Someone wiser than me once said, "never blog when you're drunk."  But this isn't a blog, so I'm exempt from that advice thank god.

I just wanted to put this out there now, while I'm too impaired to be concerned with how insecure and needy it makes me look. 

Scanning a magazine is hard work.  Because it isn't just scanning, it it?  First you've got to de-bind the mag.  Then comes scanning.  And after that, the most time intensive process of them all - editing.  Depending on the length of the mag, you're looking at a total of 3-6 hours of work, most likely.  And did I mention that the mag is destroyed and ultimately trashed in the process?  The magazine scanner gains absolutely nothing from the process of scanning - they only lose.  It's nothing but sacrifice - both of invaluable time and of the magazine itself, which is lost in the process of making a scan available to the rest of the Internet, free of charge.

Why then do we do it?  Good lord, if only we had a nickel for every time we asked that of ourselves...

The truth is, there is NO GOOD GOD DAMNED REASON. 

Except vanity.

The reason we scan is because it makes us feel good that someone out there appreciates our efforts.  If I uploaded a meticulously scanned and edited mag and no one downloaded it, you can be sure that I'd think twice before ever doing that again.  The more downloads our mags receive, the more we feel vindicated for having wasting hours upon hours of our time and destroyed part of our collection.

But downloads aren't enough.  A download without comment is just an anonymous leech.  There's no telling if that person appreciated the mag - they certainly didn't appreciate it enough to say so.  I don't expect or even hope for an actual written comment from everyone who downloads a mag I've scanned, but there is a conveniently placed "like this" button that only takes a second to click.  There is simply no excuse to NOT click that button when you download a mag, unless either you are unhappy with the scan's quality, or else you're an ungrateful leeching asshole.  Seriously, it's just a button.  CLICK IT.  Jesus christ...I "like" releases that I don't even download, just because I'm grateful to whoever scanned the mag for putting in the effort.

It seems like a small thing, but it isn't.  Maybe not everyone is as needy as me.  But I doubt it.  We've had scanners go so far as to thank themselves in their new release posts, simply because if they didn't, no one else would.  That just isn't right.

If you're frequenting this website, chances are you like downloading scans of old gaming mags.  If you'd like to KEEP doing so, the next time you download a mag, do yourself a favor:

There, was that so hard?