View source for The Vid:About

== About The Vid ==

<b>The scoop on the original early-1990's publication</b>

The Vid was born on 10/21/1990, the first issue was published on 11/2/1990, and it ran aground sometime in the mid 90's. During that period it offered alternative journalism and creative works by students of Lafayette College. The Vid was also notable as a central player in a protest movement against large tuition increases, and a successful resistance against a censorship attempt (regarding the second issue) by the college administration.

There was an open submission policy, as long as authors and artists put their names behind their work. Self-attribution kept the open-door publishing policy relatively manageable. Not many knew that the editors basically published everything submitted.

For The Vid's original mission statement, see "[[Our Creed]]". And the most Frequently Asked Question... "[[What Is a Vid?]]" explains the name... sort of.

[[Image:VidStaff.jpg|frame|right|The Vid Staff, from the 1991 yearbook]]

The authors, artists, editors and other contributors were stellar. But that list is by no means a complete representation of all the labor, as there was much more work behind the scenes. Many people made The Vid into what it became, and the editors whose names appeared in each issue's 'staff box' were merely the main ringmasters of the operation. Without the help of other volunteers during editing, layout, printing, collating, stapling and distribution, it would never have approached such a level of serendipitous excellence.

With such a small circulation, the staff had hoped to cut down on waste by encouraging readers to share, instead of inefficiently printing one copy per reader. This inadvertently created a lack of supply to meet the demand of avid Vid readers. But hey, we created a buzz and saved some trees.

So now there are only a few known printed sets of The Vid: [http://libcat.lafayette.edu/search~S0?/XThe+Vid&SORT=D/XThe+Vid&SORT=D&SUBKEY=The%20Vid/1%2C12%2C12%2CB/frameset&FF=XThe+Vid&SORT=D&9%2C9%2C In the Lafayette Library's Special Collections ("Lafayette Student Alternative Periodicals and Newspapers") covering 11/2/90-9/28/93]; with Jon Fast; with Laine Fast; with Tony Brooke; and one held by Professor Woolley of the English Department.

== About TheVid.com ==

<b>About this site and the current archiving project</b>

TheVid.com chronicles an enormous amount of effort by a group of individuals who were dedicated to providing the Lafayette community with a lively forum for the expression of all viewpoints. Great care has been taken to give credit to contributors and to accurately document the beginnings of The Vid.

Tony Brooke started making an index in 1991, and the incomplete list sat unused for 15 years or so. When he finally posted it on thevid.com, various surprised contributors Googled themselves and got in touch. Over the years, the founders have loosely discussed scanning in old copies, but that was too labor-intensive for anyone to take on. So in early 2008 Tony set up this wiki.

Now it's a group effort. Join in! ([[How To Edit and Import|Here's how]].) Send us the text files that you've been saving all these years, or create a user. You must be registered with a confirmed email address to edit.

One note: If you want something that you created back in the 1990's removed from this site, let us know. We will remove it and protect (lock-out) that article from being added again. You have the right as the original author to choose.