactive fiction.

    Seriously, it just seems out of place in this context.
  • That is not what Guinevak said at all.

    You said you weren't interested in hearing the questions answered by anyone but the OP, he pointed out that in that case you could have asked the OP privately and you wouldn't have gotten answers from anyone else.

  • edited June 2015
    Seriously, it just seems out of place in this context.

    It does when you distort an argument so much it becomes a completely different thing. I have been mocked many times at different forums. None of them at this level, by so many "different" people defending to death a bussiness unrelated to them all. And claiming their answers about a certain business policy are as valid as one that comes from a representative of it.
  • @AteYourLembas, thanks again for announcing sub-Q here in the forums. Again, that was thoughtful of you.

    I hope some of the people who you've reached and with whom you've had discourse submit works fit for publication. :-)

    Don't feel the need to answer every question here, even though you kindly offered to do so. You linked to your site, where questions are better directed. I see you even have a highly-convenient questions submission form.

    I look forward to seeing the fruits of this endeavor! :-)
  • Thanks @sharpe, but I'm in this forum, and would rather stay here, since that other site does not have a forum.

    I understand this is derrailing, but I still need an aswer to my original question.
  • Rafe wrote: »
    I understand this is derrailing, but I still need an aswer to my original question.

    If you mean the one about copyright, as I pointed out the rights the magazine are buying and are not buying are quite clearly laid out in their post form May. As for you needing to hear that form them, well it was them that posted that in the first place, I just drew your attention to where they had put the answer. That is not "Defending them to the Death" as you repeatedly have said, it was a case of me politely pointing you at where your question had already been answered.

  • Rafe wrote: »
    Seriously, it just seems out of place in this context.

    It does when you distort an argument so much it becomes a completely different thing. I have been mocked many times at different forums. None of them at this level, by so many "different" people defending to death a bussiness unrelated to them all. And claiming their answers about a certain business policy are as valid as one that comes from a representative of it.

    Sorry. It wasn't my intention to mock you personally in any way. I only wanted to say that perhaps your concern about child labor, within the field of interactive fiction, seems (from my uninformed perspective) a bit out of place.

  • This became about child labor because my question was distorted and mixed with an example I gave later.

    This is an interpretation problem.
  • Rafe wrote: »
    This became about child labor because my question was distorted and mixed with an example I gave later.

    This is an interpretation problem.

    fair enough.

  • Good question, @Rafe, and one I admit I hadn't considered. I will work on posting contract templates to sub-Q's website, like Lightspeed magazine does.

    - From the language of the contracts, the signing author warrants they are legally able to enter into an agreement.

    - Any contract made with a minor is definitively invalid.

    - sub-Q would not knowingly attempt to contract with a minor without parent/guardian cosignature.

    Hope this helps.
  • Also! This is a bit of a sidebar, but for what it's worth, sub-Q is a magazine for all speculative fiction: fantasy, science fiction, horror, weird tale, magic realism, mash-up, anything. We're looking especially for horror in anticipation of October, but all speculative fiction welcome.
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