Is the Mother Earth News archive DVDs worth it?

I have a subscription to MEN & lately it seems to be 80% ads. (OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.. but you get the idea.) They are still offering their archives for $40 but I'm not sure whether to buy or not. I like some of their feature articles. I will most likely have sketchy internet when I move to my homestead so this might be a good resource to have, or is it?

Any thoughts?

If you like their articles, then you would probably like access to their historical articles.
If internet access will be a problem, the DVD would supply many evenings of reading.
Perhaps somebody here has it and can chime in with more info.  Without having tried it myself, I do not know if it includes a "search" option.  If it does, it would be a very handy tool.  Without a decent "search" mode, I feel that its value would be diminished.

It's a "lifestyle" magazine.  It has no roots.

I read it in the '70s when I was about ten years old.  I'm still exposed to it occasionally.  I find that the useful stuff is recurring.  The stupid parts are brushed away like pictures of out-of-favor early soviet leaders, only to be replaced by newer (but still poorly thought out) ideas.  And the ads say something.  That magazine seems to be largely supported by tractor sales to people who mostly don't need that kind of expensive tractor.

I suggest people look into Small Farmer's Journal.  It's a bit heavy on the horse farming, but has some grounding in practice, especially pre-chemical methods. Ads are for books, horses, horse equipment, hand tools, and amish clothing patterns.  Also (regional bias alert) look at the quarterly newspaper/magazine published by The Maine Organic Farmer's and Gardener's Association.  It has relevant news, profiles of farmers, technique articles, etc.  Ads are for allied Maine businesses, seafood compost, organic dairy products, etc.

Otherwise, buy useful books.

So, what do other people read?

Dan

I confess I have a collection of TMEN back to issue #1.
I ccasionaly reference back to them but would really like to have a searchable DVD format.  But the smell from issue one .... smells like mulch in the morning.

I've got the dvd set from a few years back and love it tons of great ideas
just remember that some of them were not well tested in the older stuff and do some reaserch before you start into something out of their that requires significant investment of time/money

also the search feature is awesome

Thanks for the responses. The DVD is searchable, something I wouldn't even have thought of! I think I'm leaning towards canceling my current subscription & getting the archives.

One more question though. I really liked the outdoor stove the featured sometime last year. The print edition referred me to their website for details. Do they include all the details for all project in the archive DVD? Sounds silly to ask but nowadays you never know  ops: I don't want to be referred to the internet while out in the sticks.

5acre_dreamer wrote:
I think I'm leaning towards canceling my current subscription & getting the archives.

One more question though. I really liked the outdoor stove the featured sometime last year. The print edition referred me to their website for details. Do they include all the details for all project in the archive DVD? Sounds silly to ask but nowadays you never know  ops: I don't want to be referred to the internet while out in the sticks.

I let my subscription lapse last year and I encourage you to do the same. If you do cancel, then treat yourself and get the archives of MEN. Nothing new really comes out in the magazine just newer, more modern version of the old stuff. Plus, most of what MEN has now seems so basic with a flair toward marketing.

if everyone cancels their subscription MEN might see finacial troubles that would take it out of the supermarket shelves where it has been attracting attention to a simpler life. I like seeing them on the shelf and like the reminders of what I should be planting/tending too each season

i have a friend who gave me what i believe to the the old archives, its like the first 10 years of TMEN articles. there is some GREAT info in there. it amazes me what we knew years ago and didnt take advantage of it. at least all of them work in practice just as good now as they did then if not better.

Yes they are worth it.  The older archives are very good.  If you have internet access though all the files can be searched for online.  The CD's are faster though!

I have been one of the lifetime subscribers to MEN and
I am tired of carting around huge boxes of the magazines with me whenever I move.
in the last few years, I have thought about ending my subscription as they seem to have gotten into more "yuppie" stuff and away from the basics.
However I did buy the DVD and LOVe it2 Worth it!
I was lucky enough to get it on sale so got it for less than the $40.
I am glad I got it. it is easy to find things in the data base and all that older stuff is wonderful!
    I will probably still keep my "real' magazines just because
"they might be worth something someday"  haha!

They have indeed lost their way! I stopped mine when they accepted cigarette ads.  Being bought out by a conglomerate sent them down the wrong road. 

LFIRE wrote:
I have been one of the lifetime subscribers to MEN and
I am tired of carting around huge boxes of the magazines with me whenever I move.
in the last few years, I have thought about ending my subscription as they seem to have gotten into more "yuppie" stuff and away from the basics.
However I did buy the DVD and LOVe it2 Worth it!
I was lucky enough to get it on sale so got it for less than the $40.
I am glad I got it. it is easy to find things in the data base and all that older stuff is wonderful!
    I will probably still keep my "real' magazines just because
"they might be worth something someday"  haha!

Yesterday I finally thought, what the heck, I'll buy the archive DVD. Placed my order online. 3hours later I get an email from MEN with the same DVD on sale for $25. Just called them this morning & they will fulfill it for $25. I think $25 is reasonable. Promo runs till May 31 if anyone is interested.

Hmm, I am thinking to get them or not since several reviews on amazon say that it is typed in very small font, photos are just thumbnails, that can't be enlarged, and search function is really lousy. What are your thoughts, if you have it?

I have both the DVDs and a set from #1 to #225 (and a bunch of duplicates of the older ones) I'm in both the "I want a searchable version" and the "smells like mulch in the morning" camps. I use the DVDs to search, then pull the issue and read it on paper. And yeah, there are too many ads, and too much yuppie stuff, but I still like the basic ideas and use it as part of my constant education and for inspiration. And I keep the duplicates because if the world gets weirder, they may be useful to others too.
So I'm not useful in this debate All of the above! And then some!!

I decided not to get the dvds, because people in reviews also said, that lots of articles and plans are not included and just give a link to the online page. That is additional to thumbnail photos and a not good search option. In this case, they are not very useful to me at all. It would be more trouble to use them than not. I will stick to online and paper magazine.

I ordered the Mother Earth News archive on a jump drive for $30+.  It's in an EPUB format which means I had to download a program to read books on computer.  I was dismayed to find that there is no INDEX to search for information and the articles don't include images.  As I age, I find it harder to remember which volume had which article so I'm finding that I wasted my money.  My hope was to recycle or give away my back issues, many from the 1970s, but I won't do that now.  I might give the jump drive to somebody, though.  In fact, it's yours for $20, which will include all shipping.  But don't waste your money on it.  Yes, the drive does have a little red light that flashes in a cool way.  But that's the best thing I can say about it.

I'm in the process of making my own index.  Maybe I will post it here!

Exactly, that's why I decided not to buy it after reading reviews. I am not sure, if it would be really hard to scan all the issues and make an index, but for some reason magazine doesn't want to do it good way.

I bought it a couple years ago.  I didn't find a search feature but maybe there was one there (I doubt it).  I spent a few weeks of my relaxation time reading through the articles and luckily I took notes of articles I thought I'd be interested in the future so I could find them again.  Unfortunately, some of my interests have changed so if I want to look for new stuff, I have to go back through it all again.  The pictures got better in the later years but the readability of the articles with the pictures at the end was messy.  Overall I wasn't excessively happy and I'm not sure I'd buy them if I had to do it over again.  Maybe the newer offerings are better, this was 4 years ago and I got the DVDs.

Rats got into my back issues. Such a shame. I think it was better 30 years ago then today.