When geeks don't get it...

[gvdub]

There's a fairly stupid discussion over on Slashdot about the current straits of the SF magazines (go here if you want to read it). Now, as you should be able to guess from my presence here, on Facebook, MySpace, and multiple other sites, I'm pretty comfortable with the online world, and I do believe that it is, for better or worse, where many things are heading. But we're a long way yet from publications being able to exist solely on the web and pay writers, editors, etc. anything other than token sums. Ad-driven isn't going to do it (I don't know any web-savvy folks who don't use ad-blockers on their browsers and if it comes to a war between advertisers and coders who don't want to have ads get in their way on the web, my money's on the coders), so the suggestion made over there that sticking Google ads on your blog will make a not-yet-established writer rich doesn't quite hold water. Neither do many of the other "well, it's so obvious" suggestions that are made over there. It was surprising to me how few of the posters even seemed aware that Asimov's, Analog, and F&SF are all available as non-DRM files by subscription, and have been for most of a decade.

The little geek fantasyland that many Slashdot folks live in must be a lovely place. Too bad it doesn't really exist.