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A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITORS
Hobo Jungle was first published nearly 20 years ago, when personal computers were a
mystery to most people. It had a run of about five years, and to our knowledge, it was one
of the first publications of its kind to be published entirely on a PC. In those days it was
called desktop publishing; today, DP is a quaint technology when compared to how far we
have come.
At around the time of the millennium, we thought about starting up Hobo Jungle again, only this time on the Internet. But the prospect was daunting: software was cumbersome and as far as we were concerned the learning curve was too high to try and compete with the young turks developing multimedia web pages that bedazzled viewers with fancy pictures and sounds and brought in readers by the gazillions.
It hasn't taken long to get over the hype, however. Most web pages these days are turnoffs with their unwanted ads and unnecessary images that distort and disrupt the viewing experience. With the new Hobo Jungle, we've taken a different tack. No ads, no slick layouts (unless it's a piece where graphic design is an essential element); it's about the authors, not about us. We'll try to make the layout pleasant, but easy to navigate. We'll try (when possible) to keep pages from running off your screen; and we'll make use of the latest browser plugins (yes, we know what they are) as often as possible.
At around the time of the millennium, we thought about starting up Hobo Jungle again, only this time on the Internet. But the prospect was daunting: software was cumbersome and as far as we were concerned the learning curve was too high to try and compete with the young turks developing multimedia web pages that bedazzled viewers with fancy pictures and sounds and brought in readers by the gazillions.
It hasn't taken long to get over the hype, however. Most web pages these days are turnoffs with their unwanted ads and unnecessary images that distort and disrupt the viewing experience. With the new Hobo Jungle, we've taken a different tack. No ads, no slick layouts (unless it's a piece where graphic design is an essential element); it's about the authors, not about us. We'll try to make the layout pleasant, but easy to navigate. We'll try (when possible) to keep pages from running off your screen; and we'll make use of the latest browser plugins (yes, we know what they are) as often as possible.