Editorial 

by Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@shore.net>

We begin our fifteenth year on the Internet with a bit of fanfare: the DargonZine Web site has moved, and can now be found at the URL www.dargonzine.org!

Sometimes you're ahead of the pack, and sometimes you trail it. DargonZine was a pioneer of Internet publishing back in 1984, and in 1985 was among the first users of the Listserv software that today supports tens of thousands of email distribution lists. On the other hand, DargonZine did not have a Web presence until 1995, and we are certainly a late comer in obtaining a vanity domain name.
We have done everything we can to ensure that your transition to the new site will be as easy and as painless as following a new link or updating a bookmark. We've avoided making any major changes to the site during this time, and our writers have thoroughly tested the new site, so you shouldn't encounter any problems. And if you somehow get pointed at the old site, we've created an intelligent error handler which should redirect you to the new location of the page you were looking for.

Although this change may seem minor, the work that went on behind the scenes to make it happen was substantial, and there are always bugs which go undiscovered in testing. If you do find errors or have any difficulty with the new site, please drop us a note at <dargon@shore.net> so we can fix it.

Of course, this change doesn't affect email subscribers, and you should note that we haven't changed our email address or the location of the ftp site which contains our back issues.

This new URL also paves the way for other changes we have planned. We are presently developing and testing a more sophisticated database backend which will provide you with more information about our issues, stories, writers, and the people and places that make up our milieu. We're doing everything we can to make it easier for new readers and new contributing writers to get up to speed on Dargon.

So welcome to the first of many changes that we hope to make in 1999, our fifteenth year on the Internet. And if you have any ideas about how we can serve you better, please let us know by dropping an email to <dargon@shore.net> or visiting the Feedback section on our Web site.

One more thing you can expect in 1999 is: more!

Back in 1991 we printed 10 stories in 4 issues, a mere 300k of fiction. Every year since then (except one), we printed more material than the year before. In fact, last year we printed nearly three times the volume we did back in '91, putting out a record 30 stories in 10 issues, amounting to 850k of text! And the most consistent feedback we've gotten from you is that you want more!

Well, true to form, we plan for 1999 to surpass even 1998's mark. As you can see from our publishing schedule, we are currently planning a record 12 issues this year, thanks to the steady output of new writers such as Cheryl Spooner and Stuart Whitby who appear in this issue, and the continuing contributions of our long-timers such as Dafydd, who begins an incredible epic series in this issue.

With plans to print more stories than ever before, a new domain name, and many more Web enhancements planned, it looks like 1999, our fifteenth year publishing amateur fiction on the Internet, will be bigger and better than ever! Thanks for doing your part in helping us get there!