Blog posts on DDI should be free

[Nifft]

People like paper.

Some do indeed. Personally, I'd rather we move as much away from paper as possible to handheld electronic devices that include ways to mark up and manipulate materials being viewed on them and then store that material again inclusive of the changes/markups.

People like Post-Its.

Cheers, -- N

 

[billd91]

People like Post-Its.

I'm thinking a bit more along the lines of annotating cookbooks and books read for classes, personally. I don't find post-its very useful for that compared to using a highlighter or writing a note in the margin.

 

[Scribble]

I'm thinking a bit more along the lines of annotating cookbooks and books read for classes, personally. I don't find post-its very useful for that compared to using a highlighter or writing a note in the margin.

I think all PDF files for gaming should allow commenting... Is there some strange reason I don't know about that causes game companies top release pdfs with commenting disabled?

 

[Mournblade94]

Some do indeed. Personally, I'd rather we move as much away from paper as possible to handheld electronic devices that include ways to mark up and manipulate materials being viewed on them and then store that material again inclusive of the changes/markups. Certainly as an ePub I'd love the switch to become more universal but also as a returning student I would much prefer to be carrying a simple tablet of some sort with all of my textbooks on it (even if I had to convert them to PDFs all on my own!)

But the simple matter of fact is that some people prefer the physical object, such as a magazine, and this means that online content can be an alternate but never a replacement for them. And there are legitimate gripes about how much they can be shared, about reselling them, and taking them places where you might not want to have an electronic device, that are never adequately addressed by us proponents of electronic medium, and never will be.

Anyway, that's my point and as a (sometime, small) ePub, it's something I need to recognize as actual, real, and legitimate as an obstacle or I make no headway in helping reduce it as an objection toward electronic medium. My use of clever language to try and redefine the lack of physicality in the delivery of material doesn't make the problem go away, it just makes it appear I am trying to ignore the facts or pretend they don't exist. And that doesn't help anybody.

I am one of those that likes the actual book. I like epublishing at the same time. However I am one of those students that marks up textbooks and leaves notes in them and such. If text books allowed for notetaking in the e-format I would be all for it.

Another area where epub 'worries' me for lack of a better word is in comics. I am a long time comic collector. There is alot of buzz about making comics completely digital in the near future (5yrs or so). Comics to me are not just about the story, it is about the individual issues. Collecting back issues. Going back through old boxes and re reading back issues. I think the comics industry would shoot themselves in the foot if they went all digital. It would destroy the stores, the companies that make archive accesories, and I think their sales would drop.

I love the characters, but I also love collecting the comics as well. I think in this area e publishing would ruin an area of pop culture.

 

[Lanefan]

No. Is an e-book no longer a book? Is an online newsite no longer a newspaper? Is an online magazine no longer a magazine? Only if you hold to such rigid and strict requirements of a physical product made mostly of paper. Which very few people actually do.

Speak for yourself.

An e-book is not a book. It is not a physical *thing* that I can pick up and read whenever I like without having to worry if its battery is going to run out.

An online magazine or newsite is not a magazine or newspaper. It is not a physical *thing* that I can browse through in a store before deciding whether I really want to buy it or not. Here, though, both have their uses; particularly newsites as news is often such a transitory thing as opposed to magazines and books which are something one might wish to preserve.

Call me old school, but whenever possible when I buy something I prefer to walk into a store with real people in it and walk out with my purchase in my hand.

Lanefan

 

[Hussar]

Speak for yourself.

An e-book is not a book. It is not a physical *thing* that I can pick up and read whenever I like without having to worry if its battery is going to run out.

An online magazine or newsite is not a magazine or newspaper. It is not a physical *thing* that I can browse through in a store before deciding whether I really want to buy it or not. Here, though, both have their uses; particularly newsites as news is often such a transitory thing as opposed to magazines and books which are something one might wish to preserve.

Call me old school, but whenever possible when I buy something I prefer to walk into a store with real people in it and walk out with my purchase in my hand.

Lanefan

And that's fair enough for you. But, I'm not sure how that makes it not a book. I can open up my Ipod in just about any coffee shop, bookstore, library, or whereever that has wifi, browse books, magazines, whatnot and read through them and buy them if I wish.

I have a physical product in my hand (granted, batteries do wear out, but then, paper has its own issues as well) that looks like a book, feels like a book and is, for all intents and purposes, a book.

"I don't like it" is perfectly fine. I'm just not quite clear on the whole "I don't like it because it's not a book" thing.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

A book is not an e-book.

It's really not that difficult. They can have the same information, but (at this point in time) they have different user interfaces, different form factors, different limitations, different advantages, etc.

They are different. Period. Whether or not those differences are significant varies from person to person.

 

[Mournblade94]

And that's fair enough for you. But, I'm not sure how that makes it not a book. I can open up my Ipod in just about any coffee shop, bookstore, library, or whereever that has wifi, browse books, magazines, whatnot and read through them and buy them if I wish.

I have a physical product in my hand (granted, batteries do wear out, but then, paper has its own issues as well) that looks like a book, feels like a book and is, for all intents and purposes, a book.

"I don't like it" is perfectly fine. I'm just not quite clear on the whole "I don't like it because it's not a book" thing.

Yo! Hussar! If your ever in the new york area lets catch a beer together!

 

[Mistwell]

Seriously, if WotC had plenty of quality material to put into their e-magazines we wouldn't have the debates on why this or that isn't actually free. Seriously, getting DDI subscribers to pay for product pitches, how lame can it get?

I have not seen many people who have access to the pay content claim that the quality of material is lacking. Have you, and if so could you provide links to those claims?

 

[Hussar]

Yo! Hussar! If your ever in the new york area lets catch a beer together!

Heh, now I have a reason to go to New York. Bit of a flight, but, totally worth it.