I sent one of my british friends, who is on the exec at my uni, some copies of craccum, as our student mag is shit.

This is was his reaction:

Have you shown craccum to anyone who isnt a "regular" reader, and what has their reaction been?

"It does the job, but I prefer double ply".

Loonie lefties? Considering how totally liberal the mag is I don't know what he's on.

I took one to the states with me for reading when I visited the gfs college. Most of them were rather impressed, but considering it was a rather political issue and the college is an very liberal one, that wasn't a huge achievement. My parents think it's great though, take that how you want.

My family just think it's funny. A researcher friend of ours from Hong Kong/the States pointed out to me that it's really the only left wing NZ magazine in NZ a few years ago, which has left a strongly positive imprint of the magazine on me ever since.

I have personally found the Otago mag Critic to be better on average on the last few years. I put this down to a number of factors:
1) There is a student culture in Otago
2) There's possibly a bit less backhanding down there - i.e. up here, editors are elected, and the ones who get in are invariably those who have contributed in the previous year, and are endorsed by the editors who are leaving. But then again, the editors in Otago are picked by someone, and I guess its OUSA, so maybe it's the same down there.
3) The magazine is properly funded
4) It is also available online, unlike the sorry crock of shit that the Craccum website is.

That said, I thought that Alec and Stian's 2005 Craccum was pretty good. I think it was the best year since Honest Colin's year in 2001 or whatever it was (my flatmate in Sandringham had all the issues from that year so I read them while I was in the flat).

Essentially, everything that OUSA does is better that AUSA does. And this is due mostly to differences in funding, the voluntary thing, and the lack of culture in Auckland.

Not to take anything away from the AUSA staff as I've always found them to be great, dedicated people who do the best they can with what they can; its just that they are in a student association that I find to be haemorraghing out its arsehole compared to the other ones I've dealt with.

I think the 2005 craccum was the best since i've been there (since 2003). No offense ive any previous editors are here, i've enjoyed all of them.

A little less cock would be nice. Understanably, some cock is necessary to provide illustrations when engineers are being hassled.

And to simultaneously provide them with enjoyment (A la enjoying looking at the cock as well as being the symbol of humiliation - the sado-maschocistic pleasures of engineering life)

JPAR, if you read it correctly (what my friend said) you'll find that he is saying that the "loonie lefties" would never allow such a magazine at Birmingham Uni.

Compared to our newspaper, craccum is awesome. I don't know anything about Otago's mag, but I think that craccum would rate well above other english student publications.
How is Craccum funded? money from AUSA or advertising?

My mum thinks Craccum is 'absolutely bloody disgusting, smutty filth'.
She found mine, my dirty little stash of them, all wrapped in brown paper and....
yeah/
I know a 12 year old who has informed me that it is 'shitty. shit.'
and many people who find it 'f****** entertaining', or words to that effect.

You have an american gf?

I think the way AUSA does it is better.

Dont let Nick see you saying that, if you actually checked it recently you would see that all of last years issuses are now online. This must have taken Nick quite a bit of time, not to mention the countless other jobs he has to do.
But I agree Critics site is pretty damn badass.

Hurrah another Honest COlins year fan. It was 2002, my first year.

As for me, during my first year after I got back from Canada I routinely sent issues back to my friends there. They loved it and could not believe how over the top offensive it was.

Craccum is only one of two student magazines in the world where the Editor is elected. I think thats great.

Honest colins year sucked. End of story. His writing in the previous year was good but he was a terrible editor. Causes more damn to the magazine than any reader realised.

As for the Critic web site... I am guessing you've never checked your bandwidth whilst browsing there... try it on a dial up connection and suddenly it isnt so great...

which is the other student magazine?

the editors of redbrick (at brum) are "elected" by anyone who shows up to a small meeting.

heh... Redbrick... Loved that mag. They used to have some very very good writers in my days at Brum.

I beleive the other mag is one at Berkley

Redbrick is possibly the dullest piece of anything i've ever read.
It is now useful for two things:
1. crosswords during dull lectures.
2. soaking up leaks in shitty student kitchens/bathrooms.

I am going to try and change this. First step is to email the president and VPIA about a cross camous ballot for the editor...

i think editor elections are great, the editors are editing a magazine about the student voice and opinions, so what better way to pick an editor of that representation, than to vote them in?

balls on your chin.

Yeah elections are good... just saying that I think the outgoing editors shouldn't champion their preferred nominees, because it's inevitably a you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours thing. And they are usually mates.

Yeah, it is good that some of the articles from Craccum are up. But it's not everything, and also if I remember it wasn't regularly updated during the year (although I could be wrong).

Although yes, I'm sure the web guy did do a good job, because, again from memory, the year before that there was nothing up online at all.

Also, in Otago, like most universities, internet is free from varsity computers. So bandwidth isn't an issue. Not so at Auckland, ffs. I remember how disgusted I was when I realized we had to directly pay for all sites that weren't university ones. Even some that are indirectly associated with the university.

Yeah it's fucking retarded. Although truthfully, I know all the foriegn students would leach movies even harder without some kind of penalty. I see them watching movies all the time, unless they're just dvds.

oi.
not all foreign students leech the computers you know.

I disagree, I know he probably did out of pure lack of talent but I like the other direction that he took the magazine.

The complete lack of seriousness is what I liked about it.

A university magazine should be like that, you can read about serious stuff in the herald.

I like it when Craccum is deadly serious and utterly madcap, at the same time.

Craccum is funded by AUSA, some money from advertising, but generally we have a budget and we funnel money into it each year. So technically it is funded by any of our businesses. Advertising isn't a constant, one week we might take 10 ads, then next week only 4, but it does contribute.

Archie, I hear what you're saying but normally best practise is that the editors remain neutral in regards to the elections, they are not supposed to pick favourites. By all means it is very common for them to put forward a regular contributor for the position but there is always no shortage of others willing to run who don't have a lot to do with it. Last year unfortunatley the boys decided to waive neutrality and say who they thought people should vote for, but I guess it's their perogative.

Last year was the best Craccum I've seen since i've been at uni, Dr Johns was pretty good, but I think last year was pure brilliance.

Summer school Craccum out Monday 23th.

Stereotypes are never wrong!
47% of all redneck Americans know that.

Dr John's year was pretty good. Honest Colin individual pieces were brilliant, but i wouldn't say his year was that good. But he definately was the best writer. I forgot the other guy's name who followed his, which goes to show how impressive he was. Alec and Stian had some good moments but i didn't keep track of every issue. People complained about them being too lefty which is a compliment really. Let's hope Ryan continues that legacy.

I didn't feel I was being told who to vote for, but rather hearing the outgoing editors' well-justified opinions. I don't see why anyone would stand for Craccum editor without ever having contributed to the magazine in any way.

Too true. That's good that you didn't feel like you were being told, it is just very uncommon for the editor(s) at the time to publish their preferences, as I said neutrality is preferable, but hell, if they want to I say go for it, they have to deal with people accusing them of being biased!

Chris Garland was the year after Colin and Susan, and yes it was completley unmemorable and featured mostly articles about every cabinet minister that stood in government at the time and various writers, historians and other boring Metro-esque articles.

I think the editors usually back a candidate, unless they were useless editors. John backed Colin and Susan, Schwann and Hannah (awful feeling that I've got her name wrong... sorry) backed Stian and Alec, and Alec and Stian backed Ryan and the woman who's name I've forgotten who probably would have made a really good editor. It usually happens, and those candidates usually win (which was a shame for '02, because I think Reece would have made a brilliant editor).

As far as I'm concerned, the last two years of Craccum have been really good -- the key to Craccum is the right blend of intelligent (though nevertheless studentish) commentary and ludic anarchy. Alec and Stian had that exactly right, and Schwann and Hannah did a good job of rebuilding after two years of volunteer shedding. A good base of support is extremely important to any editor -- it's what made John's year so good, in my opinion -- although that has to be supplemented with editorial talent, natch.

What disappointed me most about Colin and Susan was that it was an election year, and they didn't mention it until a week before the election. Now, some people might like their magazine filled with bar reviews and articles about poo, but that lack of coverage did reflect pretty poorly on the us as students.

is this the same chris garland that shoots skateboarding photos...?

But that year needed a Vanilla Craccum... to bring back the advertisers who left in droves during the Colin/Susan year. The financial reality is that the advertisers are needed and Garland saved Craccum

I don't think so, he was working up at Bfm for a while as Mikey Havocs producer then he did the Safari Lounge top 10, and now apparently he is in the States studying or something.

I like Allan as a person, he's a good dude and has some interesting opinions; but I don't think he was that good an editor, and I think Hannah was worse. Just IMHO.

So I didn't rate 2004, althought I still read everything cover to cover. I thought 2005 was really good though.

Fair play, but it was a rebuilding year as well. They got back into the Craccum spirit, which was the important thing.

Allan is a good mate of mine and my boyfriends, we were his boss when he was editor and he was a fucking muppet, he is a difficult guy sometimes but I think he did pretty ok with the mag in the end, just the bullshit that came with it was fucking ridiculous. It is Hannah, she was a bit of a drama queen, but then again so was Allan, here's how the year went:

Hannah: Ask that fucking asshole if he's done his editorial.
SheDevil plods into Allans office dutifully......."Hannah wants to know, have you done your editorial?"
Allan: Tell that fucking bitch I want her to drop dead, and yes i've fucking done it.
Me: Ok then. How long are you gonna keep this not talking thing going??
Allan: Until she stops being a useless bitch.
Me: Ok, i'm gonna go now *slowly backs out of office*.

Thats why male/female partnerships are bad, coz you end up sleeping together before the year starts and it all turns to shit. It happened between Colin and Susan too.....fucking hormones,

Fair enough on the rebuilding factor... I'm not familiar with the 2003 ones.

I haven't seen Allan since he moved out, as far as I remember. Tell him John says hi.

Or like, editors' girlfriends and advertising guys...?

If Steveo and I ran for editors, do you think he'd sleep with me?

Interesting, what do you know?

Archie, did you used to live with Allan? Which flat was this, the one in Sandringham?

Ancient history SheDevil -- no one involved remains on campus to tell the tale.

Good, that could have been very concerning!

I'd sleep with you