Twenty things to get instead of Qercus sub - RISC OS News, Software and Information

Twenty things to get instead of Qercus sub

Published: 17th Jun 2006, 23:29:19GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By the Drobe news desk

Page 1 of 1

How that fifty quid could have been better spent

Media watch | An incredible eight months have passed now since the last issue of Qercus magazine was sent to its weary readers. Each 12 issue subscription, of which just a handful have been published and posted, costs 50 quid for a UK subscription or 60 quid for people on the mainland. While this must be painful for those of you who bought into the barmy merger of Acorn User and Acorn Publisher, we can't help but think how that cash could have been better spent in the market. Assuming Qercus editor John Cartmell managed to amass 1,500 subscribers, that's a whopping £75,000.

In April, we called for its freelance journalists to send their articles to drobe.co.uk, where they be will welcomed with open arms. Within hours of our campaign going live, John promised everyone that two issues would be ready for the mid-May Wakefield event and its contributors would be paid and their hard work used. It's now June and there's still no show.

20 things you could have bought instead of a 50 quid sub
In no particular order at all

Aemulor for the Iyonix or A9home, sans VAT
DeskDebug, sans VAT
A combination of Geminus screen rotation support, multi-monitor driver support or graphics acceleration
A PS2MouseMini, a new optical 3 button, scroll wheel mouse and plenty of change
Upgrade from Artworks 2.5 to 2.6 with change to spare to donate to the Gimp-Print project, run by MW Software
A subscription to pint-sized monthly Archive magazine
Two years' subscription to bi-monthly CD magazine RiscWorld
Upgrade from an early HTML Studio to HTML Studio 6
Grapevine 2 plus Image Outliner
Messenger Pro 4 plus a copy of the XAT USB drivers for Iyonix users
DataPower Home
Second hand RISC OS 4 ROMs from CJE Micros
Five copies of Discknight
Photodesk Olympic 32bit update
Final Doom, Doom+ and Quake Resurrection
Spheres of Chaos 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic 2
TechWriter Pro+ upgrade to 8.6 from 8.10
DrawWorks XL
Sleuth 3
Educational and puzzle software from Mathemagical, run by Drobe's Martin Hansen
You get the idea

John has promised his subscribers that subscriptions are for twelve issues posted, rather than for a period of 12 months. One news mole on the ball also spotted that John initially promised 13 issues in one year's subscription of the 'monthly' magazine. Our source subscribed at the end of 2003, received five issues in 2004, four in 2005 and precisely zero so far in 2006.

Links
Qercus website

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Nodoid 18/6/06 10:24AM	I think if you were to ask CTA nicely, the likes of Final Doom, Doom+, Quake, HOMM2 etc could give you change out of the 50!
CheatWarrior 18/6/06 12:46PM	I was condifering subscribing to Quercus but I was dissapointed with the issue that I bought at SW2006 so I subscribed to RiscWorld on Friday.
Nodoid 18/6/06 11:38PM	RiscWorld and Archive are two magazines I've subscribed to in the past and would certainly subscribe to again. They are amongst the finest on any platform I've come across in many a year.
Xinoyi 19/6/06 3:23PM	I understand that Mtr Cartmell is upset that our world is being besmirched by others. Isn't there a saying about people who throw acorns shouldn't do so in transparent environments?
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