Internet Archive Fundraising Zine

Hi!

I’d like to organize a fundraising zine for the Internet Archive, run during Preservation Week, April 27th to May 3rd. For each donation of $5+ dollars during that week (up to some maximum), we’d find a cool thing in the Archive (book, zine, music, website, etc.) and compile them all at the end into a free zine. (Donors would have the option to suggest a topic.)

I’ve written up more info in Etherpad, including “How it Might Work” and “Things to Figure Out.”

I’m also inviting members of Zine Crisis to join, which is why the info is in a separate document.

Would anyone be interested? Any thoughts?

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The manatee is intrigued. Archival is so important.

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This sounds really interesting. I’ve dabbled in making zines before, (here’s one about my TTRPG character) which was assembled using this HTML5 Reader tool- it was made for use with the Electric Zine Maker, but I found that images made with EZM were a bit too restrictive and lossy in terms of quality. If you label your images according to the EZM Reader’s output/size them correctly, the tool totally still works, and has some options for customizing the number of pages and such, though I’ve not used those myself. Could be something to look into for the online edition of the zine, if you’d like for there to be flippable pages.

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Oo, love your collage zine! It’s so fun and colorful~

I haven’t used EZM or the HTML Reader tool, but I know of them! For the HTML version I was actually thinking something more like what I did for my Dispatches from VR zine - it’s mostly HTML with some images and CSS styling, since that’s more easy to make accessible than images.

I should probably include that example in the document. :sweat_smile:

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i love the internet archive so so so much id love to participate <3

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Yay!

I’m considering making a Discord server for the project so interested folks can join. I’d prefer not to (who needs yet another discord server?? not me). But I can’t think of another easy way to gather people from different groups…

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I went ahead and made a Discord server, despite my misgivings:

If folks are at all interested, you’re welcome to join! No commitment implied by joining. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m defnitely interested, this sounds like a really cool idea!! Looking thru the archive for cool things sounds fun.

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Yay! I’m glad it sounds fun; I hoped it would be~ Feel free to join the Discord!

But a general note: if folks don’t want to/can’t join Discord, no worries, just let me know; I’ll try to keep this thread updated regardless. Things will likely move slowly (my health necessitates it~).

Speaking of, the one thing discussed so far: whether we need to find a website to collect donations, since Internet Archive only takes individual donations. @xandra mentioned that it’s good to be able to see a growing number to help people feel like they’re a part of something bigger, so I’m leaning towards that. Not sure which provider is best, yet.

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This is a lovely idea and I would definitely be down!

I have read zines on the Internet archive, used things from the IA to make zines and uploaded my zines and radio shows to the archive. It’s a great place for zine makers.

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Hooray! Please feel free to join the Discord, although I’ll also continue to do my best to summarize here.

And of course, I just realized the zine should also go on the Internet Archive when it’s finished. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. :sweat_smile:

Discord Updates:
In organizational news, I’ve emailed the Internet Archive to see if they have a preferred fundraising platform; if they don’t (or don’t reply), I’m thinking GoFundMe’s charity thingy will work.

Cassey from Zine Crisis is interested in helping with website stuffs. They have a cool Eleventy + Decap CMS setup to make a site with a list; it would allow folks to easily update a site, if we want to go in that direction. Or we can have a simpler Eleventy setup with some manner of spreadsheet -> csv -> Eleventy -> nunjucks loop for automatically making the “cool things” portion of the zine, from a template.

And rosaria had a bunch of good ideas for how to get interest/engagement before and during the fundraising week!

Next up:
At some point in the next few days I’d like to write up a slightly more solid list of things that need doing and roles. Folks can chime in and suggest things and hopefully pick one or two that they want to help with. Some will be essential, others will ne nice-to-haves (if one more more folks are interested in working on them).

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Alright, some updates!

Internet Archive got back to me and said they don’t recommend GoFundMe because of the fees, and they just recommend me collecting all the donations and submitting them myself (not feasible, would also involve double fees) or having folks donate directly (doable, but not ideal as already discussed).

The transaction fee for the IA website seems to be 2%+49¢, while GoFundMe charity fees are 2.2%+30¢. I’m checking with GoFundMe to make sure there aren’t any hidden fees, but if not… that doesn’t seem too bad for the convenience and looking more legit.

I’ve also finally wrote up draft timeline/task list on cyrptpad, which folks can edit and make suggestions on. It’s password protected, so if you’re not in the Discord server… just DM me for the link and password I guess? Since this thread is technically public I’d rather not post it directly.

Anyone have any questions? Or thoughts about something you’d like to help with? A couple things that might appeal to folks here is we’re probably going to make a website (or at least a webpage), and I also think having multiple CSS themes for the HTML version of the zine would be cool if anyone is interested in making one.

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Where are you hosting it?

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Not sure, to be honest! That’s one of the things that’s up for discussion with folks interested in working on it. (We’re also brainstorming domains in the new document.)

I’m familiar with Netlify, but wouldn’t be against other options like NearlyFreeSpeech as long as they aren’t too pricey. I’m assuming it’ll be a very small static site, likely built with Eleventy.

Hello. You probably thought about something interesting, but I don’t understand how it will work and what benefit it will bring to the owners of online magazines, for example, me. Let’s say I want to collaborate with you, sorry, I don’t have a discord, what are the advantages and pitfalls?

Hi!

The zine is a collaborative, volunteer fundraiser, as a way to encourage people to donate to the Internet Archive.

Pitfalls… I guess spending time on something for no pay? And advantages… Working with some cool folks to support the Internet Archive? All volunteers will also be credited in the zine however they like, whatever their contribution (website, research, social media, etc), but there aren’t any concrete benefits.

Sorry for the use of discord, I wish I’d found a better tool - but if you want to know more about what’s being discussed, you can check out the initial document, or DM me for the current cryptpad and password. I’ll continue to try to post updates here, too!