IDIC (Star Trek newsletter)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | IDIC |
| Publisher: | ScotPress |
| Editor(s): | Janet Quarton, Sheila Clark & Valerie Piacentini |
| Type: | |
| Date(s): | December 1988 - October 1996 |
| Frequency: | bi-monthly |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | A5 |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: TNG |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | Some issues are online here. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
IDIC was a general Star Trek club run by the Scotpress team. It had an international membership and published 48 bi-monthly newsletters of between 80 - 100 pages. The IDIC newsletter covered all aspects of Star Trek; ST:TOS, ST:TNG, ST:DS9 and ST:VOY. Articles in the newsletters included news, actor and character profiles, convention reports, book and zine reviews, misc Star Trek articles written by members, poetry and an active postbag section.
The club also published a fanzine, IDIC Log #1-19 (TOS & TNG, 1989-1996).
Some Issues Online
See ScoTpress.
The Issues
See these subpages for details about individual issues.
| IDIC (Star Trek newsletter) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues 001-010 | Issues 011-020 | Issues 021-030 | Issues 031-040 | Issues 041-048 |
The Postbag: Fan Letters
Beginning in the second issue, the newsletter began printing letters from fans. These letters were a massive edition; sometimes the letters easily took of a third of the newsletter.
The letter addressed previous letters, comments on episodes, opinions about characters, the BBC's broadcast cuts, various opinions about plot points and characterizations, casual comments about the various films, and more. One thing they did not generally comment upon was zines and specific fanfics.
The letters could get heated, but they never approached the raw virulence of letters in a similar publication, Interstat.
The editors encouraged the positive in these letters, as they did in the newsletter's zine reviews.
The letters included the writer's first and last name, and the city and county (for the UK fans) and the city and country for the non-UK fans in which they lived. Unlike some earlier publications, it did not print street addresses. Anonymous letters were not used. While fans may have used pseuds, these names were not the fannish, creative pseuds many fans use today, but instead a common first and last name that could appear as a real name.
From the June 1991 issue:
We welcome your letters of comment and discussion for this section on the understanding that they will be printed and may be edited for length or content at our discretion.
Some pointers: When referring to anything in a previous n/l make it clear what you are talking about for those who do not have that newsletter.
Keep your letters as short as possible - a maximum of one of our pages. If you find this impossible consider whether you should be writing an article instead.
We encourage active discussion, but please try to avoid negative and aggressive letters; while we welcome your frank opinions on the club, when discussing Star Trek, the characters and actors, we think members will find it more interesting to read what you like rather than what you dislike.
Keep letters separate from other submissions and put 'for postbag'.
Also from the June 1991 issue:
We have had a number of comments on the length of the postbag. Of those who wrote the majority wanted the postbag to find its own length but enough said they wanted the length restricted that we feel we have to compromise.
Deciding which letters to print and which to edit will not be easy. Following are some ideas that we have put into effect in this newsletter - feel free to comment in the next n/l's postbag. We would like to come up with a policy which most postbag readers and contributors can agree with.
Now that TNG is into its second season we think that members have had enough opportunity to say, "I don't like it because..." The same really applies to ST-TMP to STV. We would prefer that members now move on to write about and discuss those aspects of Star Trek that they do enjoy, So, unless someone comes up with something new, we don't intend to print any more of these statements.
We would also like to avoid letters attacking actors or main characters even in fun, as not all members see the funny side. It can be depressing to find your favourite constantly attacked. We would also like to avoid negative letters - it is often possible to put the same point in either a negative or positive way and we'd prefer the latter; we all enjoy Star Trek - why else are we fans?
The problem with the above is that we do want to keep discussion active in the newsletter - we don't want it to get bland. Suggestions are welcome.
Try to keep what you are discussing relevant to Star Trek. If it gets too far removed we'll call a halt.
Keep your letters as short as possible. If you find it getting too long finish it, leave it for a day, then reread it and try to edit it. Put what you feel is most important first. If we have to edit letters we will, with the exception of spelling and grammar, cut out complete sections and try not to alter the sense of what you are saying. If you are raising a new topic, and feel that shortening it weakens your argument, why not rework it as an article?
We will not base the decision to leave out a letter on whether the writer has other items in the newsletter, as this would discriminate against our most active members.
We await your views with interest - and a certain amount of trepidation.
Newsletter Financials
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from IDIC Newsletter #8 (Oct 1, 1988-Nov 30, 1989)
Computers and Privacy
The zines contain a disclaimer, required in the UK.
This is a statutory notice as prescribed by the Data Protection Act. In accordance with the conditions governing the maintenance of machine-readable records by non-incorporated members' clubs, IDIC must advise that the names and addresses of every member are held in a computer-readable format in order to more efficiently prepare and despatch newsletters. The information is used for this purpose only, and will not be disclosed to any other party whatsover without the specific consent of the Data Subject (i.e. the member concerned). You should also be aware that you have a statutory right for your name to be deleted from the computer record and for your newsletters to be addressed manually. [1]
Fan Comments
This is also the best letter zine since Interstat, containing comment and debate from around the world on the subjects of ST and SF. A really lively, interesting read. [2]
References
- ^ The Data Protection Act was introduced by the UK Government and it applied to anyone keeping personal information about people on a computer; i.e. names & addresses. In certain circumstances if you printed the disclaimer you did not need to register under the Act.
- ^ from Atavachron v.7 n.3 (1992)