So apparently there's a new magazine launching. Well. It's an eMagazine, so technically it's just a web site. But it's about Medium Format Photography I guess. And it's $249 a year ($195 if you sign up now!)
What's weird is that the pre-launch web site is a one page web site with a popup thing to take your credit card number. No information about the publisher, the staff, who the hell these people are. Just a list of names of contributors.
It appears that Ming Thein is actually linking to it and is a contributor.
Now, call me a cynic, but if I was looking to make a fast few thousand bucks, I might recruit some of the more egotistical bloggers out there to write a column for my magazine, I'd throw up a fast web site like this one and get them to promote it a little for me. And then I'd bugger off. Total effort, a dozen emails and an afternoon setting up a web site.
Maybe I am missing it, but there is literally nothing on this web site: Medium Format that provides any checkable background, or even uncheckable background. Most of the cited "columnists" don't even mention this thing on their blogs. Indeed, Ming's link is literally the only link I have discovered.
There isn't even a launch date.
I enjoy reading your posts... and I'm in sync with you about this Ming thing.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up and cheers.
I can see the audience this is aimed at: extreme GAS victims with recently acquired MF cameras and a whole lot of buyer's remorse who need reassurance from a bunch of self-appointed Thought Leaders, who in fact have just found more sheep to shear.
ReplyDeleteDear me. The Thoughts of MT, Patrick "Pretentieux" LaRoque and Lloyd Digi-Chambers plus a handful of other Notables all for only $19.95 a month. And doubtless you can get a special edition of MT's monotonic video monologues on "workflow" for ONLY $200.
Makes Thorsten Overgaard look quite reasonable, really.
Whether it is intended as a scan or not, I predict that it will become effectively a scam. It will produce somewhere between 0 and 4 issues, and refunds will be between impossible and very difficult to obtain.
DeleteEven done in good faith, these things are hard to do.
Interesting stats from a whois:
ReplyDeleteIP Address 167.99.191.208 is hosted on a dedicated server
IP Location Canada - Ontario - Toronto - Digitalocean Llc
Domain Status Registered And Active Website
IP History 78 changes on 78 unique IP addresses over 14 years
Registrar History 5 registrars
Hosting History 5 changes on 6 unique name servers over 16 years