Talk:Online magazine

Merge Proposal

In my opinion, Ezines are separate entities from Online Magazines in the method of delivery. Most Ezines are sent through email, and are also called Email Newsletters. Online magazine, to me, means a web site which updates on a regular schedule and keeps archives, much like a paper magazine. Online magazines may send subscribers notices when updated, but usually not the entire issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.21.242.102 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 24 June 2006

Keep Separate There is no rule that we have to confuse people by lumping different things together, albeit with superficial simularities, just because an article is fairly short. // FrankB 04:49, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I'd agree with separate but cross-refereced. The common usage will evolve somewhat. I would consider a spectrum from 'online magazine' that is essentially a web version of a hard copy magazine and an e-zine to be primarily emailed. In the middle somewhere is an e-Mag, which is an electronic magazine, i.e. it's primary form is a website (very similar if not the same as a webzine). I administer two new "e-Mags" and they have RSS feeds so can effectively be subscribed to aswell. Edward Whishaw 09:02, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

While this discussion is very old, I'd like to discuss that the scope of "online" magazine covers both the web and e-mail, as you access e-mail because one is online. Right now there seems to be about a half dozen articles that either need to be modified to exclude refering to eachother, or they need to be merged into one central article where the minute differences can be presented in a much more expansive and comprehensive article. I'd say merge. Radagast83 17:17, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

An eZine is not the same as a webzine. These should not be merged.

Keep Separate -- A search on Google for "ezine" OR "ezines" produces over 13 million results, whereas a search for "online magazine" OR "online magazines" produces only about 2.5 million results. This suggests that people will come to Wikipedia looking for an article about "ezine" and don't expect to be redirected to a title that is a 2-word definition.70.174.190.116 08:09, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Support merge per Radagast83's comment above. I would also add news site to the list. However, if they are determined to be distinct from one another and maintained as separate articles, a new category and a generic article (perhaps called "online periodicals") describing their differences would be helpful. Edward Wishaw is correct, though, these definitions are likely to be moving targets for some time to come. -Tobogganoggin ^talk 22:22, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I've merged cyberzine, ezine, webzine here. There may be other ones that should be merged or at least cross-referenced better, such as diskmag. —Quarl ^(talk) 2007-02-26 04:26Z

I just (re-)proposed a merger of Ezine into this one. Apparently Quarl's merger of February 2007 was undone by an anonymous (IP) (at Ezine). The end of the previous merger attempt. Ezine has less info than this one and the difference of content between the two is not clear enough to justify two separate articles (basically, there is no difference). So, let's have at it again, and this time we should not accept its undoing by external contributors (if, of course, we agree on this merger). More pages link to "Online magazine" than do to "Ezine"; E-zine redirects here, not to "Ezine" (same for E-Zine); there are (a few) more interwiki links here than at "Ezine". --Jerome Potts (talk) 01:15, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Support Merge Without much logical differentiation between and online magazine and a ezine, little history to be included and the fact that ezine is such a short article with few references, ezine as a seperate article doesn't make sense. For encyclopedic purposes, the terms are synonymous and ezine could easily be covered in a section within online magazine--Rtphokie (talk) 15:36, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Keep Separate Ezines are mostly subcultural periodicals. It comes from "zine" term, not "magazine"! And they are not distributed only through email. PDFmags are ezines. But the site of Newsweek are online magazine, not ezine. // Sakateka00:24, 28 Jan 2009 (UTC)

Keep Separate In the absence of absolute definitions, the question becomes, should we develop/agree on one? I have been part of similar definitions where it was necessary for a body of documentation to have an agreed glossary. At this time so many 'words' are being invented. My assumption is that an online magazine is a periodical on the web. Online magazines put out by pros have ISSNs, which suggests that the bodies who assign ISSNs have a definition that they have put into practice. Online magazines are URL-independent, but Title-dependant. When I moved Festivale Online Magazine from one URL to another the ISSN remained the same, although the URL changed. (Decision - Australian National Library, re-confirmed Dec 2008). I consider, humbly, that a webzine is an online magazine, by another name. I would suggest that an ezine (e-zine) is a development of e-mail (email) and is a newsletter transmitted by e-mail. Notification of changes by e-mail or RSS to online magazines I would consider a marketing tool, not a defining criteria. Ali Kayn (talk) 04:31, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Keep Separate, and better differentiate I think the relationship of 'ezine' to 'online magazine' makes the most sense if it is understood as parallel to the pre-existing relationship between 'zine' and 'magazine'. A zine is a diminutive, informal type of magazine, typically produced by one or two people or at most a small social group. The idea that all online magazines are ezines actually tends to type-cast online magzines as small and informal. While many are, others are not, and the level of effort, journalism, editing and investment in a serious professional magazine published online-only doesn't deserve to be lumped into the diminutive 'zine category. ArchitectureWeek is one example of a solid, serious online magazine for which ezine would be a misleading label. Greenineugene (talk) 20:26, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

These mergers obviously went ahead, but the discussion wasn't closed per WP:MERGE and it would appear that consensus wasn't reached. The result is that the combined article is missing some info from both Webzine and Ezine. Therefore I propose either:

• Splitting the content into separate articles once more (such articles to be tidied)
• Incorporating any relevant previous content in under subheadings in this article.

--Trevj (talk) 12:55, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Additionally, there are a number of pages linking to Webzine and Ezine, including Zine itself. Readers following such links currently arrive here, with no obvious mention of the link the followed, i.e. no subheading. Considering the number of inbound links, my preference would now be to reestablish the separate pages. --Trevj (talk) 13:22, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

The first paragraph of the current article starts to make a clear and appropriate distinction between ezine and online magazine. As the article continues the distinction seems to get less clear. I suppose in an ideal article things would get more clear as detail is added to the initial concept. In this case, separating into two articles, each with its own structure and context, could help significantly. Greenineugene (talk) 19:23, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

ISSNs

• Just a single ISSN is listed on this page. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to untag this page and tag the individual pages on publications that could have an ISSN listed but do not? Keesiewonder ^talk 22:27, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, and removed. -Tobogganoggin ^talk 23:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

ezine and online magazine are different things, an online magazine is a magazine online, on the other hand an ezine is something invented by doesn't matter whoever because ezine's history is the way that it can't be called an online magazine.

List of webzines

Is this section even necessary? It seems like it's just a place for people to advertise their own sites. --JYi 17:25, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Have reinstated the external links, but only with links to online magazine directories as per WP:ELMAYBE. 13 Oct. 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.241.63.181 (talk) 02:57, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Removed, per the guideline. No need, plus a magnet for spurious links. --Ckatz^chat_spy 03:01, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Category-renaming proposal

The related Category:Webzines has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. You are encouraged to join the discussion on the Categories for Discussion page.

Offline versus Online definition

I would suggest that digital publications on CD-ROM, for example, are not online. Ezines (distributed in full by email or RSS) and digital magazines are offline because they are read independent from the originating system. That is, an online magazine is read (by browser), from an active server. Offline copies stored by the browser would be archival, reflecting the state at a previous time.

I would also suggest that if the title is "online magazine" the term "webzine" should not be used except as an "also known as" reference.Ali Kayn (talk) 04:45, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

The preceding comment, by Ali Kayn, could be interpreted as support for the approach of reestablishing separate pages. Greenineugene (talk)

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