This article is classified "Real"
One gloomy December day in 1994, an alter ego, whom I had hidden away in my brain for quite some time, once again started to make himself known. I call him Dan. I had missed him, for not a lot of articles have come out of my hands lately, and that made me sad. I won't suggest this was the cause of the decrease of incoming articles in Project Galactic Guide, but you must admit there is a connection. Anyway, this day he came back, poking me with ideas. Dan is the great ideaman, responsible for ideas that founded the Ideabank, the Newsletter, and the PGG Weekend. His voice became heard again: "Roel, Roel, you've got to DO something! Activity in The Guide hasn't been this low for a long time. You're lazy, Roel! I've had an idea that might kick your butt and others into writing stuff regularly again." Dan told me the idea and I mailed it to the newsgroup. There were a couple of replies, very enthusiastic. The part of the idea relevant for the GAG to be was that there could be formed a group of authors who would pledge to regularly write articles, a certain amount, for at least a certain period. At that time the name of the group was TIC, The Inner Circle. After the idea had sunk in a bit, and people had come home again after Christmas holidays, I started to recruit members. Soon enough there was a small group of authors, from various different countries who were willing, and who were to become the founding members of this group. They were, and are: George Jakubaas, Jeff Kramer, Jon Harmon, Richard Onanian, Rickard Andersson, and me, Roel van der Meulen. For a while we discussed what the exact activities of the group would be, and after a small sidestep concerning discussions of article ideas in the newsgroup and co-writing articles, it all crystallized to this. The Group will, per period of four weeks called the GAP, the Guaranteed Articles Period, produce equal to or more than 1.5 times <the number of members> of articles for Project Galactic Guide. They will do so for a period of at least four GAPs. When it is impossible for one member to write (enough) in one GAP, the other members will fill in, giving flexibility in holiday periods and such. Anyone who wants to join us, for reasons of stimulating themselves or other, may do so, as long as they are aware of their promise to write an average of 1.5 articles per GAP for at least four GAPs. We communicate by means of a moderated mailing list, that is, you send your message to me (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) and I will forward it to the other members of the group. It is appreciated that when you join, your first article will be about yourself, to present yourself to the other members. We also chose to change the name from TIC to GAG, Guaranteed Articles Group, so it wouldn't sound like we were some elite group trying to take over The Guide, in stead just a cozy subgroup of authors kicking their own butts. Jon invented these GAG and GAP acronyms; he likes to see himself as King Of The Acronyms (KOTA) :-) GAG commenced activities at 19950113 and closed their first GAP at 19950120. Dan is happy now. He has moved to a prominent place in my brain, supplying me with loads and loads of ideas for articles, just like he used to do in the highly productive first half of 1994, and just like your alter egos should be doing, o genuine Field Researchers.