DGM News from the Editor: Festival and Site…

Dear DGM readers,

 

As you know, we had some issues shortly after launch with our hosting provider and have since taken the needed precautions to correct that.  As of today, the site is fully transferred and a number of the beta bugs from the soft launch have been fixed. 

 

You can now check out a new photo gallery that went live today of DGM Model Fenix Jenkins and you can also now officially sign up to be a part of the community.  You'll be able to post your ideas, thoughts, and concepts, and you can now submit new articles on the site.  While there are still a few cosmetic things that we're improving upon, you will find full functionality of the different elements we have live.  (While the Achievements programming is not yet live, you will receive DOUBLE experience towards leveling up if you choose to submit articles, artwork, videos, and the like on our submission page before the program officially goes live!)

 

Check it out at: http://www.darkestgoth.com

 

Additionally, you can now buy your tickets for the Mira Nocta BlueGrass Goth Fest event (August 24-26 in Lexington, KY) on Kickstarter! Listed on Kickstarter as the Bluegrass Goth Fest, this makes it easy for folks to understand that it's an event for Goths and not a movie! (Plus, the use of "Bluegrass"—which is the part of the midwest it's hosted in—next to "Goth" is guaranteed to make a lot of folks curious about this incredible event!)

 

This is a limited seating event capped at just 150 seats and, during the Kickstarter campaign, a gift of only $25 will get you one of these rare tickets.  If you want to further help support this great event, you'll unlock extremely rare collectibles and experiences.  The campaign lasts only 18 days and will conclude on July 15th.  If all tickets are gone by the conclusion of this campaign, no more will be sold.  (And, for those of you who may have been burned in the past, the event will definitely take place if only 44 are sold, with a full refund given by Kickstarter if, for some reason, that goal isn't met.) With the successful completion of this campaign, Goths around the country and the world will have a fully scalable way to bring Gothic festivals to their area! Be a part of the beginning of our united future!

 

Check out our video and find out what you can be looking forward to:

 

Click Here to go to the BlueGrass Goth Fest.

 

 

Special thanks goes to Sophia Nightwarden for some 11th hour help coming up with a much clearer overview of the festival for Kickstarter, which made it easy for them to say "yes" to this momentous event.  Additional thanks go to DarkestButterfly who came up with some great research on this and other funding choices, and Mike Flanagan, whose great advice from MicroFilmmaker Magazine was a huge help!

 

GV Pasclato

Note from DGM editor: Update on June 22nd...

Hey guys,

This week has been a long one. As you can see, we are still  transitioning our site over to new hosting, which always is a bit unpredictable in timing. We anticipate being up and running next week, however.  

We also are looking forward to getting more information about the festival campaign next week--as there were some crossed-signals on some things there. Fortunately, we had some amazing help from Sophia Nightwarden (DM) and some great research from DarkestButterfly (DM)! Community is not defined by its ease, but how it functions under adversity!

We do have some exciting news.  The folks over at the Gothic-inspired World of Depleted (http://www.worldofdepleted.com ) post-apocalyptic  community will be officially collaborating with DarkestGoth to provide creative writing, artistic, and filmmaking opportunities for our readers.  The things we have talked about could be as simple as recording a video message after the Fall to writing more in-depth stories to even directing a film in this world. Unlike a lot of creative communities, contributors in World of Depleted get a chance to help impact the core storylines by their creations and even share in profits!

More as we have it!

Editor GV Pasclato

Note from Editor: Main Site Temporarily being refitted...

Hey guys,

If you came through here, it's because the main DGM site is being refitted.  These sorts of things often are necessary on initial launch, since, while things are preplanned as well as they can be, invariably there are snags that only occur at launch.  The great news is that, in the midst of this, we're updating how our site is being hosted, so this should allow our readers to have a far superior reading and viewing experience!

We really appreciate your patience!

Editor GV Pasclato

Note from the Editor: Update on DarkestGoth site...

Friends & Fellow Goths,

You may have noticed a few things this past weekend with the launch of the new DarkestGoth Magazine website.  Some good, some not so good. I just wanted to address a few of them and let you know what's happening on our end.


1) DGM Launch on Friday - We were extremely happy to make our launch date of June 15th, as we want to make sure that we are always a magazine you can depend on.  The amount of content wasn't huge, but that's because a lot of content will be released on a periodic basis so that there will always be something cool to check out at your DarkestGoth Magazine.

2) Mira Nocta - There's been a lot of excitement about the new Gothic festival that will be in Lexington on August 24th-26h.  One of the questions folks have been asking is: When can I start to support the Kickstarter campaign and get tickets, etc.?  The answer is: soon.  We had intended for the Kickstarter campaign to be live day-and-date when we launched on Friday but there were a few unforseen delays which should be dealt with shortly.  As soon as it's live, we'll have our teams get out the information so you can get your tickets and the other cool gifts related to the event!


3) Beta Login issues - One of the things mentioned in our launch was that we are testing out a pretty robust community and achievement backend for the site.  As such, registration is currently in a beta form.  Part of what beta allows is for new users to help us find out where glitches are occurring and folks were quite helpful therein.    As such, improvements on the Beta Registration will be coming later this week!


4) Site Down Currently - We've recently encountered some downtime from the hosting provider that our team has been using for seven years.  This is unacceptable, as our readers need to know that they they can go to DGM whenever they wish and that it will be available.  As such, we will be switching hosting providers in the next week to one that we've researched heavily and who has made the right choices to improving reliability and dependability.

We appreciate your patience with the different snags related to the launch and look forward with anticipation to getting them firmly behind us as we move ahead!

-GV Pasclato
Editor-in-Chief
DarkestGoth Magazine

The Shadowed Thoughts of Silas McBane, Ep. #9

Every New Day

Every single day something happens.  Something good, something bad, I see a miracle, I witness a tragedy.  I'm often astounded at all of life's intricacies as I step back and really look at each day and its events.  It's not like I'm a stranger to life and its various triumphs and challenges.  I've been around the block, as they say.  But more and more, I find myself so wonderfully amazed by all of the big and little things that happen every single day.  Some things just happen, other things I make happen.  Life is such a beautiful adventure.  When I started seeing life this way some time ago, my entire perspective changed.  Suddenly, the tragedies and shortcomings weren't quite as bitter and the victories were so much sweeter.  Admittedly, perhaps a strange outlook for a goth.  I get that.  We're predisposed to the darker side of things and we tend to take on life as a "glass is half empty" endeavor.  However, I'm a firm believer that humans shape their own worlds and destinies.  I refuse to let circumstance and day-to-day life dictate all of my various outcomes.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a control freak.  Quite the contrary, actually.  I tend to be a "go with the flow" kind of guy.  But I also know from experience that life can happen to me, or I can happen to life.  I don't always succeed at it.  It's not as if it's an exact science or a foolproof plan.  It's more a philosophy, really.  I just want to take all of these beautiful and/or painful experiences and turn them into something magical.  Yeah, yeah, I sound like Peter Pan in a black shirt and makeup, I know.  But have you ever taken a step back and really objectively looked at a day's events after it's all done?  I personally got very tired of missing all these fantastic opportunities to create my own universe around me.  Again, I know this is a stretch for many within the beautifully dark community, but just hear me out.  We like to go against the grain.  We don't follow the status quo, typically.  Can you imagine what it would to do the general public's perception of goths if we were…wait for it…happy?  Achieving?  Successful, even?  What a novel idea!  Call me crazy (and you quite likely already have), but this is a much higher quality of life for us.  Don't you think?

                                  -Silas McBane

The Shadowed Thoughts of Silas McBane: Ep. #11

I Blew It

 I blew it today.  Big time. 

 

I had a deadline to meet, and I missed it by a mile.  Like, "I need another week," blew it.  It happens from time to time.  I work in a high stress field that requires a lot from me.  I have a leadership position that puts me up against the wall sometimes.  Here's the thing:  Whether you have just some menial job or you have a full-blown career, pressure and deadlines happen.  I've never worked in the fast food industry, but I have the utmost respect for those that do, and I mean that honestly.  They're overworked, underpaid and most definitely underappreciated.  Talk about a high-pressure position!  I've had a lot of jobs along the way to getting where I am.  I've done things I never wanted to do or thought I would do.  But I'm realizing it's the same at every level, every job.  Things must be done and certain things I'm very responsible for getting done myself. 

 A few years ago, missing a deadline would have meant absolutely nothing to me.  I couldn't have cared less.  I would have continued on in whatever role I had and not thought another thing about it.  Somehow over the years, I started to care.  Call it maturation, responsibility, whatever.  These days, I can't stand the thought of poor performance on my job.  It's not about people-pleasing.  I'm the last person to care what anyone thinks about me.  But it's about "me-pleasing."  I want to make myself feel happy, accomplished and fulfilled.  I realized a long time ago that no one can make me feel that way but me. 

 Here's what I'm saying:  Nobody, and I mean nobody, can make you feel satisfied in any job whatsoever except for you.  It's important to get a grip on internal happiness and satisfaction.  The external variety feels pretty good, admittedly, but it only lasts so long.  The type of satisfaction we as humans crave is only going to come from that place deep inside each of us.  I'm saying we need to stop seeking the constant approval of others and reach a new level within ourselves.  That will lead us to satisfaction, success, and ultimately happiness.  For me, that means a lot more than money, position or anything else I can achieve in the working world. 

I sleep wonderfully at night.  How about you?

 

Silas McBane

 

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To read more of Silas McBane's work, head over to DarkestGoth Magazine.