'zine o'phobia

This post is a little late for St. Patty's day, but it has an Irish surname none-the-less.

David Weinberger inquires of JOHO readers: "Should I stop?" The answer David, is yes and no. Your 'zine, JOHO, has a different format from your blog, JOHO the Blog. The email version of JOHO is different from both. The connections you make among the three assure that I'll always read two out of three (since I'm a David Weinberger fan and what you write interests me). I read the blog pretty much daily, and I'm happy to get email advice that a new JOHO is online. Sometimes I'll skip reading the email and click through to the JOHO. Sometimes I'll read the email and skip the browser formatted 'zine.

All in all it's about content. Sometimes bloggers suffer from label-alia. Our online 'zines aren't REALLY 'zines anyway. 'zines are limited run hard copy output, much like Samizdat, and we borrowed the term for online productions. And then along came blogs. And what are blogs but self publishing ventures, the same as 'zines, only frequently different.

I hope you won't stop crafting the medium length articles you've included in JOHO, but I don't care whether I read them there or in JOHO the Blog. I really like it that they are free! I really like it they are frequent. I really appreciate the email heads-up of new JOHO content.

At this point maintaining a distinction between the blog and the e-'zine seems highly artificial. What are blogs if they're not e-'zines? What are e'-zines if they're not blogs? Self publishing on the internet takes many forms, from Allan Moult's "Leatherwood Online" to Mark Wood s Lot. If you think JOHO has outlived its usefulness, then it probably has. But keep those articles and essays coming. Please.