I'm going to rant in this one, partially at myself in order to help sort out my thoughts. It stems from the fact that I have been offerred (and so far accepted) a position with Ars to write about open source projects.
I have a moral conflict taking place right now, which I'm not particularly happy with. It basically stems from the fact that I have very little editorial control over my own work that I would be publishing over at Ars. It's the little things, like being forced to spell internet with a capital "I", or conforming to set article lengths. It's also the bigger things, like being assigned topics to cover rather than just writing about whatever I feel needs some coverage.
The conflict comes in the fact that they would be paying me, and by accepting payment, I must agree to be bound by their rules.
On the other hand, I could just keep writing for KDE where I am a volunteer and thus bound by no rules other than common courtesy and so forth. I could devote this time to creating a KDE press kit for companies such as Ars, rather than actually writing for them.
The only downside to my current role as a writer is that I'd like to branch out a little with my articles, which Ars would permit, after a fashion. When writing for the dot, I basically have to ensure the article is fully KDE related -- ditto for the proposed KDE magazine. This is all fine and good for articles like the Road series, and actually, the developers seem to be friendlier to me if I'm not writing the article for posting on a third party site where I'm getting paid (perception - may in fact not be true).
If I chose not to write for Ars and stick to the dot, I could use my blog to publish those articles that do not fit the dot, and spam planetkde, but I'm not sure how well they'd tolerate 2000 word distro reviews and other lengthy articles.
So I'm trying to decide now, before I am fully committed, if I really want to do the Ars thing, and then lose my independence and close relationship with KDE while gaining money, and a wider audience. Or if I can manage to write the just the articles I want to write, but do it as a volunteer by posting them to the dot and this blog allowing me to keep complete editorial control.
I know you folks will simply say "We can't decide for you", which is the usual KDE way of answering these sorts of questions, and it is quite valid. However, I am soliciting opinions on how this will affect KDE as a whole, since the Road articles and so forth would be moving to Ars if I write for them. Would the developers be more responsive to me being 'inside KDE', or 'outside KDE' in interviews? Would planetkde implode if I started posting 2000 word distro reviews and so forth? Is it better that an article such as my Road series come straight from KDE, or from the outside? (Which would better serve KDE's interests as a group?)
I'm not in this for the money or the recognition, so those arguments are void. My professional life is in geological sciences, not in software, so I need no resume padding as a software news writer. My goals are to promote KDE to the best of my abilities, and I'm trying to determine which one of the two (since I really only have time for one) would serve the community best.
Anonymous comments are enabled, but sign your name in the comment if you want me to recognize you :) Cheers folks, and thanks for putting up with this post :)
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