Welcome to the NEW: RABBLEREVIEW.COM

Hello RABBLE REVIEW readers, it's me, Andrew Adjei. I am the Managing Editor here at RABBLE REVIEW, I'm also the Fiction Editor. And I guess now, I am also the Web Editor. Welcome to our new website. This change has been a long time in the making. When we started RABBLE REVIEW, things were constantly changing in the lead up to our very first issue. We had folks join, then leave, we had a totally different name at the time, and it was awhile before things began to settle into the RABBLE REVIEW you see today.

Last year we took an unplanned hiatus, which is an uncomfortable reality that comes with making art, or working on projects in general. That is doubly true for a group of volunteers who make $0 and 0 cents for the labor that goes into each issue. Life gets busy, people don't have as much time, work piles up, and things just come to a stand still. Luckily, we were able to get things moving again, but that renewal also came with a fresh set of eyes. Not literally, no one new has joined us, yet. But we were able to step back and see what was working and what needed work. One thing that needed work was our old website, which, up until last week had been unavailable. Rip to the old site, just kidding, go to hell old website! Okay, back to being a professional.

I personally hated the old website just from an aesthetic perspective, and it was always something I brought up, but none of us were web designers, or had any idea on how to approach the problem. The website had been originally set up by someone who joined the project early on, but then they left, and we had just been slapping things on to it ever since. It was incredibly difficult to go in and make small changes, it wasn't user friendly at all, and for a visitor who was new to RABBLE REVIEW, it may have sent the wrong first impression. Which is a shame, because I am incredibly proud of the work we do on each issue of RABBLE REVIEW. When you download an issue you can see the quality and attention to detail, most of which is thanks to our EIC, Angel Neri, who pulls double duty as the designer of the issue as well. But the site that contained those excellent issues of our magazine looked rough, which wasn't fair to the hard work that came from our contributors and excellent staff.

It was with that in mind that I decided to take matters into my own hands. So I did my research, found a new web hosting service that I could learn to use, spent some money I had saved up, and got to work. And I'm pretty proud of the results. So let me walk you through the changes.

A Homepage that Showcases What We're About

The Homepage is arguably the most important part of a website. Our original homepage was pretty basic with some navigation but you had to hunt around to learn who we were. Now the homepage will showcase new and active bits of information. The basic layout will remain the same, but information will change based on what we're doing. Whether we're promoting a new issue, open submission call, or some other event. I want it to be active and changing to reflect the work we are doing.

New Pages for Current and Past Issues

Whenever I'd meet someone new I'd almost always point people to our Gumroad page where you can download past issues of the magazine directly. Our old site just didn't display it in a flattering way, and like I said, I hated the website. Now our pages for past issues will have some personality, with a color palette to match, and info on our contributors and editors directly on that page. I want our contributors to feel proud to be in an issue of our magazine, and for them to want to point people to a page where they can download an issue to read their work.

More Info on Who We Are

We have a masthead! Finally. As of this writing I'm still waiting on my fellow editors to provide a bio, hence why my bio is the only one filled in, but you can see our faces, and our names, and know who is building each issue of RABBLE REVIEW. Yay!

A Cleaner Submissions Page

We added some slight tweaks to submission guidelines, but unless you love AI art (eww), or are totally new to RABBLE REVIEW, then there isn't really anything that different there. We are going to be more strict about word count. Personally, I didn't read any submissions significantly over the word count, but we also never rejected them right away. Sometimes the rule breakers have a point, and we are duty bound to post the good stuff. So we maybe, might have, on occasion, posted a piece over the word count. I never said I was perfect, but yes, that will no longer be the case. Unless...no, no! I have to be consistent...unless. Anyway, we are also no longer keeping the submission box open indefinitely. This was mostly an issue with our old website. Now it's easier to change elements and move things around. So yeah, we kept the submission box open year round because it was more effort to close it, how embarrassing, I know. But that's different now. This means the submission deadline is the deadline so get those submissions in on time! There is one exception, visual art. If you miss the window then shoot me an email and we'll talk about it. But prose and poetry, sorry, no special treatment.

Community Plans

There's a new tab. The Community tab is something I've wanted to do since Issue No.2. I remember after that launch our contributors were doing something I had only dreamed about. They were talking to each other, complimenting each other, and just interacting. As of yet we hadn't really taken advantage of our diverse community of contributors, but I want to do more with contributors and readers. There is so many obstacles that get in the way of sharing art or even enjoying art. Right now the Community tab is only sharing a few past projects, but eventually I want to have showcases for our contributors and their work outside of RABBLE REVIEW, and also do more live streams, interviews, and events. But we'll start small, but be sure to check back for updates!

New Ways to Support RABBLE REVIEW

Each issue of RABBLE REVIEW is free to download, but we do accept donations for those who wish to help. We're still dialing in the ways you can show support for RABBLE REVIEW, but as of now we have a new donation page. From there you can click through to our Buy-Me-a-Coffee page where you can give additional donations, or even subscribe. Large donations and subscribers will have their name added to our donor wall and names will be added to whichever issue of RABBLE REVIEW you're supporting. Of course even if you spend 0 dollars, as long as you continue to read our magazine we still love you! But this is just for those who have the means who want to show more support.

And of Course this Blog...More Blogs!

If you have been a reader of ours for awhile now, and you have been to our old website, you may have noticed that we had a blog. Just kidding, you didn't. Even if you say you did, you didn't, so don't say you did, because I won't believe you. There's a reason we only posted two blogs in the lead to our first issue. It's because our old site was a nightmare and updating the blog was equally as nightmarish. Now, it's easy. Look! I'm doing it right now. I can write whatever I want! Poo. See? So easy. Expect more blogs and updates, and for any readers and former contributors who want to write a blog for us, you can. There is a form you can complete on the blog home page.

Expanding the Team?

We are definitely growing as a litmag. Part of the reason Issue No.8 took so long to complete had to do with the volume of submissions we received, and also the amount of submissions we accepted. Which, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but our accepted pool is going to be a lot smaller moving forward. Which is good news if you get your piece accepted, I suppose. Anyway, very soon we will be looking to add a few new faces to our team. So if you'd like to work with us start thinking about it. We're especially looking to add a social media manager. The current team hates posting, so someone who loves doing it, and is good at it, would be a huge win for us. So keep your eyes peeled on our socials, and our website, we'll have more to share on that soon.

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So those are the big changes. Everything looks much prettier now, and I love having a website that matches the aesthetics of our gorgeous literary journal. I do hope you enjoy the new site, be sure to bookmark it and check back regularly. I'm also still making tweaks to fonts, sizing, and placement. I'm working on a 27 inch 1440p monitor, and I made the mistake of opening the site on my moms 12 inch laptop to see that the scaling wasn't quite as dramatic on there as it was on my screen, so changes are still ongoing, but the general aesthetics are locked in. It will continue to improve and we hope past contributors and readers love it. And for new visitors, welcome! Follow us on our socials, and please say hi. I love to say, hi. Hi! We hope you decide to stay, and submit your art. We love artists of all types, and if you ever have any questions just ask, I'm happy to answer anything and everything. Thanks so much for reading and for being a part of RABBLE REVIEW. We're hoping to be bigger and better this year, and in the years to come. This is only the beginning, so lets get to it!