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Comment by hahajk | Hacker News Reader

I'll bite. Who doesn't have access to a printer? I'm pretty sure libraries have them.

The problem is not the printing - it's the mailing.

Clarkesworld intentionally went to electronic submissions to make it easier for international writers. International mail can be prohibitively expensive, and in a lot of places there's better internet access than there is reliable postage.

Can we stop with the myth that somewhere in the australian bush there is some Hemingway or Chateaubriand waiting to be published, but his old solar panels can just give him enough energy to send his manuscript by email?

Am being sarcastic but I think my point is clear that way : someone not being able / willing to send something by mail is just not the audience for the magazine. *I cannot attend the Boston marathon coz of the distance, then perhaps they should find some equidistant place for it?

This absurd quest for "lowering the accessibility bar" to everything is making everyone jumping through hoops and no one is considering the cost of people who don't bother jumping through them...

I work enough in the developed world to know that there are a lot of people there with things to contribute to the world, and where electronics are more reliable than mail.

I didn't say there is no one worthy in those countries. I am saying it is not the job of a company in country X to make all it can to make it possible for people in country/continent Y to be able to easily do something, even if it makes it unusable for everyone (else).

What if it's the stated goal of that company?

Maybe decentralization would be a good idea for this. For example, clarksword can have it's "you have to mail it" rule, then there should be an Australian group that does the same thing for locals (including the outback).

The Australian group can sponsor some top local writer's work to the groups in other countries.

Librarians might give you a funny look if you show up at a library and start printing out books?

My library charges per page. I don't think they'd mind.

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