I joked with a friend yesterday that I am prone to a dangerous mix of enthusiasm, naivety and audacity. Today, that looks like soft launching Outside The Lines. The site has some styling issues, there isn't a lot of content, an editorial board is yet to be established, but hey, you've got to start somewhere! And for more people to get involved, there's got to be something to gather around.

So, here it is. Take a look around, make yourself comfortable. See if anything catches your interest. Join the Discord to share any thoughts, feelings, suggestions or questions.

Here are a few big things to note:

  1. We're still working on a few changes to the site theme, most of which are superficial. The biggest problem, though, is with the accent colour, rendering some text difficult (or near impossible) to read. In the theme we have installed, it is used as a background colour to text in several places, but the colour of the foreground text is inconsistent (sometimes white, sometimes black). This means there are always some text that is unreadable, no matter what accent colour is used. We're in touch with the theme developers to see if they can figure out a global fix, and if not, we'll be making the changes manually. In the meantime, there's a bunch of highlighter green in inappropriate places 😬
  2. Now that we're somewhat launched, the next big goal is to establish an editorial board. It will be collaborative, not overly formal, and will have lots of different ways to participate. A more official invitation will be coming soon, but here's a rough idea of the scope and practical details. Hop on Discord and put your hand up if you're interested.
  3. A few special touches like issuing DOIs, adding ORCIDs and displaying Creative Commons licenses are still in the works. We refer to them in a few places in preparation, and will make some noise when they're ready to go.
  4. We need funds to help us get established. Costs are low at the moment, and have been covered so far by a small project fund provided by Radish Press, our publisher. But we have a wish list, and costs will go up over time, especially if/when we get some traction. We're taking a Patreon-like supporter approach (see membership details) and as an added incentive, the first 50 subscribers will be entered into a draw for a little thank you gift. You can also donate as a one-off. We are hugely grateful for any support. In rough order, funds will go towards:
      1. Keeping the site up and running
      2. Upgrading some of our SaaS tools to streamline editorial and communication processes (we currently use the free versions of Airtable, Zapier, Buffer, and Plausible)
      3. CrossRef membership and content registration costs
      4. Compensation for our editors and admins (e.g. an honorarium, gift cards etc.)
      5. Contracting some communications support (strategy in the short term, interns in the long)
      6. Getting a proper logo and some design assets to make things look good
      7. Start up costs for some sweet, sweet merch

That's it for now. Much more to come.