Hi,

I posted a forum article here proposing the development of some kind of community newspaper for the deviant community. This had some interesting, thoughtful and posive feedback. `the-faun suggested that rather than trying to compete, all news items should be forwarded through the normal deviantArt news submission process. Now there is nothing wrong at all with the dA news feature just as there is nothing wrong with the Guardian, or the New York Times. Having one doesnt invalidate having the other though does it? Also, in any community (even an undemocratic one like this) it doesn't hurt to have other mouthpieces for comment, reflection and feedback. We all have our Journal spaces and are grateful for that but they are one isolated voice. The forums are good, but they are single issue lists when all is said and done. Chatrooms can be vibrant and illuminating, but only if you are logged on at the time...

This proposal, tenuous at best though it is, seems to be cohering into a proposal for a series of documents, published publically as deviations, which will be simply another way for enthusiastic deviants to make their views known to an audience. How big that audience is or how often (if at all) the deviations are posted will depend entirely if anyone thinks that a) its interesting enough to do and b) interesting enough to be bothered to read and (importantly) submit or respond to.

I have made the proposal, I have created an account here at ~devianTimes and I am willing to look at publishing any submissions, be they text, flash or art, within a self contained Flash based document for the enjoyment of my fellow deviants.

I have today finished a very draft concept for the magazine (I think that word best describes what I am proposing) and have posted it to the scraps section of this account. I invite everyone who comes here to ave a look, make comments and if you are at all excited by the idea then please note me with any graphic or text submissions you might like to make.

The draft copy can be found here.

I look forward to hearing from you!!

Phill