Colleagues began reminding me about the approach of the three hundredth issue about two years ago: when the magazine numbers exceeded 280 and it began to seem that the number 300 was already close. But it takes exactly 20 months to publish 20 issues, so the anniversary was approaching us at a speed more characteristic of a geological process than a working one.
Such things are usually insidious: you continue to think about them as something distant, and then suddenly – that’s it, the Mesozoic is over, the Cenozoic has begun, you need to have a good celebration and try not to go extinct. And since anniversaries are usually associated with all sorts of memories, we decided to party in a big way and make everyone remember the old days: readers, authors, and editors of Hacker.
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But where would we be without surprises? Dima Agarunov, probably known to you as the founder of Hacker and the Gameland publishing house, reminded me of another important anniversary: the 25th anniversary of Hacker. Unlike Dima, I was not present when the first issue was put into print and completely lost sight of the fact that the 300th issue falls exactly on the 25th anniversary of this moment (incredible, but true: 25 years ⨉ 12 issues = 300).
It was decided to combine the celebrations, and generally celebrate the 25th anniversary all year: we will have a variety of things connected with it (for example, you can already grab a festive sticker pack for Telegram and discounted subscription). And so it turned out that we collected memories under the banner of the 25th anniversary, and we will later include them in the 300th anniversary issue. The concentration of festivity is off the charts!
Generally speaking, it is absolutely amazing for me that I (in total as editor-in-chief and chief) have been working at Hacker for more than a third of its history. I joined the team remotely at the time of issue 193, went to work at the office during the delivery of issue 196, and fully participated in the preparation of the last paper issue – 197.
Times were difficult then, and the fact that the next issue had a round number was the last thing on our minds. For digital distribution, it was necessary to rebuild the entire publication process, adjust the thematic plan, and change all sorts of organizational and technical aspects. This truly was a change in geological epoch!
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We didn’t even think about the possibility of doing something special in honor of the fifteenth anniversary, and the twentieth anniversary passed unnoticed: in 2019, I replaced Ilya Rusanen as editor-in-chief and, according to my recollections, I put all my efforts into ensuring that every day New publications appeared on Hacker. I even wrote the first issue of this column only six months later. There were no thoughts about celebrating round dates.
And then a series of inevitable historical events began. However, some of them surprisingly became successful for Hacker. The start of the COVID-19 epidemic, for example, was a period of incredible excitement. Apparently, not finding medical masks on store shelves, people grabbed the next most needed product – a subscription to Hacker. The same thing happened again at the beginning of 2022. The currency became more expensive, and we, on the contrary, made access to paid materials cheaper, which caused unprecedented demand.
The sanctions also had another effect: in the summer of 2022, Ilya and I, by the sweat of our brow, dragged all of Hacker’s digital property from foreign services to Russian ones. We worked hard, but in the end we managed to not only simplify payment and save some money, but also speed up the operation of the site. At the same time, I sorted out all the archives and now, if I wish, I can extract from them text from almost any date.
Well, in 2023, the main event was the release of a paper special issue – the first printed “Hacker” in five years. In the column before last, I already hinted that we could repeat the action this year, and I was not mistaken. The pre-order page for the second special will open soon.
So it turns out that the publication of a hundred issues, although it takes more than eight years, flies by in an instant. Event after event, article after article, column after column… Blinked – and you already need to write an introduction to the 400th issue.