Jump to content

Why do you guys scan mags?


RETROMAG

Recommended Posts

On 4/29/2018 at 5:54 PM, kitsunebi77 said:

As someone who has scanned magazines, I feel I am qualified to answer this with sober honesty.

The reason someone decides to scan magazines is probably analogous to the reasons someone decides to write fanfiction.  It starts because they have a passion for a particular subject, like the love lives of the crew of the Starship Enterprise (or in our case, games, or more specifically, game magazines) and they want to contribute something to the fandom of that subject.  Secretly they hope that their efforts will be applauded, but just like fanfiction, their efforts go mostly unappreciated, unless it's a really good Kirk/Spock slashfic or a scan of one of those mags everyone on Earth owned when they were 12, like Nintendo Power.

Also, much like fanfiction, regardless of whether their efforts are appreciated or not, and no matter how esteemed a reputation they might manage to build for themselves amongst the online fandom they're a part of, it will always be their secret shame, one they will almost definitely keep hidden from their flesh-and-blood acquaintances.  Because no matter how you look at it, spending countless hours slaving away at a scanner/computer just to create a copy of something you already own (and ironically, destroying it in the process), is a complete waste of time at best, and an indefensible act of insanity at worst.

Water cooler chat:

"So how was everyone's weekend?"

"Awesome.  Went out drinking with my friends."

"Took in a play with the wife."

"Went fishing and camping with the kids down by the lake."

"I hit it off with this girl at the club."

"....And what about you, Bob?"

"Ah, you know.  Sat around all day Photoshopping pages of GamePro.  Same as last weekend."

Wow, isn't that depressing people still have to socially conform to society in any form or manner when you are not harming anyone but involved in a hobby. Used to be in museums that was a respected profession, a curator, and art is a form of museum display piece. Not as archeologically as significant, because centuries old will dictate the significance of an item along with obscurity value but art is inherently meant to have no function. But Magazines are more than that, they form a catalogue and snapshot of the culture, time piece and mindset of a particular time, is more functional and yet aesthetically put together to resemble art in some forms. Video games are thought to be art by some.

Scanning magazines is like doubling as reading and digital archiving /manipulation, like a curator would some pieces.

Maybe the person is a homebody, and finds enjoyment flipping through old magazines as you would through new magazines. And scanning them is a productive way to flip though the magazine. Far from getting drunk and wasting a few hundred dollars to fit in with societal pressure, drinking in moderation is good but there are more "loser-ish" ways to spend a weekend I suppose. Personally I have not been a scanner but the picture you put of yourself is so inaccurate, I respect your endeavours more than most!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all, the picture I paint of myself is 100% accurate.  I assure you, these are my real opinions.  Scanning magazines is an unrewarding use of time, but I think most scanners are self-aware enough to realize this but also cognizant of the fact that most people waste large portions of their lives in some way or other, so there's nothing particularly worse about spending all day editing a magazine than there is sitting in front of the TV flipping channels.

And while it may seem like I'm being overly negative and possibly trying to discourage anyone from contributing around here, I'm really not.  I'm just being completely honest.  Trust me, if anyone out there ever decides to try their hand at scanning and editing a magazine themselves, they'll realize all of this stuff for themselves after they're an hour or two into the process, regardless of what I tell them beforehand.  Most first-time scanners quit before completing a single mag.  The ones who come to fully realize what it entails but push on anyway...well, we're the crazy ones.:)

Different scanners have different reasons that compel them to do so, but "enjoyment" is probably not one of them.  Scanning and editing isn't a creative endeavor, it's tedious work, and at the end of the day, all you accomplished was to take a physical thing you already possessed, and destroyed it in order to make a duplicate copy.  You start with a magazine, and hours later end with...the exact same magazine...except now you can't touch it. 

You're right in the sense that preserving things can be a respectable profession (although real preservation doesn't usually involve destroying the artifacts), but the key difference is that those people are doing their jobs.  Jobs they're being paid to do.

You also seem to take umbrage with my tongue-in-cheek cliched examples of better ways to spend your weekend, suggesting that the only reason people would hang out with friends, go to a play, go camping, or hook up with someone at a club are to fit into societal norms.  However, while I don't personally partake in all of those things, I believe the reason most people do stuff like that is that they enjoy it.  If you only go out with friends because of societal pressure, you're doing it wrong.

If you can find me a scanner that enjoys scanning and just can't wait until the weekend so they can spend all day photoshopping magazine pages because that's the thing that makes them happiest, well then that person is excused from my opinion.  But for everyone else, including myself, the bottom line is that time spent scanning/editing magazines is time that ultimately has very little meaning and won't create any kind of lasting memory.  I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted (yes, that's the correct verb) scanning mags or uploading covers/ads to this site, but it's a significant amount.  And yet I don't have a single story to tell, not a single distinct memory worth sharing out of all that time spent.  But I still remember countless details from various trips I took, events I participated in, or even something as simple as a BBQ with friends from years ago.  It's the things we remember that matter most, and in an ideal world, we'd spend more time focusing on doing those sorts of things.

"Hey Bob, do you remember that time you scanned and edited EGM #72?"

"Oh yeah!  Like it was yesterday!  Man, the stories I could tell you about that one!"..........said no one ever.

A scanned magazine DOES have value, to anyone who downloads and enjoys it.  I'm very grateful to anyone who has ever given up their time to contribute in any way.  The end results of their efforts are appreciated.  But I stand by my opinion that the time it took the scanner to create the scan has no value.  It is time/life wasted, even if it does result in creating something that others can enjoy. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My reasons? (I scan for Kiwi's World)

 1 - partly nostalgia. I love to read old magazines, so I also appreciate the work others do. Because I can reciprocate, I do.

2 - I've been a gamer since the late 1970s. I've been saving all the magazines I've bought  since the mid 80s. I've come to the point where I needed to empty out the literally hundreds of kg of magazines filling my cupboards. I couldn't bear to throw them out with at least seeing them preserved so I can read them on a tablet, and shared for others to enjoy. I'm keeping some treasured stuff like a Zzap 64 collection but most is going.

3 - I keep my workflows pretty simple and I have a document scanner which can feed 50 sheets, so I usually just scan something while watching TV  or browse Reddit or whatever on the other monitor, so it's something I can do without concentrating too much

I hope that others enjoy the stuff I do but thats just a side benefit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/1/2018 at 7:10 PM, kitsunebi77 said:

First of all, the picture I paint of myself is 100% accurate.  I assure you, these are my real opinions.  Scanning magazines is an unrewarding use of time, but I think most scanners are self-aware enough to realize this but also cognizant of the fact that most people waste large portions of their lives in some way or other, so there's nothing particularly worse about spending all day editing a magazine than there is sitting in front of the TV flipping channels.

And while it may seem like I'm being overly negative and possibly trying to discourage anyone from contributing around here, I'm really not.  I'm just being completely honest.  Trust me, if anyone out there ever decides to try their hand at scanning and editing a magazine themselves, they'll realize all of this stuff for themselves after they're an hour or two into the process, regardless of what I tell them beforehand.  Most first-time scanners quit before completing a single mag.  The ones who come to fully realize what it entails but push on anyway...well, we're the crazy ones.:)

Different scanners have different reasons that compel them to do so, but "enjoyment" is probably not one of them.  Scanning and editing isn't a creative endeavor, it's tedious work, and at the end of the day, all you accomplished was to take a physical thing you already possessed, and destroyed it in order to make a duplicate copy.  You start with a magazine, and hours later end with...the exact same magazine...except now you can't touch it. 

You're right in the sense that preserving things can be a respectable profession (although real preservation doesn't usually involve destroying the artifacts), but the key difference is that those people are doing their jobs.  Jobs they're being paid to do.

You also seem to take umbrage with my tongue-in-cheek cliched examples of better ways to spend your weekend, suggesting that the only reason people would hang out with friends, go to a play, go camping, or hook up with someone at a club are to fit into societal norms.  However, while I don't personally partake in all of those things, I believe the reason most people do stuff like that is that they enjoy it.  If you only go out with friends because of societal pressure, you're doing it wrong.

If you can find me a scanner that enjoys scanning and just can't wait until the weekend so they can spend all day photoshopping magazine pages because that's the thing that makes them happiest, well then that person is excused from my opinion.  But for everyone else, including myself, the bottom line is that time spent scanning/editing magazines is time that ultimately has very little meaning and won't create any kind of lasting memory.  I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted (yes, that's the correct verb) scanning mags or uploading covers/ads to this site, but it's a significant amount.  And yet I don't have a single story to tell, not a single distinct memory worth sharing out of all that time spent.  But I still remember countless details from various trips I took, events I participated in, or even something as simple as a BBQ with friends from years ago.  It's the things we remember that matter most, and in an ideal world, we'd spend more time focusing on doing those sorts of things.

"Hey Bob, do you remember that time you scanned and edited EGM #72?"

"Oh yeah!  Like it was yesterday!  Man, the stories I could tell you about that one!"..........said no one ever.

A scanned magazine DOES have value, to anyone who downloads and enjoys it.  I'm very grateful to anyone who has ever given up their time to contribute in any way.  The end results of their efforts are appreciated.  But I stand by my opinion that the time it took the scanner to create the scan has no value.  It is time/life wasted, even if it does result in creating something that others can enjoy. 

Thank you so much though!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Just want to say, as an old guy who grew up reading all of these magazines, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Being able to revisit these is the next best thing to actually going back and time traveling. It doesn't just bring back the articles, it brings back the memories, the feeling of the time when I first read them cover to cover, the excitement. Not to mention, it's given me an opportunity to share something I loved and bond with my kids. I'm not much for throwing a catch with them, but I will sit and talk with them for hours over the games, and magazines I loved, while hearing all about the new Skyrim mods they're excited about, or the new Let's Players they like to watch on YouTube. Gaming is something I can have common ground with them and form bonds over, and that's something I never grew up with when I was a kid.

Your efforts, destroying those beloved issues, just so strangers like me can enjoy them and relive our past and share it, I just want to say that it isn't for nothing, and I TREASURE these memories and the ability to make new ones. It is so much appreciated. I wish words can fully express that.

One thing I've been thinking about doing is making a YouTube channel of my own, similar to what CGQ or Happy Console Gamer does and focus on Let's Reads through some of my favorite issues. I have a full time job, so I'm not looking to make a career out of it or anything, I just want to share my love and passion for the subject and I hardly ever see anyone really covering old classic magazines in video format. I'm just not much of a camera person, but I honestly love reading these and I would love to share that. And hey, if I ever get big and do see a few bucks, I'll be sure to contribute to that Patreon.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Recent Achievements

    • apierret earned a badge
      Member for 1 Month
    • yonew84673 earned a badge
      Member for 7 Days
    • cifa earned a badge
      Member for 1 Month
    • cifa earned a badge
      Member for 7 Days
    • cifa earned a badge
      Member for 1 Day
×
×
  • Create New...
Affiliate Disclaimer: Retromags may earn a commission on purchases made through our affiliate links on Retromags.com and social media channels. As an Amazon & Ebay Associate, Retromags earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your continued support!