The decline of "Spin-Off" seems to be a hot topic on many lists lately.
I've seen several things mentioned as the preceived cause: change in Editor, old, favorite contributors not being included, "dumbing down", etc. Whatever is mentioned as the cause it's always followed by general comments about how good the old issues were and how the new ones do not compare. Sure, Spin-Off has changed over the years. But........so has every subscriber, particularly the long time subscribers. We have all grown as spinners and this is something that seems to be left out of the equasion when we talk about our reaction to Spin-Off. Let's face it, an article on the basics of doing a long draw is simply not going to grab someone who's been spinning long draw for 10 years or so. But stop and consider how exciting a similar article was back that long ago. Spin-Off and other craft magazines have to appeal to a wide range of interests and ability levels to survive. The beginners are always going to complain about the articles that appeal to the experienced folks. And the experienced spinners are always going to moan about the "dumbing down" of "their" magazine with articles for beginners. Same thing with Handwoven where one side wants more 4 shaft project and the other wants more stuff for multishaft looms. I really feel sorry for the editors - they really have to walk a tightrope trying to get articles in each issue that will appeal to every skill level. And sometimes they tilt too far one way or another...but then, this depends on the perspective of the reader. Frankly, I'd like to see more in depth technical articles in Spin-Off and more multishaft and dobby and drawloom stuff in Handwoven. But that's just my opinion based on my perspective, interests and skill levels. Yet I do not want to see more of these articles at the expense of articles for beginners - we were all beginners once :) Llyn To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
