...is an attempt to provide a high quality information resource for TinyMUSH/MUX coders, builders and admins, sitting at a level between the clamour and noise of rec.games.mud.tiny and the somewhat more abstract atmosphere of the Journal of MUD Research. Both of these have their uses, but (apart from the Aids for Admins section of Juliann's MUSH Matrix, and the much more interactive forum of The Godlike Edge and its mailing list) there isn't really a lot out there for the admin or coder who wants to learn about the finer details of the server, how to set up and admin various well known (or less well known than they should be) code packages, and such things as RPG admining, player relations and so on.

The intent is to try and publish an issue somewhere around quarterly, with contributions gathered from round the 'Net, hopefully from experienced admins and coders who are willing to share their ideas and experience with the rest of us. The provisional deadline for the first issue is December 1 1997.

Submissions

Submissions should be sent to musings@altrion.org, preferably in plain ASCII or simple HTML (no font changes, stylesheets). Documents will be reformatted to the MU*sings house style. The submissions account can handle MIME attachments if you need to send diagrams. MU*code samples should, if possible, be formatted so that they can be decoded with the amolitor unformatter.

The editor reserves the right to reject articles which are poorly written, or to clean them up to bring them up to the standard he has set for MU*sings.

Wishlist

..or, things the editor would love to see in future issues.

• Short 'how-to' articles on setting up and admin-ing popular code packages (if the original authors want to come forward, the editor would love to have their input), for example
  • BrandyMail
  • Myrddin's BB
• How to encourage new players:
  • Advertising
  • Designing New Player areas
• Encouraging RP:
  • Judged and consent-based MU*'s
  • How to make consent rules work
• Guidelines for site admins
  • Setting up off site backups
  • Getting started with a new server
  • A comparative review of MUSH variants
• World Of Darkness coding:
  • A comparative review of chargen systems
  • Implementing Obfuscate

These are just starters, teasers to whet your appetite and perhaps get you thinking on what you know or have opinions on that would be useful to pass on to your peers. If you have an idea for an article, drop the editor a mail.

Editorial Staff

The editor-in-chief of MU*sings is Mike Whitaker. His on-line qualifications include being God of Conspiracy!, a now-defunct mediaeval RP MUSH, an RP Admin and SoftCode Admin on BTech3056, RP Admin on ChivalryMUX and Code and Relations wizard on Start Your Engines: Indy by Night, as well as an active RPer on those and other MU*'s. His real job is being system admin and Technical Administrator for CricInfo, one of the largest sports databases on the 'Net. At present, that's it, but he is looking for a couple of co-editors to help out and broaden the experience and knowledge base of the editorial staff, if this takes off.

Editorial Policy

MU*sings is intended to be a high-quality, freely available information resource. As such, it will be published using a subset of HTML which is suitable for any WWW browser - we do not intend to bury content within needlessly flash production values that depend on having the most modern browser. Copyright in MU*sings as a whole (the 'compilation copyright') will be held by Mike Whitaker, and copyright in individual articles will revert to their author(s) on publication.