Author Topic: Question about TLE Historical Item  (Read 2911 times)

Nessa

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Question about TLE Historical Item
« on: October 19, 2005, 03:46:29 PM »
Would any of you happen to know...

I've noticed that in recent issues of The Leading Edge that the editors call it Leading Edge, without the "The". It's also this way on the covers. It has changed without warning.

When did this happen, and why?
« Last Edit: October 19, 2005, 03:46:55 PM by MrsNessaC »
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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2005, 04:02:01 PM »
You can blame Ookla for this, though EUOL and I were also editors at the time and we all agreed on it. Essentially, as I remember it, it really bugged Ookla that the title and subtitle did not fit together. Now it is Leading Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, rather than The Leading Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy. The change was instituted for the 20th anniversary issue, and as far as I know it has been that way ever since.
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Nessa

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2005, 04:28:21 PM »
Wasn't it orginally

The Leading Edge: Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

?
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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2005, 04:54:34 PM »
It may have been. Whatever it used to be, I have to agree with Ookla that the change is better.
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2005, 05:37:26 PM »
I didn't like the change either, but I didn't have an alternate logo and we didn't want to change it back right away anyway, since I was editor right after ookla. The "The" incidentally, is why we call it TLE. I still call it "the" Leading Edge just for consistency.

Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2005, 06:05:52 PM »
The change was (and it looks like everyone forgot this) actually only step 1 of a multi-part plan...and the other steps didn't happen. Basically, we were looking into changing it from a magazine to an anthology so that it could be sold more easily in bookstores and online bookstores like amazon.com, which doesn't sell magazines. So if it was to be an anthology, the "magazine" part from The Leading Edge Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy would have to be dropped, meaning the "the" part would have to be dropped as well, leaving Leading Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy.

The anthology route is still a viable option if current editors want to pursue it--you can keep the ISSN and get a separate ISBN for each individual issue. But this is only worth doing if someone's going to actively try to sell it into bookstores and other retailers...and TLE has never had much of a marketing department.

There may have also been something about the difficulty of updating the logo font...the old logo's letters were kind of badly proportioned, so when I edited the font to fix the proportions up nicely, there was something weird about the "The" embedded in it...something about it being an encapsulated postscript thing or something, so I couldn't fix the proportions on the "The" (the letters didn't quite line up right) and I just deleted it...I could have recreated them completely but just left them out since the name was changing anyway and it would've been a pain.

Hmm. I see on the current Leading Edge website that the OLD ugly logo is used for the main graphic, while the new nicer logo is used on the issue 49 cover. (See the N and G differences, for example.) The old logo should really be eradicated...

But yeah, the abbreviation has always been TLE even though the "The" is gone.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2005, 06:14:05 PM by OoklaTheMok »
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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2005, 08:18:23 PM »
I remember that conversation. We also shortened things to lighten the layout on the front cover.

I'm not sure where they are still getting the old logo. I thought I killed it a long time ago when I was updating fonts on all the HPC computers. There probably was a backup somewhere.
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2005, 08:37:46 PM »
I think it's just an old graphic that's been hanging around somewhere, not from the old font (since the old font has "The" in it, and that logo has some jaggedness on the curves).
« Last Edit: October 19, 2005, 08:38:38 PM by OoklaTheMok »
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2005, 09:05:14 PM »
The current editors refer to it as Leading Edge Magazine. But it has been, and always will be, "going to TLE."

Because we're doing our 50th issue, (and the HumPub Macs keep eating the fonts), we have somewhat of a new layout. But the title font on the cover hasn't changed over the last few years.

And just for your gee-whiz file, there's another Leading Edge magazine distributed here in UT that's geared toward bodybuilders. Heh.

Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2005, 09:18:42 PM »
Karen always just calls it "The Edge," so TLE isn't the only term it's been colloquially known by over the years...
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2005, 01:25:20 AM »
Heh.

"I've been over at the Edge for the last couple of hours . . . sorry I missed your call. Oops. Gotta gooooooooooo!        (Oof.)"

Of course, the fact that the 'Pub atop a hill overlooking campus adds new meaning to that.

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fuzzyoctopus

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2005, 02:09:27 AM »
Quote
Heh.

"I've been over at the Edge for the last couple of hours . . . sorry I missed your call. Oops. Gotta gooooooooooo!        (Oof.)"


Sorry, that still doesn't beat Skar answering the CHW phone "Hum Pub!" in a Scottish accent.
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Fellfrosch

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2005, 12:18:06 PM »
I remembered that the change was part of a move to anthology, but I didn't remember why so I didn't mention it. I do, however, remember how silly we felt when it came down to the last minute and we realized that no one had remembered to request an ISBN number.
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The Lost One

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2005, 02:00:33 PM »
The 20th anniversary and subsequent issues still have The Leading Edge on the binder title.

As far as the cover title, I agree that the old title should be legally banned and destroyed. In fact, I propose legal action to get an injuction against its use. However, I also remember spending hours trying to get the HPC computers to get the right font. Backing up fonts was always a problem because they seemed to get lost frequently.
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Oldie Black Witch

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Re: Question about TLE Historical Item
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2005, 06:11:35 PM »
Can we create an enforceable court order to get the Macs at the 'Pub working? Otherwise Saturday is going to be a very . . . long . . . day.