Geek Monthly: Not Geeky Enough?
I’ve got mixed feelings about Geek Monthly. Enough of them, in fact, that this is kind of a rant. You’ve been warned.
On the one hand, it’s nice to see something on the magazine shelf that just says “Geek” in big, fat letters. Kinda like seeing “Wired” - simple, concise, direct.
On the other hand, it’s kind of lame. This magazine has everything you (might) want to know about pop-culture geekery, but it seems to only scrape the surface.
Last time I bought a copy, Katee Sackhoff (BSG’s “Starbuck”) graced the cover, and the cover photo and the article were *beyond* sensationalist. At that time, I thought the magazine was directed at 14-year-old boys. I was so irritated at that issue that I think I threw it across the room.
In the June 2008 issue, there are a couple of things that bugged me a bit. The “Geek of the Month” article seems to be poking fun at Dr. Willie Kai Yee for having Trekked-out his Prius. What’s with the handicapped zone in the photo? Why misquote him in large print? (The quote would obviously be attributed to Yee by a reader, but it’s actually a quote from his daughter.) What’s with the “Ask Alienware” column? I kept looking for small print that said “special advertising section”. Also, don’t get me *started* on their website. (What is this, MySpace? And I know they’re new, but couldn’t they put *something* on the About page of their blog besides the WordPress defaults?)
Yet there were some cool things in this issue. I found out that there’s a new “V” novel from Kenneth Johnson, a man who seems to be responsible for many of my early sci-fi television experiences. The review sections are pretty good, with rating systems that are straightforward. There’s an informative “Technobabble” column about Virgin Galactic’s future ship designs, though just the fact that they named the column in such a way implies that technospeak isn’t really appreciated. Frankly, though, the mathletes article was the only piece I thought was really good, and it’s the reason I’m writing this post - that article alone is worth the cover price.
Perhaps this mag just speaks to a different kind of geek. Thor/Morpheus knows that there are as many types of us in the world as there are Linux distributions, so I should be happy that there’s perhaps something for everyone in Geek Monthly.
Maybe that was their plan.
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June 5th, 2008 at 11:31 am
We appreciate the feedback. My goal is to achieve a much better balance between the science and cultural pieces that you liked and the showbiz stuff, and believe me, it’s not easy. And we should be ramping our web presence up sometime this summer to something that’s not completely lame. Hopefully we can reach the point where you’re only throwing one out of every five issues across the room.
Appreciatively,
Jeff Bond
Editor-in-Chief
Geek Monthly
June 5th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Jeff,
To add a tad more “constructive” to the criticism, I will say this: two other reasons I purchased the June issue were (1) the number of women contributors I saw listed in the first few pages, and (2) the fact that you had more than one article about a geeky woman. Good stuff, and better than many of the other magazines I read (including CQ, Circuit Cellar, and Maximum PC). Keep it up.
And let me think for a minute about that math you mentioned. If I only throw 2 out of 5 issues at the wall, that means I’ll have read and paid for five. $5.99 USD times 5 equals $29.95, and if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I may as well pay only $19.95 instead for a subscri -
Shyte. I just subscribed to your “lame” magazine, didn’t I?
Smart man.
Thanks for commenting, and best of luck with future issues.